Ogden's 25th Street
by Jakob Onishi and Jen Hepworth, Weber State University
Ogden City is a diverse community in a very homogenized state. From its humble beginnings as a small Mormon town, to the completion of the railroad that allowed exponential growth population wise and economically, and its reputation for being a breeding ground for vices and sin, 25th Street specifically. All the way to now where the city is embracing that reputation after decades of ignoring it.
Demographics
In 1860 Ogden could boast a population of 1,464. The population doubled each of the next three censuses. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population was 16,303. This population doubled again in 1920. The population almost doubled one more time by 1950. The population of Ogden has not doubled again and was 87,321 as of the 2020 census.
Sarah Langsdon, the Head of Special Collections at Weber State University, is doing a project that catalogs the people of color in Ogden listed on the censuses back to 1870. In 1870, there were 10 Mulatto (historical term), 11 Black, and 3 Chinese people on the census living in Ogden. 1910 is the first time we see Japanese people on the census. In the 10 years between 1900 and 1910, 386 Japanese people moved into Ogden. This accounts for the largest non-white, non-hispanic population in Ogden at 1.5% of the total population. In 1950 there were 395 Japanese residents in Ogden, nearly 25% of whom were living on 25th Street.
I was unable to discern a way to narrow the 2020 census data down to 25th Street alone, and so I narrowed it down to Census Tract 2011. This Census Tract includes the 100 to 300 blocks of 25th Street. Census Tract 2011 has 122 people who identify as Asian alone, 78 people who identify as Black alone, 57 people who identify as Native American alone, and 1,828 identify as White alone. The whole of Ogden has 1,321 people who identify as Asian alone, 1,980 people who identify as Black alone, 1,488 people who identify as Native American alone, and 58,704 identify as White alone.
Ogden Population by Census
https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/population-volume-1/vol-01-47.pdf
Ogden’s Japanese Population
Research provided by Sarah Langsdon
Ogden’s Black Population
Research provided by Sarah Langsdon
Overview of Japanese Residents of 25th Street in Ogden, Utah
The Japanese first came to Utah in the latter part of the 19th century after Chinese immigration was halted due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. This led to Japanese laborers being brought in to continue working on the railroad. These laborers were likely the first to settle in and around the Salt Lake Valley.
With the completion of the Union Station Depot, hundreds of railroad workers were brought into Ogden, many of the workers were Japanese. The Japanese workers started to build and open their own businesses around Union Station and the surrounding 25th Street area. This area would become known as Japantown (or J-Town for short). The area stretched from 25th Street to 24th Street and Grant Avenue to Lincoln and by 1920, there were 2,936 Japanese People living in Utah, according to the United States census. The community was beginning to thrive with the launch of the first Japanese-language newspaper, Rocky Mountain Times, in 1907 and in 1914, the Utah Nippo was published because the Rocky Mountain Times had a Christian orientation (Utah Digital Newspapers - Utah Nippo, n.d.). Some of the businesses included a hospital, a barbershop, a fish market and some cafes, all of which were owned by Japanese immigrants. In 1913, Japanese residents organized the Ogden Buddhist Temple, where early church meetings were held at 236 24th St, at 2430 Lincoln, and at 225 Capitol until 1937. In May of 1937 a different Buddhist temple building at 2456 Lincoln began to be used (Ogden’s Religious Architectures, n.d.).
In February, 1945 President Roosevelt ordered the relocation of all Japanese Americans and immigrants due to the fear that they might be spies for their homeland. 11,000 Japanese Americans were sent to Topaz which is a camp near Delta, Utah. My grandma was one of those 11,000 Japanese Americans. She was only eight years old at the time of internment. She was released in 1945 because she had family members she could live with. The family she moved in with happened to live on 25th Street. I asked her what it was like living on 25th Street as a child and teenager. She recalled it being hard because a lot of people were returning from the war and they had a vendetta against Japanese people. She would be out late with friends and veterans with injuries from the war would look at her with hate in their eyes and spit racial slurs at her, Jap being the most common. She specifically remembers an interaction with one veteran who said to her, “Look what YOU people did to me.” My grandmother lived on 25th Street from 1945-1952 and in that time span she would work at a noodle parlor called Bamboo Noodle Parlor which was owned by her uncle’s parents (Chuichi Kawaguchi) on the weekends. She vividly remembers there being a barbershop, an Oriental market (which was owned by the Tanaka’s and was sold to the Inoe’s and then Mr. Inoe was murdered by robbers), a lawyer, a dry cleaner, two cafe’s called Sunrise Cafe and Eagle Cafe, as well as the Star Noodle Parlor.
