Grandview Neighborhood/Ward and Friends

Here’s a note about the neighborhood around Grandview Circle ( to augment Dad's History).
These additional memories were written up by Dad/Lamar in July 2020.

We moved into the Grandview Circle house in 1949, when I was 12. We had the house built. I remember my dad and I going up there quite often to pick up nails and straighten them, and to clean up after the builders. 

There are photos in our collection that show the house, with not much landscaping (see above). The neighborhood around Grandview Circle was an established neighborhood that had been there for many years before Grandview Circle was built. It was south and east of Sugarhouse. The area between Parkway Avenue, about 2450 South, to 33rd South, and between 13th East and 20th East, was a very large subdivision that probably had a name, perhaps Highland Park, and a timeframe. All the North-South streets, starting at 13th East and going east, were alphabetically named, Alden, Beverly, Chadwick, Dearborn, 15th East, Filmore, Glenmare, Hartford, Imperial, 17th East, Kenwood, Melbourne, Preston. Grandview Circle was just east of Imperial. 

Growing up in that neighborhood, I had friends on most of those streets. I had more friends south of 27th South, than North of 27th South. South of 27th South was our stake, Wilford Stake, and our ward, Grandview Ward. North of 27th South was another stake, Highland Stake. 

The schools were also a bit divided. In our neighborhood, we were bussed to Roosevelt Junior High, which was located pretty close to, and below, East High School. Some of the kids North of 27th South went to Irving Junior, which was located on the North side of 21st South, above 13th East. Our bus to Roosevelt went right past Irving, on our commute to our school. Most of the kids in our neighborhood went to South High School. We weren’t bussed to South High, but used a carpool. 

A lot of the kids in our neighborhood, who lived a bit south of where we lived, went to Olympus High, in the Granite School District. The district boundary was just a block south of our neighborhood. 

Some of my friends in our ward went to Olympus, Frank Willardsen, the Egans, etc. 

Grandview Ward building ... Then and Now

Our ward, the Grandview Ward, was an older funny looking white building, with a big rounded look. You can look it up in Google, Grandview Ward, Salt Lake City, and see a picture of the old ward. There it said the ward was built in 1937, and remodeled in 1975. The article is titled Historic LDS Architecture.  (Pictures located and included). 

You can see a map of the old neighborhood, by going to lds.org, and clicking up on My Account and Ward in the upper right corner of the screen, and then clicking on Meetinghouse Locator, and entering the address, 2740 Grandview Circle, Salt Lake. 

The neighborhood has changed a lot since I lived there. We used to be able to walk, or ride our bicycles up east on 27th South, and there was a mom and pop grocery store on the southeast corner of Melbourne and 27th South, where we often purchased goodies. If we went further east on 27th South, past 20th East, there was a shopping center and a theater a bit East of the Northeast corner of 27th South and 20th East. We would often go to that theater. I remember it had a stage, and they also had contests there. I remember winning a baseball bat for spelling, Hippopotamus. 

The houses between Grandview Circle and Melbourne on the south side of 27th South had large lots that went way back. I remember one of the ward families who lived in one of those houses, the Tischners. I think when I was a deacon and a teacher, I was assigned as a ward teacher with an older companion to visit there. 

A new street has been built east of Grandview Circle, Sonnet Drive, and a school has been built just east of Sonnet Drive, Highland Park Elementary. When I was living there, most of that area was just a big field. I think my younger siblings attended the elementary school that was a couple of blocks west of Grandview Circle on the south side of 27th South. I think that school was also named Highland Park Elementary. That school is now a private school, Carden Memorial School. 

Four families in our ward lived on Melbourne, south of White Avenue, the Egans, and two Whites, Arnold and Verdi, and the Wimmers. They were all related, and working together in a catering business, Distinctive Catering. When I went on my mission, the Bishop of the Grandview Ward was Merritt Egan. His son, Robin Egan, was younger than I. Robin’s mother was a White, and his grandfather was MM White, where the MM stood for Mahonri Moriancumer, the old name for the Book of Mormon prophet, the brother of Jared. No wonder the Book of Mormon referred to him only as the brother of Jared, and not by his full name. 

I remember MM White bearing testimony a few times in our old Grandview Ward. 

One of the streets, going east from Melbourne is Mary Dott Way. Mary Dott was the wife of MM White. One of the sons of MM White was Kenneth, and he was a prominent builder, and likely built the homes along Melbourne and perhaps White Circle, just above our Grandview Ward building. He was connected to White City, and White Water, up in Neff’s Canyon. Ruth White, daughter of Arnold, lived next door to the Egans. Ruth married Norman Egan, who was a cousin to Robin. Norm also lived in the ward, down on Imperial. 

When we first moved into the house on Grandview Circle, we were in the Grandview Ward, which was then part of the Grant Stake. In 1951, the Wilford Stake was organized. 

At first, we attended Stake Conferences in the Grant Stake Tabernacle, on the Northeast corner of 33rd South and State Street. That was a big multi story building with a domed roof and a higher tower. It was also at other times known as the old Granite Stake Tabernacle. That building was razed in 1956. 

Sometime after 1951, the Wilford Stake built a new Stake House, within the current stake boundaries, near Kenwood Avenue. I played a lot of basketball in that new building. 

I have searched Google to try to find a date for when the Wilford Stake Center was built. There is a book listed on Google, written by Merritt Egan, who was at one time in the Wilford Stake Presidency, named something like: History of the Wilford Stake, but that book is apparently not online. 

That book would surely have the dates I am looking for. 

