The Americana Motor Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona is a brightly colored testament to the survivability of the Googie aesthetic in the modern day. The Americana Motor Hotel was built on the outskirts of in 1962. Located at 2650 East Route 66, the Americana has provided accommodations for tired motorists for the past sixty-three years. Its technicolor colors and avante garde shapes are a textbook example of the googie aesthetic.      The colors, starbursts, aesthetics and origin of the American Motor Hotel situate firmly as an example of Googie architecture. The first thing a traveler to the Americana Motel Hotel sees is its striking sign that exemplifies the googie look. Vibrant pinks, greens, tangerine orange, and banana yellow come together in the sign’s neon starbursts and a stylized outline of the mountains that ensconce the city. The porte-cochère at the lobby of the motel is emblazoned with neon yellow and orange stripes that wrap around the dark blue paint of the roof. Oranges, blues, and nearly every other color of the rainbow collide in a cacophony of geometric shapes and lines on the walls and carpet of the lobby. Outside of the lobby on the far side of the porte-cochère there is an installation of aluminum wind art sculptures that whirl happily in the Arizona breeze. The two levels of hotel rooms that stretch out behind are similarly adorned in the vibrant colors that make up the themes of the hotel and all eighty-eight suites face towards a central recreation area with a large pool with the logo of the motel painted at the bottom.      Googie architecture rose to prominence in the mid-century and is characterized by a commitment to futuristic designs, geometric shapes, neon and bright colors. This style of architecture is most commonly found in the Southwestern United States and often coincides with the arterial mother road of Route 66. Googie designs often feature the same bright colors, futuristic starbursts, and aluminum details that decorate the Americana and the hotel leans heavily into its mid-century themes.      The Americana Motor Hotel was once Flagstaff’s largest motel and had provided a respite to the stars who passed through on Route 66 in the mid-century. The motel originally had a large dining room and 24 hour coffee bar during its heyday, but as the years wore on the facade of the hotel began to exhibit wear and tear. In 2021 the property was bought by Americana Hotel Ventures for $7.37 million dollars. After extensive renovation efforts the motel re-opened with a fresh redesign that honored the original design and spirit of the motel. Since its re-opening the Americana has become a well loved traveler’s retreat on Route 66 once again. Bright colors, atomic starbursts, and neon details all hearken back to the motel’s beginning while drawing in a new generation of travelers. The motor hotel connects visitors with a nostalgic space-age future and helps to keep googie and mid-century architecture from belonging to an ephemeral past.

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The Monterey Motel is a stellar example of googie architecture along Albuquerque’s stretch of Route 66. Googie architecture became poplar in the western United States in the mid-twentieth century and the style is characterized by a futuristic and slightly industrial appearance. The building oozes a functional and futuristic aesthetic. The original steeply pitched roof of the motel was a hallmark of the type of commercial road-side buildings that make up the bulk of examples in googie architecture. A decorative aluminum band wraps around the entire structure and contributes to the futuristic styling that demarcates it as googie. The Monterey is especially interesting since its construction predicates the googie design as a cognizant genre. The most iconic attribute of the Monterey is its original neon sign, drawing travelers in for generations with its saturated colors and mod font, easily read from the road. The design motif of sharp acute angles is carried over to the sign, with the large sans serif letters being illuminated with the glow of the hand blown neon tubes.      The motel was the brainchild of an Albuquerque businessman named Norman Bugg. In 1937, Bugg was one of the first to realize the economic promise that Route 66 held for those who would invest in it. The site he picked for the Monterey is directly across Route 66 from Albuquerque’s Old Town district, a hot spot for tourists as they traveled down the Mother Road. The structure has managed to retain its original status of a mid-century modern traveler’s paradise and was restored in 2018 as part of larger efforts to reinvigorate Albuquerque’s historic stretch of the Mother Road.      The Monterey Motel and its many sibling motor courts across the Duke City were thrown into flux with the construction of I40 in the late nineteen fifties. The coming of the highway created a marked difference in how vehicle tourism would function in Albuquerque. Motels gave way to budget hotels as the accommodation of choice for most travelers across the U.S. and the construction of googie motor courts like the Monterey gradually dropped off. Interestingly, the Albuquerque’s numerous motels fared decently well throughout the years despite the dip in tourism along the Mother Road. Many of the courts still operate today in some capacity, either as accommodations or as new boutiques and eateries, with the stylistic charm that once drew tourists in being re-packaged as retro flair along historic Route 66.      Similarly, in July of 2024 the Monterey participated in an event held for fans of the Borderlands games. The staff of the Monterey covered the updated facilities with decrepit neon signs and rusted metal siding to provide photo-ops and entertainment for fans at the event. This sort of community engagement highlights the public’s interest in the liminal spaces and aesthetics that googie structures like the Monterey represent. The hotel has come into a new era via a greater public interest and nostalgia for what Route 66 and its historic architecture, commercial or not, represent to the American public.

