My trip down memory lane in Tooele, should start at the county courthouse, which sat next to the lumber yard. It was surrounded by big trees. I loved going in there with its dark wood, dim lights and hushed surroundings.

Clarence Baker, my best friend Carole's father, was a judge in that courthouse. They lived in a two-story house on 100 West. The house had a little balcony on the second story.

The mortuary was a Victorian-style house where the present mortuary is now. Across Main Street on First South was Swans' grocery store. It was small, clean and quiet.

Across Main Street from the floral shop was an apartment building where I was born. Downtown had a JC Penney store. Mr. Baldwin was the manager. The money and ticket of your purchase was placed in a vacuum tube to the cashier on the Mezzanine, and any change you had coming made the return trip the same way.

We all knew everybody who worked in the stores. There was Gordon Furniture, Co., a bank, the Crystal Drug, which was owned by Mr. Archibald Bevan, on the northwest corner of Main and Vine streets. Across Main on the southeast corner of Vine and Main streets was the Tooele Drug owned by Mr. Elmer Elkington. Each store had a soda fountain.

One of the most popular stores in town was Hanks and Evans. The post office was in the front of the store, which had wooden floors and post office boxes in one area. This store had everything any child would want -- candy, a soda fountain in the back, and tables and chairs that sat on a black and white tile floor.

There were long wooden tables in the middle of the store that held valentines when that holiday came around. You could get two for one cent. There were magazines, toys and a fun place to go for a treat after the games or a dance.

Brant and Elva Caldwell opened Caldwell Drug across from the Mercantile some years later, but all three drug stores stayed open; the people of Tooele and surrounding areas supported them all.

We had the Ajax Hardware store with baskets of nuts, bolts, nails and anything else that was needed. Downtown had Sol Selvins store next to the Tooele Mercantile, owned by the Lindberg family. This store's beveled, heavy glass windows were where we would stand, one on each corner and raise up one leg while looking ahead, and the reflection would show that we each had three legs.

Next to the Mercantile was the Strand Theatre with a lattice wood foundation. Saturdays during the Depression we would take a Wonder Bread wrapper and a nickel to pay for our matinees. The matinee was complete with previews, a serial, a cartoon and the main feature.

Next to where the Transcript-Bulletin is now was Ed Gillespie's service station. The Transcript-Bulletin was built where Dr. Davis' house stood. It had a small pond in front with an island that held a little doll house. Behind Dr. Davis' house was an apartment building where Lettie Boyce had a Marcel -- heated clamps -- and permanent beauty shop. The perms were given by rolling hair in curlers attached to wires on a contraption that sat over your head -- and did they ever get hot.

Across Main Street there was a Chinese restaurant, "Cot" Barrus Auto Shop, Jack Clark's Service, Frank Klute's house (he did plaster work), the McKendrick Garage, and Sike Gillette's Texaco station, which was in front of Lafayette Orme's big three-story house on the road that went to Grantsville. The North Ward Church was across the street.

Mr. and Mrs. Neiheisel had a bakery next to the Dalton Feed store. Then more houses to Utah Avenue and Main Street where Red Jones had his UTOCO service station. Mrs. Daniels had a boarding house nearly on the north side of Main, where single men who worked at the smelter lived.

Houses were on Main Street. On the east side of the street was the Lydia Delamare home that had once been turned into a hospital. Miss Delamare lived there with her sister Mary. The house would have been listed on the historic register if there had been one before it was torn down.

Why wasn't there a desire to preserve the historical old homes and places in Tooele? Why didn't they matter? It would have been a wonderful town to preserve because of its important history.

Dorothy Lawrence Iman graduated from Tooele High School in 1944. She currently resides in Ogden.

compiled by Abby Palmer