John Ashworth House (110 S. 100 West)

The John Ashworth house is significant because it is an interesting combination of two of the most popular house types in Beaver during the 1875-1890 period, namely, the Hall & Parlor (north section) and the Cross-wing (south section) types. This marriage of house designs produces an interesting effect, for while the house is perfectly consistent with house planning principles found during this period of Beaver’s history, it also becomes at once a house which is both common (the Hall & Parlor house with rear extension) and rare (the double cross-wing or H- plan). For
a further discussion of the double cross-wing house in Utah, see the nomination form for the Charles E. Davies house, Provo, Utah (National Register listing January 1983).

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The house was built for John Ashworth, who had settled in Beaver in 1856. An emigrant from England, Ashworth became the first manager-superintendent of the Beaver Woolen Mills, the industry which really provided Beaver with permanence. John Ashworth also served as Beaver’s second mayor, 1880-1882, prior he had served on the city council.

John and Sarah Ann Ball Ashworth resided in this home. The property had been transferred to Ashworth in 1875. According to the journal of William Booth Ashworth, his son John died in about 1890. In 1892 the property officially passed to Sarah Ashworth, who sold it in 1899. The house changed hands several times, having been purchased in 1968 by the present owners.

This house, like many in Utah’s small towns, is typologically ambiguous because its location on a corner lot essentially gives the house two principal facades. The northern elevation is typical of the symmetrical, three opening hall and parlor house while the east facing elevation gives the appearance of a double-gabled cross-wing (or H-plan) house. It appears that the house was constructed in its current configuration (several 19th Century gabled brick additions have been added to the west rear which are compatible with the original house and which are not visible from either of the principal elevations) with the attending visual ambiguity.

Typical of Beaver buildings, the brickwork of the house is of an overall high quality. The walls are common bond and the regularly rising courses are broken nicely by the exaggerated flat arches over the openings. The general design is classical and evident in the overall symmetrical treatment of the elevations, the plain entablature, and the stylized Tuscan columns on the east porch. The house remains in good condition and retains its historic integrity.