The first RC Willey was originally in 'Layton' from 1949-1950; New store 'returns' the business to Layton

                      The new RC Willey store in Layton opened in late July of 2020.

This ad in the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Sept. 22, 1949, lists Layton as the RC Willey home.


RC Willey was technically originally located in Layton from 1949-1950.
The business' first 15 months of advertisements (see example above) listed Layton as its address, NOT Syracuse.

The first-ever RC Willey advertisement appeared on Sept. 1, 1949 and listed Layton as the business address.
The first ad to list Syracuse as the RC Willey address was some 15 months later, on Nov. 30, 1950 and then again on Dec. 14, 1950 (see ad below).

                           One of the first two RC Willey ads to list Syracuse for an address.

(A new RC Willey store is now open in Layton, just northeast of the Antelope interchange at I-15. The original Syracuse store has closed permanently.)

Why did RC Willey list its early address as Layton?
The actual physical store in Syracuse did not open there until 1950. And, since Syracuse lacked its own post office, the Layton address was likely tied to delivery through the Layton Post Office.
Still another possible factor was that Syracuse was NOT an incorporated city until Sept. 13, 1950, or about two months before RC Willey began listing its address as Syracuse.
-Rufus Willey worked out of a garage in Syracuse for the business' earliest years and he used a red truck to deliver items to customers.

  It was probably a red truck like this that delivered the first RC Willey products in the 1950s. This antique truck resides inside the RC Willey Layton store today.

The RC Willey advertisements changed significantly again on June 19, 1954, when they made a reference to "RC Willey and Son" as its owners/managers.

                                           Rufus Call Willey in an undated photograph.

-Harris Adams, a Layton historian, said he recalls purchasing a Hotpoint stove from RC Willey in about 1950. Adams said he had just $15 to spend on a stove and resigned himself to only being able to afford a used stove from Mr. Willey. However, Mr. Willey kept lowering the price of a new stove the longer Adams held firm. First the price was $250, then $200 and finally $170. When Adams still said he only had $15 to spend, Willey said to give him the $15 for a new stove and pay the remaining $155 when he was able. Adams said that was how Willey usually operated. No written contract, just a handshake.

                                    An inside view of the new Layton RC Willey store.

(However, that unofficial way of giving customers credit was probably also the reason why the RC Willey business was insolvent when Bill Child, son-in-law, took over its operations in late 1954. He had to make it profitable -- and he did over the decades.)

 A 1966 advertisement in the Ogden Standard-Examiner for Layton's "Willey' store.

-BUT RC Willey also had a second connection to Layton City.
A nephew of Mr. Willey, Jay Willey, operated a similar home furnishings store, the “Satisfaction Center” in Layton, from 1955 until 1983. This store was originally located at 48 East Gentile Street and later moved to 144 East Gentile (when the installation of I-15 in the early 1960s forced it to move) and finally to 250 East Gentile Street. Jay Willey was an appliance salesman for RC Willey prior to starting his own store. By 1983, the store changed owners and became the Brent Allen Satisfaction Center. It closed about 1984.

-Some key dates in RC Willey’s early history:

1932: Rufus Call Willey starts selling appliances door-to-door in Davis County. He specializes in Hotpoint appliances. He works out of his garage and used a little red truck.

                             The former Syracuse RC Willey Store.

1949-1950: RC Willey lists Layton as its address in its first 13 months of newspaper ads.
1950: RC Willey opens its first store in Syracuse, a 600-square-foot cinder block building, next door to his home.

1954: William H. Child takes over the business, after his father-in-law, Rufus Call Willey, dies on Sept. 3, 1954, at age 54.

1969: A second RC Willey store opens in Murray.

1995: Billionarie Warren Buffett purchases RC Willey.

                    An RC Willey delivery truck in Layton on Feb. 12, 2020.

Late July 2020: A new store in Layton opens and the original Syracuse store closes.

                    The Layton RC Willey Store under construction in the summer of 2019.

