Early 20th Century Ogden

At the turn of the century, Ogden – dubbed “Junction City” – was defined by railroads. Sitting at the crossroads of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines, Ogden became a hive of activity. “More than 100 trains a day stopped at Ogden’s Union Station…”, ferrying travelers, cattle and goods to every corner of the country. This rail traffic made Ogden extraordinarily prosperous: in its heyday it had “more millionaires per capita…than any other city in the United States”. Banking tycoons and railroad barons built lavish downtown offices and hotels. Indeed, the nearby Union Stockyard (opened 1916) turned Ogden into the largest livestock market west of Denver, bringing ranchers and executives through Ogden by the thousands. As Utah’s major interchange hub, Ogden even outpaced Salt Lake City in wholesale trade. By 1930 the city’s population had roughly doubled from 1900, reflecting this boom.

Ogden’s leaders invested in modern infrastructure to match its booming economy. Electric streetcars crisscrossed the city as early as 1890 (upgrading mule-drawn trolleys), and by 1903 the Ogden Rapid Transit lines ran 11 miles of track with 18 streetcars, at fares as low as 3¢ per ride. A popular canyon line departed every 30 minutes from the Broom Hotel station at 25th & Washington, 5¢ a trip. These streetcars (and new paved boulevards) connected worker housing, parks and orchards to the downtown core, encouraging suburban expansion. Electric lights and telephones arrived in this era too: city directories show banks and businesses ringing with the latest gadgets. Throughout the 1910s Ogden’s civic boosters sponsored fairs and parades (for example, an 1890 “Carnival” by William “Coin” Harvey) to lure investors, even as the city’s economy carried on growing through World War I.

Ogden’s skyline was soon punctuated by striking new buildings. Local architect Leslie S. Hodgson alone designed dozens of key structures from Victorian to Moderne styles. For example, Hodgson’s Ogden High School (1938) and City/County Building (1939) stand just outside our range, but within 1900–1930 he gave Ogden its grand department store blocks and theaters. Notable works of the era include the ornate Eccles Building (department store, 1913), the Masonic Temple (1905) and Bigelow-Ben Lomond Hotel (1927). Among the most eye-catching was Peery’s Egyptian Theater (on Washington Blvd), opened in 1924. This lavish “movie palace” was adorned with hieroglyphics and colorful Egyptian motifs, and remains one of only a few historic theaters of its kind in the U.S.. Likewise, Union Station was rebuilt in grand Spanish Colonial style after a 1923 fire, reopening in 1924. Much of downtown still bears these early-20th-century faces – ornate terra-cotta and neon facades – that give modern Ogden a historic flair. (One preservationist notes that many Victorian commercial blocks simply received “metal facades” over their brick fronts, a testimony to Ogden’s continuous evolution.)

Ogden’s growth attracted a tapestry of immigrants and migrants. Chinese railroad workers and merchants established a modest “Chinatown” along 25th Street by the 1890s. Japanese laborers and small farmers also settled near the tracks on Ogden’s north side. In the early 1900s Italian immigrants arrived en masse, many hired as hard-working railroad section hands; by 1910 whole Italian families were in the region, running shops, shoe stores and taverns. African American porters and cooks likewise formed a community: by the 1890s Ogden’s Black residents had founded their own institutions (for instance, the Wall Street Baptist Church). These groups added cafes, lodges and festivals to Ogden’s cultural life – from Chinese laundries and Japanese gardens to Italian street bands – even as they faced segregation and the harsh labor conditions of the times.

No account of 1900–1930 Ogden is complete without the infamous 25th Street. In its heyday this three-block strip was “rough and tumble”, crawling with prostitution, gambling, opium dens, illegal speakeasies and bootlegging. Local lore dubbed it “Two-Bit Street” and “Electric Alley,” and indeed historians note that “brothels, speakeasies, and bootleggers engulfed the street” in the 1910s. When Utah enacted statewide prohibition in 1917, Ogden’s saloons simply went underground. As a Weber State archivist wryly reports, for Ogden “Prohibition was just a blip on the map” – even easier to score booze then than in today’s bar scene! Rumors swirled that Chicago mobster Al Capone himself came through Ogden and declared it “too rough a town for me”. (A local research librarian notes there’s actually no proof Capone ever set foot here – but the legend captures the spirit.) Amid the glitz and crime, clubs and brothels thrived: one famed madam, Rose Davie, reportedly ran a nearly $30,000/month house in the 1920s. By day 25th Street was a shopping promenade; by night it blazed with neon. Today many of those same brick storefronts survive (and some host coffee shops and art galleries), a vivid reminder that Ogden’s wildest years played out on 25th Street.

Many of the people and places from 1900–1930 still shape Ogden’s identity. Union Station (rebuilt 1924) now houses railroad, firearms and cowboy museums, remaining a civic centerpiece. Peery’s Egyptian Theater still welcomes filmgoers and stage acts. The old port city’s proud architecture has become a selling point: Ogden’s post-2002 revitalization leveraged these historic streetscapes, earning praise for “revitalized” downtown blocks and a surge of new businesses. In short, the young, diverse city of today still wears its past on its sleeve. One can sip coffee in a former bank lobby or catch a movie under twinkling stars in a century-old theatre. Ogden’s 20th-century saga – from railroad fortunes to riotous nightlife – is woven into its neighborhoods and annual festivals, ensuring that the spirit of the old Junction City lives on in modern Utah.

Until next time,

Raw, weird, and local.