Salt Lake City and County Building, Town hall in Downtown Salt Lake City, United States.

The Salt Lake City and County Building is a Richardsonian Romanesque government building on Washington Square, designed by the firm Monheim, Bird and Proudfoot, which won a contest against 14 other submissions. Its walls are carved from gray Kyune sandstone, and the central clock tower rises 256 feet to a statue of Columbia. Carvings beside the south entrance show Father DeSmet and the explorer García López de Cárdenas.

The building was constructed between 1891 and 1894 and served as the state's temporary government center from Utah statehood in 1896 until the current State Capitol opened in 1915. It held this role for over two decades before shifting to a shared county and local government function.

The building was meant as a statement by non-Mormon citizens: its clock tower and statues are thought to mimic the Salt Lake Temple's spires and angel Moroni. Look for carved faces on the south facade, including Jesuit priest Father DeSmet and conquistador García López de Cárdenas.

The building stands at 451 Washington Square, with large entrances on each cardinal side; its north-south axis runs through the central clock tower. It closed after the March 2020 earthquake and reopened to the public in November 2021. Look for the carved faces beside the south entrance: Father DeSmet on the right, García López de Cárdenas on the left.

The 1989 renovation placed the sandstone building on a base isolation system of steel and rubber. When a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck the Wasatch Front in March 2020, the building was closed but needed only minimal repairs, and it reopened to the public in November 2021.