History of Marriott-Slaterville City Volume XVI January 1, 2015 - December 31, 2015

pay them decent wages or give them resources to get it done. The situation was ripe for corruption. It was almost a foregone conclusion that these people were going to accept bribes. Qr What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about 25th Street? The notoriety that 25th Street came to have seems to he a product of Mormon and non-Mormon conflict. The Mormons had always run the city — in 18S9, there were enough non-Mormons to gain control of city government. The Mormons were not pleased. To discredit the new government, the People's Party (the Mormon government) branded the Liberal Party (the new government) with the stigma of all the vices of 25th street. But I think what gets left out is that the vices were already there. City council minutes showed that the Liberal Party was NOT allowing illegal behavior to go on. In one section, I wrote about when liberals voted down efforts for saloons to stay open later. And there were many Mormons doing business on the street, too. Not vices, but legitimate businesses; butchers, dressmakers, haberdasheries. It just isn't as black and white as people often think. There was nobility and corruption on hoth sides. Q: You've said that some of the historic buildings on 25th Street were saved because they were hiding in plain sight, before the idea of historic preservation came to Utah. How would 25th Street be different today if more of those buildings had been demolished? I don't imagine it would he a place that has colorful and historic over tones that attracts people the way it does. The interesting thing is, had 25th Street been at all appealing to local commerce back then, it would probably have been bulldozed. Q: The question everyone wants an answer to: Are there secret tunnels under 25th Street? I am personally not persuaded by any stories of tunnels. There is no reference of tunnels in aiiy old newspapers, and surely the police department would have known about them and mentioned them. There wcro certain basements that could only be entered by an electric button upstairs during the Prohibition area. There are basements in the shops, portions of cellars bricked over. And there were all sorts of raids on opium dens. But as far as I can tell, no tunnels. 26 | November 2015