Our amazing Temple of Tango is officially known as E.W. Garbett Center for the Arts – and it really is a former church! This beautiful Art Deco edifice was constructed on Salt Lake’s Capitol Hill in 1907, and served as the 24th Ward Chapel of the LDS Church for over 60 years (the above photo is from the Church History Library). Eventually, the Mormon congregation outgrew the old building, and over time it became the home of a Choral Arts Society, owing to a generous donation by the family of E.W. Garbett, a real estate executive who was once a member of the 24th Ward.
In 2014, the Wasatch Tango Club started holding regular milongas in the “Old Church”. By 2016, locals dance groups teamed up with the Choir nonprofit to renovate the building. We held fundraising events and collected over $14,000 in donations, matched by a $20,000 gift of materials by the Home Depot Foundation, and a donation of $7,000 in labor by the Underfoot Floors Co.
The results are nothing short of amazing. Two superb dance halls with excellent wood floors and great sound systems, a meeting room, a well-equipped kitchen, in a palace of cathedral ceilings, art pieces and tapestries, in a beautiful historical hillside neighborhood. Come and dance with us! You will love it!
