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Richard Piatt ReportingAs part of Salt Lake City's massive downtown renovation project, the Inn at Temple Square will close Sunday. Next week, the process of salvage and demolition will start.
The building on the corner of South temple and West Temple will be the first to come down for the downtown project, but for the next few days at least, it will be business as usual for the hotel.
Guests will be checking in, enjoying the quaint atmosphere and eating at the restaurant until Sunday. When the last guest checks out that day, that will be it. All the furniture, in fact anything that isn't tied down, will be moved out, eventually to be sold. The building will be demolished within a couple weeks.
For longtime employees at the Inn, it's a strange week. They're not ready to say goodbye quite yet.
Eileen Boyle, Inn Reservation Manager: "This is sad to see the building go down. One of the saddest is to say goodbye to the guests. It's not a job I dread going to; it's a job I look forward to, I love it."
The Inn at Temple Square opened in 1930 as the Motel Temple Square. At that time it had tiny rooms and served as the bus station for the region. It got run down by the 1970's. It was redesigned in the late '80's and re-opened in its present form in 1990.
Since then, it's been a favorite of lots of people, including President Reagan and several celebrities. But the reality is that this building is old and has many problems, too expensive to fix properly.
