In 1920, the Utah chapter of the Service Star Legion formed the Memory Grove Committee, seeking to petition for 30 acres of land. The city granted the southernmost 20 acres. The memorial's centerpiece was
Meditation Chapel, which was completed in 1948 and dedicated on July 25. Approximately 10,000 people attended the ceremony, marking Memory Grove's most attended event to date, as of 2008. The dedication was broadcast by local radio stations, and Governor Herbert B. Maw and Mayor Earl J. Glade accepted the chapel on behalf of the state and city, respectively. Gold Star Mother Gunda Borgstrom was the first to enter the chapel. Harbor Lake was dedicated by the Salt Lake City Navy Mother's Club on May 27, 1951, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars plaque was installed on November 11, 1963. Memory Park became known as Memory Grove Park, or simply Memory Grove, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some of the park's features were starting to deteriorate, including Memorial House; additionally, Harbor Lake was polluted and Meditation Chapel was locked because of vandalism. A weapons carrier commemorating
Vietnam War veterans was dedicated on November 11, 1975. In 1975, the Utah
American Revolution Bicentennial Commission’s Horizon Committee selected Memory Grove as a primary site for the state's Bicentennial celebrations. On September 21, a park cleanup effort called "Sunday in the Grove" was held. One Bicentennial project was Perception Garden, conceived by Genevieve Folsom, garden editor for the
Salt Lake Tribune. Another was a fountain paid for by Louis Zucker in memory of his wife Ethel Kaplan Zucker. Aluminum plaques were installed for both projects. The
Liberty Bell replica and tower were dedicated in May 1979. Additionally, Celebrity Grove and the Grove of Service were planned as part of the Bicentennial celebration and were completed in 1979. Bureaucracy and design issues slowed construction of the fountain and garden, which were not finished until October 1981. The trees of Celebrity Grove had died within two years of being planted. The park flooded in 1983. The Freedom Trail hiking path was dedicated in 1984, and the
Pearl Harbor Survivors Association installed a memorial in 1985. The Service Star Legion left Memorial House in 1986, and after remaining closed for several years, the Utah Heritage Foundation began occupying the building in 1993. ==Features==