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     Outside of Colorado Springs on the front Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains the soaring spires of the United States Air Force Academy Chapel stand as a shining example of modernist architecture. Composed of seventeen spires that rise 150 feet into the air, the profile of the chapel mimics the mountains behind it. Each individual spire is is made up of 100 polygon shapes with the crisp edges giving the chapel a strikingly futuristic feel. The main floor houses the nine-hundred seat Protestant service area directly underneath the striking spires. Between the spires are one-foot-wide panels of colored glass, arrayed with cubes of every color of the rainbow. The panels bounce light off the faceted interior of the chapel during the day as the sun streams in. At night, interior illumination sends their color pouring over the outside of the aluminum spires, highlighting the materials reflective qualities. Underneath the main level is the area devoted to holding Catholic services. This level is demarcated by low sweeping stonework and large mosaic of stone angels behind the altar. Also on the terrace level is the Jewish service section. A circular screen of Israeli cypress panels ensconces the prayer area and the floor is made of Jerusalem Brownstone tiling donated by the Israeli Defense force in 1960.      It was these three faiths that architect Walter Netsch was tasked with designing the building around in 1954 when the firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill received the contract to design the Air Force Academy Campus. The rest of the campus is made up of lower profile, modernist structures that seem to hover above the earth. The Cadet Chapel has remained the crown gem of the campus since its completion in 1962.      The sub-genre of googie architecture experienced peak popularity in the mid-century and left its largest marks upon commercial structures in the West. Diners and motels are the most common manifestations of this style. However, while many googie structures are commercial that is not a requirement for the classification. Perhaps the most important aspect of googie architecture is that the structures appear to exist out of time. Materials like aluminum, neon, and concrete are utilized to give the buildings a futuristic and industrial touch, as if they were designed in the 22^nd century instead of the 21^st.. The Cadet Chapel epitomizes the idealistic futurism of the googie genre, brought out of the realm of the commercial and into the spiritual.      In 2019 renovations began with the initial goal of fixing water leakage problems that had been persistent since the building was completed. Restoration has been ongoing due to the delicate nature of the historic structure and is projected to be completed in 2027. In 2012, fifty years after the completion of the Cadet Chapel, SOM returned to the campus to create a new event center called Polaris Hall. The glass prism tower of Polaris Hall is a testament to the lasting appeal of strikingly modernist architecture like that of the Cadet Chapel that inspired it.

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The La Concha Lobby located at 770 Las Vegas Blvd is a striking sight. With its undulating roof swinging in dramatic arches from the ground to delicate apexes and large parabola shaped window panels underneath, the structure resembles more of an organic entity than something fabricated by human hands. Comprised entirely of glass and thin shell concrete, the La Concha embodies its seashell namesake in both color and form. The interior of the lobby is akin to the inside of a dome or a big top tent. The curves of the roof fly high into dome of the interior space and the arched windows fill the white space with light during the day. Hanging lamps illuminate the lobby that now serves as the entry to Las Vegas’ Neon Museum. The space still contains a circular front desk and behind it sits a large decorative plaque of the motel’s distinctive logo and name rendered in sparkling Formica and glass. Originally, the motel had a dramatic neon sign with the same logo posted out front. The sign’s sparkling colors and dramatic neon shapes were right at home with the once plentiful instances of googie design along the Las Vegas strip. Now a multitude of signs are housed behind the La Concha lobby in Las Vegas’ Neon Museum, an archive of the art of hand-blown neon signs that hum their harmonic tone above Sin City.      Googie architecture is defined by a commitment to futuristic stylism, bright colors, and the highlighting of materials like concrete and neon. Las Vegas became the home of a multitude of googie commercial structures in the mid-century. The famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign is a piece of googie design, featuring atomic starbursts rendered in bright neon with modern sans serif fonts. The La Concha is a perfect example of googie with its funky shape, bright interior colors, undulating wave forms, and commitment to eye-catching design.      The man who designed the La Concha Motel was even more remarkable than this striking structure. Paul Revere Williams had been educated at the Los Angeles location of the Beaux Arts Institute and went on to contribute his largest body of work to the American West. He served as architect to the stars of his age, designing houses for Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and Desi Arnaz among others. He penned many designs for the Las Vegas cityscape in the mid-century, designing the El Morocco Motel and the Royal Nevada Hotel and Casino, and the Guardian Angel Cathedral. Born in 1894, Williams’ was the first African American man to be admitted into the American Institute of Architects. Its been said that he refined the art of sketching upside down so as to not alienate his white customers by sitting on the same side of the table as them. This speaks to his immense skill as a draftsman and the racial prejudice he lived under. Williams spent his life achieving runaway success in his field while advocating for equality for African Americans.

