"Great Salt Lake City," a planned settlement, 1847-1872
"One place understood helps us understand all other places better."

On August 2, 1847, Orson Pratt and Henry G. Sherwood began the survey of Great Salt Lake City, beginning at the southeast corner of Temple Square. By August 20 the survey of Plat A was completed. It included 114 ten-acres blocks, each containing 8 lots. Lots were 10 by 20 rods or 165 by 330 feet (1 1/4 acres) in size. Each block alternated in the way the lots were divided and the houses faced. Streets were 8 rods (132 feet) wide. Apostles selected a number of lots surrounding Temple Square, but general distribution was not made until Young and Heber C. Kimball were chosen to do so on September 24, 1848. A fee of $1.50 was paid for each lot acquired ($1.00 to cover surveying expenses, and $.50 as a filing fee). Unmarried men were not given an allotment, but polygamists were entitled to receive one for each family. In the 1980s the Church built a model representing 64 blocks in Plat A (roughly a square mile) that represented the prime real estate around the temple block. The following web pages contain information pertaining to the city, but focus on the persons that owned property or the buildings that occupied those blocks.
       

Great Salt Lake City
      1) General layout (planning, landscape, religious life, other facts)
      2) Maps and commentary on various buildings, prominent residences, etc.
      3) 1870 "Bird's Eye" Map used to create a scale model of downtown Salt Lake City (1 square mile)
      4) Block subdivisions and owners in 1853 and 1871-2
      5) Photographs of old Salt Lake City (200 images, dated and labeled)
      6) Property location and owners in 1853 and/or 1871-2 (856 row spreadsheet, 10 columns, with individual links to a person's short biography, property and pioneer company). Research and data, assembled between 2008-2014, came primarily from the 40 or so volumes of history compiled by Kate B. Carter for the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in Salt Lake City between 1947-1978 and the old "new.familysearch.org."