Utah House

Reader Matthew Buckingham writes in with a ghost sign from long ago. The hand-painted "Utah House" recently appeared in Chelsea, on the facade of 300 Eighth Avenue during renovations to Kyung's Market (put out of business after 7-Eleven moved in next door).

Matthew writes, "Utah House was a hotel where many trade unions and associations held their meetings. That stretch of Eighth Avenue was also the scene of the July 12, 1871 Orange Riot. Police and the National Guard killed more than 60 people and wounded over 150 at an Orangemen parade celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when Protestants regained control of Ireland."

Matthew also attached the following illustration and mention of the hotel from the book The Orange Riots by Michael Allen Gordon:

"Just after leaving his paper collar business in Twenty-sixth Street, James A. Clark was wounded in his right thigh and arm. Irish-born Thomas Dugdale and Patrick Slattery, who like Clark later died from their wounds, by all accounts were innocent bystanders. Dugdale had watched the parade from the Utah House, where militia fire tore into his left arm and breast."

"Unfortunately," Matthew adds, "the facade has already been boarded up again."