The ‘D’ above downtown St. George now an official national landmark: ‘The D is our heritage’

A St. George landmark associated with the Dixie name is getting federal recognition with a place on the National Register of Historic Places, after a push by local and university officials.

The supersized white “D” that hangs over downtown St. George was officially placed on the recognized by the National Park Service on May 25. The landmark has long been a symbol of the university in St. George and is seen as a prominent mark of the history of the city, according to one local elected official.

“The D is our heritage,” said State Rep. Walt Brooks (R-St. George). “It's a critical component to show that Dixie is still part of our heritage, the name and kind of honoring that.”

The 100-foot-tall and 75-foot-wide D on the hill has been overlooking downtown St. George for longer than 100 years, built in 1915 by students at the Dixie Academy, a predecessor to what would eventually become Dixie State University and, on July 1, Utah Tech University, according to the Washington County Historical Society.

Washington County started using the "Dixie" nickname when it was settled in the 1860s by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were sent to the area in part to grow cotton. Brooks said he thinks it’s important for local landmarks to be preserved to celebrate the Dixie heritage, especially as the university officially drops its "Dixie" name and changes to Utah Tech.

Community members had been advocating for a move to preserve the D since the school announced plans to change its name. The process of applying to the national register started when Brooks had a conversation with a childhood friend Kyle Wells, who is now the dean of the College of Business & Communication at Dixie State.

Brooks told Wells about how his grandmother, Juanita Brooks, a famous St. George author and historian, wanted to preserve cottonwood trees on Main Street and successfully applied for these trees to be placed on the national register. Wells thought it would be a “good idea” to do the same for the D on the hill since the land the D is located on is owned by the university.

Wells then worked with the Utah State Historic Preservation Board and the city manager of St. George, Adam Lenhard, as well as the mayor, Michele Randall, to write an application. Wells and the preservation board argued the D landmark should be added to the register for its association with the social history of the area, according to Cory Jensen, the national register coordinator for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office.

“Even though it was constructed primarily for Dixie Academy (currently Dixie State University), it is more of a symbol for the entire city, often shown in advertisements and promotional media for the community. Although the object’s appearance has slightly changed incrementally over time, it still retains its overall historical integrity,” reads the Preservation Office’s online description of the D landmark.

The university hired a Salt Lake City based architecture and building design firm CRSA to help Wells edit the proposal, according to Wells.

The landmark is associated with wider operations in the city, since for the past 108 years every spring the university celebrates "D Week,” which is a slate of events meant to bring the community closer together. The main event involves volunteers repainting the white rocks within the D, according to Jensen.

Even as the university moves forward with the Utah Tech name, it will still celebrate D Week, according to Jyl Hall, the director of public relations for the university. Hall said the university supports the D being on the national registry and that the school is committed to preserving the “local meaning of Dixie” in local landmarks.

Wells echoed that sentiment, saying that people within southern Utah think Dixie is a historic term that has a unique definition to Washington County, even if people from outside the area might associate "Dixie" with the slavery and racism that was present in the antebellum American South.

“If any organization has influence that is contained within Washington County and the surrounding area, we can support and honor the Dixie name,” Wells said in a statement to The Spectrum. “But we must recognize that when that influence extends beyond our local area, the name Dixie has a different and often confusing meaning.”

Wells said that Dixie being associated with the Antebellum South was a point of contention when he defended the proposal for seeking a national register designation to the Utah State Historic Preservation board. The vote to approve this designation wasn’t unanimous because of the perceived historical ties to the Antebellum South.

Brooks said he still “100% disagrees” with the name change to Utah Tech but that he believes the university and other local officials rallying around the D to get it on the national register is an example of people putting aside their differences to work for a common goal.

“I don't know what the right word is. Proud or excited or happy, something like that," Brooks said. "But Kyle Wells and I, because we're friends that grew up here, even though we're on different sides of the name change of Dixie State, but this is something that we can unite around."

The process to get the landmark designation approved has taken months; in October the first draft of the application was submitted. Jensen then spent months working with Wells to get the technical language correct for it to be approved by state and federal officials, according to Jensen.

Jensen described getting the D on the national register as a unique accomplishment since there aren’t any other hillside letters in Utah on the national register, despite the two biggest universities in the state — the University of Utah and Brigham Young University — having their own. He says there "only a handful" of hillside letters in the register.

But Jensen says there are some misconceptions about what the designation actually means. He noted that the property owner of the landmark still has the freedom to choose to do what to do with the site in the future.

“It doesn't protect it. It is only meant to encourage historic preservation to the property,” Jensen said. “There are ways to protect sites, but those are through a site like this, maybe a conservation easement. Or, there are preservation easements that can be purchased.”

The D on the hill will be the 83rd listing in Washington County on the national register and will join 12 other landmarks in St. George on the list, such as the Brigham Young Winter Home and the Old Washington County Courthouse.

The city of St. George is also working on getting the Sugarloaf with the Dixie painted on it on the national register as well, according to David Cordero, the communications and marketing director for St. George. The city manages the Sugarloaf since it's located within Pioneer Park and handling that application for the national register.

Cordero says the city hired the same consultancy firm — CRSA — as the university did for its application and there's a belief the Sugarloaf application could go through sometime this year.

Sean Hemmersmeier covers local government, growth and development in Southwestern Utah. Follow on Twitter @seanhemmers34. Our work depends on subscribers so if you want more coverage on these issues you can subscribe here: http://www.thespectrum.com/subscribe. 

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Dixie D on Utah hill named a landmark on US historic national register