This cross-wing house consists of two wings placed at right angles so that the floor plan resembles an “L.” After 1880, the cross-wing style of house replaced the hall-parlor style as the most common Utah house type. The stylistic emphasis of the house is divided equally between the façade of the projecting wing and the porch fronting the main entrance in the flanking wing. Houses of this type are typically one and a half stories tall, as seen here. The cross-wing house was initially developed in association with the Gothic Revival and Italianate styles, but during the late nineteenth century it became a popular plan for Victorian dwellings as well. This home features Italianate decoration such as the arched pediment over the 300 South entrance.
The history of this home is difficult to trace because of the two addresses. In 1930 Charles H. and Lenore Taylor lived at 192 East 300 South. In 1924 Joseph Buttle and Leland Buttle, the chairman of Columbia Steel, lived at 140 South 200 East, but by 1939 several Buttles had moved into this home. Leland B. and Faye J. Buttle were in the home. Leland B. taught at Dixon Junior High School. Grant Buttle was a clerk at the Lewis Ladies Store and Mrs. Mary Buttle was a county welfare clerk. In 1953 Faye J. Buttle is listed as an instructor at BYU. Mary B. Buttle is listed as the widow of Joseph. Lewis and Faye Buttle still lived in the home in 1978.
185 East 300 South in Provo, Utah (or 292 S 200 E )
In 1846 the unsettled area that is now Parker, Colorado, consisted of wild open plains, inhabited only by local Indian tribes and passing trappers and traders. The Crosby-Brown Company, otherwise known as the Mississippi Saints, and detachments of the Mormon Battalion of lowa Volunteers camped here along Cherry Creek. The route along the creek was then known as the old “Trappers Trail” and later became known as the “Cherokee Trail.”
Brigham Young had agreed to meet the Mississippi Saints on the Oregon Trail as he trekked with the Advance Pioneer Company. In July 1846, the Mississippi group discovered that they had been missed. As winter approached, they traveled on to Pueblo, Colorado. There, under a cottonwood tree, Sarah Emma Kartchner was born; the first Caucasian child born in the unorganized territory.
That year, at the dawn of the Mexican/American War, 500 Mormon men volunteered in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to serve in the United States Army of the West (Infantry) under General Stephen W. Kearney. Having suffered severe religious persecution, the Mormon men welcomed the opportunity to move west as they defended their country. On the Santa Fe Trail, three sick detachments were sent to Pueblo to winter and recuperate, aided by the Mississippi Saints. They spent nearly a year in Colorado, making them the first group to establish a religious colony in the West since the eighteenth century.
In early May 1847, seventeen members of the Robert Crow and George Therlkill families left Pueblo before the rest of the Battalion. They traveled through present-day Parker on their way to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. These families were ultimately among the first pioneers to enter the Valley of the Great Salt Lake with Orson Pratt’s Advance Company on 22 July 1847. There were six women with them: Elizabeth Brown Crow, Elizabeth Jane, twins Isa Vinda Exene and Ira Minda Almarene Crow, Mathilda J. Crow Therlkill and Harriet Blunt Crow.
On 24 May 1847, the sick detachment of the Mormon Battalion received their orders and “took up a line of march” to meet Brigham Young’s company at Fort Laramie, accompanied by the remaining Mississippi Saints. Their substantial wagon train included 60 wagons, 350-375 people, 300 cattle and 100 horses. They encountered severe thunderstorms and hail. After seeking shelter, they camped once again on Cherry Creek. During that time, a child, John Taylor Brown, was born. He is believed to be the first Caucasian born in what is now Douglas County, Colorado.
This is Daughters of Utah Pioneers historic marker #559, erected by the Douglas County 20 Mile Camp of the D.U.P. in 2010 on a walking trail west of Parker Road in Parker, Colorado.
Town of Parker Landmark
Hood House
In September of 1911, Fredrick B. Hood had come to Parker not only as a stock holder in the newly formed Parker State Bank, but to serve as the bank’s cashier, and manager as well. He purchased land on what was then called Rural Road (now Pikes Peak Drive) from Dr. Walter Heath. Immediately securing a builder, Hood began construction on this two-story home. The Hoods moved into their new house in December of 1911. He and his wife, Myrtle, had three children, Winfred, Helen, and Florence.
Hood immersed himself in local business and social activities. He and another bank director, Harold Senter, acquired a Ford distributorship for the local area and sold Model T Fords out of the bank. He was a trustee of the Ruth Memorial Episcopal Church and assisted in the efforts to build the church building. He was the secretary of the Parker Coronet Band, and occasionally clerked at farm and ranch auctions. Hood made a successful run for Douglas County Commissioner against Edgar Gerber and won by twenty-three votes. In 1918, Hood was the director from the Pine Grove Precinct of the Liberty Loan Committee organization for Douglas County. Hood continued with the bank until its demise in 1922.