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   There are very few structures like Charles Deaton’s “Spaceship” bank in Englewood Colorado. Located at 3501 S. Broadway, the Key Savings Loan Association building’s dramatic curves loom over the street. On the south side of the outer rim, the asymmetrical and round smooth outer shell gives way to an inset oval window whose porthole shape helps to reinforce the appearance of an alien craft hovering in Englewood. The smoothly applied concrete exterior gives the building a cohesive and organic look. When viewed from the top the bank resembles a nautilus shell with its tight curl inward. The opening to the structure holds an inner courtyard bordered by multi level walls of windows. The interior of the “Spaceship” is equally captivating; the rooms on each of the two stories are situated equidistant around a circular common. The large internal facing windows let in a surprising amount of light for a structure that curves in on itself so dramatically. A twisting staircase connects the two floors and the interior space is illuminated with carefully placed pendant lights. The greenery in the courtyard, only separated from the interior by the waterfall of window walls, give the place a sense of belonging to some lush future.      While the Deaton’s bank is usually lauded for what it contributes to the sculptural expressionist architecture movement, its intense retro-futuristic qualities are very comfortable fits for the googie aesthetic. Googie architecture experienced its heyday during the mid-century and is most succinctly described as the aesthetic of the retro future. Dramatic curves and geometric shapes, the utilization of materials like Formica, neon and concrete, and a commitment to striking stylism are all demarcations of googie. The hand painted backgrounds of the Jetsons cartoon are a perfect example of exaggerated googie stylism with their domes and boomerang motifs and Deaton’s bank would look right at home if painted into one of them. The “Spaceship” moniker granted to it by the people of Englewood highlights how the structure embodies public imagination of how a building from the future might look. The building was completed in 1967 and is now fifty-eight years old. Continued public interest from the people of Englewood over the years culminated in the building making it onto the national registry of historic places in 2016.      Deaton designed two of the more recognizable structures in the larger Denver metropolitan area. The bank has a close sibling in the Sculptured House, situated on Interstate 70 just west of Denver. The Sculptured House bears a marked resemblance to its sibling with sweeping concrete wing shapes being situated around a central column of floor to ceiling windows. Commonly referred to as “The Sleeper House” for its role in the Woody Allen movie about a man who is cryogenically frozen in 1973 and awakens in 2173 to a strange future.  Deaton’s application of futuristic design elements to his commercial and residential projects in Colorado have allowed his designs to retain the interest of the public and capture a lasting vision of the future.

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The first settlement attempt of Cache Valley occurred in 1856. Having endured the brutal winter, more Latter-day Saints migrated north, and Cache Valley became an established community. But even before the area was well established, prophecies were given by church leaders on the future construction of a temple. In an 1863 meeting, Wilford Woodruff of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said that the day would come when great cities would fall but that Logan and its temple would outlast them. Ground was finally broken on the temple in 1877, beginning a seven-year construction process. Financing the temple was a challenge for these pioneers, but they rose to the occasion. The total expenses for the temple amounted to just over $600,000, with half consisting of labor costs. Through various programs and 100% volunteer labor, the Saints were able to complete the temple and have it ready for dedication exactly seven years after breaking ground. The dedication services were held from May 17th to 19th, 1884. Church president John Taylor presided and offered the dedicatory prayer. As part of that prayer, he said, “We feel, O Lord God, our weakness and unworthiness before Thee, and our inability to do anything without Thy guidance and assistance; but as Thou hast given us a commandment…we have built this house, and present it to Thee, and pray that Thou wilt accept it in the name of Thy Son Jesus Christ.” This prayer reflects the attitudes of those that built the temple, who believed their total reliance was on God and saw the majestic building as a humble offering.

As part of the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Logan Temple in 1934, poet Harrison R. Merrill wrote of the temple:

“Against the turquoise Utah skiesTwo solemn temple towers rise,Twin beacons marking well the placeWhere children of a mighty raceOf Pioneers assemble. They came from farThe temple gleams – A guiding star.”

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The statue project began with Bob O’Bill, who, in 1979 made a plea with God in hopes that his bed-ridden wife Joyce would make a full recovery. When she did, O’Bill began to discuss with his peers the logistics of building the statue. As word spread about the building project, an overwhelming amount of support arose, making the statue a community project. The initial plan for the six-foot statue with community support soon grew to a project that would be over 90 feet tall. Though some thought that the project was strictly Catholic, project sponsors took care to present it as a community effort which symbolized “the dignity of motherhood and the sacrificial love a mother has for her child.” Community pride has always been strong in Butte, extending back in Butte's mining history in the 19th century. Whenever the future was uncertain, the community of Butte banded together and cared for each other. This bond and the meaning behind the statue are both driving factors in what makes Butte’s community so special.

Supplies including paint, food for workers, and enough iron and steel to build the statue, were all gifted to the project by donors. A major contributor to the project, Joe Roberts, was connected to O’Bill through Ann Nettles, who knew Joe to be a guy whot took up outlandish projects. Once he familiarized himself with the project and got over how crazy he thought it to be, Robert’s Rocky Mountain Equipment Co. discussed a plan to put up the statue, ensuring that it was done safely with high stability. Roberts grew to have a major role in the project, raising funds, donating the use of his equipment, and even providing one thousand dollars to start off the construction fund. From there the community took care of the rest.

