When I was a kid, part of what I did with my life was to wander around downtown Salt Lake City on Saturdays. One of my stops in my wandering was this building. Long the downtown business center for USWest predecessor Mountain Bell, this building had phone booths on the east side, a showroom on part of the main floor, and operator and billing functions. It also housed the downtown switch, and AT&T toll switches. The switches, now digital, remain, both for the local LEC, Qwest, and for AT&T. The main entrance to the building bears the logos of both USWest and AT&T. Some construction is beginning on the north side of this building. I don't know what it is for. The tower on this building connected with Salt Lake City Junction, and this building was apparently part of the cable route.
This building was once headquarters for Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph, later to become Mountain Bell, then USWest, now Qwest.
This building originally housed operator and billing functions. Main USWest offices for the area were moved to a new building some years back.
This building originally had business offices and phone showrooms at street level. Still houses USWest switches, AT&T long distance switches, ATTWS switches. I find it interesting that a new building about a block away was built with one face at a diagonal; I wonder if it was possibly to avoid disrupting the MW feed to the canyon tower. ARCHIVED FROM PATH-PRESERVATION SITE