This home was one of only two buildings in Parker that were undamaged by a flood in 1912. It was saved from demolition by the Town of Parker and moved from its original location on 11024 Pikes Peak Drive to Parker Preservation Park in 2008.
Constructed c. 1872, this early adobe hall-and- parlor type house features simulated-stone plasterwork and a Victorian-style porch. Ole Peterson built the house and lived here until 1882, when he sold it to Hans Nielsen. Nielsen was a farmer and stockholder in the Young Men’s Co-op store. Nielsen also built the stone bunkhouse and a livery stable (demolished c. 1970). Joe Schofield purchased the house in 1906. Joe delivered the town’s mail to the D&RGW rail depot and also ran, a livery.
15 East 200 North in the Spring City Historic District in Spring City, Utah
This Queen Anne style house with its decorative gable shingles, turned porch posts, and spindles was built for John R. Baxter in 1903. Baxter, a teacher, farmer, and prosperous merchant, also served as mayor of Spring City from 1894 to 1895. Danish mason Jens Peter Carlson was responsible for the fine brick and stone masonry. The house remained in the Baxter family until 1979.
12 West 300 North in the Spring City Historic District in Spring City, Utah
Site of the first meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lehi. Built in 1855, replaced in 1972. Also used for civic meetings and the upper rooms, for school.
The Green Shack Restaurant is historically significant under Criterion A because of its association with the rapid growth era of Boulder Dam construction in southern Nevada. It is significant also because, unlike the few other establishments of the tune, it provided a comfortable, rural, and egalitarian environment which ideally suited it to serve as a social center for dam workers, the city’s political and legal elite, young people, various civic and fraternal groups, and the populace at large. It serves as a reminder of the years of the Great Depression when, paradoxically, Las Vegas was growing and optimistic and was yet to experience the great transformation of the tourism and gaming boom which followed World War II. Still operated by members of the family which opened it, it retains the ambience, perhaps better than any other single Las Vegas building of its kind, of immediate pre-war Las Vegas.
Located at 2504 East Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada and added to the National Register of Historic Places (#94000552)
From its founding in 1905 until about the time that Mrs. Mettie Jones started her restaurant activities in Las Vegas, the city was a very small town centered almost wholly on the railroad which was the cause for its existence. In 1928, Congress passed the Boulder Canyon Project Act which assured the construction of Boulder (Hoover) Dam. While actual construction did not begin until 1931, the area experienced considerable growth in the early years of the Great Depression in anticipation of the opening of construction jobs. The official census for 1930 shows Las Vegas as having a population of just over 5,000.
Mrs. Jones and her husband had been involved in real estate in Taft, California. She came to Las Vegas following the death of her husband in 1928 and purchased a considerable amount of desert property in the Las Vegas area. Probably in 1929 (the exact date is uncertain) she opened the Colorado Restaurant at a location then considered far out of town on what amounted to a dirt trail leading to the Colorado River. From a window in her residence she sold orders of fried chicken and bootleg whiskey. During the years of prohibition, there were many establishments ringing the city which sold illegal whiskey.
Construction on a new highway to the dam site began early in 1931 and the road was opened for traffic by that August. During that period, scores of new establishments along the highway, many of them selling liquor, had stirred controversy in Las Vegas. By late that year or in 1932, Mrs. Jones had relocated her operation a short distance to the west side of the new highway just inside the city limits. For her new restaurant she purchased (from the Union Pacific Railroad, according to family information) a green barracks-style building, and had it hauled to the new site. The building suggested the name, and the Green Shack Restaurant has operated at the same site by members of the same family ever since.
The original barracks constitute the main part of the present dining room. The northeast and northwest walls were removed and an additional eight feet of space was added to those two sides of that section in 1939. Large single-pane windows replaced the small barracks windows. Following the repeal of prohibition, the portion of the building which houses the present bar and lounge was built onto the rear of the original building, probably in 1934 when the sale of beer was permitted. The present owner’s father, Frank McCormick, who was a nephew of Mrs. Jones, was asked to operate the bar. According to family lore, Mrs. Jones received Clark County liquor license number 1 after the repeal of prohibition.
Few other alterations have been made except for the addition of a storeroom to the southeast side in 1960 and small, disconnected outbuildings. The original hardwood floor is still in place, though carpeted, in the main dining room, and wall paneling was added about thirty years ago. Stone fireplaces, one in each of the building’s main sections, are not original, but a newspaper reports that at least one of them was added during remodelling in 1939. Since the interior stonework and the exterior brickwork of the chimneys on the barracks and bar addition are similar, these almost certainly date from the same year.
