Thomas Frazer House

The oldest section of the Thomas Frazer House (the middle part) was built in 1870 while an addition to the east was completed in 1872. Both of these portions of the house are constructed of a basalt-like black rock. The third section of the house was completed c. 1890 and was constructed of a pink tufa rock. All facades, except the north, display well cut and finished stone masonry.

The house was built by and for Thomas Frazer, a Scotch immigrant and convert to the Mormon church. Frazer was a stonemason by trade and worked in this capacity both in Scotland and Utah. In 1868 his mason’s skills were requested in Beaver, and Frazer initiated a vigorous building campaign in that pioneer town.

The Thomas Frazer House is one of the earliest permanent homes in Beaver, a town that was originally settled with log cabins and dugouts some 20 years prior to Frazer’s arrival. As the town gradually acquired prosperity, people desired more permanent, comfortable houses and these were mostly built by Frazer and his apprentices.

In his own home Frazer paid attention to special details, such as an inscription plaque of sandstone, bearing the date (1872) and the initials of Frazer and his wife Annie. Another example would be the bas-relief portraits, in green granite, of Frazer and Annie that enfrom the south door.

Besides such details, the house also displays several of the characteristics of Frazer’s style of building. These characteristics include: 1) stone bay windows, 2) dormer windows, 3) fancy work along the cornice, and 4) exacting treatment of both the cut stone and the mortar work. In summary, the Thomas Frazer House is significant not only as a fine example of pioneer architecture, but also as the residence of the architect/building who profoundly shaped the character of the town of Beaver.

The Thomas Frazer House is located at 590 North 300 West in Beaver, Utah and was added to the National Historic Register (#78002650) on November 16, 1978. The text on this page is from the nomination form from when the home was added to the national register.

The Thomas Frazer House still retains its original appearance and is in excellent condition. It is a one story stone house, and due to later additions, it has a low, linear character. The two oldest parts of the house display Greek Revival and Federalist Revival elements in the partial boxed return cornice (with fancy brackets) and the door surrounded by transom and side lights. The gabled roof is of medium pitch and is topped by three chimneys.

The nature of the stonework is very fine and exacting and this contributes to the rather formal character of the house. The stones are laid up in broken courses, and each block is nicely squared and finished. The mortar is beaded and originally stained white. The house contains two stone bay windows and one dormer window that used to give light to the attic/loft.

There are four types of rock used in the Thomas Frazer House. The first and most prevalent is a basalt-like black rock. The two earliest sections of the house were constructed out of this stone. The second type of rock is a pink tufa, which is much softer, and therefore easier to work with than the black rock. The third and last section of the house is built with this pink rock. Red sandstone and green granite are used a lintels and decorative motifs throughout the exterior.

The decorative elements and the care lavished on the construction of the house emphasize the fact that the house was built by Thomas Frazer, the town stonemason, as his own home. While Frazer’s workmanship was always excellent no matter what he was building, his own home displays extra small decorative motifs and items of interest.

Caleb Baldwin House

The Caleb Baldwin home is significant because its age and architectural design represent the first major period of Beaver’s growth and development. As permanence and prosperity arrived, small one and two room homes of logs were replaced by small two and three room homes of stone and brick. During this rebuilding phase, the two room hall and parlor house form (with or without rear extensions) was the most common in Beaver. The Baldwin house is one of a number of such houses which continue to stand and which in their typical nature contribute to a full understanding of Beaver’s 19th Century architecture.

Located at 195 South 400 East in Beaver, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#83003834) on November 30, 1983. The text on this page is from the nomination form for the historic register.

This hall and parlor house was constructed of pink rock c. 1885 for Caleb Baldwin and his family. It has four windows and a central door arranged symmetrically across the front facade and end wall chimneys. It displays a broad Greek Revival style cornice around the eaves and above each window and door is a large pink rock lentel. The home rests upon a foundation of black rubble rock and the stonework on the front facade is well squared. On the gable ends, the rock has been roughly cut and layed at random, while facade displays coursed ashlar masonry. The home has an original rear extension that forms a T-plan. At a later date, probably c. 1900, a pink rock addition was built on to the rear of the house, giving it its current elongated T-plan. All the pink rock walls are 18 inches in thickness and all the windows in the house are splayed, being wider on the interior than the exterior. A deteriorated shed roof frame addition, c. 1910, stands on the west side of the house but does not detract from its historic integrity.

