During the late 1800s, this property was used as an LDS tithing lot for hay, grain, and produce. At that time, all of Davis County was one LDS Stake. The president of the Davis Stake was Joseph Hyrum Grant, who resided in Woods Cross, making him inaccessible to most church members. The LDS leadership ordered a Stake President’s Office to be located near the center of the Stake’s population, and here it was built in 1907. The building’s construction was supervised by James H. Robinson, bishop of the Farmington Ward. After the North Davis and South Davis Stakes were formed in 1915, the South Davis Stake Presidency moved its headquarters to Bountiful, and the Farmington office was put up for sale. Farmington City purchased the property and moved its offices from the top floor of the County Courthouse, turning this building into the Farmington City Hall in the fall of 1917. Part of the building was converted into a library, and the Volunteer Fire Department used the east bay for storage of fire-fighting equipment. In August of 1970, Farmington City moved its offices into a new building to the north. The Farmington Lions Club leased the old City Hall until 2001, when the city regained ownership and renovated it into a museum. The Farmington City Historical Museum opened on July 9, 2004.
The American Fork City Hall is significant as the seat of city government from 1903 to the present. Moreover, it is located on the site where civic offices have been concentrated since 1861. The building also represents an important change in government in American Fork after the turn of the century. Civic and ecclesiastical functions that had been combined in multi-use buildings were physically and symbolically separated. The American Fork City Hall was the first of the town’s four municipal buildings to be used exclusively for governmental purposes.
This building was designed by local architect/builder James H. Pulley and constructed in 1903. Its Victorian Romanesque Revival style is characterized by round arched openings and a rough stone foundation. The room is topped with a small central deck which was once adorned with a wooden belfry (removed in 1959).
Located at 31 North Church Street in American Fork, Utah and added to the National Register of Historic Places (#94000298) on April 7th, 1994.
The building to your left was originally built as a schoolhouse in 1880 in nearby Silver Reef. It also served in the mining boomtown as a place for community dances and other gatherings.
Soon after the schoolhouse was built, Silver Reef began to decline in population, and by the early 1900s the building was no longer in use. At that time, the building was divided into two parts and moved on logs pulled by horses along the road, 2 miles from Silver Reef to its present site in Leeds. For more than five decades, until 1956, it served as the Leeds Schoolhouse. During most of that time, its two classrooms housed students in eight different grades.
After the school closed, the building was leased to and used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a recreation center. Eventually it was remodeled and turned into a town hall and community gathering place for Leeds. The old school was reroofed and the small porch on the original building was expanded across the full length of the new town hall’s front.
LEEDS PEACHES: DID YOU KNOW? In the 30s, 40s, and 50s when the peach farming was booming in Leeds, peaches from the community were shipped throughout the West via rail from Cedar City. The local people working in the orchards and packing the bushel baskets with ripening peaches became curious about the cost consumer’s were paying for their peaches. So they began writing notes in the bottom of the baskets asking for people to write them back and let them know what they were paying. It was common to receive replies from as far away as Texas and Michigan. Compliments about how good the peaches tasted were often included with the replies.
Local carpenters and stonemasons constructed this building in 1893 to serve as a civic meeting hall. It was also used as a schoolhouse until the big school was opened in 1900. The simple forms, symmetrical facade, and Greek Revival style cornice are typical of nineteenth-century civic buildings in Utah. The building served as the city hall until 1988.
Located at 46 North Main Street in Spring City, Utah.
This is one of the few surviving vernacular civic buildings remaining in Sanpete County. Built in 1893 of oolitic limestone it is a temple form building with Greek Revival influence complete with a bell tower. The builders included masons: Jens D. Carlson (1848-1927), Jens. J. Sorensen , John F. Bohlin (1844-1924), and carpenters: William Downard and Marinus Mortensen. The building was used as a schoolhouse until 1900 when the large public school was opened. Two municipal bands used it as a practice hall. It served as the city hall until 1988 when this function was moved to the old Junior high school. It is now the D. U. P. Museum. Behind the building is an old jailhouse.*
This squared limestone block building likely was constructed in the 1870’s or 80’s. The upper floor served as the City Hall, with a raised front entrance and tall plastered ceiling. The lower floor was the City Jail with its separate front and side entrances and two iron-barred jail cells. The front porch has been altered but otherwise, the broadside-facing structure is architecturally intact including the six over six windows and their Federal style lintel caps.
Old-timers claim there were more than two jail cells, but this is not structurally indicated. Most inmates were vagrants or drunks from the train, who disturbed neighbors with their loud complaints from the jail. One elderly gentleman remembered the police arresting some young miscreants (he was one of them) for disobeying the curfew law, and locking them up for a few hours to persuade them to be law-abiding. The building is now a house, but the exterior is largely unchanged from the days when it was a jail; iron bars still remain on the basement windows. The prison cells in the basement are now a guest room and storage room; the jail entry area is a study and bookshelves and a fireplace. The main floor has a kitchenette, dining area, and a living room.(*)
Located at 12441 S 900 E in Draper, Utah and designed by School District Architect Niels Edward Liljenberg, the Draper Park School was constructed in 1912, replacing an 1883 school on the same site. The building was named in honor of Dr. John R. Park, a leading figure in Utah’s educational history and early school teacher in Draper. The school originally accommodated both elementary and junior high school students. Additions were made to the south of the building in 1928 and to the east in 1963. In 1938 a mural depicting the history of education in Draper was painted on the interior by artist Paul Smith as a WPA project. The school was converted into the Draper City Hall and community center around 1980 and is the home of the Draper Historical Society.
