SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 News) - What was old is new again in Salt Lake City. One of the first public schools, built there in 1894, has children inside once again. The school was designed by the same architect who designed the State Capitol but years later it was turned into office space.
"When we walked in, it was chopped up into different office space, but you knew as soon as you walked in it that it was the right place for the Children's Center. You could feel the children from fifty, sixty, eighty years ago," Jill Jones President of AJC Architects says.
But transforming the one hundred and fifteen year old school back to it's original beauty was no easy job. The building had lost it's luster after years of neglect.
"All of this was under dry wall, and different wall partitions. Now it's all exposed and talks about the history of the building," Jones says.
The Oquirrh School history is fascinating. It was one of the first public schools built in Salt Lake City, State Capitol architect Richard Kletting designed it and six hundred students used to crowd into it's classrooms.
There were no bathrooms then. Those have been added along with a massive playroom in what used to be the attic, and there is an outdoor playground where there used to be just dirt. All changes made over the last two years so the Children's Center, a resource for kids and their parents, could grow to serve the community.
"It was a school built for children, it became an office building, and now once again it's a place for growth and healing and you do hear the joy of children in this building. Which is great, it brings a smile to everyone's face," Doug Goldsmith from the Children's Center says.
Back in 1894 the building was filled with the sound of children's footsteps, now children on are those same stairs once again.
Richard Kletting, the architect behind the school, designed ten others from 1892 to 1912. Those schools have all been demolished. With their historical renovation, AJC architects was able to get the Oquirrh School on the National Register. So the building will be around for a very long time.