Mrs. Jones, who had done most of the cooking with a long-time friend, died in 1967. Frank McCormick died three months later. Frank’s wife Elaine managed business thereafter. Between 1980 and 1985, the Green Shack was sold, reclaimed, leased for a brief period and then closed. Since 1985, James McCormick, son of Frank and Elaine, has operated the establishment with his wife Barbara.
The Green Shack is additionally significant because of its location beside the highway which carried many dam workers to and from their jobs. Indeed, the establishment was a particular favorite of dam workers of the era. While there were a few other restaurants during the 1930s, the comfortable rural atmosphere of the Green Shack, featuring large fireplaces and easy chairs, made it unique. There was a hitching post where nearby residents could tie their horses. (The present hitching post is not original.) During the years when the population shrank in the late 1930s, the establishment added regular entertainment, dancing and gambling tables in the cocktail lounge section. In a city where easy marriage was a trademark, weddings were a common occurrence at the Green Shack. Western movie star Hoot Gibson, who owned a divorce-oriented dude ranch in Las Vegas, was a frequent visitor.
The Green Shack was also a favorite “hangout” for the local political and legal fraternity. Its regular patrons included one local lawyer who became a Nevada Supreme Court justice and another who became Lieutenant Governor. The present owner, who has lived on the property since 1939, recalls that many legal disputes were resolved at the Green Shack before going to court. Other informants recall that it was a favorite place for young people to go after school dances, graduation ceremonies, etc. Through the years, the restaurant has also hosted meetings of numerous civic and social clubs.
Though quite a few Las Vegas residences and public buildings remain which date from the period of rapid growth associated with Boulder Dam construction, the special significance of the Green Shack derives from its location beside the highway which carried dam construction workers to and from their jobs. It is the only remaining such roadside establishment to retain its structural integrity along the 25-mile highway associated with that event of momentous significance to the entire region.
Narrative Description
The Green Shack, consisting of two parts, is of very simple construction. The front section, which was the original building moved to the site about 1932, is of simple, rectangular barracks construction with a gable roof. It is of stuccoed wood frame construction. The original dimensions of this building were about 32′ by 22′. During remodelling, probably in 1939, eight-foot extensions with shed roofs were added to the northeast (front) side and to the northwest. The extensions feature large single-pane windows. The original entrance, which was on the northeast side facing the highway, was removed during the remodelling and the entrance moved to the northwest. Other significant alterations to this portion of the building are the covering of the original open-truss construction with a lowered ceiling, the carpeting of the original hardwood floor, and the addition of a large stone fireplace and brick exterior chimney on the southeast side. About 1960, a wood frame storeroom was added to that side. A semi-circular neon-lighted sign attached to the front gable dates from the early 1940s.
A rectangular wood frame building of similar dimensions (25* by 40′) was added circa 1935, but possibly as late as 1939. The gable roof line continues that of the original structure. The exterior siding of this part of the building is clapboard. As befits the name, both parts of the building are painted a bright green. This section, which has served as bar, gambling area and lounge since the 1930s, features a stone fireplace and brick exterior chimney virtually identical to that in the front portion. Interior walls in both parts are wood panelling. Except for carpeting, a lowered ceiling and decorations, the interiors of both portions of the building appear as they did in the 1930s. A canopy which extends over the entrance along the northwest side dates from i960
The building, maintained as it has been since its opening by members of one family, has been kept in excellent repair and appealing appearance. The restaurant is separated from part of its parking lot on the northwest side by a very short and little-used street. Applications to have the street vacated are underway. The property is also occupied by two disconnected sheds and a small brick building which serves as the owners’ home and office.
From facebook: The Green Shack was a landmark eatery in Las Vegas, celebrated for its signature fried chicken and deep-rooted history. Founded in 1929 by Mattie “Jimmy” Jones as the Colorado, it was later renamed the Green Shack in 1932 after expanding into a repurposed Union Pacific Railroad barracks. Situated along Fremont Street, the restaurant became a staple for locals, celebrities, and workers traveling to and from the Hoover Dam construction site.
Its rustic charm and longstanding reputation earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, recognizing its significance in Las Vegas’ early development and evolving dining scene. Despite its historical prominence, the Green Shack closed its doors in 1999, and the building was ultimately demolished in 2005. Yet its legacy endures as a nostalgic chapter in the city’s culinary and cultural history.
From wikipedia: The Green Shack closed in May 1999 by Jim and Barbara McCormick who were the owners, and was demolished several years later. When it closed, the Green Shack was the oldest restaurant in Las Vegas.