Charles Dennis White House

The Charles D. White House is significant in terms of its architecture and the lives of its original occupants.

The house represents one of Thomas Frazer f s best designed homes in his mature style of building. Its proportions are pleasing, as are its lines, with all its parts contributing to the whole. The craftsmanship is unsurpassed and, structurally, the home is in excellent condition.

Charles D. White was a prominent citizen in pioneer Beaver. He was a farmer and a herdsman, both managing and owning large herds of cattle and sheep. In 1875 he managed the sheep herds of the L.D.S. Church’s United Order. He was also for many years the superintendent of the Beaver Co-op Store, a very large mercantile institution.

Mr. White also played a very active role in his Church. He served as bishop of Beaver’s First Ward (L.D.S. Church) from 1877 until 1891 when he was named President of the entire Beaver Stake.

Mr. White was a polygamist and one of his two wives was active in Church affairs.

His first wife, Mary Ann Greenwood White, grew up in Beaver and served in the Beaver Stake Relief Society as a treasurer and a counselor. His second wife was Margaret Gilles, but not much information is available regarding her life.

In conclusion, the Charles D. White house is significant because it is still regarded as one of Beaver’s mansions. It’s size and quality of construction are indicative of Mr. White’s prominence in his community. The design is representative of Thomas Frazer‘s mature style of building, a style that was first synthesized some five year earlier in the Duckworth Grimshaw House, also in Beaver, Utah. The Charles D. Whtie House is Frazer’s largest extant house and it displays five of the six architectural elements common to his style of building: dormer windows, a center gable, ashlar stonework, bargeboard along the eaves and dormers, and white-painted mortar joints.

115 East 400 North in Beaver, Utah – Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (#80003889) on February 14, 1980. The text on this page is from the nomination form for the register.

The Charles D. White House is a large, one and a half story home. It was built c. 1882 by Thomas Frazer, the local stone mason, for White and one of his two families. The house has an original “T” plan and has a simple vernacular, gabled design. It is constructed of a native black basalt, with a gray granite being used for the lintels above the windows and doors. Large basalt blocks comprise the quoin stones at the corners of the building.

On the ground floor, the front façade displays four windows and one door, all arranged symmetrically. Upstairs, there is a central gable with a door in it, and dormer windows on either side. The dormers and eaves are finished with a decorative bargeboard, while the steeply pitched roof supports two end-wall chimney stacks.

The rear section of the house is similar to the front façade in that it has two dormer windows upstairs, on either side of a door which leads out to a porch. The eaves and dormers are again finished with bargeboard and there is another end-wall chimney.

The masonry work is very typical of Thomas Frazer’s building style. The two facades that face the street are built of cut stone, while the remaining facades are composed of rubble stone. With the cut stone blocks, Frazer squared them roughly, then set them in place and gave them a perfectly square appearance by adding black-dyed mortar to their edges. He then either beaded the mortar joints or recessed them and he always painted the mortar joints white. At the C. D. White House, the mortar joints are recessed and their white appearance is perfectly preserved under the porch in the corner of the house.

The most interesting detail on the interior of the house is the hand-painted graining on the French doors of the music room.

One of the original granaries is still standing on the east side of the house. It displays one façade of cut stone, the side that faces the street, and has a door and a window on the same façade.

Duckworth Grimshaw House

The Duckworth Grimshaw House is one of the black stone houses for which Beaver is famous. The house was started in March of 1877 and finished in December of 1877 so that the family could move in on Christmas Day. Thomas Frazer, the Scots stonemason/contractor, built the house; and Duckworth Grimshaw paid $2,000 for the completed home. The house represents the first extant house that was built in Frazer’s mature style. It has two cut rock facades with white mortar joints, a center gable upstairs on the front façade and two dormer windows, all of which are well known characteristics of Frazer’s building style.