After six years of trouble-shooting technical difficulties, the statue was finally ready to assemble on the mountain top. On December 17, 1985, the statue was lifted in four sections by the Nevada Air National Guard Team and assisted by the Army Reserve stationed in Butte, as well as the Montana National Guard. Today Our Lady of the Rockies continues to show civic generosity through the volunteers that keep the statue up and running so that it may be able to show hope and optimism to inspire generations to come.

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Constructed at the edge of what is now Swiftcurrent Lake, Many Glacier Hotel provided the Great Northern Railway’s second grand hotel at Glacier National Park. It served as the center of the Great Northern’s network of chalets and tent camps alongside the 1910 Glacier Park Hotel. From the grand hotels, tourists could access chalets and tent camps in Glacier’s backcountry. Visitors accessed these locations on horseback, but automobiles later drew tourists away from them. The Great Northern brought an unprecedented level of development into Glacier, and it spent approximately $1.5 million on hotels, chalets, campsites, trails, and roads by 1917. Many Glacier Hotel cost $400,000.  Designed by Great Northern architect Thomas D. McMahon, the hotel comprises three separate buildings connected by covered walkways. The central portion opened in 1915, but the railroad did not complete the hotels’ north and south ends until 1917. Its rough stone siding and foundations resemble the rustic architecture that was becoming increasingly common in national parks. The architect further emphasized this feature in the lobby, which included a grand fireplace and tall wooden support pillars. This imitated the “forest” lobby at Glacier Park Hotel, which uses massive Douglas fir trees as pillars and includes an open fire pit. Many Glacier briefly featured an indoor pool, but the Great Northern removed it due to sanitary issues.  The railroad also intended Many Glacier to match the Great Northern’s other buildings in the park, which imitate Swiss chalets. The hotel’s three sections look like individual Swiss chalets from a distance. Wooden pieces called moldings adorn their windows and balconies, and these pieces feature cutout patterns inspired by the Swiss chalet style. This created a unified sense of place in the region and emulated Glacier’s status as the “Switzerland of North America.” Early advertisements capitalized on this idea during World War I, encouraging guests to “see America first” instead of spending their vacation money to visit foreign locales. The Great Northern hired numerous artists to paint Glacier National Park, and their work hung in train depots and ticket offices. The railroad displayed a variety of paintings from the See America First in Many Glacier Hotel, but only a few remain today.  While Glacier National Park quickly became a popular tourist attraction, the Great Northern’s vast building network became increasingly expensive to maintain. Initially, the railroad kept its resort system to draw train passengers into the park, but it made numerous attempts to sell the hotels as more visitors began to arrive by car. In 1957, the Great Northern hired the Knutson Hotel Company to prepare Glacier’s hotels for sale, and Glacier Park Inc. purchased them in 1960. In 2001, the National Park Service funded a $42 million restoration project that replaced the lodge’s roof and siding, restored original architectural features like balconies, and reinstalled an original circular staircase that the Knutson Hotel Company removed from the hotel lobby in 1957. Xanterra Parks and Resorts currently manages Many Glacier Hotel.

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On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant officially signed Yellowstone into law as America’s first national park. The Yosemite Act of 1864 had restricted settlement in the Yosemite Valley and placed it under the jurisdiction of California’s state government, but the Yellowstone Park Act expanded upon this legislation by designating all of Yellowstone a public park. As a result, the Yellowstone Park Act contained many restrictions on private development and very few administrative procedures to enforce regulations or oversee public use. Poorly supervised independent companies called concessionaires, who paid park administrators a fee to use the land, ran Yellowstone’s public facilities. Only a few concessionaires ferried guests into the park, but the Northern Pacific Railroad quickly expressed interest in Yellowstone’s small tourism industry. When the Northern Pacific reached Gardiner, Montana, in the early 1880s, its presence provoked interest in Yellowstone’s tourism industry. At this time, only a few concessionaires opened small hotels and tent camps. One such concessionaire, the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, constructed the Upper Geyser Basin Hotel in 1885 to preserve its failing business. The Northern Pacific purchased its properties in 1885, gaining control of the Upper Geyser Basin Hotel. When fire destroyed it in 1894, the importance of a new hotel in Yellowstone became clear. At the time, many railroad hotels utilized conventional architectural styles that provided a sense of familiarity for their upper-class audience. The Northern Pacific’s Lake Hotel, constructed in 1890, followed this example. However, rustic architecture, which emphasized harmony with the natural environment surrounding a structure, gained popularity in the 1890s. Because distinctive architecture drew more attention from visitors, the Northern Pacific experimented with a rustic style for its new hotel.  The Yellowstone Park Association, a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific, selected Robert Reamer to design its new rustic hotel. The railroad constructed the log building near Yellowstone’s most famous geyser, from which the Old Faithful Inn derived its name. The Union Pacific completed the central core of the hotel, known as the “Old House,” in 1903. The finished building was seven stories tall at its highest point, and it cost a total of $140,000 (about $4.9 million today) to construct. The Northern Pacific set aside a further $25,000 (approximately $875,000 today) to furnish the new hotel. Reamer designed his massive log structure to emulate Swiss chalets and Norwegian villas, and he utilized rough, unfinished wood logs obtained in the Park on both the inside and outside of the building to connect it to Yellowstone’s forested landscape. The hotel’s most prominent feature is its seven-story lobby, which features a vast fireplace made of native stone. A complex log frame that supports the hotel’s roof surrounds this room. The structure’s use of exposed wooden supports emphasizes the rustic nature of the lobby, and a series of wooden balconies overlook the main floor of the hotel.

