.jpg)
The Fisher Mansion is an old, old mansion built in 1893 near downtown Salt Lake City. It was the home of Albert Fisher, one of salt Lake Cities first beer brewers.
The Preservation Utah Group partnered with Fisher Brewing and Salt Lake City and put a fun, free event together. With Beer, music, and food in the Fisher Mansion yard. They also offered free tours of the Carriage House, which is almost as old as the mansion. This is absolutely my jam! So of course we decided to check it out. We have walked past it before, but this amazing event allowed us to explore it a little bit more.
Quick Details:
Length: Well, as much as you wander. We did about 1.7 miles today including exploring the Archuleta Bridge next door.
Trail Type: Wander.
Difficulty: DR2 for the most part, DR3 to explore the 2nd floor.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: They had quite a few port o potty’s
Dogs? Leashed, yes.
Other Info: This was a temporary event, but I imagine there may be others.
To Get Here:
Take i15 to 4th South head west. Turn right on 900 West. Turn left at 200 South. It will be on the right after a block or 2.
Mountains and clouds (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).
The Gadsby Power Plant smoke stacks (PSP).
The Adventure:
The Archuleta Bridge. This is the final bridge that completed the Jordan River Trail. We’ll come back to that.
The smoke stacks again.
Crossing the Jordan River.
The Fisher Mansion. We’ve seen it before, but it is just a cool ass mansion.
From the east side. The line of port o potties kind of kills it but hey, I am glad to be able to get this close.
Again.
I absolutely cannot wait until we can explore the mansion! I get that right now the mansion is not safe for people, but come on, lets get on it!
I tried to get a possible timeframe for when it might be explorable again from the tour guide. She avoided the question at first but eventually answered that it depends on a long list of bureaucracy. Oi. But she did say they are doing some amazing work to make it more structurally, and seismically sound.
The back (or north) side.
The Carriage House. More on that in a minute.
The whole reason we came today was to see the mansion and Carriage House… but they also had beer so you know, had to get me a beer.
Fisher Beer was one of Utah’s first breweries opening in 1884 by German immigrant Albert Fisher. It survived prohibition, butt was bought out by a larger brewery during a wave of brewery consolidation in the 50’s, and was closed down in 1967.
Alberts great, great grandson, Tom Fisher Riemondy and 3 friends decided to resurrect the brand in 2017 and after years of planning they opened in an old Auto shop on 800 South. We tried to go there once, but it was super crowded. But we will have to try again.
.jpg)
The back of the mansion and one of the food trucks.
Albert lived here with his wife Alma.
Beer!
The west side. I learned today that they only recently boarded up the windows. The guide said they are in good condition, but they just want to protect them while they bring the building up to code.
The Carriage House again.
You know, for such an interesting, and unique event, it was not nearly as crowded as I feared it might be.
Limited vendors and the first aid station.
The north east side of the mansion.
The east side.
The front of the mansion.
It was built in 1893 and designed by famed architect Richard K. A. Kletting. He designed quite a few prominent buildings in Salt Lake City including the Utah State Capitol. He was so famed, he has a peak named after him in the Unita’s near Ruth Lake.
One of these days I am going to do a tour of Kletting buildings.
The city purchased the grounds in 2006. Apparently, they were doing tours of the main building until the 5.7 magnitude earthquake in 2020. It damaged the building enough to force them to close it to the public, board the windows, and remove the chimneys to the roofline.
Why does it almost always seem like I discover things after I can no longer explore them?
The mansion sometime before 2020, from Wikipedia.
The doorway. You can also see the spot the old historic building plaque was, which is now missing. I asked one of the guides about it, and he was just as surprised that it is missing as I was. Well, poop. I guess that means it was stolen. Damn.
The southwest corner.
All of the racks are for bikes. This was a preferred “bike in” event. And about half of the racks were full, just not this half haha.
We were approached by what I thought was some random lady who asked if I got some good shots, I said yes, we exchanged other pleasantries. She didn’t leave until after we left the front lawn and it dawned on me that she was security. She was just feeling us out and making sure we were not scoping out bikes to steal etc etc. haha. At least she was cool about it and didn’t bark at us that we were not in an approved area to be in. But I mean, come on. I cannot be the only person who wanted to get some shots of the front of the mansion.
