Park History
Land Acknowledgement Statement
Sugar House Park Authority acknowledges that the park was unceded homelands of Goshute, Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone peoples, the original stewards of this land. We recognize that these peoples have endured times of war, removal, peace, renewal, and much more, and still they survive.
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This acknowledgement provides a framing through which to see our work, and continue our journey toward understanding and meaningful action that empowers indigenous people. SHPA is committed to engagement with our community and stakeholders, ongoing learning, conversation and action, in continuing on this path together.
1896-1947
Previous Utah State Prison Site
For nearly a century, the current site of beautiful Sugar House Park was, incongruously, the grim site of the Utah State Prison. The federal government operated the penitentiary until Utah statehood in 1896, when the prison was then granted to the State of Utah.
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By the middle of the 20th Century, state officials had finalized plans to move the prison to a new site at the Point of the Mountain, thus igniting discussion of what to do with the old prison site. Sugar House businessman Horace Sorensen lobbied for a decade to have the site converted into a state park, and that seemed to be the site’s destiny when the Legislature passed a statute in 1947 setting aside the “old prison site” as a state park.
1951-1956
Land Purchase for "Public Purposes"
But Gov. Bracken Lee balked at the prospect of the financially pinched state becoming involved in building parks, and in 1951 the Legislature passed another statute giving Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County the option to purchase the prison site, minus the 30 acres that eventually became Highland High School, and to use the site for “public purposes.”
The city and county exercised the option and made five joint payments of $45,000 a year to meet the sale price of $225,000. They completed their payments in 1956, although the state had already formally handed the keys to the prison to Salt Lake City Mayor Earl Glade in a transfer ceremony in October, 1953.
1955-1957
Trusted to Sugar House Park Authority
In 1955, the City and the County announced the formation of a committee to recommend uses of the new property, and those committee members ultimately became the first members of the original Sugar House Park Authority, which was incorporated in July, 1957.
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Under the leadership of Harold Fabian, who was president of the Park Authority for its first 18 years, the park developed gradually over its first decade under a plan developed by Denver landscape architect Jack Harenburg.
1957-2055
Land Purchase for "Public Purposes"
In an agreement approved by Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County on July 16, 1957, the city and county conveyed the property, in trust, to the Sugar House Park Authority to operate it as a park for a period of 99 years, ending Dec. 31, 2055.