In an ambitious push to preserve anything with four walls and a vague sense of age, Preservation Utah has announced its 2025 “Most Endangered” list — featuring everything from semi-collapsed apartment buildings to a weather-beaten Pizza Hut once frequented by someone’s great aunt (twice, and only for breadsticks).
Leading the list is the Hogar Hotel, a building of such indeterminate historical importance that even Google Maps lists it as “possibly haunted.” Once a stately pioneer home, then a boarding house, then a restaurant, then an antiques shop, then an unofficial possum sanctuary, the building has now reached its final form: “Under Contract to Be Moved Somewhere Else and Still Not Used.”
“Yes, we understand it’s structurally unsound and smells like a Victorian ghost’s attic,” said Brandy Strand, executive director of Preservation Utah. “But just imagine the potential. It could be relocated to any vacant lot in any other city and continue to serve as a beautiful testament to how unwilling we are to let go of the past.”
Joining the Hogar Hotel are several other architectural celebrities of absolutely minor note, including:
- Chateau Normandie, a building that recently starred in Arson: A Halloween Special and is currently auditioning for the role of “urban blight” in an upcoming documentary about bad ideas.
- The Vallis Hotel, famous for being built in 1890, briefly mentioned in someone’s diary, and remembered for almost nothing else except its enthusiastic use of asbestos.
- The Jon M. Huntsman Center, a structure so beloved that its demolition was announced before anyone remembered it was still in use.
- Phillips Congregation Church, a 120-year-old building best known for being near Trolley Square and making people say, “Huh, I always thought that was a bank.”
- The old Cottonwood Paper Mill, a building that looks like it should be cursed and probably is, but mostly just hosts raccoons now.
When asked how the organization selects buildings, Strand said, “If it’s older than your dad and has at least one broken window, it qualifies. Bonus points if no one knows what it was used for.”
Critics argue the list is less a preservation effort and more of a sentimental scavenger hunt, but Preservation Utah remains firm: “We believe every crumbling structure deserves a second life — even if that life is spent quietly decaying behind a strip mall in Beaver.”
In next year’s cycle, Preservation Utah plans to expand the list to include payphones, rotary-dial light switches, and any Taco Time still standing.
Leave a Reply