Mt. Carmel School and Church

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Churches, Historic Churches, Kane County, Mount Carmel, NHRP, utah

Built c. 1890 and remodeled in 1923-24 after a fire, the Mount Carmel School and Church is historically significant as the only remaining building in Mount Carmel that served the community’s educational and religious needs. Built to
replace an earlier log schoolhouse, the building served concurrently as both church and school for over twenty-five years. It was also used as a civic meeting place and for dances and other recreational and cultural activates. After the fire, school children were transported to the nearby town of Orderville to attend school, and from 1924 until 1961 the building was used primarily as a church house. With the exception of the old log schoolhouse, which has long-since been demolished, this building is the only school or church facility that was ever constructed in Mount Carmel.

The church/school is located in Mount Carmel, Utah and was added to the National Historic Register (#87002061) on November 20, 1987.

The Isaac Behunin Monument was located here.

Mount Carmel was first established in 1864-65 by several families of Mormon pioneers as part of the general colonizing effort in the Utah Territory by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon
church). Indian depredations led to the abandonment of the settlement in 1866, and it was not until 1871 that the town was permanently resettled. Farming and livestock raising were the principal means of livelihood in the community for decades. The town has always been small, never more than 150-200 people, and the only businesses until recent years were small mercantile and grocery stores operated from private homes.

The first school in Mt. Carmel was established in a log building in 1880, nine years after the town was permanently settled. That building served as a one-room school, church, and recreation hall for the town until the stone
schoolhouse was constructed in the 1890s. A published history of the town provides the following description and history of the Mount Carmel School.

The rock for the building was hauled by team and wagon from a hill about a mile south of town. Later a lumber wing was added, making it into a two-room school. At first the floors were of rough pine lumber. Then hardwood floors were installed, which made them “nicer for dancing.”