Utah Westerners

November Announcement for the Utah Westerners

November 13, 2017 at 11:04 am kenttschanz Leave a comment

Salt Lake City’s Magnificent Knutsford Hotel

by

Walter Jones

“Salt Lake City’s Magnificent Knutsford Hotel: How an Opulent Building’s History Reflects the Ongoing Transformation of a Farm village into a Sophisticated Urban Center.”  In this talk Walter Jones will present five features of the hotel’s history:  Its role in changes in land use in SLC; its reflecting the development of a increasingly beautiful architectural landscape; how the hotel’s management represented many newcomers who became attracted to the city more and more for economic rather than religious reasons; the manner in which the hotel became a center for social activities; and, finally, what happened to the Knutsford property after the closure of the hotel.  The presentation will feature a PowerPoint selection of slides that illustrate the Knutsford’s eminence in the city’s history.

Walter Jones is from Casper, Wyoming and once wrote a history of that city’s early 20th century red light district, titled History of the Sand Bar, 1888 – 1977 In 1967, he graduated from the University of Wyoming after which he immediately joined the United States Army and became a Korean language interpreter, translator, voice-intercept operator, and interrogator.  Following his four years of active duty experience, he attended Brigham Young University where he constantly felt pressure to visit barbershops in order to avoid the scrutiny of standards-committee representatives who enforced short-hair rules and regulations.  

In 1973, Walter married Helen Walker and started a 42 year career of being a librarian, 33 years of which were at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library.  While working in libraries, he joined the Army National Guard and worked his way up the enlisted ranks to become a command sergeant major, first for the 141st Military Intelligence Battalion, then the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade, and finally the 144th Combat Support Hospital.  After retiring from the military, Walter began a part-time career of teaching Utah and American history at Salt Lake Community College.

             During all the years from the time he graduated from BYU, he has done research and has written about local history subjects such as Casper’s red-light district, the oil fields of southwestern Wyoming, and various Utah subjects that include the Chinese of Salt Lake City and a history of Salt Lake’s Knutsford Hotel of which you are about to witness the results of his most recent historic project. Currently, Walter and Helen have two children and five grandchildren.

Entry filed under: Uncategorized.