This Victorian Eclectic public school, noted for its fine brick work, was built in 1899. It was designed by noted architect Richard C. Watkins of Provo, who also designed the Spring City Meetinghouse and numerous other school buildings in Utah. The builder was Grace Brothers of Nephi. The building is laid out on an “H” plan and had 4 classrooms on each of the 2 floors. Last used as a school in 1957, citizens of the area worked from 1979 to 2017 to renovate this landmark building for the community.
Until 1899 classes were held in various locations scattered throughout Spring City. In that year a public school was completed at the cost of $10,200. Half the amount was financed with a bond and the rest was financed by local citizens including Rasmus Justesen who mortgaged his sheep herd. The architect was R.C. Watkins. General contractor was Grace Brothers of Nephi, employing local labor. Brick and adobe was made in town and stone was quarried nearby.
The building was in use until 1957. In 1977 the North Sanpete School District determined that the school be demolished, but the two local Camps of Daughters of Utah Pioneers negotiated the purchase of the building for one dollar, securing its future. Historic home tours were an early means of fund-raising to keep the structure intact.
By 1987 there were enough concerns over liability that the deed was transferred to the City. Friends of Historic Spring City, a non profit organization, was formed in 1988 to develop a plan with the specific condition that no city funds would be available. Jack Brady was selected as restoration architect.
Heritage Day events, art sales, as well as donations from individuals and foundations allowed the project to proceed. A large grant and loan was secured through Spring City Corp. from the Community Impact Fund Board with The Friends of Historic Spring City being solely responsible for repayment.
Paulsen Construction, with many local tradesmen, completed the restoration in May 2017.
The Friends of Historic Spring City presented the completed building as a gift to the City and citizens as City Hall and Community Center.
Built in 1936, the Fairview City Hall is part of the Public Works Buildings Thematic Resource nomination and is significant because it helps document the impact of New Deal programs in Utah, which was one of the states that the Great Depression of the 1930s most severely affected. In 1933 Utah had an unemployment rate of 36 percent, the fourth highest in the country, and for the period 1932-1940 Utah’s unemployment rate averaged 25 percent. Because the depression hit Utah so hard, federal programs were extensive in the state. Overall, per capita federal spending in Utah during the 1930s was 9th among the 48 states, and the percentage of workers on federal work projects was far above the national average. Building programs were of great importance. During the 1930s virtually every public building constructed in Utah, including county courthouses, city halls, fire stations, national guard armories, public school buildings, and a variety of others, were built under federal programs by one of several agencies, including the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the National Youth Administration (NYA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), or the Public Works Administration (PWA), and almost without exception none of the buildings would have been built when they were without the assistance of the federal government.
I was reading here that apparently it was demolished and then the some stone was used to rebuild it exactly the same from the exterior, with updated interiors.
The Fairview City Hall is one of 232 buildings constructed in Utah during the 1930s and early 1940s under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and other New Deal programs. Of those 232 buildings, 133 are still standing and are eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. This is one of 22 city halls built, 19 of which are still standing. In Sanpete County 17 buildings were constructed, 13 of which remain.
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New Deal Funded Projects in Utah
The local newspaper recorded the construction of the building as follows. “Work has just begun on the new Fairview City Hall and library to be built at Fairview as a government aid project.
“It will be a two-story building and will be constructed of sawed native rock, known as blue sandstone. The building will be erected on Main Street on the corner lot south of the amusement hall and will have accommodations for city hall, library, jail, Legion hall, kitchen and serving room and two rest rooms. “Thirteen men will be employed during January and 20 from then until June when it is expected the project will be completed, said Oscar Amundsen, foremen. “The plans for the building were drawn by Hugh Anderson of Fairview. $10,000 was appropriated for the building but this amount is not enough to complete the project, stated Mr. Amundsen “‘ Little is known about the construction careers of Oscar Amundsen and Hugh Anderson. This building has continued to the present to serve as the city hall and library for the town of Fairview. ” – Mt Pleasant Pyramid, Jan 31, 1936, p.1.
The Fairview City Hall, built in 1936, is a one-story stone building with a basically square plan, a raised basement, and a flat roof. There have been no major alterations made to the building.
This building represents an excellent example of the stark, abstract classicism associated with the PWA Moderne architectural style in Utah. The principal facade is symmetrically divided into three bays. The central bay is narrower and contains the front door, while the flanking bays have slightly wider windows on both the main and basement levels. The windows are Palladian-inspired and tripartite, and are topped by elliptical fanlights. A similar arch is found over the front entrance. Openings on the sides and rear are simple rectangles. The building is constructed of the local oolite limestone, finely dressed to a smooth ashlar surface. A band of low-relief dentils run beneath the cement coping at the edge of the roof. A very small concrete block addition was built on the rear of the building at an unknown date. Because of its small scale and its location at the rear, that addition does not affect the historical integrity of the building.
