The Snelgrove Ice Cream Cone Monument

 Snelgrove Ice Cream was an ice cream company in Salt Lake City founded in 1929 by Charles S Snelgrove and later his son. It remained a family operated company until 1990, and is now owned by Dreyer’s. Dreyer’s continued selling local favorite flavors under the Snelgrove brand until 1998.

The original Snelgrove location was on 21st South in the Sugar House neighborhood. This is where the factory producing the ice cream was located. Unfortunately all of the original building have been demolished, however the sign remains as a historical monument. So we decided to go check it out.

Quick Details:

Length: The closest parking we found was about 350 feet away.
Trail Type: Get out and see.
Difficulty: Drive by, or a short walk. DR1.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: No
Dogs? Public sidewalk rules would apply, so leashed.
Other Info:

To Get Here:

From i80 take the 7th East exit and head north. Turn right on 21st South. About 2/10ths of a mile it will be on the right. You will need to find street side parking. Or take a risk by using a parking spot at Sugarhouse BBQ Company.

The Adventure:

Quick Passenger Seat Photography (PSP) shot.

Sugar House BBQ appears to be in a former bank (PSP). Google maps didn’t go back far enough to confirm that, but it really looks like a bank.

Here it is from across the demolished buildings.

Fun clouds.

We made it! What is left of the original sign with the iconic double scoop cone which was erected in 1962.

Information sign.

Under the cone.

The information sign is duplicated on the other side. If I remember correctly there were originally clocks where the info signs are now.

Dreyer’s removed the original cursive Snelgrove’s logo that was on the flat section to the right. I hope it still exists somewhere and Salt Lake City can do their magic and be able to restore it one day. Like they have with other iconic signs.

It is a pretty neat old sign. I am glad it was kept and not completely destroyed.

The double scoop cone. It used to spin.

The whole sign again.

The cone again.

The demolished buildings around it.

The ‘back’ side of the sign again. Or, just the east facing side I guess. The sign was/is the same on both sides so there really is no back and front, it just kind of feels like there is.

Using Google Maps, and their historical feature I was able to go back into the past a little bit. The following 3 images courtesy of Google Maps.

Here is what it looked like in 2011, which is probably as close to the original sign as we can get. You can see the original cursive Snelgrove lettering and yep I was correct, clocks.

2018 after Dreyer’s took over.

2022 after the original warehouse was shuttered and torn down.

Bonus content: The Big Black Cone.

The next biggest store was their downtown location.

Amongst several other locations around Salt Lake City and other Utah Communities they had a location on 4th South and 6th East where they erected another one of their double scoop ice cream cone signs. At least I am pretty sure it was Snelgrove. I can’t seem to confirm it but I can’t imagine a competitor erected an almost identical sign. Anyway, after they closed down a sandwich shop moved in and kept the ice cream cone. Eventually, Jimmy Johns moved in. They opted to, or may have been required to, not tear it down and instead painted it completely black to kind of match their exterior.

I am glad it is still there but my 12 year old brain just kind of giggles about it.

Here is what it looks like now (PSP).

Here are a few images from 2008 when it was Squirrel Brothers, courtesy of Google Maps.

And one from 2017.

Well, that was a really fun adventure. I am so glad that Salt Lake City, and particularly the Sugar House Neighborhood is preserving some of these neat old signs. I really enjoy them and I think it is important to keep some history around amongst the ever changing and developing world. 10 out of 10 squirrels.