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The J.R. Allen Home

Built in 1899-1900. Richard Kletting drew the plans and built this home. Mr.Kletting was the sole architect of the Utah State Capitol Building. This homes contains all 6 original Tiffany cut stained glass windows. It is a 3 story brick Victorian with a 3 foot high and 3 foot thick granite foundation. The home has walls which are 3 bricks thick,12 foot ceilings and transoms in all of the upstairs rooms and several downstairs rooms. It is insulated between the brick and the lathe and plaster with sheeps wool and apricot pits. This home is on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been restored by Chad and Pat Fisher (ongoing).

1047 East 13200 South, Draper, Utah

Related posts:

• Draper, Utah
• Historic Homes in Draper
• NRHP #80003912

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This house is architecturally significant as one of the few remaining examples of R.K.A. Kletting’s domestic architecture. Kletting (1859-1943), one of the early important architects of the intermountain area was most noted for his design for the Utah State Capitol Building (1912), and is also remembered for many other public, civic, commercial, religious and private structures in Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Few historic homes have important photographic documentation and original plans available for study as does this one. The completeness of the historical and physical fabric of the Alien House and outbuildings multiplies its importance architecturally. It is also significant as the home of Jackson R. Alien, a prominent and innovative stockman. He lead in introducing blooded stock to improve local herds of both cattle and sheep, being especially interested in Short Horn cattle and Cotswold sheep.

Jackson R. Alien was born December 31, 1869, in Draper, Utah, to Andrew
Jackson Alien and Louisa Rogers. The senior Mr. Alien, a member of the IDS
Church, had come to Utah in 1847 and was a stockman all his life. Jackson R.
Alien graduated from the normal school of the University of Deseret In 1890. He taught, kept books, and worked in the County Recorder’s office briefly before becoming a stockman. With his three brothers he operated the Alien Brothers Stock company. The Alien ranch, known as the Excelsior Stock Farm, operated at seven different sites, six in Draper. He was president for forty years of the East Jordan Canal Co., president of the Draper Irrigation Co., an early member of the National Holstein Association, and a member of the Draper School Board. In 1891 he married Matilda C. Ray, by whom he had seven children. In 1936 he married Helena Gardner. A member of the LDS Church, he died in 1943. His elegant and exceptionally well-documented hone reflects the aspirations and the means of a successful Utah stockman of 1900.

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The J.R. Alien house in Draper was designed by Richard K.A. Kletting
(1859-1943), one of the early important architects of the inter mountain area. Most noted for his design for the Utah State Capitol Building (1912), he is also remembered for many other public, civic, commercial, religious and
private structures in Utah, Dooming and Montana. Built in 1899-1900, the
Alien house is a two and half story brick structure with a granite
foundation. The plan is rectangular, with projecting bays on front, sides and
rear. In scale, proportion, and massing the structure reflects a Box Style
scheme, though the plan is more asymmetrical and vigorous than the typical Box Style plan. The Alien family built a frame home using the same plans at Charleston, Utah. Several of the Alien brothers resided there to be nearer their herds. This facsimile of the Draper house was destroyed during the construction of the Deer Creek Reservoir.

From the central hipped roof mass, hipped roof bays project at front and
sides. The hipped roofs are flared. Decorative rafters are exposed. A
gabled bay projects in the rear. Side bays are three sided, while the front
bay is segmentally curved. A variety of dormer shapes are displayed,
including hipped roof, gabled, eyelid (east) and triangular (north).

On the primary elevation is a one story porch. The base of the porch is
shingled with central balustrade piercings. Tuscan columns support the flat
roof which makes a balcony open from the second story level. A molded cornice contributes to the Classical allusion. A smaller, single story, rear porch has a hipped roof, wood posts and rectangular balusters.

Windows are generally double hung sash, though some variations occur.
Transoms for second floor windows have leaded glass panes arranged in a
geometric pattern. The six original stained glass windows are intact; all are
transom windows except for an oval light in the parlor. Sills and lintels are
massive elements of dressed stone, forming continuous stringcourses on the
bays.

The interior of the first floor includes a parlor (dining room), sitting room,
bedroom and kitchen. These spaces are located around the large central stair hall. The second floor was given to bedrooms and a bath, and is similar in plan to the ground floor. The plumbed interior bathroom is early for the
area. The attic was left open, lit by dormer windows. A skylight limits the
staircase and central hall.

The Alien family depended for their livelihood on the Cotswold.
Appropriately, insulation for the eighteen inch space between floor and ceiling was sheep wool, with apricot pits added as a scented preservative.
Large, framed photographs of sheep were found by the present owners in the attic.

Interior woodwork was originally all hand-grained, except for the main
stairway balustrade and sitting room fireplace. Woodwork motifs have
Victorian Eclectic and Classical Revival overtones. Present owners have
preserved original woodwork as much as possible, though damaged hand-grained areas were painted over. Dining room wainscotting is liner us ta panels in a foliated motif. The present owners have recovered much of the home’s original furniture through the Alien family. Some of these pieces were purchased in the east during Mr. Alien’s travels.

The house has experienced several minor modifications on the interior. Early in the century it was electrified. Some brass light fixtures are intact. One of the downstairs bedrooms was converted into a kitchen when two of the Alien sibling’s families jointly occupied the home though it now functions as a family sitting room. Kitchen and bathroom fixtures have been replaced in updating the home and two bathrooms have been added. However, the present owners have reversed much modifications made by previous owners and are concerned with maintaining the integrity of interior, as well as the exterior. Generally, original spaces have not been violated.

The site of the Alien home is the core of what was originally a large sheep
ranch. In addition to the home, many outbuildings are extant, preserving the character of the ranch complex. A large barn predates the home, serving the ranch from its earliest days (see early photo). It is a frame, cross gabled structure with two wings and a concrete silo to the west. The ice house/root cellar (also visible in the early photograph) was probably built during the same period as the home. It is a single story frame structure of rectangular plan with gable roof. The root cellar is underneath the ice house and is entered through a smaller gable roofed appendage on the south. Gable roofed frame garages and storage sheds of configuration similar to the ice house and located behind it (to the north) were constructed at some later point. Chicken coops were located to the southeast of the house