The Sugar House Merchants Association presents the Eighth Annual Sugar House Arts Festival on July 4th 2009.
Boasting Salt Lake City's premier artists and craftsmen, festival-goers will enjoy perusing booths, live music and delicious food. Located in the heart of Sugar House, the festival is designed to enhance 4th of July activities traditionally held at Sugar House Park, where approximately 100,000 visitors were in attendance last year.

Fireworks In Sugar House Park
Don't miss out on the fireworks and festivities at Sugar House Park on July 4th, 2009. The fireworks display at Sugar House Park is one of the best around.

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Sugar House Named One of the Best Old House Neighborhoods This Old House Magazine

Sugar House, Salt Lake City, Utah

Founded in 1853, this quiet and cheerfully quirky suburb is 10 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City. Named for a local sugar mill that never actually processed any of the sweet stuff (the machines shipped from France didn't make the journey), the area is a first-time homebuyers' delight, filled with quaint 1920s fixer-uppers and post–World War II cottages. Sugar House's tree-lined streets and 110-acre park, just east of the town's center (and formerly the site of the Utah State Prison), also make it a great place for folks who don't mind lacing up their walking shoes. While home to big, established employers such as the nearby University of Utah and a large medical research park, Sugar House boasts a thriving district of small businesses, arts venues, and restaurants at the intersection of 900 East and 900 South (known as "9th and 9th").

The Houses
Known for early-20th-century bungalows, cottages, and Tudors, Sugar House is also home to a sprinkling of charming Victorians. House sizes average 2,100 square feet and prices start about $365,000, but savvy and patient house hunters can find cozy, 1,500-square-foot bungalows in the southern part of town for about $250,000.

Why Buy Now?
Sugar House seems to be one of those rare recession-proof markets, as home prices have remained relatively stable. And finding a place shouldn't be too difficult. Since the area attracts younger single homeowners, the market stays pretty lively as people relocate for work or families outgrow their starter homes.

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Featured Sugar House News Stories

Salt Lake City police help Sugar House businesses afford surveillance systems
By David Jensen
Sugar House Journal

The Salt Lake City Police Department has stepped up its efforts to help curb crime among local businesses. Using funds from a federal grant designed to help businesses combat crime, the department is reimbursing business owners half their cost (up to $1,500) of a surveillance system.

We want to help businesses prevent being victimized by crime, said Detective Rick Wall. This is one way that we can help business owners participate in a crime-watch program.

With this initial grant, the department has been able to help as many as 13 businesses purchase surveillance systems. To qualify for the assistance, businesses need to allow police officials to check the systems after they are installed to ensure they are functioning properly. Business owners also need to grant police officers immediate access to the video-taped material.

Officers are already seeing the benefits of having surveillance systems in place, both as a deterrent and in helping catch people involved in criminal activity.

Surveillance systems give us a starting point, said Wall. We had a rash of vandalism crimes that targeted Sugar House businesses during December and January. Because one business in the area had a surveillance system, we were able to catch the person.

The department hasn't been able to help everyone who applied for the assistance. They awarded the assistance on a first come, first serve basis until the funds from the initial grant ran out. Wall said the program is worth pursuing.

If this proves to be successful, we will continue to go after more funding for the program, said Officer Shaun Smart.

The businesses who have applied for the grant are still awaiting approval. Once the grants are awarded, the surveillance systems will need to be installed by the end of June.

We plan to use the grant to upgrade our existing system, said Barbara Green of Smith-Crown Co. The police department requires a specific type of system so officers can easily access the information they need.


Sugar House Park still packs in crowds even in the winter months
by Erin McShay
Sugar House Journal

Sugar House Park still bustles with activity, even in the colder months of November and December. The 110.5-acre park is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and has been popular with joggers, basketball players and children playing on the two area playgrounds due to the unseasonably warm weather. Even when the snow begins to fall, there is still plenty to do.

We host most of our special events in the spring, summer and fall months, but during winter the main attraction is our sleigh riding hill, said Craig Cheney, Sugar House Park Authority Board secretary. Snowboarding on the hill could be a big conflict, since it's mostly used by kids sledding, but I have seen people cross country skiing.

The park also hosts a Beat the New Year 5K Run for brave souls just before midnight on New Years Eve.

