A chapel with many lives

1. 1879

   The first meetinghouse

   The Fifteenth Ward builds its first meetinghouse. The church sells it in 1903 to make room for a railroad station, and the building comes down.

2. 1904

   The chapel opens

   The ward dedicates the chapel on February 28, 1904. The Ashton Brothers, among Salt Lake’s biggest builders, design and build it in the Gothic style. The auditorium seats 350.

3. 1900s–1969

   The church years

   The 15th Ward Dramatic Association, Utah’s first theater association, stages plays around the county. The ward choir sings in the Salt Lake Tabernacle four years running, from 1914 to 1917. The ward starts the LDS Church’s men’s basketball league in 1915 and runs a Boy Scout troop from 1925. Neighbors come for smorgasbords, dance lessons from the McCune School and outings to Lagoon.

4. 1929

   An Art Deco hall

   The ward adds an Art Deco amusement hall, which opens in December 1929. It holds a gym, eight classrooms, a kitchen, a stage and a fireproof booth for movies. Neighbors come for dances, plays and film screenings.

5. 1949

   A gymnasium joins the hall

   The ward adds a two-story gymnasium, about 80 by 40 feet, south of the amusement hall. It matches the hall’s brick-and-buttress design, and it later becomes the large recording studio.

6. 1949

   Curtain up

   The ward stages the three-act drama A Doll’s House to raise welfare funds. A cast of 100 and an adult chorus follow with a second benefit performance.

7. 1957–1959

   Fresh paint

   The ward renovates and repaints the chapel interior in 1957. In 1959 it installs a new roof and paints the outside.

8. 1968–1969

   The church moves on

   The 15th Ward dissolves in February 1968 after 64 years in the chapel, and the LDS Church decommissions the building in 1969. Oral history recalls regular film screenings in the hall as the church looks for a new use for the building.

9. 1971–1980

   Sunn Classic Pictures

   The church sells the building in 1971, and Sun Classic Pictures (later Sunn Classic Productions) turns it into a film and sound headquarters. Sunn makes family films such as Grizzly Adams and In Search of Noah’s Ark, and it tests every idea on audiences with early computers.

10. 1980–2020

    LA East Studios

    Gary Jackson buys the building in 1980, and a 40-year recording era begins. Studio designer Tom Hidley shapes the rooms, and the south addition becomes the sound studio. Carly Simon is the first to use the upstairs crash pad, which becomes the Carly Simon Room.

11. 2007–2021

    Warner on the Westside

    Warner Chappell Music buys LA East’s parent company, Non-Stop Music, in 2007, and buys the studio operation outright around 2010. Owner Bryan Hofheins keeps the building. LA East also contracts directly with Warner Bros. as a recording venue, and shows from Grizzly Adams to Touched by an Angel record sound here. Warner Bros. stores and distributes video and audio productions in the building. Warner leaves in January 2021.

12. 2019

    Landmark status

    The chapel earns a place on the historic register. It stands as one of four pioneer-era ward chapels left in Salt Lake City.

13. 2021

    UAA buys the chapel

    UAA buys the 15th Ward chapel and begins its new life as an arts campus.

14. 2021

    $500,000 for the down payment

    The Utah Legislature awards UAA $500,000 for the chapel’s down payment.

15. 2025

    Plescia’s sculptures arrive

    UAA installs the rescued sculptures by Ralphael Plescia on the lawn, the first works in the garden.

16. 2026–2027

    Accessible restrooms and ramps

    Crews build the accessible restrooms and ramps now, so the castle can soft open in 2027, before the homes rise.

17. Nov 8, 2026

    The garden grows

    Crews install The Illuminator and the crystal-and-heart sculpture beside the Plescia works.

18. Oct 9, 2027

    Westside Whale Tail debuts

    The planned debut of Kesler’s whale tail, with a new mural every two to three years after that.

Before and after

Brick, then paint

The church painted the chapel’s red brick white in the late 1950s. Today the walls carry a mural by Utah muralist Josh Scheuerman.

Before the paint

After the paint

The designer

Who was Tom Hidley?

Tom Hidley (1931–2025) designed hundreds of recording studios around the world. The chapel holds one of the five Hidley studios that remain.

• He changed how studios sound. Hidley is credited with recording innovations such as the bass trap, speakers built into the front wall and sliding glass doors between live rooms and isolation rooms.
• He built the big names. He co-founded TTG Studios in Los Angeles in 1965, designed The Record Plant Los Angeles in 1969 and helped launch Westlake Audio, then Eastlake Audio.
• He chased silence. His “non-environment” control rooms aim to disappear, so the speakers tell the truth. His BOP Studios room in South Africa reached down to 10 Hz.
• He started in Los Angeles. Born there in 1931, he worked at JBL, then in New York at MGM/Verve and A&R Recording, before he opened his own studios.

Sources: Frank Wells, “Remembering Tom Hidley,” Mix, August 29, 2025; National Register of Historic Places registration form, 2022 draft.

Why it matters

Four chapels left

Four pioneer-era ward chapels still stand in Salt Lake City. This one hosted the voices of Dolly Parton and Carly Simon. UAA keeps it in public use, so the next century of stories happens inside it.