A list of Layton's top 28 businesses in 1951: Only 2 left today

                                                           Heritage Museum of Layton photograph.

HERE'S a list of Layton's top businesses in 1951, according to the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Nov. 15, 1951:

Wayne's Market
Dick's Service
Dick's Distributing company
Tri-State Lumber Company
Layton Launderette
Bill's Sheet Metal
Traveler's Cafe
Layton Department Store
Ray Walker's Service
Layton Cold Storage
W.M. Bush Company
Adams Grocery
Nellean's Cafe
Layton Sporting Goods
Roy's Service
Layton Auto Parts
Ray's Shoe Repair
Adams Supermarket
Signal Cafe
Farmer's Union
Union Furniture Company
Bishop's Ford
Clarence S. Simmons Realty
Dick's Billards
Kowley Drug
Layton Noodle Parlor
Stockman's Bar
Penney's
(All these were members of the Layton Chamber of Commerce.)

-HOW many of these 28 businesses listed are left today?
Only Bill's Sheet Metal (now Bill's Comfort Systems) and Stockman's Bar.

                                                                          Heritage Museum of Layton photographs.

Thurston Peak -- Highest Point above Layton City

                                        Thurston Peak, center.



FRANCIS PEAK and its lofty radar domes attract the most attention on the mountain skyline visible from the majority of Layton City. However, it is actually Thurston Peak which is
the highest point in the Layton area.
Rising almost a full vertical mile above Layton City Hall, the peak, 9,706 feet above sea level, is the tallest in Davis and Morgan counties, straddling the county line.
Thurston Peak is about four miles to the north of Francis Peak and directly east of Cherry Lane (about 1200 North), Thurston Peak is almost 200 feet higher than Francis Peak.
Thurston has a little knob poking out of its left-hand (north) slope. To its south, the mountain skyline dips sharply to its lowest point between Weber and Farmington canyons.

The mountain is also the highest area peak in the Wasatch Range, between Ben Lomond Peak, near the Box Elder-Weber County line - on the north - and Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake County - to the south.
The peak was unnamed until 1993 when a five-month effort by the Morgan Historical Society paid off. Namesake of the peak is a Mormon Pioneer, Thomas Jefferson Thurston, who had lived in both Weber and Morgan counties.
Prior to its naming, the peak was listed as “North Francis,” an unheralded benchmark on government maps.
A brass plaque, encased on a concrete stand, atop Thurston peak and placed there in 1993 reads:
"Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson Thurston, a Centerville resident who viewed the virgin valley of Morgan from the summit of the mountain in 1852 and recognized its potential for colonization. Realizing its disadvantage was its inaccessibility, in 1855 Thurston influenced others to assist him to carve a passible wagon road through Weber Canyon. He was among the first to settle in Morgan Valley and is acknowledged for bringing about its colonization."
Since “highpointing” (climbing the tallest county or state peaks) took off in the late 1990s, Thurston Peak has become a destination for many hikers annually.
The easiest hike to Thurston Peak is to drive the Farmington Canyon “Scenic Backway” to Francis Peak and then hike north four miles to the high point. (However, this dirt road is rugged and not for the faint of heart.)
A portion of the path to Thurston also follows a segment of the Great Western Trail.
Otherwise, it is an all-day hike -- with twice the mileage and more than 10 times the elevation climb from starting points on the east bench of Layton -– like the Fernwood Picnic area, from the north slope of Adams Canyon, or from a trail just south of Hobbs Canyon.

                                 Thurston Peak, center.


-The naming of the highest peak in Davis County meant that there were technically no longer two peaks named Francis in Davis County. On United States Geographical maps, the radio station was on Francis Peak and the former Thurston Peak was listed as "VABM Francis." This second title referred to a vertical bench mark.
-However, there was already another "Thurston Peak" in Davis County. According to the Salt Lake Telegram of Nov. 15, 1940, a United airliner had crashed on a peak east of Centerville on Nov. 4 of that year, that was also identified as "Thurston Peak," more than 50 years before the tallest peak in Davis County was also titled Thurston Peak. It appears that this earlier Thurston Peak name fell into obscurity after the plane crash and it can no longer be found on modern maps or even in any references on the Web, outside of that 1940 plane crash.

