Buildings and sites of Salt Lake City around Downtown Salt Lake City. Buildings and sites of Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, Utah has many historic and notable sites within its immediate borders/ Although the entire Salt Lake City metropolitan area is often referred to as "Salt Lake City", this article is concerned only with the buildings and sites within the official city limits of Salt Lake City. Religious, particularly LDS buildings, are prominent in Salt Lake City. Settled by Brigham Young and 147 other pioneers on July 24, these Latter-day Saints were fleeing persecution after the death of Joseph Smith. Young originally intended the city and
Salt Lake City by giving the LDS Church preferential treatment, while LDS residents perceived a growing anti-Mormon bias in city politics. The city's political demographics are considerably more liberal than the rest of Utah. While Utah as a whole is a strongly conservative and Republican state, Salt Lake City is considered a Democratic bastion. Since 1976, all of the city's mayors have been Democrats. The city is home to several non-governmental think-tanks and advocacy groups such as the conservative Sutherland Institute, the progressive Alliance for a Better Utah, the gay-rights group Equality Utah, and the quality-growth advocates Envision Utah. Salt Lake hosted many