Ogden’s Black Community
The First Great Migration moved 600,000 African Americans out of the southern United States. The Second Great Migration was the move of 4 million African Americans (Rothstein, p. 155). The opening of the railroad junction and Union Station drew many of those African Americans to Ogden. They were seeking good jobs with the railroad and to avoid a life of sharecropping. While they were now free men, African Americans working for the railroad were subject to “racial income inequality (that had been) firmly established” (Rothstein, p. 161). African Americans who worked for the railroad were not given fair pay, nor did they work in favorable conditions (Shaw, 2019). African Americans were paid less than Whites, Chinese, and other immigrants and “they also got physical whoopings” (Shaw, 2019). Less pay also meant that “most African Americans could not begin to accumulate capital for home purchases” (Rothstein, p. 155).
Union Station and the railroad jobs “helped blacks build a sustainable community… in Ogden” (Shaw, 2019). Unfortunately, Ogden has a history of both de facto and de jure segregation. One of the de jure segregation tools used was redlining. Redlining or “exclusionary zoning” was used in conjunction with discriminatory racial covenents on home deeds to “prevent ‘incompatible ownership occupancy’” (Rothstein, p. 62). A 1931 redlining map of Ogden is marked with a “grades of security legend.” It includes areas marked “best”, “still desirable”, “definitely declining”, “hazardous”, and “business.” The 100-300 blocks of 25th Street are in the business section of the map, but the immediate surroundings to the north, south, and west (once you get over the train tracks) are all marked as “hazardous” areas (Ogden, 1931). These areas surrounding 25th Street housed many people of color including African Americans, Chinese, and Japanese people in the 1930s-1960s and still retain a robust multicultural demographic today.
25th Street’s Sacred Structures
Ogden’s Historic 25th Street and the surrounding area have many Sacred Structures as defined by Randy Hester in “Subconscious Landscapes of the Heart”. Hester’s definition of Sacred Structures, in part, says, “(they are) places that have become so essential to the lives of the residents through use or symbolism that the community collectively identifies with the places… the loss of such places would reorder or destroy something… familiar to the community’s collective being” (Hester, p. 15). Sacred Structures on 25th Street include Union Station and, while not a place, the Star Noodle dragon sign which signaled the location of the Star Noodle Parlor for decades.
The Star Noodle dragon meets the criteria of a Sacred Structure because it embodies life on 25th Street and expresses Ogden’s uniqueness (Hester, p. 15). The sign harkens back to a time when 25th Street was synonymous with Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants. When Star Noodle Parlor closed in 2007 after over 60 decades on 25th Street, the fate of the infamous Star Noodle dragon was unknown. The dragon had become synonymous with 25th Street, and residents wanted it returned to its rightful home. Ogdenites created a Facebook page called “Save the Dragon” and called on the City to reinstate the dragon to its home at 225 25th Street The plight was successful and on February 6, 2015, the Star Noodle dragon was once again lit during a ceremony to celebrate its return (Ogden Reborn, 2015). People in Hester’s Manteo did not know what places were important to them until they were threatened (Hester, 1985). People in Ogden did not know how much they would miss the dragon until it was gone.