The earlier version of Thurston Peak in Davis County

                            The modern Thurston Peak, located east of Layton City.



THURSTON Peak is the not only the highest peak east of Layton city, but it is also the tallest peak in Davis and Morgan counties, straddling the county line.
At, 9,706 feet above sea level, this peak was not officially named until 1993. It had previously been labeled as a benchmark from Francis Peak.
However, the name "Thurston Peak" is not a unique title to Davis County.
When a United Airline Plane crashed in Davis County on Nov. 4, 1940, the crash site was identified as being on "Thurston Peak" or "Thurston Mountain." This peak was said to be on the south side of Ford's Canyon, east of Centerville.

                                              Thurston Mountain, east of Centerville.

A fleet of newspapers on Nov. 4, and Nov. 12-13 of 1940 all identified the crash site as being on "Thurston." These included the Salt Lake Tribune, the Salt Lake Telegram and the Davis County Clipper.
Although not named "Thurston" on official government maps, locals in the Centerville area had referred to the mountain as such for many years.
Yet, when the highest point in Davis County was officially named in 1993, the knowledge of this earlier "Thurston Peak" had been forgotten. Apparently, the name had been lost to history, some 50-plus years after the 1940 crash of the airplane, which killed all 10 passengers.
-The modern Thurston Peak is about 4 miles to the north of Francis Peak and directly east of Layton's Cherry Lane (about 1200 North).
Thurston Peak is almost 200 feet higher than Francis Peak. Thurston has a little knob poking out of its left-hand (north) slope. To its south, the mountain skyline dips sharply to its lowest point between Weber and Farmington canyons.
Namesake of the peak is a Mormon Pioneer, Thomas Jefferson Thurston, who had lived in both Weber and Morgan counties.
A brass plaque, encased on a concrete stand, atop Thurston peak and placed there in 1993 reads:

"Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson Thurston, a Centerville resident who viewed the virgin valley of Morgan from the summit of the mountain in 1852 and recognized its potential for colonization. Realizing its disadvantage was its inaccessibility, in 1855 Thurston influenced others to assist him to carve a passible wagon road through Weber Canyon. He was among the first to settle in Morgan Valley and is acknowledged for bringing about its colonization."

How to order a new Layton, Utah history book

This free blog has historical information available about Layton, Utah's history.

AND, there is an accompanying book that will complement this blog, as well as your bookshelf.

With more than 170 photographs and published in October of 2020, this book makes a great gift for any new or long-time Layton resident, or someone who grew up in Layton City.

  (NOTE that the book was delayed 5 months, from May to October 2020, because of the Coroniavirus.)

-IF you would like a copy of the new history book on Layton, Utah, you can order it from a variety of sources for $21.99:

--on Amazon


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781467104968&i=stripbooks&linkCode=qs


--Or from Barnes and Noble at:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/layton-lynn-arave/1135498880;jsessionid=BBCAF0636AA08D36361AFE15AF583EBC.prodny_store01-atgap01?ean=9781467104968


--Or from the publisher, Arcadia at:

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467104968

IF you can't decide if you'd like to purchase a copy of the book, a free 31 page preview of the 127-page book is available from Google at:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Layton/m0PZDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22lynn+Arave%22&printsec=frontcover

Dell H. Adams: Layton's 'Jim Bridger,' 'Mighty Hunter,' Sheepman and Civic Leader

A March 1934 photo in the Salt Lake Telegram. Dell Adams is on the left. A.M. Johnson is to the right.

