These Row House Apartments at 620 S Park St Housed Jewish Refugees after WWII

Historic Row Houses apartment building at 620 S Park Street SLC

This row house apartment complex located at 620 S Park Street was built in 1890 for Dr. Patrick J. McKenna and designed by Thompson & Weigel.

Dr. McKenna was an Irish allopath who, in 1890, had just moved to SLC from New Orleans and could not find any suitable (new, nice, and large) rental housing, so he and his wife built their own which they named Bellevue Terrace. Originally the complex consisted of 6 apartments of 7-rooms each.

In 1901, Dr. McKenna died in a freak accident in which he fell from a train in Parley’s Canyon during an Elks Club excursion to Park City. A few years later his widow married Dr. McKenna’s cousin and moved to Ireland, selling Bellevue Terrace.

Bellevue Terrace changed ownership and the name Bellevue was dropped around the time the street was renamed Park Street The complex was also remodeled into 22 studio apartments during the Great Depression.

Mary and Ben Davis purchased the apartment complex in 1946 and renamed it the Davis Apartments. Both Mary and Ben were Jewish immigrants from Europe (Mary from Lithuania and Ben from Austria) and they arranged through the United Jewish Appeal to rent the apartments to refugees from WWII concentration camps.

Their daughter, Helen Barr, took over ownership of the complex in 1984 and she received $224K from the SLC Redevelopment Agency (RDA) to rehab and remodel the building. The building was remodeled into a 12-unit apartment and renamed Mary’s Manor in honor of Ms. Barr’s mother.

Ms. Barr is still the owner of the apartment complex.