An even larger Sacred Structure synonymous with 25th Street does not have a 25th Street address. Ogden’s Union Station is an imposing depot that was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style (DeGroot, n.d.). It can be found at 2501 Wall Street, directly across from the mouth of 25th Street Ogden became the junction for the Union Pacific Railway and the Central Pacific Railway. Every passenger continuing east through Ogden or continuing west through Ogden had to get off the train to switch lines in Union Station. 25th Street grew in response to all of the railway passengers flooding the city (Brinkerhoff, 2022). Union Station has become a place that is “synonymous with residents’ concepts… of their own town” (Hester, 1985). If Union Station were missing it would change the “residents’ internal images of their town”.
The Design of Spaces
The area surrounding the Ogden Municipal Building is what Whyte was describing when he defined what a plaza needs. “The space should be in the heart of downtown, close to the 1000 percent corner–preferably right on top of it” (Whyte, 1988, p. 108). The Municipal Building is right in the center of downtown making it easy to walk to in case you wanted to sit down and enjoy your lunch. Even in the winter months the plaza attracts plenty of visitors thanks to the annual Christmas Village that is set up by the city. There’s even a bus stop making it even more accessible for people who aren’t in the area to visit the plaza. I have even seen a taco stand right by the plaza making it easy to grab a bite while you sit and enjoy the plaza.
Along with the location, there is plenty of seating visitors can take advantage of. “The most basic kind of seating is the kind that is built into a place, such as steps and ledges (Whyte, 1988, pg. 112). I personally have seen people hang out on the East entrance steps of the Municipal Building as well as the benches placed in front of the building. With little to no forms of architecture meant to deny seating, the plaza is perfect for hanging out. If you head North to the corner there is an information booth called The Corner (very fitting name, I know) with multiple tables and chairs for visitors to take a seat in and relax.
Whyte places an emphasis on the plaza’s relationship with the street stating “The street functions as part of the plaza or square; indeed, it is often hard to tell where the street leaves off and the plaza begins” (1988, pg. 128). This relationship with the street can be seen with the Municipal Building plaza. One minute you’re walking on the sidewalk and then the next you’re in the plaza and if you keep going, you exit just as easily as you entered. The design of the Municipal Building plaza isn’t sunken or raised making it easily visible while also providing multiple sight lines to the street and vice versa.
The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety
The sidewalks of Ogden’s 25th Street are notoriously wide. This is thanks to the 25th Street Master Plan devised in the late 70’s. This widening of the sidewalks allowed for restaurants and businesses to extend out into the street without getting in the way of pedestrians as well as provide for eyes on the street thus making them safer. Jacobs states that “stores, bars and restaurants, as the chief examples, work in several different and complex ways to abet sidewalk safety” (1961, p. 36) and what do you know, 25th Street is mostly–if not all–stores, bars, and restaurants. Every single bar, store, restaurant or any other establishment that’s on 25th Street all perform the same service: they all maintain city street civilization.
The streets, sidewalks, and residents of 25th Street interact with one another in a way that seems to resemble a dance. This “dance” is used to maintain the safety and order of the city. “This order is all composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 50). Through the analogy of a dance, one can observe the streets of 25th Street as individual moving parts who each have their own role in the dance and they all rely on each other as one cohesive unit. It’s a routine that happens everyday (for the most part). Business owners open up their shops at the same time everyday, residents wake up and leave for work at the same time everyday, and the sidewalks get used by the same people at the same time everyday. Then everybody goes to sleep and the dance routine starts again the next morning.
25th Street’s Walkability
Jeff Speck advocates for more walkable cities. A key component of making an area attractive to millennials is “the pedestrian culture that can only come from walkability” (Speck, p. 17). Speck states that a majority of college-educated millennials would first decide where they want to live and then seek employment in their chosen area (Speck, p. 21). Millennials, according to Speck, want to live in urban areas that do not require them to drive and offer a high quality of life. The Mercer Survey tracks cities’ quality of life. The top rated cities all have three things in common: density, a successful transit, and walkability (Speck, p. 61-62).