LAYTON City used to have a modern day "Jim Bridger," who was also often heralded as a "mighty hunter, a sheepman and a civic leader. Dell (Delbert) H. Adams (1890-1971) was one of the most unique of persons in Layton's past. Sadly, he is often unheralded in Layton's history.
The Salt Lake Telegram of March 8, 1934 carried the headline, "Layton man mighty hunter of big game; Bagging mountain sheep biggest thrill." He also bagged deer, wild goats, cougars, plus wild hogs in Mexico.
 He also shot a hug bull moose in the wilds of Wyoming and it took him two days to get it back to civilization.
Adams lived at 600 West Gentile Street and was a lifelong resident of Layton. He married Sarah Kershaw in 1914 in the Salt Lake Temple and the couple had two sons and five daughters.
When the 1923 "Covered Wagon" movie was filmed on Antelope Island in 1922, Adams was the one in charge of buffalo herd on the isle.
He also came across the skeleton of a giant moose in Montana next to a hunter, who had likely died in a battle with the animal years earlier
His closed call while hunting was when a rat saved his life. Adams and friend were hunting in the wilderness of central Idaho and had to take shelter in an abandoned cabin. The exhausted hunters were annoyed by a rat in the cabin and they were about to shoot it, when they noticed the stove had set the cabin on fire. The rat had kept them awake, or they'd likely have perished in the blaze.
"We got the fire out before much damage was done," Adams told the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper in a March 8, 1934 article. "No, I never shot the rat. He proved about the timeliest pal I ever had."

    An August 19, 1959 photo of Dell Adams as "Jim Bridger" in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.

With Jim Bridger as his favorite mountain, Adams portrayed 
Bridger in every Pioneer Days Parade in Ogden for 25 straight years, from 1934 to 1959. He also rode as Jim Bridger in the Pioneer Days Parade in Salt Lake City prior to that, with a pack team of pack mules carrying furs and himself all adorned in period authentic dress.
The Ogden Standard-Examiner of July 21, 1943 described Adams as "a virtual reincarnation of Jim Bridger."
"Modern-day 'Jim Bridger' abandons rile for Pioneers Day celebration" was am Aug. 19, 1959 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. "But I can't keep doing this forever," he told the newspaper. "After all, I am pushing 70."
He was a born story-teller and often traveled with his wife, from St. George to Logan to share his outdoor exploits. He had an extensive collection of pioneer relics and had been a long-time member of the Sons of Utah Pioneers.
According to Logan's Cache-American newspaper of Dec. 20, 1938, he also served wild meat at the big barbecue in Kaysville to 825 boys from the North and South Davis stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Adams was a well-known Utah sheepman and a past president of the Utah Wool Growers Association and also former leader of the Davis County Wildlife Federation. His sheep often won awards in livestock shows.
He received a community service award from the Layton Chamber of Commerce.
From 1920-1921, Adams was a member of the first town board in Layton City, after it became its own registered community in 1920.
L.W. Ellison. R. Adams, Francis Bone and Leonard Sandall were the other first Layton leaders after incorporation.

(NOTE that Adams was often referred to as "Del Adams.")

A timeline of Layton’s history

THE following is a chronology of important events in the history of Layton, Utah:

1849:  The first white pioneer, likely Edward Phillips of Salt Lake, settles in what will become Layton.
1850: Brigham Young makes his first visit to Layton.
1858: Christopher Layton, namesake of Layton City, opens a “Prairie House” at 128 South Main to cater to stage coach passengers.
1860: The first public school house in Layton opens.
1869-70:  Utah Central Railroad connects Ogden and Salt Lake City.
1881: The Davis and Weber Counties Canal Company is organized, bringing water to hundreds of farms.
1882: Denver and Rio Grande Railroad extends through the Layton/Kaysville area.
1886: Layton Post Office is established.
1891-1952:  Bamberger Interurban Railway operates between Ogden and Salt Lake City.
1902-1907: Layton de-annexes from Kaysville to become an unincorporated area.
1902: Layton Elementary School opens.
1903: Telephones appear in Layton; The Woods Cross Canning Company factory begins operations.
1905-06: First National Bank of Layton opens; Severe east wind storm destroys many Layton buildings.

