New GE Refrigerators at the Critchlow Apts

This is a fun photo of the Critchlow Apartments at 379 1^st Ave SLC (now known as First Avenue Flats).

General Electric Refrigerators for installation at Critchlow Apartments, Salt Lake City. ca 1929.
Image from USHS.

Detail of above.

It shows the delivery of new General Electric refrigerators, probably in 1929.

Known as “Monitor Top” refrigerators because their top mounted compressors resembled the gun turret of the Civil War ship, USS Monitor.

GE Monitor-Top Refrigerator.
Image from Albany Institute of Art History and Art. 

These were considered the first affordable refrigeration units for the average family, around $300 (about $5,500 in 2025 dollars). Often these refrigerators, and other electric devices, were offered for sale through the electric utility company, in this case, Utah Power and Light.

Disappearing Bed at the Critchlow Apartments

An interior view from 1909 of the Critchlow Apartments, 379 1st Ave SLC.

These images showcase a disappearing bed that can transform into a desk. The apartment boom of the early 1900s spurred the popularity of these beds, many of which were for sale in local Salt Lake City furniture shops.

Other names for a disappearing bed include Murphy bed (a specific patented brand), pull-down/fold-down bed, or hideaway bed.

Disappearing bed at the Critchlow Apartments, 1908. Image from USHS.

Disappearing bed, configured as a desk, at the Critchlow Apartments, 1908. Image from USHS.

Disappearing bed at the Critchlow Apartments, 1908. Image from USHS.

Advertisement for a disappearing bed available at Freed Furniture Store, Salt Lake City.
Image from Salt Lake Herald, June 4 1909.

Newspaper feature praising the benefits of Disappearing Beds.
Image from Salt Lake Tribune, July 12 1908.

The Critchlow was built in 1908 by John Q. Critchlow and designed by architect Charles B. Onderdonk. Built of dark red brick with white stone trim. The interior featured maple floors and colored tile baths and showers.

A building announcement promised soundproof floors with brick walls between apartments, a unique and notable feature at the time.

Both one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments were available and rented in 1908 at $30 (about $1K in 2025 dollars) and $46 (about $1.5K) a month.

The Critchlow became known by many other names through the years and is now known as First Avenue Flats.

1911 Sanborn Map showing the Critchlow Apts. Corner of 1st Ave and E Street, Salt Lake City.

The Critchlow in 1909 and 2022. Upper image from USHS, lower image from Google Street View.

Utah's First Self-Service Liquor Store on Foothill Boulevard

The old Foothill Utah State Liquor Store at Lamplighter Square at 1615 S Foothill Blvd, Salt Lake City, was Utah’s first self-service liquor store.

Author's photo of the Utah State Liquor Store at 1615 Foothill Blvd, 2021.

The store opened in Feb 1967 and expanded with a front addition in the 1990s. In the photograph above  you can see part of the old-mid century modern design from the original building.

The Foothill store was different from others operating at the time as it operated more like a supermarket: customers were able to browse and select the items they wanted and then check out at a cashier stand (as is common now).

Previously, customers asked for their item and a clerk would obtain it for them behind a counter.

The new style of "self-service" store was an instant success. The Utah Liquor Commission quickly opened a second self-service store in Oct 1967 at the Avenues Plaza shopping center. Soon the Murray and Sandy stores converted to self-service as well.

To save on construction costs, the Utah State Prison carpentry shop built all the shelves, counters, turnstiles, and cashiers’ cages for these new self-service stores.

Interior of the SLC Sugar House Liquor Store in 1958 showing items behind the counter
Image from USHS and colorized by Adobe.

Interior of the SLC Foothill Liquor Store in 1967 showing shelves made by prisoners of the Utah State Penitentiary and open browsing aisles. Image from USHS and colorized by Adobe

Judge Building, Salt Lake City

1909 Postcard of the Judge Building, Salt Lake City.

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The Judge Building, 8 E 300 S SLC, built in 1907 by Mary Judge and designed by the Judge family architect David C. Dart who also designed the Judge Miner's Home, now part of Judge Memorial High School.

Mary and her husband John made their wealth primarily from the Daly-Judge Mine in the Park City Mining District. John died in 1892 and Mary took over business operations and invested in real estate.

She also contributed the establishment of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, YMCA, and All Hallows College.

Judge Building in 1908. Image from USHS.

Judge Building 1939. Image from USHS

Judge Building 2023

Dr. Nell C. Brown, Hair Physician

In 1902, 30-year-old Nell Young Clauson Brown reinvented herself as “Dr. Nell C. Brown: Hair Physician.”

Advertisement from the Salt Lake Theatre program, 1903. From USHS.

