History buffs want hospital building preserved

Plans for a state-of-the art library in the old hospital in Coalville are moving forward as the Summit County Council works to preserve the historic building.

The brick and wood structure at 80 N. 50 East, which currently houses the Summit County Health Department, was built in 1938 and is worth saving, councilpersons said.

"I was born in that hospital," said Summit County Councilman David Ure, a longtime resident of Kamas.

Pat Putt, a member of the Summit County Historic Preservation Committee, said many people tell stories about the building.

The structure is one of few left in the area that is a product of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal-era agency, Putt said.

"Which is a significant story to maintain and continue to tell," Putt told members of the Summit County Council at a meeting Dec. 2 in Coalville. "Good preservation is more than just the architectural part of the building, it's more about the story the building tells."

Officials hope to remodel the building, which for years was a hospital for the East Side, into a library for the Coalville area.

"This building would perform like a new building," said Allen Roberts, an architect at Cooper Roberts Simonsen Associates in Salt Lake City.

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