1915: Layton Sugar Company factory is built and operations begin.
1920: Layton incorporates as a town.
1929: Layton’s first fire station opens.
1936-1984: East Layton town is incorporated and then annexed back into Layton.
1937-1957: Laytona incorporated and then annexed back into Layton.
1940: Ground is broken for Hill Air Force Base.
1941: Layton’s first subdivisions—Hill Villa, Skyline and Ellison -- are started.
1941-45:  Layton’s pre-World War II population is 646 residents; By the war’s end, it soars to 3,456.
1943: Verdeland Park housing complex is built to support Hill Air Force Base during World War II.
1949: Layton becomes a third class city.
1957: Layton City purchases Verdeland Park property from the Federal Government.
1963: Fort Lane Shopping Center opens; Layton Sugar Factory has its last run.
1964: Verdeland Park is dismantled and Layton Commons Park begins to take its place.
1965:  Layton High School begins its first classes.
1966: I-15 through Layton is completed.
1978: North Davis Hospital opens.
1979: Layton Pioneer Museum dedicated; its name later changed to Heritage Museum of Layton; its doors open in 1980.
1980: The Layton Hills Mall opens.
1981: K-Mart, Layton’s first non-grocery “big box” store, begins business.
1985: Layton surpasses Bountiful in population with 36,000 residents to become Davis County’s largest city.
1986: Surf N’ Swim facility premieres to the public.
1986: The Davis County incinerator starts up in Layton.
1988: Layton Branch of the Davis County Public Library opens.
1989: Layton City builds a new city municipal building and complex.
1991: Layton’s first Wal-Mart opens.

1992: Northridge High School begins classes.
1992: Layton’s second fire station opens, this one on Church Street.
1992: West Hill Field Road expands to the Industrial Park.
1992: Layton’s theme of lighted animals in its holiday lighting display begins.
1995: The Ed Kenley Amphitheater opens.
1996: Layton’s “restaurant row” becomes a regional draw.
1997: West Hill Field Road is extended one mile west to 2200 West.
1998: Layton’s new flagship fire station opens at 2200 West Hill Field Road.
1999: Ellison Park, a major Layton’s sports park, opens.
2003: The first sections of the Kays Creek Trail are opened.
2003: Weber State University Davis Campus opens in Layton.
2004: The Davis Conference Center opens.
2008: Train whistles stop in Layton, excluding emergencies, with new crossing signals in place.
2010: The U.S. Census lists Layton’s population at 67,311.
2010: Layton South Interchange opens.
2010: Layton becomes a second class city.
2011: 3.1 miles of the D&RGW trail completed in Layton, creating a trail system that traverses all of Davis County, north to south.
2012: Layton Parkway completed.

2012: The Andy Adams Community Fishery begins.
2013: Smart 911 program implemented.
2013: Weber State University expands.
2013: Public Safety Fire Training Facility opens.
2013: Heritage Park phase one completed.
2013: Ellison Park Splash Pad opens.
2013: Oakridge two-million gallon water tank completed.
2013: Layton “Lightspeed” Wi Fi is available in City parks.
2014: Antelope Drive is finally extended east to U.S. 89.
2018: Midtown Crossing over I-15 opens.
2018: Layton Intermountain Hospital is operational.
2019: Layton's first woman mayor is elected.

2019: I-15 expansion of express lanes begins.
2020: Highway 89 expansion starts.
2020: Coronavirus leads to resident isolation and less social contact.

Layton City's colorful street names abound

LAYTON CITY boasts intriguing street titles, some unique to the area and others grounded in mystery or history.
Various long-time city street names have an important story to tell.
Here are some such tales:

There’s a romantic legend surrounding the Angel Street name.
This tale involves an early settler who was in love with two women
residing on the same road. Not being able to decide between the two, he referred to them as his "angels." Hence the street's eventual name, though it is also identified today as 1200 West in Layton. 
However, another variation of the story is that there were two young girls who lived along the street, favored by two young men. Andrew Egbert, father of the girls, disapproved of the relationships with the King boys, though the young men kept referring to their "angels" who lived along that street.
Yet, by another less likely tale, the City's namesake, Christopher Layton, had several other polygamous wives living along the street and that he referred to them as his angels and hence the street name.
(Angel Street also continues south into Kaysville).

