This home was among the earlier homes built in the Rose Park subdivision. A building permit was issued in March 1947 for a 4-room house without a garage to be built at an estimated cost of $5,000. The four rooms would have included a living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms, with an unfinished basement. Budget Homes (J.C. Baxter), one of the major development and construction companies in Rose Park, built the house. This home is built in an Early Ranch style. Following the war, as household incomes grew, so did the houses themselves, slightly larger (more elongated) than the WWII Cottage. This home showcases the original steel windows, two circular windows, a corner window and a single- car detached garage.
By 1948, James “Kip” and Livonia “Pat” Baxter had purchased this new home. In her life history, Pat remembered that they used their $1,500 in savings bonds for a down payment on the house and that they were the 4th family to move into the Rose Park subdivision. Kip had grown up in Tremonton, but Pat was a Salt Lake native and had graduated from West High School. Kip worked for Kennecott Copper for several years but began working for Young Electric Sign Co. about the time the family moved to Rose Park. Young Electric Sign (now YESCO) became famous, particularly for the neon signs built for Salt Lake businesses and casinos in Las Vegas during the 1950s and 60s. Kip worked for the company for 44 years.
Both Kip and Pat were involved in the local LDS ward. In a time when church members did much of the construction work on their church buildings, Kip did much of the interior painting in the Rose Park LDS Stake Center and was responsible for finishing the ceiling of the church gym.
(above text is from the Preservation Utah home tour)
724 West Lafayette Drive in the Rose Park neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah
