The 10-story building was designed by Los Angeles architects John Parkinson and George Bergstrom and constructed 1909–1911. Parkinson & Bergstrom borrowed the style of architect Louis Sullivan, and the Kearns Building has been described as Sullivanesque, with a steel reinforced concrete frame and a white terracotta tile facade emphasizing vertical piers below a prominent cornice. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[2]
The style of a Louis Sullivan skyscraper was built on classical form, with prominent window and door openings at street level, bands of windows between vertical piers, and a distinctive, highly decorated cornice. Often Sullivan designed porthole windows under a cornice.[3] Parkinson & Bergstrom used centered medallions between spandrels recessed behind the plane of piers to achieve a similar appearance.[2]
The Kearns Building was named for Thomas Kearns, a wealthy former Utah senator and major stockholder in The Salt Lake Tribune. During construction of the building, Kearns was accused of manipulating the city council and its building code.[4]
A third of office space in the building was rented prior to opening in February, 1911,[5] and most of the offices were rented by April of that year.[6] Early tenants of the building included clothiers Gardner & Adams Co.[7] and Rowe & Kelly,[8][9] and the building included what was billed as "the most beautiful buffet in the United States," the Mecca.[10]
^Rowe & Kelly soon consolidated with Mullet Clothing Company as the Mullet-Kelly Co. See The Clothier and Furnisher. Vol. 80. George N. Lowry Company. 1912. p. 93. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
.jpg)
.jpg)
