Trolley Square History in Salt Lake City
Early Trolley Square History
10TH WARD
Trolley Square history begins when members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first arrived in Salt Lake City, they began organizing the city by ward squares or blocks.
Trolley Square is in a historic area of Salt Lake City that Brigham Young in 1847 designated as the 10th Ward when he was gridding the city into neighborhoods.
UTAH LIGHT & RAILWAY CO. TROLLEY BARNS
The Tenth Ward later served as territorial and state fairgrounds until 1908, when Union Pacific magnate E. H. Harriman chose the site for his state-of-the-art trolley car system.
Salt Lake City was one of the first cities in the US to introduce a Trolley Car system, electrifying its first line in 1889. Harriman invested $3.5 million dollars into this site constructing the unusual mission-style car barn complex during 1908–1910.
The largest building was used as a berth for the Trolleys. The middle building served as the machine or “rip” shop and blacksmith shop. The north building was a paint and carpenter shop.
The smaller east building was the sand house. The water tower was designed to hold 50,000 gallons of water in case of fire.
By 1914, more than 144 trolleys served the valley. The trolley car system ran through “Salt Lake City to Holladay, Sugar House, Bountiful and Centerville, totaling 146 miles of track,” and making it the premier transportation system in the state.
The railway venture operated out of this location until 1945, after which Salt Lake City buses were housed here until 1970.
THE DEMISE OF THE TROLLEY BARNS
Once the Utah Light & Railway Co. ceased operation in the early 1950s, the buildings were painted yellow and turned into bus storage. Eventually, the property fell into disrepair and was threatened with demolition in 1969.
TROLLEY SQUARE BEGINNINGS
The car barns were saved from demolition in 1972 when a local family purchased the property, adapting it for retail use (“Trolley”). Wally Wright was the architect for the project—still well known today for his work on the historic property.
Wright’s vision for Trolley Square was inspired by Ghirardelli Square—the San Francisco chocolate factory refinished as a shopping center. It was Wright’s idea to remodel and restore the trolley barns into Utah’s first festival marketplace.
The first store to open at Trolley Square was the Trolley Gas Station (Razavi). The Old Spaghetti Factory, The Pub, and Payne Anthony—still open today at Trolley Square—were some of the other original businesses.
Additional early restaurants and retailers include: Chalk Garden, Wm. B. Woods, Haroon’s, The Ice Cream Store, Corn Dog Trolley, Trolley Games, The Grainary Pizza Loft, Casa Del Sol, La Bathtique, and Trolley Theatres.
Trolley Square quickly became one of Utah’s most popular attractions—offering unique shopping, dining, and entertainment in a charming, historic atmosphere.
Trolley Square was registered as a historic site by the state of Utah in 1973, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
THE FUTURE OF TROLLEY SQUARE
In May 2013, Trolley Square was purchased by Salt Lake City local Khosrow Semnani of S.K. Hart Properties. Semnani is working hard to return the historic center to its former glory.
Since Semnani took ownership, Trolley Square has already begun various renovations to maximize the center’s potential—updating its original structure, receiving new landscaping, and revitalizing the historic water tower with new LED lighting.
Additionally, a new Visitors’ Center is currently under construction—a space for visitors to learn about the charming history of both Trolley Square and Salt Lake City.
New businesses continue to come in under Semnani’s leadership—including the well known high-tech giant GOOGLE, Cosset Bath and Body, Orangetheory Fitness, Trolley Square Barbers, CorePower Yoga, and The Falls—a 15,000-square-foot events center.
An icon to Salt Lake City, Trolley Square has been both a cultural and retail anchor for decades.
Just as legendary Wally Wright worked to transform the Trolley barns into a community gathering center, Khosrow Semnani has a vision to restore Trolley Square to the community-focused retail marketplace it once was.
