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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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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CindyD says
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!
TappanTrailerTami says
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!
kelly Brickey says
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.
Shelly Gregory says
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!
Susanne Gustin says
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
Kelly A. says
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…
pam kueber says
Please do send me photos, Kelly!! As you well know, you still can’t beat the weather of So Cal!
TC says
Lord have mercy…. MCM heaven.
Ann-Marie Meyers says
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.
Kate says
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!
Jay says
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.
creede says
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/
wendy says
was hoping you’d pop up, and if you didn’t was going to point Pam in your direction!