Fort Douglas and the Olympics

With the International Olympic Committee’s exciting recent announcement that Salt Lake City will host the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the Utah State Historic Preservation Office looks back to the 2002 games and the impact they had on one of Utah’s most significant historic properties, Fort Douglas, and how the historic hub of military buildings became the social hub of the games for Olympic athletes. 

Established during the midst of the Civil War on October 26, 1862, decades before the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, Fort Douglas was developed as a Western outpost to protect the overland mail route to California and to keep a watchful federal eye on members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Log and adobe buildings were soon erected in the 1860s to house the soldiers and by the 1870s the post was largely rebuilt using local Red Butte sandstone. In the early-1900s the next wave of buildings used red brick, and these featured prominently in the build up to World War I.

Historically, the fort’s soldiers played an important military role in the Northern Plains battles of the 1860s and 1870s, the Sioux War of 1890, the Spanish-American War of 1898 featuring 24th Infantry African-American soldiers, expansion during World War I including a Prisoner of War compound, becoming part of an air base in 1940, and servicing military vehicles and functioning as a finance center until 1947. By 1950 much of the fort’s command had been dissolved and a portion of the property was turned over to the nearby University of Utah, a sign of things to come.

Fort Douglas continued primarily as an Army Reserve unit for several decades after WWII until the waning years of the Cold War when it was recommended for closure and realignment by the Defense Secretary’s Commission on Base Realignment and Closure in December of 1988, ushering in a new era for both the fort and the university. In 1991, the Army transferred a large portion of land and 56 historic buildings to the university for institutional uses. A Congressional Bill formalizing the deal and a Quit Claim Deed, Programmatic Agreement, Memorandum of Agreement, and Preservation Plan were all established to help preserve and ensure the future use of the fort’s historic buildings. As part of the agreement between the United States Army, University of Utah, and the Utah State Historic Preservation, the buildings (listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 as a National Historic Landmark in 1974) are to be treated in a careful way that meets historic preservation standards.

Upon receiving the property from the Army, the university proposed to renovate the buildings for residential and other campus uses, and with the 1997 announcement of Utah hosting the 2002 Olympic games the plan was significantly accelerated. The Olympic-related work at Fort Douglas was part of the university’s $120 million project, with an additional $28 million provided by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, to double the current housing accommodations that were currently located on campus for 1,200 students. The work on the Fort Douglas buildings was completed just in time for the Olympics kick-off and notably served as a month-long community village for the athletes who participated in the Winter Games in February of 2002. 

Commonly known as University Heritage Commons, the development that was completed leading up to the Olympics has helped provide a residential experience for many students who have wanted it over the past 22 years. In addition to the renovations of the existing buildings that met preservation standards as outlined by the transfer agreements, new compatible buildings were also constructed adjacent to the fort’s historic core. Earning praise, Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, called the ambitious plan to renovate and rejuvenate Fort Douglas for the 2002 Winter Olympics “the most significant restoration project in America” and the Dean of the University of Utah Graduate School of Architecture, Bill Miller, noted that “the project is going to change the living dynamics of students so that there is a residential community on campus” and that the undertaking “is one of the most interesting projects in Intermountain West in this decade.”

Recognizing the university’s efforts, the National Trust for Historic Preservation presented the university with its National Preservation Honor Award and Utah’s statewide non-profit the Utah Heritage Foundation provided the school with several awards at their 2002 Utah Historic Preservation Conference. Acknowledgement was given to the University of Utah for the 26 buildings that were renovated as part of the Olympic preparations, with most of the buildings being historic military housing quarters, and four buildings—the Post Chapel, Officer’s Club, Commander’s Residence, and the Post Theatre—all receiving individual awards for extraordinary preservation, still playing an important role in university operations today. 

The University of Utah, bringing the old and new together at the Olympic Village at Fort Douglas, continuing and adding to the long history at the fort, was one of the many successes of the 2002 Winter Olympics. The use of Fort Douglas as the village provided an elegant solution not only for the Olympics in 2002, but also for the future and injected new life into the many historic buildings to meet university needs. We know that this significant military campus will again play prominently in the 2034 Olympic games, with more investment in preserving historic fabric of Fort Douglas while ensuring the buildings and their 160 years of history will serve a purpose for the next generation. The State Historic Preservation Office is excited to work again with the University of Utah to support Utah’s next Olympic Games!