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Show -As an example of the confidence of local business men in Salt Lake, even at a time when the financial stress of the country has caused much curtailment curtail-ment of expenditures elsewhere, comes the. announcement that the Keith-O'Brien Keith-O'Brien company has decided upon extensive ex-tensive improvements which will almost al-most double the present floor space of the big department store. By the terms of a lease signed Saturday Sat-urday by W. H. Walker, manager of the Keith-O'Brien company, the two upper floors of the David Keith building build-ing will be occupied by the Keith-O'Brien Keith-O'Brien company as soon as the necessary neces-sary alteration can bo made. By securing se-curing this additional room the firm " will be given the opportunity to in- : crease the stock of merchandise carried, car-ried, add new departments and have more space for the present departments. depart-ments. The two upper floors will be remodeled and altered to house the departments de-partments by which they will be occupied. occu-pied. The alterations will be commenced com-menced as soon as the holiday season Is over. The improvements agreed upon will cost in the neighborhood of $30,000. After the improvements are made the Keith-O'Brien store will occupy three floors and the basement, with a 135-foot 135-foot frontage on Main street, the width of seven stores and a depth of 165 feet. The control of the stock in the Keith-O'Brien Keith-O'Brien company was purchased recently re-cently from David Keith by D. F. H. W. Walker. Walker. Mr. Walker's son, H. W. Walker, has been the manager of the store for the past two years and a half, and it ' was his enterprise that made possible the present improvements. The Keith-O'Brien department store was opened on March 23, 1903, with a capital of $250,000, divided into 2,500 shares, at $100 a share. Fifteen thou-san thou-san dollars was held as treasury stock and it still remains in . the treasury. At its opening the Keith-O'Brien store carried $175,000 worth of merchandise. On account of the magnitude of the investment it took about three years to establish the business. During that three years a large sum of money was lost by the firm. The third year, however, how-ever, witnessed a rapid growth of business, busi-ness, and. at the end of three years the store was on a paying basis. |