Also, not legend is that a portion of the street became “sweeter” in about 1915, when a sugar beet factory opened along the road, just west of where the Smith’s offices/plant are located today. Soon, a small segment of Angel Street, just north of Gentile Street, became officially known as “Sugar Street.” The sugar factory was torn down in 1972 and an adjacent warehouse – its last solid memory – was demolished in 2001.
Antelope Drive used to be called “Straw Street,” because it was a
clay-based road in the 19th Century and had to have a lot of straw
thrown on top of it to even make it passable. In the 20th Century,
Antelope Drive (2000 North in Layton) became known as Syracuse
Road. The Antelope title took hold in the late 1960s, when the state
of Utah purchased Antelope Island and the highway was a straight shot to the causeway that was built to travel across the Great Salt Lake to that island.
Hill Field Road, passing by the popular Layton Hills Mall, was
referred to as “Easy Street” in pioneer times. 
Why was road called "Easy Street" at first? The story goes that a noisy steam engine used to operate at the Layton Mill, which would have been closer to Layton's downtown area. Thus, "Easy Street" was coined, since heading to the northeast along this road, it became so much more quiet, serene and "easy going," without the loud sound of the mill. (-According to the Davis News Journal of July 14, 1977.)

The road was also proposed to be renamed Freedom Boulevard in
1991. UDOT even created new signs and installed a few prematurely in the summer, before the Layton City Council ended up voting 4-1 not to rename the busy highway after all.

Mutton Hollow Road, near the Kaysville-Layton border is
named after a former sheepherder who lived in that part of the city.

-Layton also has a series of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John streets in its northwest area. Located just west of Main Street and south of Antelope Drive, these came about in the early 1960s when a subdivision was built there. Harris Adams, a veteran Layton resident and a historian was a member of the Layton City Council at the time and doesn't recall if they were ever said to hold any Biblical significance. However, he said federal housing officials didn’t care for the grid street layout that was first proposed for the area. So, the subdivision was changed so that the area streets curved to resemble a "bull's-eye" shape, much to the delight of the housing leaders (and the confusion of newcomers to that area).
Cross Street was so titled in 1903 because it was a shortcut to the
Layton Canning Company from Main Street. This company had
recently merged with the Woods Cross Canning Company when the
name took hold.
Rosewood Lane was originally called Fiddlers Creek Lane. It
was named after some musicians who lived on the street. Later, some confusion led to the Rosewood designation. Some subdivision developers have revived the Fiddlers Creek name in recent years.

-And, Gentile Street, was so named because in the 19th Century there was a group on non-Mormons who lived west of Main Street and so unusual were non-Mormons in Layton back then, that the street became known as Gentile Street. Gentile sometimes refers to non-Mormons in early Mormon Church history. 
(AND, the idea of naming a place after non-Mormons with the "Gentile" term is NOT unique to Layton. The Gem Valley (Grace, Idaho and surrounding area) was originally named "Gentile Valley," in 1870 -- likely before Layton's Gentile Street was named -- after the non-Mormons who first lived in that S.W. Idaho valley.)

-Here are some other unusual street titles in Layton City: Aircraft
Avenue; Artists Way; Camelot Drive; Chapel Street;
Constitution Way; Hunter’s Glenn; Jack D Drive; Icabod
Lane; Merlin Drive; Morning Star; Poets Rest; Snoqualmie
Drive and Vird Ann Street.

-Also, of note: Gordon Avenue has been a confusing road ever
since the mid-1960s, when I-15 disconnected the through road and
created an eastern section and a western section. Since then, they do not connect except through traveling a section of Hill Field Road and then Main Street. A proposal in the late 1990s would have renamed the western section of Gordon Avenue, from Main Street, west to the Syracuse border, “Allen Avenue,” to honor a long-time family who lived along the road. However, that proposal was soon dropped by a consensus of the City Council.

