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HYRUM, Utah (AP) — A northern Utah bank is dismantling and rebuilding a historic small-town grain elevator for its new “Scandinavian-modern” building in Hyrum.
The tall wood structure, now weathered with age, was first built in 1918 by the Holley-Globe and Milling Company, the Herald Journal reported.
It’s been a fixture in the small town for a century, but soon it will get a new life: front and center into Cache Valley Bank’s new location. Workers began lifting sections of the structure with a crane this week.
The bank wanted a building that was both creative and embodied the town. Board member Peter Daines said his grandfather, a high school shop teacher and Hyrum native, informed their decision to incorporate the rustic appeal of the historic wood on the agricultural storage structure.
Bank CEO George Daines remembered seeing the big tower when while visiting his grandparents as a child, though it wasn’t in operation even then.
“I don’t think my grandfather knew this, but my brother and I climbed up into it once,” George said. “We did not get to the top.”
Visitors to the new bank building, though, will be able to reach the top through a spiral staircase. It will also have a new all-glass observation deck.
“We’re doing sort of a Scandinavian-modern look,” said architect Christian Wilson said.
The move is bittersweet for some. Neighbor Chris Weber said he wished it could have become a duplex and fulfill the vision of former owner Ray Miller, who renovated and lived in it for a time.
In its new home, the 68-foot (21 meter) tower will also have a new high-tech purpose: Its cupola will provide a line-of-sight to transfer data to the bank’s offices in Logan.
“We’re excited to get it in place,” Peter Daines said, “safely in its new location.”
