A horse or wagon ride to Salt Lake or Ogden from
Layton usually required half a day or more in Layton’s early decades. However,
by the late 19th Century, three major railroads rolled through
Layton. The Union Pacific ran directly through downtown and the Denver and Rio
Grande line was to the west. In addition, the Bamberger Railroad was located
where I-15 is now.
The poor condition
of roads was a big issue back in the 1910s for Layton. “Road from Ogden to Salt
Lake a disgrace” was a March 3, 1918 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.
“Automobiles sink
eighteen inches into the soft mud and cannot be pulled out – Truck now stuck in
the mud …” the article stated.
This is the Oregon Shortline Railroad Station as it
looked in the early 1900s. It was built in 1892 at 23 North Main. The railroad
constructed a larger station at 160 West Gentile Street in 1912, beside a new
double track line. The station closed about 1960 and was later moved to 200
South Main Street, where it has housed several restaurants. (Heritage Museum of Layton photograph.)
First, the
Utah Central Railroad arrived in 1870 and connected Salt Lake with Ogden by
going through Layton. The Denver and Rio Grande came long in 1883 to town and
the Bamberger line began in 1891.
The
Bamberger line single rate fare from Layton to Salt Lake was 60 cents, or a
roundtrip ticket cost 90 cents in 1906.
The
Bamberger line, primarily a passenger route, ceased operations in 1952. The
love to the automobile doomed the service. Ironically today, the Interstate
Highway, I-15 traverses that rail route from south Layton 31st
Street in Ogden.
And,
passenger rail service restarted with the FrontRunner light rail service at 150
South Main on April 26, 2008, offering
transportation to Salt Lake or Ogden and in between.
Café Sabor
opened in the historic Layton Train Depot in 2018. Other restaurants had used
the building in previous decades. This train station was originally built in
1911 and located on West Gentile, where the Veterans Park is now found, but
moved to Main Street.
A portion of
Gentile Street, west of Main, was one of the first paved roads in town, thanks
to the truck route to the Sugar Factory.
This picture shows the highway just north of Layton,
that was the main artery between Salt Lake and Ogden, on August 9, 1920. This road
was known in that era as Highway 91 (and Main Street in Layton), but was later
renamed U-126. It was paved with concrete in the 1920s, yet had no striping and
was still lightly traveled, with only one vehicle showing in the picture. Note
the many trees along the highway. (Heritage Museum of Layton photograph.)
Main Street
became a part of Utah Highway 91 (now U-126) and was paved in the 1930s.
Gentile Street, on the
east side of Main Street to the Mountain Road didn’t exist for the first half
century or so in Layton’s history.
Gentile Street
originally only primarily traveled west from Main Street to the Bluff Road.
But, there was a short section eastward that accessed the Ogden-Salt Lake Railroad
station (about where I-15 is today) from Main Street.
According to the
Intermountain Republican newspaper on Feb. 21, 1907, that was the year that
residents lobbied the Davis County Commissioners to help build East Gentile
Street to the Mountain Road.
The Davis County Clipper
newspaper of March 8, 1907 reported that Davis County budgeted $2,398.14 to
finally open East Gentile Street.
Back then, the worst
section of all was just south of Layton. The story implied that driving through
neighboring pastures would be preferable to the sinking highway.
It would be the 1920s
before that problem would be fixed. It was on July 4, 1925 that the
Standard-Examiner reported that the paving of a two-mile stretch of state
highway north of Layton finally marked completion of a paved
highway stretch between
Brigham City and Nephi.
One of the first
reported automobile accidents in the Layton area happened on Aug. 28, 1918,
when two seven passenger touring cars collided on the “Sandridge,” between
Layton and Sunset. The accident left the cars undrivable, but the occupants of
both were only shaken up.
This is Layton’s Main Street looking northward, as it
appeared in the late 1920s. Main Street was a narrow concrete highway and there
were no sidewalks at that time. Businesses only had limited wooden boardwalks
in front of their properties. The Adams and Sons store, 16 North Main, also
housed Davis County Furniture (later renamed Union Furniture). It later became
a Chevrolet dealer and the Layton Theater. (Heritage Museum of Layton photograph.)
It is easy to take
sidewalks for granted, but before 1921 there were no sidewalks in Layton.
In fact, in the spring
of 1921, Layton first began creating sidewalks, according to the
Ogden Standard-Examiner of March 3, 1921.
Hill Air Force Base in the 1940s increased Layton road
expansion.
The Layton Journal newspaper of January 27, 1949 stated that Layton City had the worst traffic bottleneck of any place in all of Davis County at the time. The newspaper said the two-lane highway and a Union Pacific railroad spur helped congest Main Street in Layton.
In the summer of 1952,
Layton City experienced one of its first residential traffic jams, caused by
the many commuters leaving Hill Air Force Base.
According to the Davis
County Clipper of July 25, 1952, commuters leaving Hill AFB would travel south
down Hill Field Road and then to avoid the traffic jam would short cut through
the Hill Villa Subdivision at about 700 North to access Main Street.
“First it was a human
chain of women stretched across the street who wouldn’t let workers through,”
the Clipper reported. “Now a State Highway Patrolman parks nightly at the
junction where Air Base employees frequently swing off Hill Field Road to let
themselves out of the long line of traffic that gushes forth about 4 p.m.”
This is how Layton’s main business district appeared
in the early 1960s. This view is looking south on Main Street, toward Gentile
Street, where the City’s first traffic signal was installed during World War
II. Note the wide, four lane divided highway, with numerous street lights above
the roadway.
(Heritage Museum of Layton photograph.)
In the pre-freeway era
of the 1950s, it was in 1953-54 that a four-lane highway was finally open all
the way from Brigham City to Provo.
When
an interstate highway was proposed to go through Davis County in the early
1960s, Highway 89 was Ogden City’s preferred route, since it offered the best
access there, to Utah’s second-largest city. That was eliminated by the Federal
Government, because a route to the west offered better access to all the
government facilities in the area.
Layton
had several objections to the freeway: 1. That it would cut through the center
of the City’s commercially zoned area; and 2. That UDOT’s plan to raise the
roadbed out of the gully in South Layton would also have a detrimental effect
on the business district and residential areas, as well as be an aesthetic loss
for the community.
In
the end, the I-15 freeway was not elevated, though it was close to Layton’s
main business district.
“Easy
Street” quickly became known at Hill Field Road and U-193 was created to off
access to the base off Highway 89.
(A far west option was also ruled out as being
too time consuming for motorists.)
The
freeway did divide Layton rather dramatically, forced some long time landowners
to move and meant streets like Gordon Avenue were now not contiguous.
I-15 today.
After three years of work, I-15 from south
Layton to Ogden opened on Nov. 23, 1966, in what could only be described as
blockbuster moment in the City’s history.
This instantly meant Main Street (Highway 91) would no longer be
so congested with commuters during shift changes at Hill Air Force Base. (Some 15,000 workers were employed at Hill AFB back then.)
And,
decades later, the proximity to I-15, helped create the Layton Hills Mall,
which in turn attracted an entire retail and restaurant area, just east of the
Freeway.
The final completion of the freeway in Davis
County was the stretch from South Layton to Farmington. That was not done until
1977,
Because of several complicated land issues.
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