{{Short description|Building in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.}} {{Use American English|date=February 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Kearns Building | nrhp_type = | image = Kearns Building, SLC (5).jpg | caption = Kearns Building, May 2019 | location= 132 South Main Street<br>Salt Lake City, Utah<br>United States | coordinates = {{coord|40|45|58|N|111|53|27|W|region:US_type:landmark|name=Kearns Building|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Utah#USA | built = {{Start date|1909}} | architect = Parkinson & Bergstrom | builder = George Curley | architecture = Late 19th And Early 20th Century American Movements, Sullivanesque | added = August 17, 1982 | area = {{convert|0|acre}} | mpsub = [https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64000872.pdf Salt Lake City Business District MRA] | refnum = 82004145<ref name="nris"/> }}
The '''Kearns Building''' is a historic office building in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2013a}}</ref>
==Description== thumb|left|The Kearns Building in 1911 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.<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=82004145}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Kearns Building |publisher=National Park Service|author= |date= |accessdate=May 12, 2019}} With {{NRHP url|id=82004145|photos=y|title=accompanying pictures}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sullivanesque Style 1890 - 1930 |publisher=Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission |url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/sullivanesque.html |accessdate=May 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422022950/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/sullivanesque.html |archive-date=April 22, 2019}}</ref> Parkinson & Bergstrom used centered medallions between spandrels recessed behind the plane of piers to achieve a similar appearance.<ref name=nrhpdoc/>
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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Above the Law's Power |newspaper=The Salt Lake Harold-Republican |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=November 7, 1910 |page=11 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058140/1910-11-07/ed-1/seq-11/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}</ref>
A third of office space in the building was rented prior to opening in February, 1911,<ref>{{cite news |title=Tenants for Kearns Building |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=January 29, 1911 |page=14 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1911-01-29/ed-1/seq-14/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}</ref> and most of the offices were rented by April of that year.<ref>{{cite news |title=Speakers at Feast Suggest Architects for New Capitol |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=April 18, 1911 |page=14 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1911-04-18/ed-1/seq-14/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}</ref> Early tenants of the building included clothiers Gardner & Adams Co.<ref>{{cite news |title=Grand Opening: Gardner & Adams Co., |newspaper=Salt Lake Tribune |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=December 18, 1910 |page=9 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1910-12-18/ed-1/seq-9/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}</ref> and Rowe & Kelly,<ref>{{cite news |title=The opening of the beautiful new store of Rowe & Kelly... |newspaper=Goodwin's Weekly |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=March 18, 1911 |page=8 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2010218519/1911-03-18/ed-1/seq-8/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}</ref><ref>Rowe & Kelly soon consolidated with Mullet Clothing Company as the Mullet-Kelly Co. See {{cite book |title=The Clothier and Furnisher |publisher=George N. Lowry Company |volume=80 |date=1912 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR9bAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA3-PA93 |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}</ref> and the building included what was billed as "the most beautiful buffet in the United States," the Mecca.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Mecca in the New Kearns Building |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=April 30, 1911 |page=32 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1911-04-30/ed-1/seq-32/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}</ref>
==See also== {{stack|{{portal|National Register of Historic Places|Utah}}}} * National Register of Historic Places listings in Salt Lake City * Aberdeen Quarry, the source of granite used for the first-floor columns and entrance archway * Chicago school (architecture)
==References== {{reflist|22em}}
==Further reading== * "[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2010218519/1910-12-17/ed-1/seq-47/ Kearns Building]", ''Goodwin's Weekly'', December 17, 1910, pp 47
==External links== {{Commons category-inline|Kearns Building (Salt Lake City)}}
{{NRHP in Utah by county}} {{National Register of Historic Places}}
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Category:Office buildings completed in 1911 Category:Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements architecture Category:National Register of Historic Places in Salt Lake City Category:Skyscraper office buildings in Salt Lake City
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