Curtis Park

Genevieve Curtis gave her life to Salt Lake's schools. Certified to teach at seventeen, she began by running a kindergarten in her mother's basement; later she kept the books and weighed the coal at the family coal business in Sugar House while raising her children. But education was her cause. She led parent-teacher groups through the 1930s and, in 1941, became the first woman ever elected to the Salt Lake City School Board, serving fourteen years. Named Utah's Mother of the Year in 1957, she is remembered in the name of this park.

What the plaque says

Genevieve Raine Curtis, a long-time champion of education, was born in 1879 and died in 1968. After obtaining her teaching certificate in 1896, Genevieve Curtis organized and taught kindergarten in her mother's basement. In the early 1900s, she and her husband Alexander opened a coal company in Sugar House, where she kept the books and weighed the coal while her husband loaded and delivered it. She continued to work in the education field, as well, organizing and serving as President of the Irving PTA from 1933 to 1935. She served as President of the Salt Lake City PTA in 1936. Genevieve Curtis was the first woman to be elected to the Salt Lake City School Board of which she was a member from 1941 to 1955. She was named Utah Mother of the Year in 1957 and elected to the Utah Hall of Fame by the Salt Lake Council of Women in 1958. She and her husband were the parents of ten children. The Genevieve Paine Curtis Park is located at the site of the former Curtis Elementary School, which had also been named after her.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 1.2 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Natural History Museum of Utah — 1.7 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City
• Red Butte Garden — 1.9 mi
  A 100-acre botanical garden with panoramic valley views
• Gilgal Sculpture Garden — 2.2 mi
  A surreal and eccentric sculpture garden hidden in a residential neighborhood

More markers nearby

• Mary Jane Dilworth — 0.7 mi
• Pioneer Silk Industry — 0.8 mi
• Emigration Canyon Railroad — 1.1 mi
• Miller Park — 1.1 mi