Meiling-Seely House

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Historic Homes, Mt Pleasant, Sanpete County, utah

The Meiling-Seely House, 91 South 500 West, Mt. Pleasant, Utah

A Danish immigrant, Jens C. Meiling, built the first, smaller part of this fine brick home in 1870. the bulk of this one-of-a-kind residence was erected around the earlier house, in 1890 by John H. Seely. Influenced heavily by Neo-classicism, the house has round-columned, classical porches, a bracketed cornice, two-story, square corner tower and extensive ornamental brickwork.

Meiling came from Denmark and in 1859 acquired 20 acres of farmland in Mt. Pleasant. He supplemented his income by making bricks. For many years, Sanpete settlers had difficulty securing clay of sufficient quality to produce fired brick and relied mainly upon sun-dried adobe as a building material. Meiling’s brick yard, located just west of town, was the first in Mt. Pleasant to turn out kiln-fired bricks, probably in the late 1860’s. Meiling sold the house to John H. Seely in 1887 for $1500. Seely was one of the most successful livestock breeders in the Intermountain West. He is credited with introducing purebred French Rambouillet sheep into Utah during the 1890’s. His achievements with selective breeding improved Utah’s range stock, contributing directly to the remarkable success of the local sheep industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Seely helped make Mt. Pleasant the Rambouillet breeding capital of the world, as well as the commercial center of central Utah’s livestock industry.(*)