Park City is a town of reinvention, and nowhere is that more obvious than in Old Town. Summit County has 112 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, most of which are here in Park City. Many buildings remain from the mining days, despite the 1898 fire. Some are private homes, while others have been reinvented into local businesses we know and love.
Built as the Royal Hotel in 1926, this building now houses one of Park City’s favorite Italian restaurants, Grappa. Back in the ’20s, advertisements promised “cheap rates for the working man” and the owners offered room and board for $40 a month. According to the 1930 census, over 30 residents lived in the building full time.
After closing during the Great Depression, the hotel reopened as the Alpine Prospectors Lodge in the ’60s and then as Grappa in 1992.
According to Bill White Enterprises, owner-operator of Grappa, the building has been a brothel, a bed and breakfast, and a bar. Even a major kitchen fire in September 2022 couldn’t take the building down, and although Grappa closed for eight months to recover, it’s back and better than ever.
After the 1898 fire, Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone purchased the vacant lot where a milliner shop stood previously. The architect of the new telephone offices, Richard Kletting, would later go on to design the Utah State Capitol and the original Saltair Pavilion. Richard’s two-story Victorian brick building quickly became a major employer and the hub of communication for Park City residents, with several booths where customers could make and receive long-distance phone calls.
For more than five decades, the telephone company served Park City, but in 1964, after the advent of dial telephones changed the industry, the building was sold.
It went through many iterations, including a coffee shop, a water bed store and a leather shop. It was home to the Irish Camel, a long-standing Mexican restaurant and watering hole, before reopening as Purple Sage in 2003. Over 20 years later, Purple Sage continues to serve delicious American Western cuisine out of the historic building.
Fun fact: In 1905, the Independent Telephone Company (Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone’s competitor) set up shop across the street in the Alamo building, which is now the No Name Saloon.
Ellsworth J. Beggs was a city councilman and carpenter who built the Summit County Courthouse in Coalville. In 1914, he decided to demolish his home on Park Avenue and replace it with a two-story, eight-room Victorian home. Next door, Beggs ran a livery business at 705 Park Avenue in a building that was constructed around 1907. The livery evolved into a garage when automobiles replaced horses as the primary mode of transportation. The Beggs & Buckley Garage later became the National Garage, which is the name still visible on the facade of the building now occupied by the High West Saloon.
In 2006, a relative newcomer to town, David Perkins, jumped through hoops to purchase both buildings and open the first legal distillery in Utah since 1870. In 2010, High West was recognized for adaptive use by Preservation Utah (formerly Utah Heritage Foundation) due to their renovation of the National Garage and the Beggs home. The rest, as they say, is history.
543 Park Avenue
The Washington School House at 543 Park Avenue was built in 1889 using sandstone from a quarry in Peoa. It survived the 1898 fire and is now one of the most luxurious and exclusive accommodations in Park City.
515 Main Street
At 515 Main Street, you can now buy the latest styles from The North Face, but in 1898, this building was the Old Star Meat & Grocery store. Many artifacts from this building’s history are now part of a permanent exhibit at the Park City Museum.
528 Main Street
The building the Park City Museum is in also has an interesting history. It served as both a library and a liquor store before becoming the Museum Store at 528 Main Street.
Train Depot
In 1886, Park City was a bustling town with a train station. This summer, the depot is set to reopen as Marcella on Main, part of the Marcella Club.