Immigrant Stories of Salt Lake’s West Side: Iron Rails & New Roots

Beginning at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Salt Lake City’s historic Warehouse District, this walking tour explores how the railroad's arrival in 1869 transformed the city’s west side into a vibrant immigrant neighborhood. As rail lines converged near the Rio Grande Depot, Greek, Japanese, Jewish, Italian, Austrian, Basque, and other immigrant communities built churches, hotels, restaurants, boarding houses, factories, and small businesses, reshaping the area into a bustling commercial and industrial hub.

Along Broadway and surrounding streets, we’ll visit landmark buildings such as the Rio Grande Depot, the Peery and Broadway Hotels, the Bertolini Block, Japantown, and the Sweet Candy and Crane buildings, examining the architectural details that reflect this period of rapid growth and diversity.

Throughout the tour, attendees will uncover lesser-known stories that bring the neighborhood to life—from marble in the Rio Grande Depot sourced from the same quarry as the Lincoln Memorial, to a rooftop garden with rare birds atop a chocolate factory, to boxer Jack Dempsey training in a former railroad building. We’ll also reflect on the resilience of Japantown, much of which was lost to redevelopment in 1966, and consider how today's preservation efforts protect the physical reminders of the communities that built Salt Lake’s west side.