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Despite Joseph’s isolated northeastern location in Oregon, retaining a small population of 250 people, it accrued wealth through its farming and ranching industries. In response to this economic growth, a consortium of entrepreneurs established the First National Bank of Joseph in 1905 with $25,000 of capital, offering competition to the First Bank of Joseph, previously the town’s only financial institution. In 1908, profitability proved healthy as assets increased to over $52,000, causing First National’s directors to construct a new building for their operations. Designed by J.A. Flesch & Sons of Chicago and built by local contractor Frank Marr, Dr. Jerome William Barnard, a local physician, partnered with First National by funding a single building for their businesses, sharing a common interior wall, and saving on construction costs. Around the opening of the new bank building, Joseph experienced a population boom of 206% from 1908-10, after the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company connected the town through a branch line linking it to Enterprise, Oregon, located in the state’s northeastern sector, connecting Joseph to a larger economy. First National’s inaugural president, farmer Ludwig Knapper, one of Wallowa County’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, utilized the bank, along with associates Aaron M. Wade, Charles Leslie Hartshorn, and Joseph Pearne Averill, to pool their wealth and expand Joseph’s economic resources into its growing timber market, the town’s largest commodity. From 1909 to 1919, this syndicate’s investments also included land acquisitions for cattle and sheep raising, a light and power company, a warehouse corporation, as storage for farm products, a woolgrower’s cooperative for sheep raising, and an irrigation organization, which supported farming around the Little Sheep Creek in Wallowa County. Through these and other enterprises, chiefly through supplying capital or loans to new businesses, First National’s assets considerably increased, reaching $370,000 in 1919, capitalizing on the burgeoning wartime economy. Its influence attracted attention from Frederick Wesley Falconer, one of Wallowa County’s largest sheep farmers and operator of the Enterprise State Bank in Enterprise, Oregon who purchased a controlling interest in First National and became its new president. After Falconer became interested in other financial ventures, he handed the presidency to director Daniel Welbaum Warnock, a notable rancher and blacksmith, in 1921. Despite the bank’s profitability, the economic downturn of 1920-1 facilitated First National's decline. While it retained a healthy surplus, its creditors consisted primarily of farmers and ranchers, who because of rising inflation and declining wartime demands, became unable to pay interest on their loans, freezing repayments and eliminating most of First National’s income. While the national economy quickly rebounded in 1922, Joseph’s conditions stagnated. First National’s directors ceased operation in June 1923 in the interest of their clients, redistributing any remaining deposits. In 1925, the bank building became the Joseph Post Office, serving in this capacity until 1960, and housed commercial businesses into the 1980s. By this period, the facility fell into disrepair and underwent restoration to its original appearance and accommodated an art gallery. Currently, it accommodates Heidi’s Towne Shop, a local boutique and clothing store.

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In the 1860s, Utah Territory began relying more on mining over agriculture, with eventually hundreds of claims dotting its landscape. Salt Lake City, serving as Utah Territory’s capital, benefitted most from this economic expansion, attracting miners and investors alike. Warren G. Hussey, a gold broker operating across the Intermountain West, expanded into the financial realm by purchasing the Miners’ National Bank of Salt Lake in 1869, notably the year of the Transcontinental Railroad’s completion, reorganizing it into the First National Bank of Utah. Hussey quickly established this new bank as Utah’s most important financial house, with total assets in 1871 amounting to $582,000. Hussey appeared so adept in banking that dividends, or returns to shareholders on investments, amounted to one hundred percent in 1871-2. In 1872, Hussey bought out any remaining stock in circulation, becoming First National’s sole owner, and decided to construct a new banking facility.  Commenced in early 1871, First National’s new building opened in September 1873. Designed by Thomas J. Johnson, a San Francisco-based builder, and Richard M. Upjohn, one of the United States’s foremost architects. No expense was spared, with total cost ballooning to $140,000, far higher than initial estimates. Its opening also aligned with the Panic of 1873, an economic recession causing bank runs across the United States. In response, Hussey suspended deposit payouts the month the new building opened. He also held interests in Utah’s Emma Mine, an operation riddled with fraudulent activity, losing tens of thousands of dollars upon its closure in 1873 after reports of its rich silver deposits being falsified. However, First National’s economic condition appeared sound. The U.S. Comptroller, the monitoring office for financial activities, reopened the bank in October 1873 after reporting that the bank’s resources were four times higher than deposits. Within fourteen months, however, the Comptroller shut down First National in December 1874, citing incompetent management. After its liquidation was finalized in 1878, only twenty-five percent of clients received compensation.  Hussey embezzled First National’s remaining assets into a personal account and continued opening banks across the Intermountain West. Notably, Hussey opened the Spokane National Bank in Washington in 1888, again investing considerable sums into a lavish headquarters. This bank failed in 1891, attributed to risky mining investments and negligible financial practices. Hussey, aged eighty-three, died in his Spokane home in 1920. In 1875, First National’s building suffered from a city-wide fire, losing its fourth story, never to be rebuilt. However, the structure continued serving as office spaces, and the Deseret National Bank (now Zion Bancorporation) occupied the first floor into the 1880s. Utah’s territorial archives lodged the second level, and the Oddfellows, a fraternal society, filled the third story until 1896, with their private library located on the second floor. Around 1885, Simon Bamberger, a Utah financier, purchased the building to house his business offices. Eventually, Bamberger became Utah’s governor in 1917 and the building served as a movie theater for several decades. Since the 1990s, the First National Bank Building has housed multiple commercial businesses, remaining one of Salt Lake City's most recognizable nineteenth-century structures.

