The Names on Memory Lane Are the Names on Holladay Boulevard

"Uncover stories that connect the names on the tombstones to familiar places throughout Holladay." The city uses that line to describe Behind the Tombstone, its first cemetery tour, set for Saturday, October 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Memorial Holladay Cemetery. The night before, Plein Air Holladay unveils its paintings at Relics Framemakers & Gallery on Holladay Boulevard. This year the show includes a new award for paintings of the city's historic sites. Each event works fine by itself. Taken together, they tell one story. The people buried off Memory Lane built, farmed and ran many of the places the painters were invited to paint, and plenty of those places are a short drive from the gallery, or even a stroll.

The cemetery came first

According to the city's history, a group of pioneers led by John Holladay, known as the Mississippi Company, entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 29, 1847. Within weeks they found a spring-fed stream they named Spring Creek, near present-day Kentucky Avenue. A few men built dugouts there and stayed through the winter, and families followed in the spring to build homes. Memorial Holladay Cemetery, at 4900 S. Memory Lane, dates to 1848. The city calls it the oldest privately owned cemetery in the valley. A 2000 Deseret News story reported that the first burial took place that year, but no one knows who it was.

The cemetery's own history is tied up with neighbors. According to the city's account, landowner Duncan Casper charged for grave plots. Later, the Brinton family donated the land for cemetery access, and that strip became Memory Lane. So the road you take to the gates was a gift from one of the families buried inside.

The headstones and the houses, side by side

The Holladay Historical Commission keeps a Tour Historic Holladay directory on the city arts site. It has an online map, and each numbered entry links to a short history. Set it next to the city's list of early residents buried at Memorial Holladay, and the same names keep turning up.

The Casper name shows up on the tour too. The Duncan Casper Cottage at 2394 E. Murray-Holladay Road is a modest cross-wing cottage. Duncan Spears Casper's family settled near Spring Creek, the same stream where a few of the Mississippi Company's men spent that first winter.

The tour also reaches into more recent memory. Kim Peek, who inspired the film "Rain Man," and KSL sportscaster Paul James are both buried at Memorial Holladay. The self-guided tour on October 3 promises "a glimpse into what everyday life was like for generations past." It's free, with treats along the way and no registration.

What the painters were sent to find

Plein Air Holladay's painting period ran September 18 through 30. Artists could work anywhere within a mile of Holladay, painting landscapes, neighborhoods, landmarks and everyday corners. The new part this year is the Historic Holladay category, sponsored by the Historical Commission. Artists could pick one property from the tour directory, which takes in "historic homes, businesses, and even a bridge," and all those entries compete in a single category no matter the painter's skill level.

So the judges at Relics on October 2 will be looking at paintings of the same tour properties the cemetery tour points to the next evening. Relics is on the tour list too.

The opening reception runs Friday, October 2, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Relics, 4685 S. Holladay Boulevard. Winning pieces get ribbons that night, and the exhibit stays up through October 19. Every entry except those marked Display Only may be offered for sale. Relics and the Holladay Arts Council keep 30% of each sale price, and artists pick up their work on October 20. If a canvas of a house you pass every day catches your eye, the reception and the two weeks after it are when you can buy it.

The boulevard between them

Look at the addresses and the geography explains itself. Relics sits at 4685 S. Holladay Boulevard, the cemetery at 4900 S. Memory Lane, and a run of tour properties fills the blocks in between.

• Burton Lumber, 4639 S. Holladay Blvd. The company started as a horse-and-wagon lumber business on State Street and later took over Holladay's local yard from Olympus Lumber and Hardware.
• David McDonald House, 4659 Highland Drive. A restored brick-and-adobe house built by Scottish immigrant blacksmith and millwright David McDonald.
• Ane Kirstine Andersen House, 4704 Holladay Blvd. The tour entry dates it to 1873 and says it passed through three generations of the Andersen and Howard family. Today it's Auntie Rae's Sweets and Tea Parties, where Raelynn Potts opened a scone bakery in May 2015 and later added themed tea parties.
• Meier's, 4730 S. Holladay Blvd. A brick commercial building the Meier family used over the years as a grocery, a meat market and a catering business.
• Boyes House, 4766 Holladay Blvd., and Ross Hame, 4769 S. Holladay Blvd. Two very different houses face each other across the road. The Boyes home is pioneer adobe. Ross Hame is a Tudor Revival estate designed by Ware, Treganza, and Cannon for sugar-company president Harvey Ross.
• Milo Andrus Jr. House, 4917 Holladay Blvd. Just past the cemetery's address range, it closes the loop with a family whose name is on both lists.

Leslie's French Pastries at 2308 Murray-Holladay Road is on the tour as well. The Leslie family bakery started near their home and moved when Holladay Village was built, and new owners carry on the pastry tradition. Many tour properties, including the Hintze house, are still private homes, so they're best enjoyed from the sidewalk.

Around City Hall this fall

Two tour entries share one address, 4580 S. 2300 E. One is the Santa Anna Casto cabin in the city park. The other is Holladay City Hall itself, which began as Holladay Elementary School, built in an orchard. The building is in the middle of a seismic retrofit. The city's project page says completion is expected in September 2027. The playground, baseball diamonds, skatepark and gazebo area stay open during the work, and city offices have moved for now to 3330 S. 1300 E. in Millcreek. The retrofit means changes are coming to the very building the tour uses to show how Holladay grew from orchards into suburbs, one addition at a time.

A sequence for the first weekend in October

1. Friday, 6 to 8 p.m. Start at Relics for the Plein Air reception and see which Historic Holladay paintings earned ribbons.
2. Saturday daytime. Pull up the tour map and pass the Andersen house, Meier's, the Boyes house and Ross Hame on Holladay Boulevard, with a stop at Auntie Rae's or Leslie's along the way.
3. Saturday, 5 to 7 p.m. Head to Memorial Holladay Cemetery for Behind the Tombstone, ready to recognize the Boyes, Andrus, Casto and Brinton names from the day's walk.
4. By October 19. Go back to Relics if a painting stayed on your mind, before the exhibit comes down.

Later in the month, the Holladay Library at 2150 E. Murray-Holladay Road hosts a Halloween Bash on October 8 from 4 to 6 p.m., with games, crafts, treats and a costume parade. The city calendar also lists a Holla-ween event on October 24 at 2:30 p.m.

The exhibit and the cemetery tour are each a few hours long, but the online tour map stays up. The Ware & Treganza Bridge at 2800 E. Big Cottonwood Road, the Gustavson houses on Hedgewood Court, and the 1955 Parade of Homes on Fairoaks Drive and Lone Peak Drive will still be there for the next walk.

Older Holladay homes like these carry stories that are worth keeping, whether you're restoring one, caring for one or just curious about the house down your street. If you'd like to talk through what preserving that character involves, Jazmin Adamson is glad to share what she has learned from renovating historic properties. Let's Connect.