Sugarhouse monument is officially reopened in Salt Lake

Construction that took almost a year presents new features and community hopes for attracting more people and businesses into the neighborhood

Splash pad, one of the new features of the revitalized monument (Photo: Gabriel Neves)

            After almost one year of a major facelift, the Sugarhouse monument, located on the corner of Highland Drive and 2100 South in Salt Lake City, had its grand opening on Friday, June 12.

Among the activities held at the ceremony, there were ribbon cutting, live music with a band performance and the burial of a time capsule, which will be open in 2054, when the area celebrates its Bicentennial.

Topher Hormann, a member of the Sugarhouse Community Council, an association that represents the area and member of the time capsule team, was the main speaker in the burial ceremony and a huge supporter of the renovation projects. On an interview, Hormann said that “the dedication of the plaza is important, because of all the effort of these people, all the years planning and the investment made in public space, our community has created this new place with a new sense of place.”

Reconstruction of the monument began on August 2014, as part of an ambitious redevelopment program conducted by the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency that aimed to integrate residential and business areas. The total cost of the renovation was estimated in $2.5 million.

Among the new features of the Sugarhouse monument, there are a splash pad, where children can refresh during the hot Summer months, new gardens and a walkway that replaced the road stretch that drivers going on 2100 South could turn right on Highland Drive. In addition to the new features, the original water fountain, which was not working for years, has been restored.

Community leaders from the area were cheerful and hopeful the rebuilt monument could be the starting point of a more vibrant and walkable neighborhood.

Amy Berry, chair of the Sugarhouse Community Council, said that the impact of the monument “will be wonderful for gathering spaces” and she also hopes that possible events in the facility “will bring a real life back to the community.”

Berry also mentioned that, while the street passed where the new monument is, “you could not be a pedestrian there, people would run you down.”

With more pedestrian accesses built in Sugarhouse, members of the community give good expectations when it comes to a more extended use of public transportation.

Helen Peters, head of Friends of the S-Line, an organization that promotes the use of streetcar lines, expects the monument can foster and promote more use of the S-Line of TRAX.

  

“We are hoping that, as people see that Sugarhouse is becoming a more vibrant community, that they’ll take the S-Line to come visit our community,” said Peters.

Peters also told her organization also aims to increase the “economic, social and cultural development of Sugarhouse,” as well as the transportation in the region.

Around the monument, new restaurants and stores and a new apartment building have also been built, revitalizing that part of Sugarhouse.

Sugarhouse neighborhood time capsule, to be open in 2065 (Photo: Gabriel Neves)