The citizenry who move along the sidewalks are habituated to the shanties, but the newcomer, who whether from the east or west believes in a decent bluff of progress, is invariably appalled.”ĭevoto’s account is severe and critical, but the street was not all bad or without beauty and accomplishment as shown in the buildings and establishments that existed and carried on activities there. The gutters, advertised as sparkling with mountain water, are choked with offal. Beyond him are only a double row of shacks far gone in the disintegration stretching upwards in the direction of the hills. He passes through a station that is deliberate triumph of hideousness and emerges at the foot of Twenty-fifth Street. The tourist, a little dizzy from the altitude but grateful for trees after miles of desert, rushes out to change his watch and see a Mormon. Bernard DeVoto, a prominent American literary figure who lived in Ogden, wrote “the overland limited stops at Ogden for fifteen minutes.

Because of these less than legal kind of activities, the street gained the name of Ogden’s “Two-bit Street” and a reputation that was known through out the nation. While railroads where the mode of travel, the rail lines brought hundreds of passengers to the street.Īs a result of the prospect of business the street developed a variety of commercial houses, restaurants, eating places, shops, rooming houses and even gambling dens and houses of prostitution.

The new station was located at the end of the street and its doors opened for the railroad travelers to make their way up the street to seek food, entertainment or some diversion while waiting to continue their trips on one of the major routes that made connections in Ogden. At first it had some competition with 24th Street but after the construction of the clock-towered railroads station in 1889, 25th Street became the main street of business and traffic in town. Click link for a printable version of Walking Tour: Historic Walking Tours Of OgdenĢ5th Street (or 5th Street as it was originally numbered) since the beginning of Ogden’s history has been one of the busiest and important streets in the city.

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