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Inside the luxurious department store founded by one of the most important figures in Mormon history
Inside the luxurious department store founded by one of the most important figures in Mormon history
Áine CainMay 19, 2019, 19:48 IST
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Brigham Young was the powerful second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
But this Mormon leader also founded a retail co-operative during his tenure with the church.
That retail co-op, called ZCMI, opened up a luxurious flagship department store in Salt Lake City.
Brigham Young was one of the most important figures in Mormon history, perhaps second only to his predecessor Joseph Smith.
As head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Young led his church to colonize Utah, waged a war against the United States, and advocated the expansion of slavery in the years before the Civil War.
Young's role in setting up the Zion's co-operative Mercantile Institution - or ZCMI - wasn't simply a pastime or a diversion. Young launched ZCMI in order to further Mormon interests and economic success within Utah. But the business co-operative survived long enough to become an icon of Salt Lake City until the very end of the 20th century.
Here's a look inside the now-defunct business, courtesy of The University of Utah's photo archives:
ZCMI was the brainchild of Brigham Young. One of the most important figures in Mormonism, Young was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The co-op's bylaws held that "shareholders and institutional members" were required be "full tithe-payers" to the LDS Church, according to historian Thomas Alexander.
Around 150 independent retailers purchased merchandise from ZCMI. According to the Daily Herald, these independent stores were "created and operated by local communities and LDS wards."
Alexander wrote that "businesses that joined the cooperative" also "displayed the all-seeing eye and the motto 'Holiness to the Lord' with the ZCMI name."
ZCMI eventually settled on its signature flagship store in Salt Lake City, purchasing German-Jewish businessman Nicholas S. Ransohoff's local department store.
Young boosted the company with his own money and funds from the Church, and he saved the co-op by expanding its presence into different communities across Utah.
After those initial struggles, ZCMI quickly expanded from its origins as a collection of Mormon-run businesses with a prominent urban department store.
But the nature of ZCMI would change quite a bit over the course of its history, as Utah transformed from a far-flung territory to a full-fledged state.
Utah newspaper The Daily Herald published a retrospective review of ZCMI, writing that, for "most LDS women over 50," lunching at the department store's famous Tiffin Room was "almost a rite of passage"
The Tiffin Room served as ZCMI's most storied dining space, serving up "open-face roast beef sandwiches," "chicken pot pies," and "chocolate sodas," according to the Deseret News.
The store attracted a number of celebrities over the course of its run, drawing in Bob Hope, Liberace, and Margaret Thatcher, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.
And so the storied Salt Lake City retailer shuttered in 1999, after it was bought by the May Company. The ZCMI name survived another two years, before May decided to rebrand it.