London Ice Cream Parlor

Its faded sign still reads "London Ice Cream," and the ice cream was real — but the name hid something. Built around 1882, one of the oldest buildings on the street and a fine Greek Revival one, it served as the respectable front for Belle London's operation behind it. From here a hidden passage led to Electric Alley, the lantern-lit lane of some thirty "cribs" where the district's prostitutes worked, out of sight of 25th Street. A midnight police raid finally closed the alley in 1912. The ice cream parlor's handsome facade remains.

What the plaque says

Of the many interesting commercial buildings on Lower 25th Street, this two-story structure known only by its faded inscription plaque, “London Ice Cream” may be the oldest and certainly one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the historic district. Pre-dating building records, the store was probably built in 1882-83. It has a Greek Revival facade with its pedimented roof and window pilaster, however, Italianate influences are also evident in the roman arched windows and bracketed cornice. Among the earliest businesses occupying the ground floor were the Chicago Shoe Store, Bon Ton Restaurant, and T. Ashby Shoe Store. What probably started out as a legitimate boarding house in the upper story, apparently degenerated into a common bordello not unlike the fifty or so others in the neighborhood. Known as the K.C. Rooms, the business on the upper floor was complimented by similar activities conducted in separate eight-by-eight foot frame “cribs” behind the Parlor along Electric Alley.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ogden Union Station — steps away
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex
• Snowbasin — 6.1 mi
  One of the country's oldest ski areas and a 2002 Olympic downhill venue — world-class terrain that somehow still skis uncrowded.
• Hill Aerospace Museum — 7.2 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac
• Powder Mountain — 15 mi
  The largest ski resort in the United States by acreage — a famously uncrowded "PowMow" now remaking itself under Netflix's Reed Hastings.

More markers nearby

• The Union Restaurant & Switch Euro. Lodgings — steps away
• Davenport Saloon — steps away
• The Solomon C. Stephens Building — steps away
• Porter Block — steps away