Fort Douglas: Bath House & other improvements - Salt Lake City UT

City:: Salt Lake City, UT
Site Type:: Military and Public Safety, Parks and Recreation, Swimming Pools, Bathhouses
New Deal Agencies:: Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Quality of Information:: Minimal
Marked:: Yes
Site Survival:: Unknown

Description

Fort Douglas was expanded during the New Deal by the PWA, CCC and WPA. The WPA added several homes for senior officers (buildings 621-625 on the central parade grounds, along De Trobriand Street) and non-commissioned officers (buildings 658, 600, 664, 665, 666 on Connor Road), along with entrance columns. These are all still in use.

There are several other WPA works at Fort Douglas that are harder to document or have disappeared: a recreation hall (gone), bath house (still standing), swimming pool (filled in?), gas station (modified from an earlier stone building that still stands), and improvements to the water and street systems (invisible).

The only site marked as New Deal on the base is the bathhouse, built in 1935-36.

More photos taken by the WPA during the 1930s are in the archives of the library at the University of Utah, but have not yet been examined.

Source notes

Eric Browning, "Historic Fort Douglas at the University of Utah: A Brief History and Walking Tour." University of Utah, Department of Facilities Planning, 2000 University of Utah, History of Fort Douglas Walking Tour

Site originally submitted by Joan Greer on April 1, 2017.