HISTORIC 25th STREET

This is a shot of Historic 25th Street in Ogden, Utah, USA, where I work. This photo is looking east towards the Wasatch mountains. When the transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Point, Utah in the 1860's, Ogden became the central rail yard in Utah and in the west. At the west end of 25th Street is Union Station (train station), and the street continues east to the mountains. When the trains arrived, the passengers would get off the train and head out the front door and straight up 25th Street. In the golden age of railway, you could get "anything" on 25th Street. There was a bevy of hotels, clubs, restaurants, shops, brothels and other amenities on the street. It is rumored that there were even opium dens in tunnels under the buildings and the street. As train travel decreased in favor of air travel, the street became rundown with a lot of bars and undesirable people on the street. When I was growing up in the 1950's and 1960's, my mother forbid us to go anywhere near 25th Street. Then, in the 1980's a few brave souls took up the cause of cleaning up the street and a few businesses moved in. Today, it is a historic shopping and eating area. My Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are spent at the yarn shop on 25th Street. If my mother were alive today, she would be appalled to know that I work on 25th Street!