Remember When From the Past--Payson's Historic Apartments

Remember When
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Kenna Holm  



Payson’s Historic Apartment Houses

    Today I was thinking about some of the old apartment buildings we used to have in Payson. Two of the most popular ones were The Snyder Apartments and Eckersley Apartments. 
The Snyder Apartments were owned by Bill and Marti Snyder. Bill worked with his dad in the car business (Snyder Motors) on the corner of Main and First North where the little park is now. (at the light by the bank)  They had 4 apartments in the building if I remember right.  This apartment building was on the corner where One Man Band is now. It sat back in off the highway and it had a circular driveway into it, so you could drive in from the West side or the North side. It had grass and flowers in the center of the lot between the highway curve and the circular driveway. On the South of the apartments was the little driveway into the Poultry Plant.

   We had a lot of friends that lived thereat one time or another. The first one I remember going to visit was Cliff and Beth (Cope) Cartwright. Jerry and Loraine (Jones) Mortensen, Cliff and Beth and my husband, Frank and I used to get together and play games. We had all been married about the same time and all lived in the Third Ward.  Next, Jerry and Diane (Beddoes) Hansen lived there. We used to get together and have parties and dinners. Blain and Colleen Wilson lived in one of the apartments and later on Dr. Robert Hogan had his first office in the back apartment.

   Another apartment building that was very nice was Eckersleys. It sat where the car wash is on the big turn on First North (next to the Mexican Restaurant).  At first it was the old Strawberry Hotel. I remember a photographer lived there by the name of Bill Pons. He took our family s picture.windows in front on the bottom level.
    Also they had a little cafe called the High Hat in there. It as also the depot for the Greyhound Buses and also the Continental Bus Line.(That s stretching the old memory)

   In 1943 George and Elsie Eckersley (Carolyn Shepherd’s parents) bought the building and then added on and remodeled the East part. Their apartment was a large beautiful one with big windows. 
    Upstairs, Cora Page (she worked at the high school as librarian) lived in the East apartment and Emma Wilson (Allen Wilson’s grandmother) lived in the West apartment.  Mrs. Wilson was one of my favorite people. She had lived in half of our house and rented it from my folks. She made the BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted. My mother didn’t like chocolate so she never made chocolate chip cookies and when Mrs. Wilson baked, she would bring me over some. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
    Ramona Smith (Gloria Barnett’s mom) and her daughter Connie lived in the bottom apartment.  In the back, behind the Eckersleys there was several small houses that were small apartments. Martha Ann McDonald and her daughter Jeannette lived in the front one and Bud and Dessie Nielsen lived in the back apartment after they were married. Later on Duane and Janice Patten lived in that back apartment when they were first married.
    The Eckersley s sold the building in the 70s to Vernile Gasser.  Later it was torn down and a car wash was built in the place where the Eckersley Apartments stood.  That has since been converted into a car dealership.

   Another place was the old Payson Hotel. It was on Utah Avenue. When I first remember it, Merrill and Bertie Smith run it. They made a lot of changes to the building and modernized it. I’m not sure how long they ran it as a hotel. Merrill was a Utah County Sheriff.  Bertie made the best taffy of anyone I know. She gave me her recipe but mine was never as good as hers.
    I’m sure there are many more things about these buildings but these are the things I remember. Can you remember when?