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Show Lyceum Building Being Razed To Make Room For Hew $15,000 Building Another of Dixie's fine historical; monuments of Pioneer historic art made its move into oblivion Tuesday Tues-day when crews began the wrecking of the old Lyceum, to make room for a new and modern business building. The loss of this building comes as a great disappointment disap-pointment to many citizens who have been interested in obtaining it for a local art center. Erected in 1871 with a dual purpose in mind it served for a bakery while the St. . George Temple was under construction, and when it had filled that service serv-ice was converted into a reading room for young people and officially of-ficially deeded to the Mutual Improvement Im-provement association. In prep-( prep-( Continued on -page four) Lyceum Building Razed (Continued from first page) aration for this use David Milne was permitted to use his own artistic ideas in the decoration. Thus it became the Lyceum and over the triple arch of the front windows and door under this title he painted an open book which carried the inscription, "Out of the Books Ye Shall Be Judged". This theme was often used in early days as an urge to more development in gaining knowledge by reading. The interior in-terior of the building also contained con-tained much of the early plaster art. This was in fact the first library li-brary in St. George. And there is also an interesting story in the obtaining of the first shipment of books. Only the few that people had brought with them and fewer megazines were available until the committee in charge of amusements staged a series of programs for which a quart of molasses was the ticket charged for each adult. When eight of the fifty-gallon barrels had been filled they were shipped to Salt Lake City and exchanged for books. Much use was made then for many years thereafter of the building for a reading room, for small parties, for M. I. A., night Primary and the Relief Society meetings. Purchased recently by the Pioneer Investment Co., only the side walls of the Lyceum will be left. This part will be used for and auto show and sales room. The old home of the Bank of St. George will also be torn down and the space included will be used for the erection of a modern two-story office building at a cost of about $15,000. This will of course, be a business asset to St. George. |