The park just celebrated its 50th anniversary, and is governed by the Sugar House Park Authority Board made up of nine volunteers and two government appointees, one from the city and one from the county.

We've found from surveys that people really like the park the way it is, said park board president Lex Hemphill. We still have a lot of improvements that need to be made to the terraces. We also want new signs and have been working with the same design team that worked on Liberty Park.

Last year a private individual donated $10,000 to the Board for trees. On Oct. 4, volunteers planted a variety of 72 trees. The REI outdoor retail store provided the volunteers to do the planting.

It's a great thing, a really big deal for us. There are some pine and elms; they mostly went in the northern west area, said Hemphill. About five or six years ago we lost some trees during a drought so it's really helped.

The big discussion now is in regards to the Parley's Rails, Trails and Tunnels Coalition master plan which has a tunnel that will be built underneath 1300 East, connecting Sugar House Park to the Hidden Hallow area. It's being called the Draw at Sugar House.

It will be a different look for the park in an area that doesn't get much activity, said Hemphill. With two segments of the trial providing better access on foot into the park, it will be amazing.



Sugar House historical website is now available for history buffs
by Erin McShay
Sugar House Journal

If you don't have the ambition to write your memoirs quite yet but still feel the need to share your special memories with others, Placeography.org may be just right for you. Personal blogs seem to be popping up everywhere lately, and now Sugar House has a website where residents can record their individual experiences and read others as well.

Westminster's National History Honor Society, the Phi Alpha Theta chapter, and the college's Center for Civic Engagement teamed with Lynne Olson, a community volunteer,to commemorate the ever-changing suburb of Sugar House.

To preserve Sugar House's history because it's changing so fast, a lot of people have found the website to be very effective. Anybody can check in and upload photos and documents, said Olson.

The website also provides helpful resources, such as maps and photographs from the state's historical society. Browsers can take a stroll down memory lane, viewing pictures of the original Sugar House Prison, the old Sugar House Park, Hidden Hallow and other natural treasures in Sugar House.

We started doing Sugar House story events, inviting people to video tape their personal history, and they came in with photographs and other clipping and we tried to come up with a way to archive the information, said Gary Daynes, Westminster College Associate Provost. I came across the Placeography website, which is set up kind of like Wikipedia.

Placeography.org, a website out of Minnesota, is an Internet site where residents of any city or town can highlight specific features about their community.

Lots of people like to tell their memories and old stories, and the city is changing so rapidly [that[ lots of areas are disappearing, Daynes said. A lot of residents are growing older, and it's a great way to preserve history. It's open to everyone; it's a democratic way where everyone can be a historian.

Westminster held a training session to teach people how to set up an account and start using it. There will be another training sometime in the future. For a set of the workshops instructions, e-mail lynneolson@msn.com. To access the site, got to http://www.placeography.org/index.php?title=Project:Sugar_House.

The next Sugar House Stories event will be Saturday, Sept. 13, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Sprague Library.

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Useful Links:
City Council District Councilman Soren Simonson
Sugar House's Own Community NewspaperSugar House Journal

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Historic Photos of Salt Lake

Book Descriptions
Founded by Mormon pioneers seeking a place to practice their religion, Salt Lake City became a center of regional commerce, fueled by mining and the completion of the Union Pacific and local railroads. It ultimately attracted residents from all parts of Europe, as well as Mexico, China, and Japan.

Historic Photos of Salt Lake City captures the story of this unique community through still photography selected from the finest collections, a visual record of the city's history presented in striking black-and-white photographs.

From the building of the magnificent Mormon Temple and Tabernacle to the establishment of America's first department store; from muddy streets to wide boulevards with park-like medians; from Greek grocery stores to Japanese-American baseball teams, Historic Photos of Salt Lake City tells a visual story of a unique American city.

Author Bio:
Jeff Burbank is a longtime journalist and editor. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master's degree in communications-print journalism from American University. He is the author of License to Steal: Nevada's Gaming Control System in the Megaresort Age (Nevada, 2000), Las Vegas Babylon (M. Evans, 2005), and Historic Photos of Las Vegas (Turner Publishing 2007). He has been published in many venues, including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Las Vegas Review-Journal and Sun, Reno Gazette-Journal, and Newsweek. He is currently an instructor for the English Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Book is available through Turner Publishing