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Attracting attention during the 1858-62 Pike’s Peak gold rush, by 1865 Denver was a small town of about 5,000 in the Colorado Territory. Jerome B. Chaffee, who settled in Denver in 1860, sought to grow Colorado’s economic potential and established the First National Bank of Denver in 1865, the first of its kind in the Intermountain region. Chaffee, considered a leading organizer of the Colorado Territory, used his mining interests to establish First National as one of the American West’s premier financial houses. Originally located on Denver’s first financial district, Fifteenth Street, First National’s initial directors included Walter S. Cheeseman, owner of the Denver City Water Company, and H. A. W. Tabor, one of Colorado’s chief mining barons. David H. Moffat, financier turned railroad magnate, and elected as the bank’s cashier in 1866, became its foremost financial mind, embarking on dozens of speculative prospects to expand First National's portfolio. This strategy paid off. First National held $1.25 million in assets by 1872. By the mid-1870s, Moffat operated multiple rail lines, notably the Denver Pacific Railway, linking it to the Transcontinental Railway in Cheyenne. This achievement led Denver to become the economic center of the Rocky Mountains, causing its population to explode by 675% from 1870-80. Moffat, and Tabor also owned dozens of mining claims, further enriching First National’s assets, and bolstered by Colorado’s newfound population growth. By 1880, First National’s assets doubled to $2.4 million. Moffat, taking over from Chaffee in 1880, directly tied his financial interests to the bank’s development and served as First National’s president until he died in 1911. Its location moved twice under Moffat’s tenure, first to the Tabor Building, off Sixteenth and Larimer Streets, (not to be confused with the newer Tabor Center) and later to the Equitable Building. By 1910, First National became one of the United States’s largest banks, and with $21.4 million in assets decided to construct a new building at Seventeenth and Stout Streets, across from their previous headquarters at the Equitable Building. Designed by Harry Edbrooke and completed in 1911, the new building became one of Denver’s first skyscrapers, reaching thirteen stories high and costing $900,000. First National, occupying the first floor and basement, with the other twelve stories rentable, made Seventeenth Street Denver’s new economic center, nicknamed the “Wall Street of the West” for its concentration of financial establishments. By 1915, H. J. Alexander, another Colorado banker, served as First National's president until 1928. The bank’s board of directors represented multiple industries, including the Midwest Refining Company, Pagosa Lumber Company, and the Colorado Development Foundation. It survived the Great Depression with little difficulty. John Evans, H. J. Alexander’s successor, continued First National’s financial dominance, holding $186.3 million in assets by 1950. In 1958, Evans, who owned the International Trust Company, merged both institutions, ending First National’s independence. International Trust moved to a new property, and the American National Bank occupied First National’s old headquarters until 1981, serving as First Interstate Bank until 1984. The First National Bank Building, occupied since 2008 by Magnolia Hotels, continues serving as Seventeenth Street’s focal point.

