Salt Lake Stock & Mining Exchange Building

Exchange Place got its name from the building that made Salt Lake a mining-money town. The mining magnate Samuel Newhouse, bent on turning south downtown into a financial district, gave this site to the Salt Lake Mining and Stock Exchange in 1908; the exchange itself, founded in 1888, was where investors raised the capital to dig Utah's mines. Its wildest days came in the 1950s, when a national mania for uranium penny stocks — the fuel of the atomic age — made this the country's leading floor for trading shares in Utah's uranium mines.

What the plaque says

This street is named Exchange Place after the Salt Lake Stock and Mining Exchange Building. As part of his efforts to make south downtown the financial center of Salt Lake City, Samuel Newhouse donated this site to the Salt Lake Mining and Stock Exchange in 1908. Organized in 1888, the exchange provided the mechanism for raising capital to develop Utah’s lucrative mines. During the uranium boom of the 1950s, the Salt Lake Mining and Stock Exchange was particularly busy. A mania for buying penny stocks to finance the development of uranium mines swept the country. With hundreds of these mines located in Utah, the Salt Lake Mining and Stock Exchange became the nation’s center for the trading of uranium stocks.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Salt Lake City — 0.6 mi
  Utah's capital and largest city — where the Wasatch Range meets the Great Salt Lake.
• Temple Square — 0.6 mi
  The spiritual and architectural heart of Salt Lake City
• Liberty Park — 1.4 mi
  Salt Lake Citys beloved 80-acre urban park since 1882
• Gilgal Sculpture Garden — 1.7 mi
  A surreal and eccentric sculpture garden hidden in a residential neighborhood

More markers nearby

• U.S. Post Office and Courthouse — steps away
• Frank E. Moss United States Courthouse — steps away
• Pioneer Camping Grounds — steps away
• Modern Irrigation — steps away