Francis Marion Jolley House

The Francis Marion Jolley house is significant as an example of domestic vernacular architecture in the Sanpete Valley during the mid-nineteenth century. The house is unaltered and representative of the “double-pen” folk/vernacular building type which was utilized extensively in the Sanpete Valley in one, one and a half, or two story variants. 1 The double-pen plan was one of several basic house plans available to local carpenter builders and provides understanding of architectural possibilities of this early period in Manti’s community development.

Settled in 1849 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by the 1870s Manti had survived two Indian wars, grasshopper plagues, and drought and was emerging as the prosperous capital of the Sanpete LDS colony. Built in the early 1870s, the Francis Jolley house indicates the growing affluence in the area. Built along older traditional patterns, the Jolly house nonetheless is a fine articulation of the principles of balance and phrasing which characterize the Utah vernacular style.

Francis Marion Jolly was born in 1823 in Cheshire, Glidedsutton, England. The Jolley’s emigrated to Salt Lake City shortly after joining the Mormon Church and arrived in Manti in 1853. Apparently Jolley moved around the valley somewhat before finally settling in Manti. In 1865, he married Chelnecha Jolley in Moroni. His principle occupations were farming and wool growing, however he also ran a carpenter’s shop. He died in 1891.

Francis Jolley bought this property in 1873 from John Grier for $150.00, a price which probably included both the land and a small adobe house Grier had set up earlier. The brick house was built soon after the purchase date. Bricks for the house were a problem no doubt. A Manti brickyard was not established until the 1880s and then most Manti examples of early brick homes are of a yellow color – produced from clay with a high lime content. The Jolley house is an anomaly for Manti because of its red colored brick, a brick
color associated with ferric-oxide and usually found in the communities on the west side of the valley. The brick for the Jolley house could have been freighted in from the brickyards at Wales or Fountain Green, though there is not conclusive evidence at this time. In one façade brick, a “FMJ” is inscribed into the surface.

Located at 201 South 200 East in Manti, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#80003950) on October 14, 1980.

The Francis Marion Jolley house is a 1 1/2 story brick “double-pen” folk/vernacular house type. The house is about 34′ wide and 18′ deep and consists basically of two square rooms on the ground floor and two rooms above. The staircase originally was located along the back wall of the south front room and was of the closet or “boxed” type and was entered from the north front room. A large fireplace is located on the north and curiously no flue can be found on the south although there is a chimney on the ridge.

The Jolley house is built of fired brick and laid in a common-bond pattern. The walls are three bricks thick, the outer layer of fired red brick and the two inner layers of adobe. The façade is symmetrical with four openings in a “window-door-window-window” piercing pattern. There are four wall dormer windows on the second level placed directly over the lower openings. The brick extends up to the peak of each dormer gable. Lintels and sills appear to be stone but actually are formed of a cement-type mixture. “Natural” cements were in use in America prior to the introduction of Portland cement from England in 1871. Natural cements were found first in the United States in upstate New York in 1820 and utilized extensively in building the Erie Canal. Cement manufacturers were in operation in many locations in the
Eastern states through the 1850s and possibly some such material eventually found its way to Utah. Certainly this feature of the Jolley house remains an architectural puzzle.

n the east rear of the house is a small adobe room which is one story high and now extends behind the house as a “T” extent ion. Probably this adobe section pre-dates the brick portion. The large brick wall on the east is actually built around the adobe, indicating that the brick part was grafted onto an already existing structure.

The house regains in excellent original condition on the exterior. The interior has been recently remodeled and a back porch enclosed as a kitchen and living area.