Pleasant Grove History

Pleasant Grove’s Main Street has long history

By Laurel Cunningham Pleasant Grove Historic Preservation Commission

On Nov. 11, 1918, the Pleasant Grove Cannery whistle unexpectedly blew and the town curfew bell on top of the Old Bell School rang out — both continuously and simultaneously. Desperate to know the cause of this alarm, residents picked up their party-line telephones and called the town telephone operator to ask what had happened.

The operator excitedly announced into one line after another that Germany had surrendered and World War I was over. Soon the whole town knew the news and rushed to Main Street to celebrate in the street.

Pleasant Grove’s Main Street has always been the center and heart of the town and is one of its oldest spaces. Over this district’s 169-year history, it has been the gathering place for town residents — not only to celebrate in the street marking the end of a war, but also to purchase goods and materials and to attend July 4th parades, Strawberry Days street dances and parades, and political rallies.

This center of town got its start in 1853 when residents built a fort in response to warfare with local Native Americans and moved their houses within the fort walls.

Main Street was the center of that fort, and it was surrounded by 16 city blocks. As Indian relations improved, residents built outside the fort, but the fort (and Main Street) remained the nucleus of the town and its development.

Elisha Wilcox was the first to operate a commercial business on Main Street. In about 1854, he established an exchange station on the corner of 100 N. Main. George H.A. Harris followed suit and built a store in the late 1850s on the northeast corner of Main where he and Jacob Foutz ran a freight company.

In 1869, John Brown purchased the southeast corner of 100 S. Main and organized the Pleasant Grove Cooperative Mercantile.

The Harris store anchored commerce on the north end of Main Street, and Brown’s Mercantile/Co-op anchored the south end of Main Street.

As the decades passed, numerous stores came and went from Main Street (a few of them destroyed by fire). Long-time residents will remember past store names such as Smith Market, Clark Brothers’ Store, Ideal Market, Mason’s Clothing, Radmall’s Hardware, Hedquist Drug, Wagstaff’s Clothing, Red and White Market, the Pleasant Grove Review, Bank of Pleasant Grove, Busy Corner Store, Christensen’s Clothing, Paul’s Appliance, Doug’s Radio and TV Service, The Cobbler’s Bench, Jackman Electronics, Hap’s Lunch, the Luncheonette Café, the Alhambra Theater, Dixon Taylor Russell Furniture, Utah Power and Light, Christensen’s Clothing, the Ben Franklin Store and The Spot.

Main Street has also been home to unique commercial ventures such as an opera house, a movie theater, one of the oldest saloons in Utah, an on-sidewalk gas pump, a fire station, two hotels and city hall (which housed a jail and ambulance service).

In 1995, Main Street (and the streets that were once within the fort) were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. This district provides Pleasant Grove with a distinct sense of place, and the heritage of the community is reflected in the commercial, public and residential buildings within its boundaries.

For more information about Main Street’s history, pick up a Main Street walking tour booklet published by the Pleasant Grove Historic Commission at city hall. Also, follow the Historic Preservation Commission’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PGHistoric for even more Pleasant Grove history.