Picture freemasons raising this seat of government between 1891 and 1894, its clock tower rivaling the Salt Lake Temple across the Utah capital. The landmark also formerly housed offices for Salt Lake County government, which is why it carries both names. Built by freemasons between 1891 and 1894, it was intended to replace the Salt Lake City Council Hall and the Salt Lake County Courthouse, both erected in the 1860s.
Construction was riddled with controversy: during the late 19th and early 20th centuries the City-County Building became a symbol of non-Mormon citizens' open defiance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its design aimed to rival the Salt Lake Temple as the city's architectural centerpiece; the clock tower and statues are even thought to mimic the temple's spires and the statue of the angel Moroni. Ironically, the building began in the 1880s as the brainchild of the Church-backed 'People's Party,' and the non-Mormon 'Liberal Party' campaigning for city government called the proposed 'joint building' an example of the Church's extravagance.
Its clock tower and statues were meant to answer the Salt Lake Temple's spires and the angel Moroni, a rivalry set in stone.