About
Whether you are a longtime resident of the Salt Lake area or have only just arrived, you may not realize how close you are to the monuments of our rich cultural past. These monuments are everywhere to be found, but they only partly reside in wood and steel and stone. The rest comes through in the lives of everyday people.​
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We are here to present you with an opportunity to save one of these monuments and consequently impact countless lives.
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Located at 742 W. South Temple Street in Salt Lake City, the Nettie Gregory Center is a recreational facility that has served many purposes for Salt Lakers since its opening in 1964. Today it awaits renewed service to Salt Lake’s west side with support from people like you.
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With your involvement, you will not only be saving history, but you will be making it too.
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Our Story
From early fur traders and slaves to free persons of varied backgrounds, the territory (and later state) of Utah has a lengthy history of African American inhabitants. Historical racial prejudices often limited black Utahns to certain trades and areas of habitation around the Beehive State generally and Salt Lake City in particular. These limitations led black Utahns to create their own community life and to pursue recreation within their homes, their private clubs, and especially their churches.
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This was the situation that William and Nettie Gregory discovered upon their arrival to Utah in the 1910s. William–a pullman porter for the Union Pacific railroad–had brought his new bride with him to Utah from Tennessee, hoping to start a new life after encounters with the Ku Klux Klan. Nettie, a teacher and musician, took to their new home with the same degree of committed civic engagement that she always did.
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“She started working with the young people right away,” William later recalled of that time. “There just wasn’t much wholesome recreation for the young folks down here on the west side back then.”
Gregory's flight from the KKK
History of Discrimination
William Gregory had fled Tennessee due to Ku Klux Klan threats to his family; this move to Utah set the stage for the Gregorys building community instead of being persecuted.
​Nettie Gregory Center, a Black community center in Utah, seeks National Register spot
Construction & Dedication (~1959-1964) of the Center
The construction of the civic building began around 1959 (after many years of planning) and completed in 1964; dedicated on Nov. 29, 1964 (after Nettie’s death in July).
Centre of community life: programs, recreation, events (1960s-80s)
Over the decades, the Center hosted weddings, social clubs, youth sports, NAACP meetings, drill teams, etc. It was a safe gathering space for the Black community.
Recognition efforts: Feasibility & Historic Designation campaign (2023-25)
Community and preservation advocates launched efforts to list the Center on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. The nomination was forwarded in 2025.
Revitalization & future vision / Capital campaign launch
The plan is now preparing a capital campaign to revitalize the building: adding technology center, workout room, recording studio, playground, new basketball court, and reopening the Center as a hub for West Side families and youth.
Origins of Nettie Gregory (1890-1964)
Born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1890. Nettie Grimes Gregory moved to Utah after marrying William Gregory, and quickly became engaged in community life and recreation for youth on Salt Lake City’s west side.
​Fund-raising and community building for the Center
Nettie and William, along with Black women’s clubs (e.g., the Nimble Thimble Club), raised money (dinners, bake sales) and donated countless hours of labor to build what would become the community center.
Opening as Salt Lake’s first community center fully open to Black residents (1964)
The Center opened in 1964 as the only community center in Salt Lake City fully open to Black residents at the time.
Challenges and decline: changing times and closure (2004)
As societal opportunities broadened and other facilities opened, the Center’s usage declined. The building eventually closed in 2004.
Historic designation achieved (March 2025)
The Center earned its historic designation in early 2025, opening up tax-credits and renewal possibilities.
“[By] working to create a better neighborhood community, we extend our influence on our children’s lives. In effect, we create a ‘community of parents’ … which supports and guides our children.”
– James Laster (Dedicatory services for the Nettie Gregory Center, Nov. 1964)
We look to give new life to a building with a storied history by preparing it for use by future generations. The investment you make in this project will both preserve a legacy and provide needed amenities to families in an under-resourced area of our city.
Our Mission
Putting their heads together with friends and fellow congregants, the Gregorys saw the need for more accommodating facilities that their community–and particularly the local children–could use. William worked at acquiring land for this dream project, while Nettie labored with local charitable organizations and her sewing group–the Nimble Thimble Club–to raise funds through bake sales and community dinners.
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Little by little, the building slowly rose, with local black families providing the manual labor on top of the plumbing, electrical and masonry work in their off-hours. Decades after the seed was first planted, the dream came to fruition when the building was dedicated in 1964.
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As the first civic building in Salt Lake City built by its African American community in a time of segregation, the Nettie Gregory Center has gone on to serve as the site of parties and weddings, of education and intervention programs, and as the headquarters for Utah’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The countless people who have gone through its doors to learn and play since its opening embody the dream that the Gregorys envisioned, for both the old and the young of every color and creed have been welcome.
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​“My wife and I always felt that there should be complete equality there,” William said of the center’s purpose, “we wanted the center to serve everyone.”
As families moved out of the area in prior decades, the use of the building became haphazard, and now updates as well as repairs have become necessary. With the development of additional housing units in west Salt Lake City–and a subsequent inflow of families and children–we deem the time to be right for renewed use of the Nettie Gregory Center. Not only is it an important historical landmark for the Salt Lake and African American communities, but its central purpose of providing safe and wholesome recreation for young people remains a timely and vital need.
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And here is where you can make a difference.