# Kearns Building

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Kearns_Building
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Kearns_Building.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearns_Building
> Source revision: 1293699390
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{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](/source/Salt_Lake_City), [Utah](/source/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](/source/Salt_Lake_City), [Utah](/source/Utah), United States, that is listed on the [National Register of Historic Places](/source/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](/source/John_B._Parkinson) and [George Bergstrom](/source/George_Bergstrom) and constructed 1909–1911. Parkinson & Bergstrom borrowed the style of architect [Louis Sullivan](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Salt_Lake_City)
* [Aberdeen Quarry](/source/Aberdeen_Quarry), the source of granite used for the first-floor columns and entrance archway
* [Chicago school (architecture)](/source/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}}

{{authority control}}

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

{{SaltLakeCountyUT-NRHP-stub}}

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kearns Building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearns_Building) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearns_Building?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.