Kearns Building

The Kearns Building in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a 10-story office building designed by Los Angeles architects John Parkinson and George Bergstrom and constructed 1909–1911. Parkinson & Bergstrom borrowed the style of architect Louis Sullivan, and the Kearns Building has been described as Sullivanesque, with a steel reinforced concrete frame and a white terracotta tile facade emphasizing vertical piers below a prominent cornice. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[2]

Kearns Building
The Kearns Building in 1911
Location132 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, Utah
Coordinates40°45′58″N 111°53′27″W
Area0 acres (0 ha)
Built1909 (1909)
Built byGeorge Curley
ArchitectParkinson & Bergstrom
Architectural styleLate 19th And Early 20th Century American Movements, Sullivanesque
MPSSalt Lake City Business District MRA
NRHP reference No.82004145[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 17, 1982

The style of a Louis Sullivan skyscraper was built on classical form, with prominent window and door openings at street level, bands of windows between vertical piers, and a distinctive, highly decorated cornice. Often Sullivan designed porthole windows under a cornice.[3] Parkinson & Bergstrom used centered medallions between spandrels recessed behind the plane of piers to achieve a similar appearance.[2]

The Kearns Building was named for Thomas Kearns, a wealthy former Utah senator and major stockholder in The Salt Lake Tribune. During construction of the building, Kearns was accused of manipulating the city council and its building code.[4]

A third of office space in the building was rented prior to opening in February, 1911,[5] and most of the offices were rented by April of that year.[6] Early tenants of the building included clothiers Gardner & Adams Co.[7] and Rowe & Kelly,[8][9] and the building included what was billed as "the most beautiful buffet in the United States," the Mecca.[10]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Kearns Building". National Park Service. Retrieved May 12, 2019. With accompanying pictures
  3. "Sullivanesque Style 1890 - 1930". Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
  4. "Above the Law's Power". The Salt Lake Harold-Republican. Salt Lake City, Utah. November 7, 1910. p. 11. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
  5. "Tenants for Kearns Building". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. January 29, 1911. p. 14. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
  6. "Speakers at Feast Suggest Architects for New Capitol". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. April 18, 1911. p. 14. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
  7. "Grand Opening: Gardner & Adams Co.,". Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. December 18, 1910. p. 9. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
  8. "The opening of the beautiful new store of Rowe & Kelly..." Goodwin's Weekly. Salt Lake City, Utah. March 18, 1911. p. 8. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
  9. Rowe & Kelly soon consolidated with Mullet Clothing Company as the Mullet-Kelly Co. See The Clothier and Furnisher. 80. George N. Lowry Company. 1912. p. 93. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
  10. "The Mecca in the New Kearns Building". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. April 30, 1911. p. 32. Retrieved May 11, 2019.

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