Ogden leaders launch construction of new Marshall White Center
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- Officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, to mark the start of construction on a new Marshall White Center building. In the photo, some of the attendees look at renderings of the new building set to take shape.
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- Ron White speaks at the ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, to mark the start of construction on a new Marshall White Center building. He’s the son of Marshall White, an officer killed in the line of duty in 1963 and the building’s namesake.
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- Officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, to mark the start of construction on a new Marshall White Center building. This photo shows the old Marshall White Center, largely demolished.
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- Officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, to mark the start of construction on a new Marshall White Center building. The old Marshall White Center, largely demolished, sits behind the people in the photo.
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- Officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, to mark the start of construction on a new Marshall White Center building. This photo shows the rubble of the old Marshall White Center.
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- Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell speaks at the ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, to mark the start of construction on a new Marshall White Center building.
OGDEN — The old Marshall White Center structure is largely rubble now, but Ogden leaders gathered Tuesday to ceremonially mark the start of construction of the building that will replace it.
“It’s hard to see a building like that come down because of all the memories associated with it and tied to it from so many members of our community,” City Councilperson Ken Richey said, twisted metal and other debris from the old building in the distance behind him. “But it is also exciting to think about what we’re going to see here in 18 to 24 months and the good that building and the programming and the community coming together can do.”
Efforts to replace the Marshall White Center — the city-owned facility that offers sports, arts and other programming for kids and adults — started edging forward in the wake of the closure of the pool at the old facility in March 2018 due to cracking. But the initial push didn’t get much traction and it took years of persistence from boosters to get city leaders to commit to building a new facility.
Several speakers Tuesday alluded to the efforts, including Sean Bishop, who helped lead the Marshall White Advisory Committee as the plans were coalescing. Actual construction will start in perhaps two weeks, after the debris from the old building is removed, but officials shoveled from a pile of rocks Tuesday to ceremonially mark the launch of work.
“The level of engagement that we saw in this process was extraordinary, if not historic. This work took hundreds, probably thousands, of people just in the two years that I chaired the committee,” Bishop said. “It doesn’t belong to any one person. It belongs to all of us.”
The original Marshall White Center, completed in 1968, measured around 37,000 square feet. The new facility, with a price tag of some $34.3 million, will measure 68,000 square feet and contain a pool, basketball courts, a raised indoor track and more. The new facility should open by February or March 2025.
The Marshall White Center sits at 222 28th St. in a modest neighborhood, and many project proponents had stressed the importance of creating a new community center to serve the racially and ethnically diverse zone of the city.
Ron White, like Bishop, credited the contingent of students and others who showed up at a Nov. 9, 2021, Ogden City Council meeting to speak out for a new facility, saying that was a turning point in the push. White, who also spoke Tuesday, is the son of Marshall White, the Ogden officer killed in the line of duty in 1963 and the namesake for the community center.
“It’s been a long time coming,” White said. Plans to rebuild the Marshall White Center seemed stalled on the eve of the 2021 meeting, he said, “but then the community showed its … spirit and its best students showed up.”
Mayor Mike Caldwell also alluded to the process it took for the plans to get on track, particularly noting the efforts to line up financing. Federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funding, city money, donations and more will be tapped to cover the project’s cost.
“Sometimes when you put something like this together that’s bold, audacious, there’s a lot of effort into that. This is not a wealthy community. We can’t just scribble checks for this,” Caldwell said.
Marshall White Center programming will continue at other facilities scattered around Ogden during construction. Edd Bridge, recreation manager for Ogden, said word is getting out to make sure participation doesn’t wane as the work proceeds.
He also offered his own laudatory words for what the Marshall White Center represents.
“It’s more than just a physical structure,” he said. “It’s the beating heart of our community, a vibrant hub of connection, collaboration and empowerment.”
