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This cross-wing Gothic Revival house was built in 1877 for George Bonner, Jr. It was designed and built by John Watkins, an accomplished Utah builder who constructed many of the first homes in Midway. It was built at the same time as his brother William’s house across the street to the east. Both houses were reportedly completed and furnished in time for both their weddings in January 1878.

George Bonner, Jr. was born in 1850 in Scotland. His family emigrated to Utah and settled near Midway in 1861. In 1874, he and his brother William established a successful mercantile business, which George eventually took over. George and his wife Phebie lived in this house until their deaths in 1913 and 1914, respectively.

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Located at 90 East Main Street in Midway, Utah and added to the National Register of Historic Places (#86001357) on June 17, 1986.

Built in 1877, the George Bonner, Jr., House is one of seven houses contained in the ARCHITECTURE OF JOHN WATKINS THEMATIC RESOURCE NOMINATION, having been designed and built by John Watkins, an accomplished early Utah builder. John Watkins 1 work effectively illustrates the dynamic role the professional builder played in shaping Utah’s early architectural landscape. While it has been customary for historians to explain Utah architecture from the time of first settlement in 1847 up to about 1890 as the simple extension of eastern folk styles or the replication of popular pattern-book designs, John Watkins’ houses suggest a more generous appraisal. Slave to neither tradition nor pattern-book, Watkins found useful ideas in both, ideas that formed the basis of essentially new if nevertheless familiar designs. From two-room cottages to elaborate Gothic Revival houses to houses intended for multi-family polygamous living, Watkins drew upon his broad building experience to create not copies of other houses, but new ones designed to meet his client’s functional, aesthetic, and symbolic needs.

John Watkins was born in Maidsone, Kent, Kingland in 1834. He received training in the building trade in his native England before joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and emigrating to Utah in 1855. Watkins’ skills were welcomed in the nascent Mormon towns of, first, Provo, and then Midway. In Provo, Watkins helped build the original LDS Tabernacle (1856) and the Opera House (1859), and after moving to Midway in the upper Provo River Valley in 1862, Watkins’ familiarity with picturesque design produced 5 of the best and most significant examples of the Gothic Revival architectural style in the state of Utah.

George Bonner, Jr., had this house built in 1877 at the same time that his brother William was having a house built across the street to the east. Both George Jr. and William were married in January 1878, and their houses were reportedly built and completely furnished in time for their weddings.

Their father, George Bonner, Sr., who had purchased the property upon which his sons’ houses were built, lived across the street at 103 E. Main. The intersection at 100 East and Main Street in Midway became known locally as “Bonners 1 Corners” because the Bonners owned all four corner lots, three of which had houses on them and the other was occupied by the Bonner Mercantile. All three houses those of George Sr., George Jr., and William were designed and built by their neighbor, John Watkins, whose own house at 5 E. Main exhibits some of the same Gothic Revival features that are found on the Bonner houses.

George Bonner, Jr., was born August 4, 1850, in Glasgow, Scotland, to George Bonner Sr. and Margaret Edmundston Bonner. The family converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) in the early 1850s and came to the U.S. soon after to join the Saints in Utah. After spending a few years in Pennsylvania, where George Sr. worked in the coal mines, the family arrived in Utah in 1861 and settled near Midway. As a young man George obtained a contract to provide timber for the Ontario Mine in Park City, which proved to be a successful venture. In 1874, he and his brother William opened a small store in one room of their father’s house. That business prospered to the point that they built a separate store building on the corner lot west of their father’s house in 1879. The brothers ran the store together for a number of years, then George took over complete operation. George and William were also involved in the livestock business, and they are credited with operating the first grist mill in Midway.2 On January 4, 1878, George married Phebie Annette Alexander. Phebie was born in East Mill Creek in 1857 and had moved to Midway with her parents around 1871. George and Phebie had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood. They lived in this house until their deaths in 1913 and 1944, respectively.