Annie Clark Tanner House

In 1901, Annie Clark Tanner, daughter of Ezra T. Clark and Susan Leggett Clark, arranged to have this Victorian Eclectic house built with money from her father. It replaced all but one room of an old adobe home on the same lot. She was 16 years into her polygamous marriage as second wife to Joseph Marion Tanner and had spent 10 years fleeing anti-polygamy persecution. Annie was grateful finally to settle near her beloved relatives. She oversaw the home’s design, hired the mason, and ordered all of the materials, including local fieldstone for the foundation and fired brick from Kaysville. Joseph, who eventually had five wives, lived elsewhere. He served a 3 1/2 – year mission overseas, and became a prominent LDS educator. As the couple gradually became estranged, Annie rented rooms to performers at Lagoon and, in 1911, took a lien to build a rental home to the east, and an addition to her home, which she divided and also rented. In 1913, Joseph formally abandoned Annie and six of their children (two had died in childhood; two had married). She then did housework for neighbors and worked as a midwife to pay for her children’s education. Six of her children graduated from college, including her youngest, Obert Clark “O.C.” Tanner, who was a U. of U. professor, wealthy entrepreneur and philanthropist. Annie wrote biographies of her mother and father. Her autobiography, “A Mormon Mother,” is considered a classic in Mormon literature.

291 West State Street in Farmington, Utah in the Clark Lane National Historic District.