RonnieAdventure #0595 - Salt Lake City Courthouse, Steenblik Cat Park, International Peace Garden

One afternoon I decided to visit The Leonardo Museum in downtown Salt Lake City, but when I arrived I found that it was closed on Mondays. While standing by the museum trying to decide what I should do, I looked across the street at the Salt Lake City-County Building and decided it looked like an interesting substitute place to visit. 

Originally the building was to be located on State Street and 100 South, but when the Liberal Party won the election, the location was moved to Washington Square. This was a controversial move and Deseret News complained that the move was made to benefit the City Council members. Apparently, the council members owned property around Washington Square and they would profit from increased land values. Nevertheless, construction was approved for the Washington Square location.   

The building was constructed by free masons between 1891 and 1894. There were substantial disagreements over the building's design and numerous changes were made to the original plans. Building costs were budgeted to be $350,000, but by the time the building was completed costs had increased to almost $900,000. To make matters worse, the Panic of 1893 cut city-county revenues by nearly half, so large stained glass windows that had been planned were eliminated to decrease building costs. 

On December 28, 1894, the building was completed and dedicated for city-county offices, a library, and courtrooms. Later the building served as the Utah State Capitol from 1896 until 1915, when a new Capitol building was constructed.

The city-county building has been remodeled several times and is now used entirely for Salt Lake City government offices.

Located around Washington Square are numerous statues, fountains, monuments, and flowering plants. 

Not far from Washington Square is Joseph F. Steenblik [Dairy Cats] Park that was developed by Steenblik Dairy. Steenblik Dairy was originally located in this neighborhood and the cats are a tribute to the cats that were always around the dairy. The park cat statues are cast in bronze with variations in patina that were achieved by combining various other materials with the bronze during the casting process. 

Joseph F. Steenblik was born in Salt Lake City in 1904 and lived in the Rose Park area most of his life. He was a strong supporter of youth activities for both boys and girls and helped take care of the less fortunate. A monument states that he was instrumental in organizing and building the Rose Park Library, Rose Park Gymnasium, and local church buildings.

I had about an hour before I had to catch a plane home, so I decided to stop by the International Peace Gardens. I was anticipating a small botanical garden, but when I arrived I discovered that it was actually 28 separate gardens on 11 acres of land. Needless to say, I ran out of time before I ran out of gardens. I'll have to come back and finish the tour sometime.