H. Francis Sellers, “Park City, Barns,” 1963, watercolor. Courtesy of Springville Museum of Art.

It’s the year of the “skier’s subway.” 1965. Park City, Utah. Most of the silver mines are closed, the red light district is shuttered and teetering shacks of weathered wood dot the hills. But a federal loan granted two years before has helped finance the installation of a gondola, a chairlift and 2 J-bars at the new Treasure Mountain Resort. As it finishes its second season, what will become Park City Mountain Resort is breathing new life into this tottering ghost town. They try something new that year: using an old mine train they transport powder hounds three miles deep into the mountain, then 1,800 feet straight up on an old mining bucket. It’s a 45-minute ride, which proves too long and the subway lasts only a couple of seasons. That same year, a local couple hatch another plan to transform Park City. This one lasts longer: sixty years and counting.

“It is a tiny oasis of aesthetic interest in a row of bars and discotheques,” Bob Halliday wrote for the Salt Lake Tribune in July, 1965. “So small you could stroll past it if you happened to blink at the moment.”

Darrell and Gerri Meyer had spent the winter of 1965 renovating an 11×31-foot former barber shop that had been boarded up for more than a decade. “The place looked like an abandoned shed when we took it over,” Gerri is quoted as saying of the vacant building on Park City’s Main Street. “We painted until our hands got numb from the cold.” They installed a shingle wall on the back of the space. It leaks after the first rainstorm and they have to repair it. Both the ceiling and the floor slant towards the wall. They leave those as they are.

The couple, with their two young children who are not yet in grade school, live nearby. Darrell, a Kansas native, works as a social worker in Salt Lake City, Gerri’s home town. Many of their neighbors are artists. When she’s not busy caring for the children, Gerri is active in Park City’s effort to transform the mining town with an infusion of art. She helps hang the annual art show in the town’s former chapel—the beginnings of the Park City Arts Festival.

Francis Zimbeaux, “Park City Scene,” ca. 1965, ink wash. You’ll find several of Zimbeaux’s Park City scenes in our January, 2014 article.

In June, the Hanging Room Gallery opens its first show, a solo exhibit of watercolors by Francis Sellers, a local who likes to roam the abandoned streets of Park City with his watercolor set. A dozen paintings sell. New shows open monthly, highlighting local artists like Sellers and Joe Pumphrey, who has made a name for himself by painting a large mural in the lobby of the Treasure Mountain Inn, as well as other Utah artists attracted by the rustic charm of the town: Gaell Lindstrom, Richard Van Wagoner, Francis Zimbeaux, Beverly Mastrim. The Meyers soon add ceramics, by Utah artists, and a Navajo collection, piqued by their interest in the Southwest. They pay $50 a month in rent. They are open Thursday-Sunday. Jane Swenson sketches portraits at the galleries on Sundays.

A year after they open in the former barber shop, the Meyers move to 305 North Main, the former First National Bank. (To this day you’ll still see the original vault surrounded by paintings, sculptures.) They rebrand their venture the Meyer Gallery. 50,000 people a year are now coming to ski the powder at Park City. For a few years in the early ‘70s, the Meyers move to Salt Lake City and lease the gallery space. They watch as others follow their lead and galleries open up and down Main Street, while Deer Valley and Park West expand the skiing acreage in what is fast becoming a major ski destination. They reopen in 1974. In 1981, a newly installed staircase expands Meyer Gallery to two levels. In 1988, their connections to the southwest spur the Meyers to open a second gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they introduce several Utah artists to the vibrant market. They open a third gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1996. When they decide to retire the next year and move to Castle Dale, Utah, their daughter Susan buys the Park City gallery and their son Dirk operates Santa Fe and Scottsdale.

Inside the Meyer Gallery today: a blend of historic architecture and contemporary art, with the original First National Bank vault still visible amid curated paintings and sculptures.

Almost three decades later, Meyer Gallery prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary. It’s a look back but also the celebration of a new era. Dirk passed in 2019 (though the Santa Fe gallery is still in operation). Darrell passed in 2023. Gerri in 2024. After nearly three decades—during which time she successfully shifted the gallery’s emphasis from Western themes to a more contemporary flair—Susan sold the Park City gallery last year. Adam Hansen, her longtime gallery director, took over and continues the legacy. “There are very few privately-owned art galleries in the United States that have endured so long,” Susan notes. “What’s amazing is that we opened up the same year as Philips Gallery in SLC and they have also survived. I’ve seen some older galleries that receive public funding (nothing wrong with that) but to be independent for so long is a different animal.”

From its perch at the top of historic Main Street, Park City’s first art gallery now looks out on a thriving town filled with galleries, restaurants and shops, and a panoramic view of the million-dollar homes, some of them former shacks, that have made 84060 one of the most expensive zip codes in the country. Make your way to the gallery May 30, 6-9 pm, for the 60th anniversary celebration. On your way, pass by the Stio apparel store, 556 South Main, which has been many things, including a barber shop and the original location of the Hanging Room Gallery. And a few doors up, the Park City Museum, where you’ll find some of the mine cars from the short-lived skier’s subway.

A selection of works that will be available at Meyer Gallery’s 60th anniversary exhibition.

60th Anniversary Celebration, Meyer Gallery, Park City, May 30, 6-9 pm.

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.