Alonzo H. Raleigh House

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This is a 1 1/2 story house of vernacular design which was constructed in several materials at different dates. Its present “T” appearance was achieved at least by 1898 (according to the sanborn maps).

Most probably the house was originally a one story adobe square cabin type; section which is now the rear of the house. The next addition was the brick wing which was added to the west of the adobe room. This brick section is 1 1/2 story with a two-opening “door-window” façade and sports an “eyebrow” window just under the eave above the door. The stove chimney is located on the north gable end of this section. The last addition to the house and the one which completed its present appearance was a frame gabled section to the north. This frame part has ship lap siding and a bay window on the front first floor. A porch extends across the front of the brick section and has chamfered wooden porch posts. Wood lintels and sills.

Evidence of title and directories suggest this house had been built by 1884 for Alonzo Hazeltine Raleigh. Raleigh acquired the land in 1865 and the present house grew by stages from a tiny adobe structure. It is probable that some part of the house is much older, occupied either by Raleigh or a wife. Raleigh housed Elizabeth Ann Player Raleigh, a plural wife, here but he resided elsewhere in Capitol Hill. Raleigh was born November 7, 1818 in Francis, Hillsboro County, New Hampshire, to James L. Raleigh and Susan McCoy. Converted to the LDS Church in Boston he moved to Nauvoo in 1843. In 1848 he crossed the plains in president Heber C. Kimball’s company.

Because he had worked as a mason and builder in the east, in 1851 he was placed in charge of the mason department of the department of public works. In 1854 he was appointed alderman of the third municipal ward and re-elected until 1884. In 1856 he was made Bishop of the nineteenth Ward, a position he held until 1877. In 1860 he was appointed city inspector of buildings, a post he held for 25 years. He was in addition an officer of the Nauvoo Legion, a member of the state constitutional convention and first president of the Deseret Dramatic Association. He was married four times; Caroline L. who died in 1853, to Julia Curt is, who died in 1891, to Elizabeth Ann Player, who died in 1924, and to Emily P., who died 1919. He fathered 25 children.

Located at 594 Center Street in the Capitol Hill Historic District in Salt Lake City, Utah