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In the late 1880s, Rock Springs began transitioning from a modest mining town into western Wyoming’s economic center, and the state’s financial interests took notice. First among them was Henry Gordon Balch, a stockman and state politician who established the Laramie National Bank in 1881. In response to Rock Springs’s mounting population, growing by 346% from 1880-90, Balch expanded his reach, opening the First National Bank of Rock Springs in 1887. By 1890, Balch’s speculation paid off, as First National’s assets reached $270,000, with almost $20,000 in gold and silver on hand. This success allowed Balch to expand further by founding the Rock Springs Coal Company and the Commercial National Bank in Salt Lake City, bolstering First National’s profile. As ranching and mining operations developed, the bank’s wealth jumped to $389,000 by 1900, only for Balch to pass away from pneumonia in 1901, aged forty-nine.  In Balch’s wake, Augustine Kendall, a long-term financial partner who co-established First National as its cashier, became president. Kendall, who held interests in lumber, cattle, and sheep, also served as Rock Spring’s Mayor from 1904-07. He also increased First National’s standing through his personal reputation and supplementary holdings. By 1909, assets reached $750,000, becoming Wyoming’s third-largest financial house. Kendall also served as Wyoming’s Federal Fuel Administrator from 1917-20, a department encouraging energy conservation by supporting American entry into the Great War. By 1917, First National’s directors hired Walter J. Cooper, a Salt Lake City-based architect, to construct a more secure building for their financial operations. Compared to the older structure, built from stone and prone to collapse after a fire, the new bank consisted of fire-resistant materials like brick and cement. The bank, now three stories high, became Rock Springs’s tallest structure, centrally located across from the local railroad situation. By 1922, First National's assets rested at $1.2 million. Kendall served as bank president until 1927, eventually retiring in California and dying in 1944, aged 81. By 1928, First National, acquired by Eccles-Browning Affiliated Banks, an Intermountain financial conglomerate including sixteen other operations, became the First Security Bank of Rock Springs. Marriner Eccles, becoming a millionaire at age twenty-one, served as the corporation’s leading figure, and later became a member of the Federal Reserve Board from 1934-51, acting as its chairman until 1948. Eccles further consolidated Intermountain finance in 1929 by establishing the First Security Cooperation of Ogden after purchasing another eight banks, making twenty-five total. Altogether, these financial houses encompassed $46 million in assets, with First Security representing $2 million, or 4.3%, of the conglomerate’s value. Corporate ownership of First Security continued, and its profitability grew. By 1975, $19.7 million existed in client accounts, increasing to $40.7 million in 1982 and $71.3 million in 1993. However, by 1997, First Security Corporation merged its Rock Springs branch, previously semi-independent, into its corporate structure. In 2000, First Security Corporation, bought out by Wells Fargo & Company, shuttered operations completely. The bank building, empty and in disrepair for many years, is currently under renovation.

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In 1886 Boise had a single national bank and Idaho’s growing mining and agricultural production offered conditions for another financial house. Alfred Eoff, a freelance economic agent operating across the American West since the 1860s, took advantage of this opportunity. Encouraged by Wells Fargo & Company treasurer Henry Wadsworth to seize the opportunity, Eoff established Boise City National Bank in 1886. Situated near Main Street and Capitol Boulevard, it was established as a competitor to the First National Bank of Idaho. Wadsworth acted as City National’s president while Eoff became its cashier, becoming part of Wells Fargo’s growing presence in the American West. Wadsworth’s recommendations proved sound. By 1890, City National Bank’s portfolio included over $620,000 in financial assets, with $65,000 held in securities alone. Idaho’s population boom increased City National’s business, requiring a larger building as the initial bank became too small to house its customers and resources, including cash, deeds, or precious metals. This led City National Bank’s board to construct a three-story building designed by local architect James King that could house both the bank and rentable commercial and office space. This new structure housed not only the bank but also the United States Marshals’ and Surveyor’s Offices as well as Idaho’s federal district court after its completion in 1892. Despite the 1890s economic downturn, City National’s portfolio continually increased, with total assets totaling $870,000 by 1900. Continued growth led to the addition of a fourth story commercial club in 1904 and renovations in 1913, all designed by John Tourtellotte & Company who also planned Idaho’s State Capitol. The commercial club catered to its patrons, who likely consisted of influential stockmen, farmers, and investors, offering amenities such as a dining district, billiards parlor, cardroom, lounge, writing room, and a library.  By 1905, Wadsworth retired and Frank R. Coffin became City National’s new president. Coffin, previously lured west from Indiana, first settled in California as a tinsmith and later became a gold miner in Idaho’s 1860 gold strike. He served as Idaho’s first state treasurer from 1891-93, treasurer of the Artesian Hot and Cold Power Company, one of the state's leading utility corporations, and president of the Boise Clearinghouse Association, a local financial institution. Serving as president until he died in 1920, Coffin further expanded City National’s reach until it became Idaho's second-largest national bank, with $1.6 million in total assets. By 1932, during the strain of the Great Depression, City National voluntarily closed, citing depleted reserves. It argued that closure was the best option for depositors, with the remaining $2.5 million in accounts distributed among its clients. After its closure, various owners occupied the bank building, including the Idaho Building and Loan Association and the J. R. Simplot Company, one of Idaho’s largest corporations. Today it is owned by Rocky Mountain Management, and houses many offices and commercial businesses.

