Oluf Larsen House
Located at 75 S 100 W in Ephraim, Utah.
The Oluf Larsen house is significant as an example of Scandinavian vernacular architecture in Utah. The house contributes historically to the thematic nomination, “The Scandinavian-American Pair-house in Utah.”
Oluf Larsen (sometimes spelled Olif s or Olaf) was born in Drammen, Norway in 1836. After spending his early years working in a factory, Larsen was adopted into a wealthy family and converted to Mormonism in 1857. He emigrated to Utah in 1861 and settled in Salt Lake City. Later he and a friend, C.C.A. Christensen, moved to Sanpete County and settled originally in Spring City. Due to difficulties in securing water rights, Larsen was forced to move on to Fort Ephraim and then was called by Church officials to colonize Circleville. After Indian hostilities forced the abandonment of Circleville, Larsen moved to Parowan and then back to Ephraim where he bought a city lot from C.C.N. Dorius. By the summer of 1870 the new house with “three floor rooms” was completed and Larsen could remark that “of all the houses we have occupied this is the best.” After 1890, Ellen G. Dorius, a polygamous wife of C.C.N. Dorius lived here and today the house is primarily associated with the locally prominent Dorius family.
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