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Editor's note: This article is part of a series reviewing Utah and national history for KSL.com's Historic section.SALT LAKE CITY — A group of Canadian tourists walking around the Utah Capitol memorial walkway stop and ask a nearby stranger to take a photo of them with the surrounding cherry blossoms.
“It’s beautiful here,” a woman within the group says, likening it to the blossoms found in Washington, D.C., each spring.
Nearby, there are a lot of other people equally enjoying the alluring blossoms. On the west side of the lawn, there’s a woman in a wedding dress having photos taken, and a family is taking graduation photos about 50 feet from the building’s steps. There are joggers, dog walkers and even children rolling down the Capitol lawn on this 65-degree late Tuesday afternoon.
It’s all part of the draw to the Capitol for a few weeks each spring — 433 Yoshino cherry trees lining the 0.7-mile pathway that surrounds the four buildings at Capitol Hill. Pear trees planted near the building’s reflecting pool also bloom similar white flowers. They represent a rebirth following the dead of winter.
While the Capitol isn’t the only location in the state with blossom trees, it is certainly the area that stands out each April.
“Everyone just comes and enjoys the grounds, primarily this pathway that we have of the cherry blossom trees,” said Stephanie Angelides, curator and inventory collections manager for the Capitol Preservation Board. “Families come, there are picnics that happen; I’ve seen people come with their bubbles — large scale bubbles — and people flying kites. It’s a really friendly, welcoming environment.”
The origin of the lawn itself began in 1911 when Gov. William Spry created the Capitol Commission to put together a brand new building for the state.
The commission quickly hired Olmsted Brothers, a firm comprised of the sons of famous Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted. The firm went on to play an influential role in the start of the National Park Service and planned parks throughout the country in the 20th Century.
When John C. Olmsted, a senior member of the firm, met with the commission in October 1911, he wrote, “the grounds are enclosed by an iron picket fence and have been planted with trees” as ideas for the design, according to a history report compiled by the Capitol.
His other notes from the day include adjustments to streets for a future governor’s residence. Interestingly enough, Olmsted also recommended not allowing streetcars to move up State Street, and not allowing building height restrictions to block the city’s view of the Capitol or the Capitol’s view of the city.
As the planning continued, Olmsted advocated for adding trees, but not tall-growing trees. And he didn’t suggest the “use of elaborate flowerbeds and ornamental shrubbery.”
“The Olmsted Brothers had wanted the Capitol to expand their acreage — they only had about 20 acres at the time,” Angelides said. “Now it’s about 40 acres, so they were thinking it needed a grander grounds areas to complement what the Capitol is, what it represents.”
Many of their designs, however, were altered after the state hired Richard Kletting as the architect for the project in 1912.
The first cherry blossom trees weren’t planted until late April 1931, when the state planted the trees from Seattle, Washington, on Arbor Day that year, a 1945 Salt Lake Telegram article stated.
More trees were added after World War II, when Japan sent gifts, including Kwanzan cherry trees, to the Utah Capitol as a symbol of friendship between the two nations, according to the Capitol’s history.
Those trees and others at the Capitol, however, were later removed in the late 1990s and early 2000s after they were determined to be damaged or dying. In fact, many were damaged or lost because of the 1999 tornado that struck downtown Salt Lake City.
The current Yoshino cherry trees weren’t added until the state ordered a complete renovation, which closely mirrored Olmsted Brothers’ original vision for the Capitol, in 2007. The trees which were grown in Portland, Oregon, specifically for the Capitol were grafted in order to create an arch of branches between each tree, Angelides said.
“They are planned to make this really lovely path,” she said.
Angelides looks back at the trees, where there’s a photoshoot happening about 30 feet from her as well as an older couple walking around on the path nearby.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said of this time of the year. “They only last just such a limited time — perhaps a week or two, so people should come right now and see it.”
