The Park Hotel is significant for its association with the early 20th-century development of Salt Lake City's transportation and industrial district. Built immediately after the completion of the nearby Rio Grande and Union Pacific railroad stations (both built in 1909-10), the Park Hotel provided housing and services for blue collar workers, many of them ethnic immigrants, employed in local transportation, manufacturing, commercial, and construction enterprises. Designed by Ware and Treganza, one of Utah's most prominent architectural firms, and constructed in 1911, the Park Hotel was the first hotel erected near the Rio Grande Depot.
With shops and cafe on the first level and residential rooms on the second level, the Park Hotel was modest in size and design, yet it was one of the first of a soon-popular building type. Over the next few years, several other hotels were constructed to the east along 300 South, producing something of a "hotel row." Following World War II the name was changed to the Rio Grande Hotel. It continues its historic function as a single room occupancy hotel.
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