Mr. Grimshaw was born in England and obtained his first name from his grandmother’s family, a name he recorded he was not greatly pleased with. He converted to the Mormon faith and moved to Beaver, Utah, where he was a farmer for most of his long life. He was a polygamist who was eventually convicted and sent to the state prison for “unlawful cohabitation.” However, he was released early due to good behavior.

Harley Potheringham, Duckworth’s grandson, now lives in the house, and the house has always been in the same family. Harley says that Duckworth, one wife and her five children lived in the house. He also says the first lights in the house were candles which were later replaced by coal oil lamps and eventually electric light bulbs.

The home is listed on the century register (1972).

The home’s significance stems from three sources: first, it is a historic house whose character has not been weakened over the years. Second, it is a stone house which traditionally was not a common building material in America. Third, the home has an excellent design; a design that was evolved over the years by the vernacular architect Thomas Frazer. This house is the first house done in Frazer’s mature style, and the design was so successful that it was repeated many times in other houses around town.

Located at 95 North 400 West in Beaver, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#80003886) on February 1, 1980. The text on this page is from the national register’s nomination form.

The Duckworth Grimshaw House is a one-and-a-half story “I” house. It is built of black rock (basalt) which was hauled by ox team and wagon from the hills about four miles east of Beaver. The mortar is made of lime that was burned west of town in the Mineral Mountains. The lumber used was red and yellow pine from the Tushar Mountains. In fact, the house today still contains one section of log walls that used to be the family’s log cabin, a temporary dwelling used until the rock house was completed.

The walls are 18 inches thick and the house is 36 feet long by 20 feet wide. The two facades that face the street are of squared black rock. The front façade has four windows and a door, all symmetrically placed. Upstairs there is a center gable with a door in it that leads out to the front porch. The center gable is flanked by dormer windows on either side and each gable end has chimneys. There are offset windows on each side of the gable ends and over all the proportions of the windows, dormers, center gable, roof slope, height of the building, etc. are very well balanced with each other. The house has a very formal character, due to many factors including the contrast of the black and white colors, the symmetry and the angular lines of the house,

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The historic William Thompson House
160 East Center Street in Beaver, Utah

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Dr. George Fennemore House

The Dr. George Fennemore House is located at 90 South 100 West in Beaver, Utah and was added to the National Historic Register (#80003885) on February 1, 1980.

The text below is from the historic register nomination form:

George Fennemore was a doctor of medicine who originally came to Beaver with his family as refugees from San Bernardino, California. They arrived in Beaver c. 1858 when Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, deemed it hazardous to have Mormon colonies spread so thinly between Utah and California and therefore ordered the San Bernardino colony evacuated. Dr. Fennemore probably had the house built but there is some possibility that his son Albert may have been responsible for its construction.

Neils Peter Ipson and his family were the second residents of the Fennemoe House. His mother Georgina, was originally from Denmark and settled in Parowan, Utah. She was a polygamist wife, but became unhappy under those marital conditions and left Parowan with her children for Beaver. In her new town she practiced her skills as a midwife.

Her son Neils became the “cashier” of the State Bank of Beaver and a part owner, a “cashier” being the approximate equivalent of today’s bank manager. Neils was also a school trustee for some time before compulsory education became the law. His wife was Mary Ann Ipson, affectionately known as “Aunt Polly,” and was remembered for her immaculate housekeeping in a home that was one of the town’s mansions. The Ipsons owned the house from 1906 until 1924 when they left so Neils could accept employment with the State of Utah in Salt Lake City.

The house is significant because of its style of architecture, its historic date and its preserved historic character. Its style may be described as a vernacular translation of a Second Empire style. However, this house represents a different phase of vernacular architecture, a phase that is more sophisticated than the one that preceded it. The home has a very pleasing design and this is remarkable when it is considered that the second owner, Mr. Ipson, altered the appearance substantially. Mr. Ipson had the second floor built, which included the four bedrooms and the dormer windows. He also installed cast iron roof cresting which is no longer extant. Unlike most additions, Mr. Ipson did not destroy the home’s design but in fact improved it. With its hardwood trim and its hand-grained paneling, this home has the finest extant interior of any home in Beaver.