Related Sponsors

The Late 1900's

Home » Utah » Salt Lake City History » The Late 1900's

The 1960’s saw the start of the suburbs outside Salt Lake City which began to draw commerce away from the downtown area of the city. To ensure that the downtown area did not become a ghost town the Mormon Church invested $40 million dollars and developed a shopping mall. The ZCMI Center Mall was constructed as well as several other area businesses and shopping malls. Many older buildings were renovated and used for new businesses.

The 1980’s brought about more growth for Salt Lake City although steady, the growth was slow in pace. The 1980’s also brought a lot of development to the city with a convention center, International Center, and a research park.

Salt Lake City experience more development during the 1990’s also with rebuilding of the Salt Palace Convention Center which holds an annual Outdoor Retailers Meeting and several other conventions. The city also introduced a mass transit system costing $312 million called Trax which is a light rail system as well as reconstructed the I-15 freeway. Population numbers increased in the 90’s due to an unlikely source which was the recession. Salt Lake City seemed to be unaffected by the economic standstill other areas in the country experienced and continued to flourish. This made it a very attractive place to relocate to for many people from California. A large number of the city’s new residents were Hispanic which only added to the diversity in the city.

Next Page: Recent Years

Related Salt Lake City History Articles