-Layton also had some short-lived street names that did not survive
into modern times.
For example:
“Pioneer Road” was what a portion of today's Sunset Drive was
named. This route traveled though Dawson Hollow and was of the
city's main link to reach Mountain Road, Highway 89. (The city
does have an unrelated Pioneer Drive road today.)
"Call Street": The south end of today's 2200 West, south of
Gentile Street. It was named after a family who resides in the area.
"Hill Street": The north end of 2200 West, north of Gentile
Street, and named for the Hill family.
Bone Street: A short segment of today's 3200 West that went
south from Gentile Street and ran parallel to Call Street. This road
was originally named after the Bone family.
“Canyon Road” was the original title of Church Street. This
was a road that went north over a sandridge hill and dropped down
into South Weber in pre-Hill Air Force Base days (before 1940). It
was a major route to Weber Canyon. (Layton City does have
unrelated Canyon View Drive and Canyon Rim Drive streets
today.)

SOURCES: “Layton” history book (1985), by the Kaysville-Layton
Historical Society; Deseret News Archives; Harris Adams, Layton
historian.

When Layton began uniform street naming -- Avenues, drives and streets; Where did the name Gordon Avenue come from?

IT was 1959 when Layton City created standards in street names. From then on, any street that traveled east and west was a "drive," "lane" or "avenue" and roads going north or south were "streets" or "roads."
The Layton Planning Commission wanted this change to make it easier for residents or visitors to locate addresses in town.
However, there were some exceptions. For example, Fort Lane runs north and south and yet it is a "lane." That exception is likely because of the long standing tradition of calling it as such. (The road is named for the pioneer fort that used to exist along a section of the road.)

-WHERE did the name Gordon Avenue originated from?
Layton historian Harris Adams said he wasn't sure, as the name just seemed to be there in the late 1940s on. However,he said Gordon Gurr of Kaysville owned Security Title Company in Farmington and that company did a lot of business in Layton City. He said that's the only "Gordon" he recalls in the area, that somehow might have led to the street naming.

-Another variation in road names is Antelope Drive. That street was originally called "Syracuse Road" for many decades, until 1968, when Antelope Island was first developed. After that, Syracuse and Layton both agreed the Antelope name was more appropriate, even though the highway did lead into the center of Syracuse.

Bluff, Canyon and Mountain Road -- The 3 main pioneer trails in the Layton area

THE Layton area had three main pioneer trails back in the day.

According to Ken Day, the first curator of Layton's Heritage Museum, the forerunner of Church Street was Canyon Road, a path that followed the ridge above Kays Creek. Day said this Canyon Road used to go from Weber Canyon all the way southwest to today's Dawson and Weaver Lanes and eventually to where the Bluff Road used to traverse west Layton.
"The Kays Creen Corridor is loaded with history . . . It had to have been a known route," Day said of Canyon Road, explaining it was probably an Indian trail used by the Lienhard pioneer party in 1846 - one year before the Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah.

Day said journals from the Heinrich Lienhard party describe coming down Weber Canyon, crossing to the south side of the Weber River, going up a hill and then turning southwest along a good path toward the Great Salt Lake.

The three oldest paths or trails in the Layton area are Mountain Road, Canyon Road and Bluff Road. However, Day said Mountain Road was too rough and that's why Canyon and Bluff were used more often.

He also said trapper/explorer Jedediah S. Smith went through west Layton along the Bluff Road trail in 1826. Today the Bluff Road ends in southern Syracuse because construction of West Gentile Street in 1880 provided better east-west access into Layton.

                             Highway 89 today, at Oak Hills Drive.

The Mormon Pioneers also constructed a "Little Fort" along Canyon Road, which gave rise to the Fort Lane name for one of the city's major north-south roads. At that time, the big fort was in Kaysville - the larger settlement.

SOURCE: Deseret News Archives.