Hyrum City Councilman Craig Rasmussen who works with the museum on restoration projects stands in front of the Elite Hall on Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
HYRUM – Elite Hall in Hyrum will be looking different for their Star Spangled Celebration this year if all goes as planned.
The historic building constructed in 1915 is going to have all of the paint removed off the exterior walls to expose the original brick.
Ron Salvesen, the Hyrum City manager, said they are going to strip the old bluish paint off the building, restoring it to its natural color. Then the exposed bricks will be sealed to keep the moisture from ruining it.
“The cost of the restoration is somewhere around $400,000 and the money comes for RAPZ funds, Hyrum City money and donations,” Salvesen said.
Abstract Masonry is the company selected for the work.
“There are only a couple companies in the state that do this kind of work,” said Jami Van Huss, the Hyrum Museum director. “Because it is not just regular masonry work, it’s historic masonry restoration.”
The walls can’t be sand blasted; the paint has to be chemically stripped. There is a window of time when it is best to have the paint stripped because the weather can’t be too cold or too hot.
“We received 2019 RAPZ funding and we were going to start in the spring of 2020,” Van Huss said. “Then COVID came and we put everything on hold.”
She was hoping to get going on the project in 2021, but because it is such historic masonry very few have historic masonry background. She said the city only had a couple of options.
“We have plans to remove the awning. The awning is not accurate for the Elite Hall,” she said. ”The awning does have a purpose and it will be preserved and relocated.”
The paint removal should only take a month or so. Van Huss hopes to have the patriotic exhibit for the community’s 4th of July celebration.
There are plans for an annex on the east part of the building. The architectural plans have been drawn up. When they have the money it will be put out to bid.
“We want to make the annex a named-donor project,” Van Huss said. “If we could find someone that wanted to pay for the annex (it) would be given the donor’s name.”
Hyrum City Councilman Craig Rasmussen said Elite Hall is a significant building in Hyrum and one of three on the National Historic Register in the city.
“Besides Elite Hall, the Fist Ward Chapel – now a residence on First North and Center Street – and the Tithing Office – turned into a dentist office at Main Street – are the only buildings left on the National Registry.”
Elite Hall has a unique design. It was built as a dance hall and its spring floor is the only operating spring dance floor in Utah and possibly the western United States.
“Some people have been telling me that nobody dances anymore,” he said. “We sold 350 tickets for their Jazz Night (and) there were a lot of people dancing.”
“Historically, people used to take the train from Southeast Idaho and Northern Utah to dance there,” he added. “We had a Jazz Night last week and we had people come from Utah County, Salt Lake and Layton come and dance. Even people from the Boise area and Preston came to dance.”
That illustrates that it is still a regionally significant building, Rasmussen said.