Midcentury modern houses galore in Salt Lake City… Serene, uncongested neighborhoods that read, to me, like the Southern California utopia of the 1960s: Oh my gosh, who knew? I was recently in Salt Lake City for a blogging conference and arrived a day early to take up real estate agent Mony Ty’s gracious offer of a driving tour of Salt Lake City’s midcentury modern neighborhoods. Ten years ago, Mony began specializing in midcentury modern real estate. You will recall, we first “met” him, when he gave me permission to feature his photos of Dean Gustavson’s 1957 time capsule house with a private observatory. During our afternoon together I learned that, today, Mony has curated a rolodex (remember those?) of about 1,000 notable examples of midcentury modern houses in Salt Lake City. And his standards are tougher than mine — I am betting that if you include all the cute midcentury modests and kitschy moderns, we are talking, what?, 10,000 fantastic midcentury houses, all cloistered in very drivable neighborhoods. Mony and I drove around for about four hours on a cold, kind of cloudy January day (great for taking photos). The mid mod houses went on and on and one — just like the cold clear beautiful mountain desert sky.
My overall impression: Amazement. I was born and raised in Southern California in the 1960s — Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista, it hardly got any better. And to me, 40 years later, these Salt Lake City neighborhoods — and their overall easy, expansive feel — remind me of those early Southern California days, before SoCal became overrun with freeways, endless subdivisions and smog. These eminently “collectible” midcentury houses in SLC also seem to be way way cheaper. And they are Gorgeous.
Mony drove me through three Salt Lake City neighborhoods built in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. It was house after house after house after house of beautiful, generally unremuddled midcentury loveliness, modern and “modest” alike.
Every style and detail you could possible imagine — international, MCM, prairie Frank Lloyd Wright, colonial, cape, storybook ranch, Cliff May ranch, flat roof, butterfly roof, ski jump roof… on and on it goes it terms of ideas and inspiration straight from the way-back-midcentury-time-machine. I jumped online to see if I could read about this seemingly rapid-fire build up of gorgeous midcentury modern homes in Salt Lake Cities in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s — but I could find no articles. I’d love to include a link here, if someone can find one. I am so curious: Why so many gorgeous examples?
I’ll say it again: The midcentury houses went on and on — just like the cold clear beautiful mountain desert sky. I took 300 photos. 81 presented today –>
Above #5.
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Above: #20. Note: This is the same house as #4 photo — note the amazing ski jump roofline in photo #4. In this photo, you can see the clerestory window design supporting that roofline. Must be amazing to see inside.
Above: #21. Same house as #4 and #20. Love the mix of materials.
Above: #22.
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Above: #26. Roy Lichtenstein style garage door mural.
Above: #26: House built right into a rock.
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Above: #81.
Now wasn’t that fun?
SUPER MEGA THANKS to Mony Ty, Salt Lake City midcentury modern real estate agent extraordinaire, for graciously taking me on this amazing tour. I have to admit, I kept thinking he would say, “I have to get back to work now, Pam” but no, we just kept driving.
Now that I have incited all readers to immediately move to Salt Lake City, please be sure to buy from Mony. Here is his real estate homepage. And, while you’re on his site, be sure to check out his listings.
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Oh boy. I was starting to make a list of all the homes I wanted and I had to give up because I lost count. There’s some mid century magnificence going on in Utah.
Same here, my tile crush, BungalowBill. I even had two lists: Houses I could really live in, and If money were no object, and I still couldn’t keep track.
I guess my best hope is to figure out how to make this 1986 Texas traditional suburban ranch house as retro as possible without totally ruining it for future generations who might someday appreciation late 20th century design.
Amazing! that mural on the garage door is exactly why I don’t live in a neighborhood with an HOA!
My parents used to live just north of SLC and I loved visiting–gorgeous things to look at everywhere you turn.
It’s taken me 15 minutes to clean the drool off of my desk. Simply wonderful!
Thanks for sharing all of these amazing pictures. What a great way to start the day. I love the round “carport” (? for lack of a better word) in nos. 78 and 79. That’s just super cool
What a wonderful tour Pam! I hope we get to see the rest of your photos!! Now…wouldn’t it be fantastic to just have a peek inside each one…….
I too started to mentally check-off favourites but hit ‘overload’ very quickly! What a fascinating tour. And is the art deco inspired building in photos 43-45 a residence?!
