October marked the 20th anniversary of the formal opening of the current home of the Utah State Archives and Records Service at 346 S. Rio Grande Street. The anniversary gives us at the Archives the opportunity to reflect on how past visions of a purpose-built facility for the Archives brought us to where we are today.

The Archives first became an official division of the Utah State Historical Society in 1957, with a mandate to preserve the historical records of government in Utah. The Historical Society was at that time housed in the former Kearns Mansion on South Temple. Within a few years the needs of expanding Archives activities led to the first effort to envision a future for housing the State Archives. 

The State Legislature allocated money for a new building and preliminary plans were drawn up for a sleek Modernist building containing nearly 18,000 sq. ft. of space on the Kearns Mansion grounds in 1964. Ultimately it was determined that the site was not adequate for the planned facility and that potential future for the Archives was set aside.

In 1969 the State Archives became an entity within the Department of Finance, separate from the Historical Society. The Archives moved into the State Capitol, occupying over one-third of the basement space.

After the Salt Lake City School District closed the Lincoln Junior High School at 1300 South and State Street in 1975, the State explored the possibility of purchasing the property and repurposing the school building to house the State Archives. Again, this vision of a future home for the Archives never materialized and the Archives remained in the Capitol basement. In the early 1980s, the State rented a warehouse in West Valley to store the growing Archives permanent collection and for a Records Center to store more current government records.

In 1984, the remodeled former Department of Agriculture building on the Capitol grounds became home for administrative offices and public research space. However, renovation of the Capitol and expansion of office buildings necessitated demolition of the Archives building.

In 2003, the Legislature allocated funding and plans were drawn up for a new building to house the Division of Archives and Records Service adjacent to the State Historical Society on Rio Grande Street. A formal groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2003. The following year, dignitaries, including Archives Director Patricia Smith-Mansfield, State Facilities Director Keith Stepan, Administrative Services Director Camille Anthony, State Representative Lorraine Pace, and Governor Olene Walker, were on hand for the ribbon-cutting, officially opening the building on October 1, 2004. After decades of envisioning a state-of-the-art facility for the Archives, the vision of such a future had finally come to fruition. The State Archives has been living in and benefitting from that vision of the future for 20 years now.