The top.
The AF logo. That’s super cool that they had it on the house.
Detail. We just don’t do this kind of stuff anymore, and it’s a shame. But, we’re not all beer barons either so…
Top floor.
Neat tree.
East side again. It looks like there were a few window swamp coolers.
Upper floor.
Back to the gardens.
It was just about the time for the tour of the Carriage House so we made our way over to that.
Old map of the area painted on the floor. I did not notice, or ask what yellow or pink means.
The brewery was just a bit west of here as I understand it.
The Tour of the Carriage House:
This building was also designed by Richard Kletting. They originally thought about the same time as the mansion, but found some evidence that it is actually about 4 years newer. So that would put it at about 1897ish?
Original sliding doors.
When it was first built they had horses (2 confirmed, but the tour guide likes to think possibly more) They would carry a carriage that brought beer from the brewery to various retailers.
When automobiles replaced horses, it became just a general garage.
Our amazing tour guide (left). I wish I had caught her name.
Anyway, she said this was the feeding room. And the windows were originally feeding chutes for the horses.
Okay, this part was a little fuzzy, but this room was some sort of ticket office if I understand what she was saying.
Narrow, narrow staircase. The guide said this was likely originally a ladder.
Some private rooms.
The upper floor looks like a call center, with general call center cubicals. From what she said, this is a general office area for the forest rangers.
Loft area.
The roof.
Kletting was all about light, according to the guide. There really was no reason to put all these windows up here, but Kletting did to provide natural light.
Little employee break area.
They had to add the chest high wall area to provide electrical outlets, but the brick above it is original.
Window.
They added the glass for safety but it originally was just an open void. This was where they would bring in hay for the horses.
You can even see the original eye hook they used to help pull it up.
The loft again. I don’t remember if she said anything significant about it.
Windows to let the light in.
Skylights.
Back down to the carriage room.
The front of the Carriage House.
The east side, where Fisher Beer was selling.
One of the bands they had playing live music. They really went all out making this a fun little community event!
The back of the mansion again.
Oh. There is an eye hook on the south side too. But also, look at the curve of the woodwork. Absolutely stunning.
The front, or south side. The upper windows appear to be behind the closed doors the tour did not cover.
We decided to … do our own tour. For a quick minute. They didn’t stop us. I figured as long as we weren’t damaging anything we’d be fine.
The “ticket office” again. I am still a little confused by this, what exactly were they selling tickets for?
This used to be a bathroom for the ticket office person, but has since ben turned into a janitor closet.
The narrow, narrow staircase leading to the second floor.
Private areas.
The call center like cubicals I.. kind of want to work here.
Break area.
Loft.
The Archuleta Bridge from the north window.
Closer.
The eye hook.
Band playing below.
More call center.
Someone decided to express some discontent about trees in Sunnyside Park being cut down.
Call center area again.
More historical photos. This time inside the brewery.
The old map of the area again. This block is now i80.
Pretty compass rose.
The AF logo. You know, I am not 100% sure if this is the a logo or family crest or what. I just know it’s for Albert Fisher. I wish I had thought to ask.
Sadly this just links to a form to sign up for a newsletter… and I am not finding an event calendar on the page either so.. yeah this was useless to me.
The west side of the Carriage House.
The back, or north side.
The Jordan River.
The back of the mansion again.
The Archuleta Bridge again.
The Carriage House again.
The folding door of the Carriage House.
The Jordan River again with some fish art of some sort. I learned a little later it is called Jordan River Current.
The west side of the mansion.
The year it was built, right on it. Fun.
The west side again.
The Carriage House.
At this point I think I was just trying to finish my beer. We have seen it all… twice. But, I was still having a great time. I said it a few times, we need more events like this. Beer and history, absolutely my jam.
After I did finish my beer we decided to check out the Archuleta Bridge again. I decided that should be a separate post though.
This was absolutely amazing! I loved the history, I loved the buildings, I love the people, and I loved that I could do it all while enjoying a beer. Holy shit, this was absolutely my jam, and absolutely amazing! 10 out of 10 squirrels.
As for difficulty, for the most part it was flat and easy going, DR2. There is a staircase to get to the 2nd floor of the Carriage House, so that would bump it up to a DR3.
Dogs were allowed.
No comments:
Post a Comment