Michael — I had the same question!
Yes. there are about dozen residentual art deco style in the Salt Lake area.
Wow. And I thought the NC Triange area had a lot of MCM’s. Wow.
Special thanks to Mony for all this inspiration. I hope each one of these incredible homes will be preserved with love and care.
Pam, I can just imagine what a grand time you had on this tour. Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
Many thanks to Mony Ty for driving you around, and thank you for sharing these amazing houses. The word amazing doesn’t even begin to describe some of them. But, my heart went out to the little ranch with the ruffly curtains in the windows in the intro. You can tell it is someone’s home sweet home.
I like the tudor in Above #12.
Wow! That’s pretty cool. I love the covered car port on #77/78. That’s a really unique feature.
What a lovely feast for mid-century loving eyes! Thank you, Pam, for taking the time to upload all these pics for us to enjoy. How cool is Mony for driving you around and sharing his knowledge? Way cool.
As for me, I’ll take #6. Um, wait, #43. No! #52. Gosh, I’d like to see #16. Nope, can’t pick just one.
This is my neck of the woods. I drive by these goodies all the time!
I would love to see the fireplace in #27 & 28! WOW!
Salt Lake City? Who knew?! Fantastic. Thanks for sharing. I’d love to know more about the architects.
I don’t know if you stayed just in SLC or you ventured north or south. I went to school in Provo, which is south of SLC by 45 miles. The neighborhoods around the BYU campus (the Tree Streets, Kiwanas Park area) are full of MCM houses and totally beautiful as well. There are also tons of beautiful MCM homes in Davis County and up in the Ogden area as well.
Great Monday morning eye candy! Especially love that circular carport thing…whatever you call it.
Let me know when you’re ready for your tour of MCM in Salem, Oregon. I drive around drooling. Salem isn’t as big as SLC, but we’ve got some goodies – including mine!
Wow, some really great houses there. Love how so many of them incorporate the surrounding landscape. And I especially love that there are real estate agents like Mony out there specializing in this piece of American architectural history. Thanks for uploading all of those photos, Pam!
Outstanding – thanks for sharing!
i reside in slc and was so happy to see you feature our wonderful assortment of mid-century homes! i did however notice that on my blog reading list it said you did a little feature about stopping into misc. boutique (one of my favorites) and i was wondering where that went? i was also hoping that you wrote a bit about the green ant (the mid century furniture store that shares a space with the boutique.
hi wily and welcome to commenting. the misc. story published a bit too soon — it will be here tomorrow at noonish!
SLC has some pretty rich modern architectural history starting early with Taylor Woolley, the drafter for Frank Lloyd Wright and up through Sudgen who worked under Mies. Check out http://utahheritagefoundation.com/saving-places/slmodern for more info. SLModern has a new website coming shortly that will be at SLModern.org.
I also have a few photo sets of local MCM homes on my flickr page if you need more to drool over.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/creede/sets/72157627571332820/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/creede/sets/72157627270778569/
was hoping you’d pop up, and if you didn’t was going to point Pam in your direction!
Thanks Pam for sharing. What a tour de force of modernism, some look like they even date to the 30s with their deco styling. Great use of stone and brick. Of course I liked the last one best as it reminds me of my own Mid Century Modest.
Pam, a lot of these houses made me miss the North Shore suburbs of Milwaukee near the lake, Whitefish Bay, Fox Point, Glendale, where Kate of Retro Ranch Revamp lives.
Can’t afford it right now, and I just can’t do Yankee at the moment. I still need my Texans taking care of me in my new widowhood.
Them good ol’ boys know how to take care of a grievin’ woman, and their wives ain’t one bit worried that I am gonna up and steal their man, neither. Plus (real reason) my family was driving me nuts. I am better off 1500 miles away from them right now.
Ann-Marie is right, many of the houses around where I live are super MCM awesome. Some time I need to get out in the car with the camera and document some of them so I can post them on my blog! The closer you get to the lake/river, the $$$ they get!
Lord have mercy…. MCM heaven.
Pam,
I grew up in Salt Lake City and now live in Oceanside, CA. Every time I go “home”, I spend time just driving in neighborhoods because I miss the coolness of ‘non-tract, non-stucco’ houses like there is so much of here in California. I’m going back in July; I’ll have to get some photos for you. Salt Lake is wonderful in the summer…
Please do send me photos, Kelly!! As you well know, you still can’t beat the weather of So Cal!