While Ogden as a whole is not a walkable city, 25th Street is a highly walkable area of the city. Apartments on 25th Street are largely found above businesses in historic buildings. Due to the popularity of the area, they do not come available very frequently. If you are lucky enough to find an apartment, you are steps away from places to grab a cup of coffee or indulge in unique cuisine. You can walk to the nearby studios to see artists at work or find finished pieces in art galleries or on the street. You can find entertainment in the form of live music, museums or a comedy club. There are also a variety of outdoor activities hosted on 25th Street throughout the year including festivals, the Ogden Farmers Market and the First Friday Art Stroll (Historic 25th, n.d.). 25th Street would meet Speck’s requirements of offering a high quality of life.
Neo-Bohemia
Ogden’s Historic 25th street and the surrounding area’s history can be traced back to the railroad. What was once a town whose economy was based around the railroad has now blossomed into a habitat for food and the arts. Much like Richard Lloyd’s analysis of Chicago’s Wicker Park, Ogden’s 25th Street was once an industrial wasteland left to rot with the decline of the railroad in the 50s and 60s. Ogden was also known for its immigrant population much like Wicker Park. It wasn’t until the late 70’s when the city wanted to change its reputation and organized a Historic Preservation Committee which led to the 25th Street Master Plan in 1977. This plan led to the renovation of vacant buildings, making the sidewalks wider and adding public art displays, street lighting, and tree planting. Now 25th Street is known as a culture hub with a successful annual music festival, farmers market, and other public events. Much like Wicker Park, this rehabilitation of 25th Street attracted the attention of artists. “When I first came, 25th Street was sort of sparse and empty,” said Eleanor Thorp, a Bachelor of Fine Arts student at Weber State University in Ogden. “I think businesses have begun to flourish more and more on 25th Street. They’ve started to get gentrified, and make it more comfortable for visitors” (Kapur, 2019). This view of gentrification is seen as a positive. It lifts up the community by making it “safer” which usually means more white. “Artist’s interest in locating in marginal neighborhoods whose majority population is poor and usually non-white involves the desire to occupy inexpensive space adequate to their needs” (Lloyd, 2002, p. 528). At this risk of sounding like a broken record, Wicker Park and 25th Street have more similarities than differences. They both started out as industrial neighborhoods and through gentrification, became successful hubs of culture.
References
25th Street: Ogden, Utah. (n.d.). American Planning Association. https://www.planning.org/greatplaces/streets/2014/25thstreet.htm
Brinkerhoff, D. (2002, May 19). Ogden’s Surprising Past Begins at 25th Street. KSL News Radio. https://kslnewsradio.com/1969021/ogdens-25th-street/
DeGroot, C. (n.d.) The Ogden Union Station. Intermountain Histories, accessed November 30, 2022, https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/239.
Hester, R. (1985, January). Subconscious Landscapes of the Heart. Places. 2(3).
Ogden Reborn. 2015. “Ogden’s Historic 25th Street Continues to Evolve.” Utah Stories, May 28. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
(https://utahstories.com/2015/05/ogdens-historic-25th-street-continues-to-evolve/).
Historic 25th Street. (n.d.). Visit Ogden. https://www.visitogden.com/neighborhoods/historic-district/
Kapur, S. (2019, December 3). Once ‘sparse and empty,’ the heart of Ogden is becoming a creative arts and culture district. The Salt Lake Tribune. https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2019/12/01/once-sparse-empty-heart/
Ogden Blue Print and Supply Co [cartographer]. (1931). Map of Ogden City [map].
https://www.weber.edu/wsuimages/WSUToday/2021/May/IMG_9916.jpg
Ogden’s Religious Architectures. (n.d.). WeberCountyHeritage. https://www.webercountyheritagefoundation.com/services-3
Shaw, M. (2019, May 10). As Railroad Sesquicentennial Celebrated, Black Contribution to the Line
Remembered. Standard Examiner. Acquired December 1, 2022.
Utah Digital Newspapers - Utah Nippo. (n.d.). https://digitalnewspapers.org/newspaper/?paper=Utah+Nippo
Awesome job guys! I know how much work that was to put together! I love the personal experiences of Jakob's grandmother and all the cool pictures, especially the before and after pics!
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