The Only Registered Historic Hotel In Utah

Old West drama makes the history of the Peery Hotel and its downtown environment as colorful as a sunrise over the Wasatch Mountains.  The most famous Western enterprises of the late 1800s – railroads and precious metal mining – turned Salt Lake City into such an important commercial hub that it was nicknamed “Crossroads of the West”.  During the early 1900s, Utah’s mining industries were hitting peak prosperity and brothers David and Joseph Peery commissioned architect Charles B Onderdunk to design a fine hotel to serve business people and their families.  It was completed in 1910, a year after the city’s two major railroad depots were built, located on the same street as the Denver Rio Grande Depot, two blocks to the west.  The hotel has been in continuous operation since its opening.

The Peery hotel combines elements of the Prairie Style with motifs of classical revival influence.  Construction is post and beam, with steel columns supporting the structure at the basement level.  Load bearing columns are concealed within wooden boxes, classical columns and walls.  The E-shaped front façade is symmetrical, with brickwork that is laid in a stretcher bond pattern.  Quoins stand at the corners of each wing.  The galvanized tin cornices are moderately projected.  They feature paired brackets, a molded frieze, and an egg and dart band.  The egg and dart motif is carried through to the interior, and decorates the ceiling cornices as well.  The first floor has fixed sash storefront windows.  Two double hung sashes are used above.  A pair of Latin crosses, in green and rust colored tiles, are inlaid on either side of the central upper level windows.

The Grand Lobby occupies the first floor of the central wing.  It was the place to be seen for Salt Lake City’s professional class throughout the 1920s, as well as today.  The focal point of the room is its elegant staircase with its classically carved railings and lathe-turned balusters which have framed the wedding processions of many society debutants who descended on the arms of their tycoon fathers to be wed in the Peery’s stylish tradition. 

The Peery Hotel is the only hotel in Utah on the National Register of Historic Places.