Super cool Mony! I hope you took her by my mother-in-law Ellen Furgis’ fabulous 1960′s home designed by the famous architect Ed Dreier
MCM Heaven! I can’t imagine how much more beautiful when Spring arrives! I wish Mony Ty all the best in business! He certainly has a plethora of lovelies to tantalize clients!
Thanks Pam! What a treat. I’m always amazed at the MCM riches here in Roswell, NM too. I have to start taking my camera on my walks.
Wow, what a fun tour Pam – thanks for taking us along virtually, and thanks to Mony for driving you around to capture all these wonderful photos.
I’m firmly in LOVE with # 12 – it would be my first choice out of all of these great homes. I need a turret! I think I could hang my Rapunzel hair out of the window…well, if I HAD Rapunzel hair!
If I couldn’t have # 12, then I’d just toss a coin for # 59 and 60!
Holy cow, what fun! I’d love to tour them all. You know there had to be roller skates at #78/79. That one screams neighborhood gathering spot!
House 27 & 28, drool! LOVE IT! Thanks for posting these pic’s, I’m moving real soon LOL! Great stuff!
WOW!! The creative designers were fortunate to have the funds to build some of these amazing creations!
Many city have Architectural Assessments done every 10 years. Some are even posted on their websites. I know our city’s last one was in 2004… I pasted the website below for a “tour” of my city. I found this while trying to find the history of the house we close on (3 weeks) which is listed as the last house in this posting (120 5ht street). I’m sure you retro lovers will understand my excitement when I saw my future home posted in this survey! ENJOY!
http://www.ci.neenah.wi.us/assets/files/departments/Landmarks%20Commission/2004%20Survey.pdf
Thank you for featuring my home town.
If only I could afford one!
House porn of the finest quality though my chest aches with covetous desire.
There are parts of Pittsburgh that would make your head fall off. One road in particular. Google map this address: 2437 mt. royal road pittsburgh
The pink house is outrageous.
Wow, these are amazing homes! So, what is the history and why so many of this style?
Salt Lake was happening in the 50′s and 60′s. We had the mining, aerospace and being in the cross road to the west, both influence from California and the east coast Mies prodigy. We also had a great architectural school at the University that produce some good architect. I mean from the 50 miles north and south and the Salt Lake valley, I have over 1000 homes on my mailing list. I think it was just the timing.
AMAZING! xoxo, Mony!
Just when you think SLC is stale, boring or without content. I love this!
I was so ready to move!!! Again, like I said: It’s like Southern California in the 1960s — gorgeous!
#55 was built by my 88 year old parents Harry and Virginia Ennis in the early 1960′s. We grew up and loved living in the home, with incredible views of the entire valley. It was designed by Ed Dryer.
Thank you for this information, Stephanie! What a fantastically gorgeous house. I can’t tell exactly from my photo — but it looks like you had phenomenal views from that house. I am telling you: I am READY to move to Salt Lake City!
The currently owner has done a great job as to updating it, they replace the single pane windows, etc…. It is one of the better quality Dreier homes, love the ceiling in the tongue and grove hard wood. Your parents had great taste.
Pam – Thanks for you post, it’s great to see your collection of homes. Check out this tour by Salt Lake Modern for a few more lovely homes in this area: http://cityhomecollective.com/architecture/st-marys-modern-home-tour/
You missed Westshire , the first and only complete planned Eam’s style community located adjacent to the Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City
Great post. Amazing homes. Lucky me to live in SLC where I have some options for MCM houses!
Yes, I had an amazing tour — very impressive!
Today I am closing on a Cliff May home. Cliff May from California did a subdivision of about 14 homes on the bench of Salt Lake. The seller happened to find me on your site here. They had another agent talk to them about listing their home and that agent told them that they would be lucky to get $200k for it (1200 square feet 3 bed 2 bath), I sold it for $269k.
Yay, Mony!!!
Just stumbled across your site because I’m in the middle of purchasing my own midcentury modern home in Ogden, about 35 miles north of Salt Lake. Next time you’re in Utah, come to Ogden too, and you’ll be able to get about 300 more photos of great homes!
Good to know! Welcome, Andrea!