Her husband, Leigh, died a couple years previous, leaving her a widow with 2 children. Leigh had been in ill health for years, and for a time, the family lived in San Francisco and then Idaho Falls before returning to SLC where Leigh died.

Nell was not a destitute or desperate widow. She was a granddaughter of Brigham Young and a daughter of well-connected Hiram B. Clawson (through his 4th wife, Emily Augusta Young). She had affluent family she could entrust the care of her children while she completed coursework in San Francisco.

Perhaps it was while the family lived in San Francisco that Nell met Dr. Edith E. McClean, or perhaps Nell responded to one of the many advertisements recruiting women to take a 3-month course in “alopecia and dermatology using the Dr. W.S. Gottheil method.”

Edith was a character herself. Also reinventing herself after a divorce, she built up a hair restoration business in San Francisco and rebranded herself as Dr. E. E. McClean offering specialized hair and scalp services and a bottled Medicated Hair Tonic of her own concoction.

Dr. Edith E. Corey McClean, of San Francisco.

Nell studied under Dr. Edith and returned to Salt Lake in May 1902 and began her own business to “scientifically treat the hair and scalp” with special attention given to baldness, promising the majority of such cases were curable under the proper treatment.

She also offered manicuring and shampooing. Like Dr. Edith, Nell rebranded herself as Dr. Nell C. Brown. Her offices were in the ornate Templeton Building at 1 S Main St (now Zions Bank Building).

Various clippings advertising Dr. Nell C. Brown

The Templeton Building where Dr. Nell C. Brown had her offices.

In Jan 1904, Nell married John Aski Silver, of the famous Silver Brothers Iron and Foundry Works, and her hair career ended.

However, two of her associates began their own business: Miss Charlotte Lynberg and Miss Carrie Leaker relocated to the Constitution Building.

Nell was widowed again in 1916 and married Morris D. Rosenbaum in 1918. When Nell died in 1937 she had amassed an enormous extended and blended family.

Caption this Photo!

A fun set of railroad photos! Such an iconic stance that it begs a unique caption.

These photo was taken by Harry Shipler, famous SLC commercial photographer who often supplied photographs for newspapers and promotional publications.

On March 28, 1913, officials from the Denver and Rio Grande railroad inspecting the area of Soldier Summit (Wasatch County). At this time there was construction of a detour rail line that ran through Thistle, and perhaps this visit is associated with that.

I was not able to (easily) find out more information about this serries of photographs.

It is fun to see some candid shots from a professional photographer. Especially the last photo!

Photos are from USHS.

Horace H. Voss, Mayor of Franklin Avenue

Horacious “Horace” H. Voss (1863-1906) was one the political and civic leaders of SLC’s historically Black neighborhood of Franklin Ave, now known as Edison St. 

I refer to him as the unofficial mayor of Franklin Ave. The neighborhood had several prominent leaders who were all active in civics, newspapers, religious organizations, and politics, but Voss was unique in a couple specific aspects: he was the first person of color to serve as a Legislative Officer and owned real estate.

Horace H. Voss. I refer to him as the unofficial mayor of Franklin Ave, Salt Lake City.

Originally from Tennessee, Voss spent a few years in Kansas City, Missouri, before arriving in SLC in 1891.

He quickly became involved with Salt Lake’s small, but active, Black community. He was one of the vocal leaders of the Black Republicans, helped organize the annual Emancipation Day celebrations, was a trustee of Salt Lake's Trinity African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and was a member of several Black fraternal lodges. 

Notably, Voss was the first person of color to serve as a Legislative Officer in Utah. In 1903 he was appointed to serve as Doorkeeper, a position granted to him by the Utah Republican Party for “delivering the Black Vote.”  This type of appointment was something that the Black community fought for, especially since the position commonly offered was that of dog catcher, a thankless and difficult City position.

Although Edison Street recorded 100% Black residents in the early 1900s, Voss, and his wife Lizzie, were the only Black people to own property in this neighborhood. He owned houses at 254 and 254 ½ S. Edison Street. (Of note there were other Black property owners in Millcreek and on the outskirts of SLC).

Voss was killed on Edison Street in 1906.  A day after stopping an attack on an elderly man, the assailant lured Voss into a boarding house and shot him in an act of revenge for interfering the day prior. His murder was national news with many newspapers tracking each development of the trial of his killer.

His funeral was held at the First Methodist Church on the corner of 200 East and 200 South as it was larger than the AME Church. Both Black and White people attended his funeral, the 24th Infantry Band from Fort Douglas played, and it featured choir performances and speeches. Horace Voss’s mother arrived at the funeral from Tennessee as it was underway. He is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery.