Midvale Sites

The Midvale Community Center was built as the town's City Hall in 1939. Construction was supported by a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant of $31,500 and a city bond of $38,500.  The Midvale City Hall was one of over 240 buildings constructed in the state under the New Deal, and one of 20 in Salt Lake County, according to the State Historical Office plaque. It is a two-story brick building with parapeted gable roof in the Art Moderne style, designed by prominent Utah architects Clark W. Scott and George W. Welch. Characteristic of the Modern style is the streamlined appearance achieved by...

In 1936, Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews helped restore this pioneer-era cabin, dating to 1866.  The log and earth-covered cabin had been built by the Bennett and Drown families, who moved on to frame houses as time passed. The cabin was originally located near the old town cemetery,  just south of the town center of Midvale UT and hard by an ASARCO smelter (now gone). The Drown Cabin was restored again in 1999 and moved to a new site near the intersection of Center Street and 700W in Midvale.  It was still there in 2011 but we did not find it on a...

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...