The Solomon C. Stephens Building

This 1888 storefront, another of the Stephens family's, spent its long life mostly in the liquor trade. Early on it held "The Switch," a sample room pouring wines and liquors, alongside a lodging house; a string of saloons followed, the Frazzini brothers' among them. When Prohibition dried the country out in 1920, the building did what much of 25th Street did — it stayed open selling "soft drinks and billiards," a polite front for business that mostly carried on as before. It still stands in the heart of the historic district.

What the plaque says

This building was constructed circa. 1888 by Solomon C. Stephens. The family owned land and constructed several commercial buildings on the north side of the 200 Block of 25th Street. Stephens owned the property until 1895 when it was sold to the First National Bank. Later owners included Herbert H. Hayes, and Tom and Akiko Kinomoto who sold the property in 1993 to the current owners, Carma Whiting and Karen White. The earliest recorded businesses to occupy the structure were “The Switch”, a sample room which served wines and liquors, and the “European Lodging House”, a small hostelry. City directories indicate that several saloons occupied the building during the early 1900s, one of the longest tenants being a saloon owned and operated by the Frazzini Brothers. During the era of prohibition, a soft drinks and billiards business operated in the building. During the mid-1940s, Kinomotos established the American Eagle Cafe in the building which operated on 25th Street for several decades. The building was renovated in 1993 to accommodate “Panhandlers”. The brick structure is a two story, two part commercial block with some limited Italianate detailing. The second story included three symmetrically placed, two-over-two double hung windows, each corbeled arch window opening is topped with segmental arch of sandstone block. Decorative corbeling is located below the window line and along the cornice line of the front parapet wall. The street level section includes a recessed central entry door flanked by large display windows on either side and an entry door for the second story located west of the storefront.

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
• Porter Block — steps away
• London Ice Cream Parlor — steps away
• Davenport Saloon — steps away