This is the second of two articles about Parkite Jim Santy, continued from last week.
Above all else, Santy is remembered for his campaign to save the old Park City High School. The imposing building on Park Avenue housed high school students – including Jim and Carol Santy and, eventually, their three children – between 1927 and 1977, and middle-school students from 1977 to 1982. Three years later the city bought the decaying shell for $1.3 million.
“The windows are covered with plywood and the cracked cement stairs have flowering weeds growing through,” Park Record Editor Teri Orr wrote in August 1986. “Inside, the water-soaked carpets squish underfoot and broken glass and fallen plaster litter the halls. The walls have been spray-painted with swear words. There is no electricity and the building is dark. A hive of bees have taken up residence on the top floor and there’s a funny smell that seems to fester in abandoned buildings.”
“But out of the shadows steps a man with a kind of hippie headband and a funky miner’s light attached to it,” she continued. “He leans on his shovel he brought from home and he breaks into a familiar grin.”
Credit: Park City Historical Society & Museum, Terry Meury Collection
The man was City Councilman Jim Santy.
“There’s got to be a way this building can be [a]live again. … I just can’t stand to see it neglected,” Santy told Orr.
Another five years went by. Finally, in April 1992 the council approved a $1.68 million bond to renovate part of the building as the new home of the Park City Library. Other space would be leased to the University of Utah and Utah Valley Community College. In June 1993 the library moved from its old home in the Miners Hospital into the newly renovated building.
Three years later a performance of the high school jazz band and chorus in the building’s restored auditorium was interrupted by a surprise announcement from Park City Mayor Brad Olch: The facility was being renamed the James L. Santy Auditorium.
“You came here for a concert and you gave me the world,” an emotional Jim Santy told the capacity crowd, which gave him a standing ovation.
Credit: Park City Historical Society & Museum, Kendall Webb Collection
Santy was more than the guest of honor that day. He was directing the band. Although his career took many directions, music was a constant. He organized and directed several community choirs and bands. In his later years he returned to teaching in the schools and brought his passion to students while they were still in elementary school.
“Many Park City graduates can trace a lifelong affection for music to their first encounter with the grandfatherly figure with the big smile,” said one Park Record editorial.
In middle age Santy suffered from heart problems and underwent quintuple bypass surgery in the fall of 1990. During his recovery he thanked everyone for their prayers. “And tell people all the flowers have been delicious,” he told The Park Record.
When Santy died in October 2010, his body was donated to the University of Utah Medical Center for research. But even his obituary gave readers a laugh: “If I should go before you do, tell my friends I’m at the U,” he had said.
Hapy Thanksgiving from the Park City Museum! We will be closed Thanksgiving Day.