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The Pleasant Grove Canning Company, established in 1919 in Orem, Utah, marked a significant milestone as the town’s inaugural major industry. The canning industry had been growing in the United States for about 50 years before the Pleasant Grove Canning Company was created. By the time it opened, the preservation of produce through canning had been perfected. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, there was little industry in Utah County, but the canning company took in produce from local farmers and farmers of the Provo Bench, canning, among other things, 75,000 cases of tomato paste. The company sold the tomato paste to the Campbell Soup Company.   The canning company underwent substantial changes in subsequent years as the industry in the state evolved.  In 1960, the Pleasant Grove Canning Company merged with Ogden’s Utah Canning Company and it became known as the Orem Plant of Utah Packers. Eventually, the decision was made to sell the company. In 1972, the company was sold to Booth Distributing Inc. and they used the building as a warehouse.  Over the ensuing decades, the building was sold multiple times to different owners. In 1992, the once-thriving structure had fallen into disrepair and deemed a hazard by the city of Orem. Consequently, in 1993, the building was demolished, leaving behind only memories and a historic marker commemorating the site of the former Orem landmark.

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Early LDS church leaders were fond of artistic expression to bring culture, entertainment, and refinement to the Salt Lake Valley. In 1852, just a few years after settling in Utah, Brigham Young decided it was time to bring theater back into the lives of the saints, forming The Deseret Dramatic Association. These Saint-actors performed at the Social Hall for five years, marking a vital advancement to society in the West. Unfortunately, the Utah War made the stage go dark for a few years. It returned when Phill Margaretts created The Mechanics Dramatic Association in 1859, which sponsored plays that were not affiliated with the church. In response, Brigham Young decided it was time to create a permanent stage where he could control the actors, scripts, and overall impression of the theater.

It was the perfect timing in Utah History for the construction of a gathering place to enjoy the arts. Initially, Brigham Young intended to build a dance hall. Instead, he determined to create “a model playhouse for producing professional theatre.” Construction of the Salt Lake Theatre began in July 1861 and was completed by March the following year at a cost of around $100,000. The architect was William H Folsom, with E. L. T. Harrison designing the interior. The theatre had room to hold an audience of 1500. Throughout Utah’s territorial history, the LDS church and the growth of Utah’s economy went hand and hand. The theater was just one of many buildings and ventures that were sponsored by the church. Because Young used church funds to finance the Salt Lake Theatre he guided its operation.

A dedication was held to honor this “temple of drama,” built to bring wholesome amusement and moral guidance to its patrons. The theater became a huge success. Thomas Lyne, a professional actor who had joined the church and promoted theater in Nauvoo, was instrumental in the popularity of plays presented there. The success of The ‘Mormon theater’ sparked the interest of many famous actors and drew them to Utah throughout its 66-year run. Several famous actresses, including Maude Adams, who later pioneered the role of Peter Pan on Broadway, played their first roles in Salt Lake City. The building was used not only for local arts but it hosted political events and eventually touring performing groups coming through Salt Lake City. Despite Young’s original vision, over time the theater welcomed people of all religious backgrounds and secular attitudes. Throughout its history, the theater played a significant role in the culture of Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, the creation of many new vaudeville theaters and Utah’s economic downturn of 1920s drove the theater into deep debt. People desperate for basic needs could not afford to attend shows. In addition, the building needed renovations. The president of the Church, Heber J. Grant, closed the theater and sold the building. In 1928 it was demolished–a great loss of a cultural icon to Utah and the United States.

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In the early days of Utah’s settlement, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encouraged Utahns to develop their land and build industrial infrastructure. One fitting example of this occurred in 1854, when Ezra T. Benson (the great-great grandfather of the later prophet, Ezra Taft Benson) moved to Tooele Valley with orders from Brigham Young to build a gristmill, which would grind raw cereal grains into flour. Such a mill would provide a vital service for the surrounding settlements. Soon, Benson and a few other men gained the rights to the land, water, and timber from Brigham Young and started building the mill by a pond in northern Tooele.  The mill itself was a remarkable piece of resourceful architecture. For example, wooden pegs were used in stabilizing the beams of the building. This allowed the pegs to expand and contract along with the beams as the weather changed, leading to greater stability.  For almost one hundred years, from 1854 until the 1940s, the mill processed many tons of corn and wheat for the communities of Tooele Valley. For instance, in 1860 alone, the mill processed about $17,000 worth of grains. That same year, the mill’s rights were transferred to Brigham Young, after Benson moved to Cache Valley. This transfer of ownership was likely to prevent the mill from being seized by the federal government during the conflict over polygamy.    In 1922, the mill was bought by the future LDS apostle J. Reuben Clark. Under his ownership, the mill was upgraded and the older wooden waterwheel and millstones were replaced by a metal turbine and free standing “grain breakers,” which were more durable and could grind the grain with greater efficiency. In 1938 the mill switched from milling flour to making animal feed. A few years later the mill stopped being used and fell into disrepair.  The building stood abandoned until 1983, when a committee of volunteers recognized the Benson Gristmill as an important historical site to the community of Tooele. In the next few years, the small group got Terracor Corp, a land development firm that then owned the property, to donate the site to Tooele County as a historical monument, allowing them to restore and preserve the mill. The Benson Gristmill is now one of the most intact pioneer-era sites in the state, standing as a reminder of the humble yet powerful origins of Utah’s communities. 

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