the hub

1847

T I M E L I N E

1847 1300

AD 1300: Date of last discovered artifacts of a Fremont civilization which settled on these blocks for 400 years. 1300-present: Utah inhabited by Ute, Paiute, Goshute,

Shoshone, and Navajo Native American tribes.

1776

1776: Fathers Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Dominguez seek a new route from New Mexico to California and explore Utah.

1821 Mexico wins independence from Spain and claims Utah.

1841 Capt. John Bartleson leads first wagon train of settlers across Utah to California.

1847: On July 24 the first party of Mormon pioneers arrive in the Salt Lake Valley

July 4, 1776: American Declaration of Independence signed.

1843 John C. Fremont and Kit Carson explore the Great Basin.

1620 The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock. Religious dissidents flee their home country and settle on the barren frontier a thousand miles away, an act that will be repeated two hundred years later by the Mormon pioneers.

1830 On August 6 Joseph Smith organizes the "Church of Christ" the predecessor of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fayette, New York.

1804: Successful trial of world’s first steam railway locomotive in Wales.

1844 Joseph Smith assassinated in Carthage Prison

1347 Black Plague hits Europe, one-third of the population dies

1847: In August, one month after arrival, the first survey lays out the 119 blocks of Plat A, much of today’s downtown.

ANCIENT ROOTS The Intermodal Hub will open on a site that has been inhabited for at least 1300 years. The first settlers, the Fremont Native American Tribe, were attracted to the area because it formed part of a fertile alluvial fan, providing the natural environment needed for their agricultural community. They formed a civilization that thrived, struggled, and finally extinguished into the sands of time, leaving us nothing but scattered remains from which to construct their story.

PIONEERS The next permanent settlers were the Mormon pioneers, driven across the plains in a long and arduous trek, fleeing religious persecution in hopes to set up a new Zion in the wilderness. Two months after arrival, they surveyed the land and divvied up plots, assigning equal shares at random to each settler, following the communitarian, agricultural vision of the City of God first set forth by their prophet and founder, Joseph Smith.

INTEGRATED COMMUNITY

This is the genesis of the two blocks surrounding the Intermodal Hub as a distinct geographic location. At this point, the formed a continuum with the rest of the new formed Salt Lake, sharing in its generally Anglo-American population, agriculture-based economy, and, above all, Mormon religion, which formed the center of life in the valley.

THE LOST MIDDLE YEARS For the next 500 years, the Salt Lake Valley served as a stopping ground for nomadic Native Americans like the Utes and early European explorers and trappers. Little evidence remains to tell us how and when these various groups used the land upon which the Hub now rests.

SETTLEMENT Within the next few years, those chosen for settlement at this location gradually moved from makeshift forts at the Old Fort, now Pioneer Park, and constructed permanent dwellings in the lots assigned to them. A few of the original inhabitants of this block, Lewis Hardy and Thomas Thurston, were soon sent off to colonize other parts of the state. Most of the rest stayed in their original assigned plots as long as they remained in the valley.

Before there were East or West Sides, railroads or factories, what would become the Hub district (blocks 63 and 46, below) was an integrated part of what historian Leonard Arrington called “an isolated but well-organized, relatively self-sufficient, ecclesiastical commonwealth

built on irrigated agriculture and village industry”

The First Years: An Agrarian Community

Lewis Hardy: Although one of the original settlers on this block, Lewis didn’t stick around long. In 1850 he was the leading spirit behind the first group to settle in the town of Uintah in Weber County. Lewis was also an original member in 1844 of the Nauvoo Legion Band, pictured below in 1865. (Courtesy Marriot Library Digital Collections)

Thomas J. Thurston: Another original settler who didn’t stick around long, Thomas was the first man to recognize and evaluate the possibilities of settling in Weber Valley. He built the first route through Weber Canyon and settled in what would become Littleton, Morgan County. (Picture: Morgan County Today)

Old Fort: The pioneers did not settle in the plots as indicated on this map Immediately after arriving in the valley. Instead, they built a fort on what is today Pioneer Park. Surrounded by an eight-foot adobe brick wall, by fall of 1847 the fort contained 450 cabins like the one drawn below. After the first winter, permanent dwellings were built across town, but the fort continued to serve as a temporary home for some new immigrants.

Isaac Duffin: Brickmaker, 21 when he entered the Salt Lake Valley. Lived here along with his 19 year old wife, Mary. They would have two children by the 1850 census, James and Maria.

The Grid: Salt Lake was modeled loosely on Joseph Smith’s “Plat of the City of Zion,” below. The city plan formed a concrete expression of the Mormon ideals: a well ordered, community-oriented life centered on God, as signified by the Temple Block at the heart of the city.

The city was divided into ten-acre blocks, each consisting of eight 1.25 acre lots, with one house in the center of each lot. The streets were each 132 feet wide, famously allowing an ox cart to turn around. The lots were distributed at random freely amongst the church members.

The orientation of the lots alternated from east-west (like block 63) to north-south (block 46.) Traces of this can still be seen in the layout of the area today.

Plat of the City of Zion by Joseph Smith. Salt Lake’s first urban planning document.

132 feet

1.25 acres

660 Feet

Brigham Young initially implored the Saints not to subdivide their land, but to keep one person per lot to allow room for everyone to grow their own food. Notice how long that lasted.

Birthplace of the population in 1850. Most came from within the U.S. 14.7 percent were born in Britain.

Occupational Distribution by Residential Zone, 1950: Agriculture was by far the most common occupation for the periphery of the city, which includes the current Hub district.

Predominant Wealth Groups, 1850: Our area falls in the non-wealthy 15th ward and the better-off 6th. Overall, geographic distribution of wealth was fairly even, something which would change later on.

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Women in Zion: Utah was one of the first to give property rights to married women. Most original female plot owners were polygamous wives.

1846-48: US-Mexican War results in annexation of Utah as part of United States

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