The Twenty-Ninth Ward Chapel
2010
I have always loved this church. It was built on a corner just one half block from the home where I lived when I was born and where I lived until I was almost five. It was called the 29th Ward. When the Salt Lake valley was first settled, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints divided its congregations geographically by “wards”. The First Ward and the Second Ward began the pattern of naming the areas until it seemed prudent to use other names to describe the congregations. This ward was built about 1900. It was ten blocks west of Temple Square and three blocks north. Temple Square provided the starting place for all numbering of the grid on which the city was laid out. When the chapel was built, there was only farms around it. Gradually, homes were built here and there, primarily through the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1949, which was the year I was born, homes were on all streets surrounding the chapel. And, an entry way had been added under the middle stained-glass window. By the time I attended the church and formed a memory of it, cement steps had been added to the front, which led into a double door which provided some protection from the elements and kept people from walking directly into the chapel. Of course the church eventually was surrounded by trees though there was little grass. Originally there was no parking because people walked most of the time. As the population grew, also in 1949, the 29th Ward was divided and another ward was formed. This event was on the agenda for that session of General Conference. The new ward was called the Riverside Ward in the Riverside Stake.
The church had a basement which actually had windows that were quite far out of the ground. They were big enough to let in lots of light. In the lower level were classrooms and a large recreation room for the Primary children. This chapel had another unique feature. It had a balcony. One could either sit in the wooden pews or walk up stairs at either side of the chapel at the back and sit in the balcony. There were only four rows of benches in the balcony, but it was somewhat circular and very interesting.
In back of the chapel was an area with a wooden floor and a stage. That is where dinners and plays were held. It was too small for a gymnasium.
When Justin Gerald Pugmire died in 1949, his funeral was held in this, the 29th Ward. When his wife Clara Lzina Barker Pugmire died in 1969, her funeral was held in this same building which was then called the Riverside Ward.
Sometime in the 1970s, the building was sold by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and a new, more modern building was built just a block away. The building still stands but has had many owners and many uses. It is no longer a church for any denomination and is in disrepair.