Orpheus Hall
Vernal, Utah
C. W. Showalter, and Andrew King opened the Orpheus Hall on Thanksgiving Day, 30 November 1911. The amusement hall had a spring dance floor, but was also used for roller skating, basketball, banquets, and movies. It was named after the Greek god of Mirth, “a famous musician who is reputed to have had power to entrance men, beasts, and inanimate objects by the music of his lyre.” At 11:00 PM on New Years Eve, 1928, the hall was renamed Imperial Hall. In a ceremony on 20 April 1965, Governor Governor Calvin L. Rampton took a sledge hammer and delivered the first blow in the demolition of the hall as part of a community beautification campaign.
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Ex-Hotel to be Renamed Joseph Smith Building
Deseret News, 15 May 1993, page B1
Article Summary:
The First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints announced 14 May 1993 that the former Hotel Utah would be renamed the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The First Presidency had originally selected the name The Utah Building, but changed it after the addition of a downtown high rise, One Utah Center.