1944: A milestone year for Layton City due to rapid growth

                                    The intersection of Main Street and Gentitle Street.

THE year 1944 represented a milestone for Layton City, as the community coped with an increasing population from Hill Air Force Base personnel and families during World War II.

Layton’s population was only 646 residents in 1940, but a decade later it had increased more than five-fold to 3,456.

The City’s first traffic signal was installed at Main Street and Gentile Street in March of 1944.

According to the Davis County Clipper newspaper of March 3, 1944, the “traffic semaphore” was put there to “provide a maximum of safety during certain hours of the day, when school children are passing to and from school.”

This first traffic light initially only operated from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., after which it simply flashed yellow as a caution.

Many residents of Layton had requested the light because of the increased traffic.

         An aerial view of Layton in the late 1940s. Verdeland Park is in the bottom of the picture.
                                     (Photo is from the Heritage Museum of Layton's Collection.)

-Yet another City milestone was reached later that year when the “Layton Town Board sets rules for watering,” according to the Davis County Clipper on Aug. 4, 1944.

Due to increased population, a shortage of water and even “careless watering,” the new regulations stated: residents north of Gentile Street could only water between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. and again between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Residents located south of Gentile Street could water between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., and again between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

This schedule allowed the City reservoirs to fill at night.

“Many water users leave the water unattended, use and open hose, irrigate with it, and much of it goes to waste through leaky taps, other fixtures and watering troughs, it was reported,” the newspaper stated.