Salt Lake County Branch Library (demolished) – Midvale UT

Description

The Midvale Branch of the Salt Lake County library was constructed in 1940-41 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  The building housed a library in front and the County Library headquarters and book processing department in the back. An auditorium and stack addition was added in 1951.

The cost was approximately $70,000, $45,000 of which was from the library budget and the remainder from the WPA. 

The building design was single-story Streamline Moderne with a projecting central portion and a curved entrance.  The architects were Ashton and Evans of Salt Lake City, who were employed on several other New Deal projects in the area.

The building served as a library until 1974, when it became too small to manage the growing Salt Lake County library and offices and the library functions were moved to a larger facility. 

The building was then recommissioned as the Midvale City Hall – which is confusing, because the previous Midvale City Hall was also housed in a WPA building next door (designed by Scott and Welch).  The library-turned-City Hall served its new purpose for 25+ years.

The former library build has recently been demolished and the site prepared for use by the Fire Department.

Gordon Cope and other artists were hired by the WPA’s Federal Art Project to create fourteen original paintings of local scenes  (the library paid for the frames), which were circulated among the various branches of the county library.  The fate of those paintings is unknown to us.