City Creek Center and the Downtown That Was
City Creek Center sits on three downtown blocks in Salt Lake City, two of which once hosted two malls and, earlier still, the original Zions Co-operative Mercantile Institution.
April 1, 1876, was opening day for ZCMI, a store that is often spoken of as one of the nation’s first department stores. When the 1970s demanded an enclosed retail future, the original building was demolished.
History kept one artifact intact, the ZCMI Cast Iron Front, a three-story front in cast iron and pressed metal, built from 1876 to 1901 for the store…