Wasatch Warm Springs building

Pic sourced from the Warm Springs Alliance website.

Located at 840 N 300 W in Salt Lake City, Utah is an old, interesting looking, and very Catholic mission-like building that is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and was built to be a bath house utilizing the nearby warm springs. 

A horse drawn trolley in front of one of the original buildings. Taken from the WSA site.

The springs here were used by the local Native Americans such as the Shoshone and Utes even before the arrival of Mormon pioneers to the valley.  However, the pioneers settling there quickly developed the springs and constructed numerous bathing facilities at the site, many believing the warm sulfurous water had rejuvenating and healing properties.

One of the later buildings at the same site. Also from the WSA site.

The first/original building there was constructed soon after the arrival of the Mormon pioneers, in 1850, and was commissioned by Brigham Young himself in 1848. It was to not only serve as a bathhouse, but also as the meetinghouse for the 19th ward at the time.

A view of the back of the building. All remaining pictures sourced from City Weekly.

The current building was constructed in 1921 to replace the old and decaying original building, and was named Wasatch Warm Springs Plunge. It is currently listed and the look if the building was quite intentionally inspired by the old Catholic missions predominant across California. 

When it opened, it featured not only a large municipal swimming pool but a secondary deep plunge reserved for private parties, a dozen private soaking tanks, a barber shop, hair dresser, large locker rooms, five private rooms on the upper floor available for rent, and even men’s and women’s masseurs. 

Pictures of the more recent decay inside.

Unfortunately, the Hot Spring Lake that fed the waters to the facility was completely drained sometime after 1915 and after numerous health concerns, the baths were closed in the late 1940s. After the facility had changed hands numerous times, it fell into a state of disrepair and it was officially condemned in 1953, and eventually the land was absorbed by the state. However, the health concerns were rectified by changing from the usage of hot springs water to becoming a freshwater pool and operations resumed until finally closing operations as a municipal pool in 1976.

In it's last gasp, the facility was partially refurbished/restored in 1983 to house the The Children's Museum of Utah for most of it's existence until they were renamed to Discovery Gateway and moved out of the bathhouse out to resettle to it's current location in The Gateway mall. However, most people would agree the building remained quite dilapidated during the years housing the Children's Museum of Utah as well.

Another view of a separate pool left in disrepair. 

Presently, the building sits empty, but in the past few years, a group of locals called the Warm Springs Alliance rallied to see what could be done to restore the facility and the hot springs as well. They have met with success and have made significant progress in preserving the building and have been working to restore it. You can read up on the group and their progress at their website at https://www.warmspringsalliance.org/

A big thanks to Catalyst Magazine for most of the info on the building's history and current renovations; you can check out their article here: https://catalystmagazine.net/past-present-collide-warm-springs/