There were 18 houses on Grandview Circle. I have family names for 11 of those houses, mostly where there were kids near the same age as I. On the west side of Grandview Circle, on the corner by 27th South, and heading south, were families Ray Chard, Fred Schwendiman, Martindale, and our house. We were the 6th house on the west side of the circle, with a magnificent view of the North face of Mt. Olympus. Next to us going south, and around the circle were families: Kelm, Newbold, Gerome, Sargent, Borup, and Gustaveson. Further north, on the east side of the circle, was the

Willardsen family. 

Kids near my age were Gary Chard, Mary Gerome, Paul Sargent, DeAnn Borup, Ron Gustaveson, and Dewayne Willardsen. 

Ray Newbold was in our ward bishopric for a time. Linda Kelm was an aspiring opera singer, and many times we could hear her practicing. The Gustavesons had two daughters, Lani Kay and Lorreen, who were good friends to my sisters. 

Other friends in the neighborhood lived on Melbourne. Tim Maxwell lived about 7-8 houses south of 27th South. The two streets heading east from Melbourne, and up to 20th East, were Claybourne, and Atkin. Many of the ward members lived in that area. Mike Dixon lived across from Tim, on the corner of Claybourne. Mike was really smart, and got a scholarship to Yale. I used to go home teaching on Atkin, to the Keiser family. Bob Keiser was near my age, and later worked for the FBI. Claude Kresser, and Mel Newbold, lived on Melbourne, south of the Maxwells. Mel was in our ward bishopric for a time. A friend, John Dunn, lived up on Atkin. My uncle Ed Westra, and my aunt Doreen lived for a time on Melbourne. 

I played lots of basketball on the ward young men’s team, with Gary and Dewayne. Dewayne was our center, but our team didn’t have a lot of height. 

We also played lots of basketball in our neighborhood, with Paul and Dewayne. We had a good hoop on our detached garage, between the garage and what we called our breezeway. We had a good 10 foot hoop, and a wide driveway at that point, but there were two electrical wires running from the corner of the breezeway to our house. They were about eight inches apart, and were about 8 feet up, so you had to be tricky to shoot from certain areas of the driveway. There was another electrical wire up higher running from a pole in back of our garage, to our house. 

I developed a great hook shot, over the two wires, and could bank in shots with pretty good consistency. We could also slam dunk, if we got a good run, and placed our foot against the garage wall, and propelled ourselves up. Of course, landing safely after that attempt was somewhat difficult. 

I remember our garage was a single car garage, but it had a big attic that extended over the breezeway, and we stashed a lot of stuff up there. 

Paul and Gary Sargent also had a nice basketball hoop. We would also walk between the Gerome and Sargent yards where there was a path connecting to the next neighborhood to the South, Atkin Avenue, and Kenwood. We played a lot of basketball on a court there, where Keith Davies lived. Another member of our ward team lived close by there also, John Dwan. He wasn’t a member, but he did play on our ward young men team. Paul and Gary Sargent were also very likely non-members. Gary Sargent later became Student Body President of Highland High. Highland was built on 21st South and 17th East and my younger siblings, Diane and Steve both went to Highland. From our house on Grandview Circle, we could walk to 27th, and then the next street going North was 17th East, and it was just 5 blocks North to Highland High. 

Gary Chard and Dewayne and Mary and DeAnn and I were in the same graduating class at South High. 

I had a good friend who lived North of 27th South, just east of 17th East, Jerry Steele. 

The Gerome family must have moved out, and the Clark family moved into that house. Bob Clark was a year older than I, and was also in Lambda Delta Sigma at the same time I was. 

We also played a lot of softball for our ward young men team. We would ride our bikes out to 27th, and then down to Imperial, and ride all the way south to the nice ball diamond behind the Libbie Edward School, near the corner of Imperial and 33rd South. I remember Frank Willardsen’s father was principal there. 

I remember playing a lot of tackle football on Sunday afternoons, after church. We played at Stratford Park, just behind the Crystal Heights ward house, North of 27th South, and near 20th East. We would also go play football on the fairway of the Salt Lake Country Club. The houses along Parkway and Hillcrest were on the top of the gulley, looking North and down into where Parley’s Creek ran, and where it ran through the golf course. We could descend the hillside to the creek below. There were railroad tracks, and on the other side of the tracks was the golf course. There was no I-80 back then. 

We would also play golf on the golf course. We would go to my friend’s house, Don Phippen, who lived on Hillcrest. We would hit golf balls off his back lawn, and down into the gully. Then we would descend the hill, and find our balls, and then cross the tracks, and play three holes round and round. We dared take only one club, usually a 5 iron, for all our shots. We didn’t want to take a bag, because if we could hear the Country Club guy coming in his golf court, we would have to take our one club and run back across the tracks. 

The road that went down into the gully from our side, was 20th East. It crossed the tracks and the creek, and went through the golf course, and up the other side, into the Parleys neighborhood. 

Back to the stories of some of my friends. 

Gary Chard went on a mission to France, and later married and was later killed, at age 36, in a plane accident in Paris. His parents later moved into our current neighborhood, on Rodeo, south of 64th South. DeWayne moved to Colorado. Ron Gustaveson was a horse person. He and his wife later served as Family Search missionaries at the Family History Library, and I worked with them there. The Gustaveson parents also moved into our current neighborhood, up on Jeremy. Robin Egan also moved into our current neighborhood, and became the first bishop of our new ward, the Cottonwood 13th Ward. 

Other friends from the ward were Gaylon Symes, who lived up on 20th East, and Gaylen Schofield. 

... in progress, additional updates may still be coming.