O.C. Tanner: A gem of a building

(Deseret News) A man and a building. A passion for beauty and a commitment to giving back. A flagship store and a landmark preserved. That's the story you find at 15 S. State in downtown Salt Lake City.
It begins in 1904, when Obert C. Tanner was born in Farmington, the youngest of 10 children of Joseph and Annie Clark Tanner.
It continues in 1905, when Salt Lake City opened a public library near the corner of South Temple and State Street. One of the finest buildings of its day, the library was built of oolite sandstone quarried in Ephraim and financed by mining entrepreneur John Quackenbos Packard.
One wonders if young Tanner ever visited the library. Maybe he stopped by in the late 1920s when he was a student at the University of Utah. Probably he never guessed that at a far distant point in the future, that building and his name would become so impressively linked.
Tanner went on to make his living in the jewelry business, starting with class rings and graduation pins and finally extending into the finest of diamonds and gems. In 1976, he opened his first retail jewelry store in downtown Salt Lake City.
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