United States · Utah · Salt Lake City
Exchange Place Historic District, Salt Lake City — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Carved buffalo heads look over Exchange Place Historic District, the block of Salt Lake City that Utah's mining fortunes built between 1903 and 1917.
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Where to stay in Exchange Place Historic District
Where the beds are, and what that means for the visit.
Exchange Place Historic District keeps offices and courtrooms rather than front desks, so the beds sit on the surrounding blocks of Downtown Salt Lake City. Main Street carries the trains. The Courthouse light-rail stop stands in its median a block south, at 450 South Main Street, and the downtown grid follows from there.
Two of the district's own buildings went up as lodging, the five-storey New Grand Hotel of 1910 and the Hotel Plandome, three brick storeys over shopfronts on 400 South. Stay close by if you want Utah's first skyscrapers on the morning walk and the Frank E. Moss United States Courthouse two minutes from the door.
Things to do in and around Salt Lake City
Ranked by global recognition; descriptions from Wikidata (CC0).
Museums & Galleries
3- Church History Museum
- The Leonardo
- Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
Churches & Religious Sites
3- Japanese Church of Christ Heritage
- Iglesia La Luz del Mundo Heritage
- First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City
Castles & Historic Sites
3- Seagull Monument
- Mormon Battalion Monument
- A Monument to Peace: Our Hope for the Children
Landmarks & Notable Places
7- Devereaux House Heritage
- Beehive House Heritage
- Simon Bamberger House Heritage
- David Keith Mansion and Carriage House Heritage
- Nelson Wheeler Whipple House Heritage
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- William Culmer House Heritage
- Frederick A.E. Meyer House Heritage
worth knowingacross 4 categories in and around Salt Lake City
About Exchange Place Historic District
What are the main landmarks in Exchange Place Historic District?
Exchange Place Historic District packs ten contributing buildings into one short street and the Main Street frontage beside it. The Boston Building and the Newhouse Building rise twelve storeys as twin towers at the west entrance, Utah's first skyscrapers, drawn by the Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb. Four freestanding Ionic columns and a Greek pediment front the Salt Lake Stock and Mining Exchange Building.
Terra cotta does the rest. Polychrome panels sheathe the Commercial Club Building, and the city's oldest terra cotta skin belongs to the Felt Building. The Frank E. Moss United States Courthouse closes the view west.
What is the history of Exchange Place Historic District?
Exchange Place Historic District began as a commercial rivalry. Samuel Newhouse made a mining fortune in Colorado and in Utah's Highland Boy claim, moved to Salt Lake City in 1896, and set about pulling the business centre four blocks south of South Temple, away from the Mormon commercial houses around Temple Square. He paid for the Boston Building and the Newhouse Building, gave the ground under the Salt Lake Stock and Mining Exchange Building, and donated the site of the Commercial Club Building.
Bankruptcy stopped him in 1915. The Newhouse Realty Building of 1917 closed the run.
Where is Exchange Place Historic District?
Exchange Place Historic District covers a block of downtown Salt Lake City between 300 South and 400 South, straddling Main Street and running east to State Street.
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Updated October 2026