The Sugar House Santa Shack Is Moving Again. Construction Has Moved It Before.

"I have looked all over Sugar House to find another spot, and there just isn't one." Laurie Bray, the Santa Shack's current owner and photographer, said that to Fox 13 in early October. The station reported that the shack has to leave its current site because it sits next to construction for the UTA S-Line extension. When the story ran, the new location had not been settled.

This kind of move has happened before. For close to 80 years, the shack has been relocated, rebuilt or put at risk several times as Sugar House tore down and rebuilt parts of its commercial core. The streetcar is the latest project to do it.

Why the Current Spot Is Unavailable

At the Sugar House Community Council's June 3 meeting, Bray said the shack would have to leave its spot near KeyBank and Patagonia because of the upcoming streetcar work. She said she was looking for a new site with enough parking and had already talked about it with Council Member Sarah Young and local business owners.

The same meeting explained why. Ethan Ray, UTA's project manager for the S-Line extension, described a line that will run about a quarter mile across Tywin Drive into Sugar House Center. It includes a third streetcar to keep service every 15 minutes, along with new traffic signals at McClelland, 1100 East and Highland Drive. Ray said the build would take about 15 months and was targeting completion in August 2027.

The Community Council's construction report dated September 29 lists the work as starting in June 2026, with an estimated finish of July 2027. The two documents give finish dates a month apart, so it's safest to expect the line to open sometime in the summer of 2027. The report also gives a sense of how much is underway right now:

• A full closure of Simpson Avenue between McClelland and 1100 East, scheduled to last 30 days from the report date
• Utility excavation on Simpson and trackway excavation in front of the Sugarmont Apartments
• Demolition of the former DI building, planned to start in early October after Rocky Mountain Power vaults were relocated
• Wall forms and rebar going in for the new station in the Sugar House Center parking lot

UTA's project page says Parley's Trail is expected to stay open during construction, with possible short detours near work zones. Because the station is being built in the Center's parking lot, the shack's usual neighborhood is short on two things it needs every December: open ground and parking.

A Short History of Moving

The shack's history comes mostly from a 2013 Salt Lake Tribune story by Tom Wharton, which drew on unofficial Sugar House historian Lynne Olsen. Read in order, the dates follow the neighborhood's own building projects.

The Tribune also describes an earlier version of the holiday trip. Music groups often performed for shoppers, and children counted a stop at the animated holiday window at the old Southeast Furniture as part of the season. A 2011 Utah Stories piece placed the shack at Monument Plaza, just below Highland Drive and 2100 South. It also reported that the shack had once belonged to Fiddler's Elbow before being donated to the Sugar House Merchants Association.

In 1990 the shack was pushed out by the construction of Sugar House Center. In 2026 a streetcar station in the Center's parking lot is pushing it out again.

The Builders Behind the 2013 Shack

Construction has displaced the shack more than once, and people from the construction business have also saved it. Before 2013, the shack was a Tuff Shed-style building that had to be moved to the back parking lot of Sterling Furniture each year. By then it was in poor shape, and during the 2012 move much of the floor fell out.

Mark Isaac stepped in. He was director of entitlement and planning for Boulder Venture Development, the company working on the old Granite Furniture Building near the monument plaza, and the Tribune noted he was a 17-year Sugar House resident. His plan was to repair the shack. "But when we tried to move the shack, the bottom fell out," he told the Tribune. "It was just weathered and fatigued."

Isaac then went to Dino Furano of R & O Contractors, a firm working on one of Sugar House's many construction projects at the time. The Tribune credited the new shack to "construction, development and architectural elves who volunteered their time and donated materials." Thirteen years later, Furano is involved again.

A Shack Too Tall for the I-80 Underpass

The building that came out of that 2013 effort is now part of the moving problem. In the Fox 13 report, Furano gave its height:

"It's 17 foot 10. It won't even go under the bridge for I-80, so that's the problem."

The June Council minutes recorded the shack as 14 feet tall. The 17-foot-10 figure comes from Furano, who built it. Furano told Fox 13 he is willing to modify the structure if needed: "Either we take a little bit off and put it back, or we make a different design on the very top, and we'll get it out there."

So any new site needs room for the shack and parking for visitors, and the route there has to work for a building too tall to clear the freeway underpass without changes.

Families Joining the Search

When Bray learned the current site would no longer be available, she asked the community for ideas. Fox 13 reported that the response was large, but finding a permanent spot inside Sugar House was still difficult.

One family that answered was the Jacksons. Fox 13 reported that Kent Jackson has visited the shack for more than 50 years and brought all nine of his children. Wendy Jackson told the station the family had talked about whether it could go in their front yard, with the aim of finding a place where it could "stay there so we don't have to do this again and again." The family then put Bray in touch with people who may be able to give the shack a new home.

Aaron Jackson summed up the shack's history in one line to Fox 13: "It moved once and now it's moving again, but it's gonna stick around." The Tribune's timeline shows it has actually moved several times.

What We Know Heading Into the Season

Bray told Fox 13 that what she likes best is hearing from people who came as children and now bring their own kids or grandkids. If you're planning that visit this year, here is where things stood in late October:

1. Location. Not finalized in the most recent reporting. Fox 13 said the exact new site "has yet to be finalized."
2. Who to follow. Laurie Bray, who runs the shack and also sits on the Community Council's Arts, Culture, and Events committee. The Sugar House Community Council posts regular updates on the S-Line and other construction projects.
3. What the site needs. Adequate parking, according to Bray in June, plus a route that works for a 17-foot-10 shack.
4. How long construction lasts. The streetcar extension is expected to finish in summer 2027, so the area around Sugar House Center will be busy through this holiday season and next year's.

The shack has had other homes before. The 1990 site southeast of the plaza never caught on, and the shack was back at the monument by 1993. Bray told the Community Council in June that this time she was looking for a site with adequate parking.

The streetcar extension, the new station and the projects around Sugar House Center are changing the blocks near the shack's old spot. If you're wondering how the streetcar extension and new buildings near your street could affect your home's value, Lori and Lisa Sell Team can talk it through with you. Get a free home valuation.