The Edward and Harriett Rosenbaum House, built in 1928, is a two-story Colonial Revival and Georgian-style residence. The property is locally significant under Criterion C as a high-end architectural example of the Colonial Revival and Georgian Revival styles with some Federal style
elements. The house is also significant for its association with two of Utah’s most prominent architects: Taylor A. Woolley and Clifford P. Evans. Both men were apprentices to Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1910s, but rarely used Prairie-style elements, preferring to work in different styles to satisfy the tastes of their Utah clients. The firm produced mostly institutional buildings and apartment blocks. The Rosenbaum House is the only example of a grand mansion designed by the firm Woolley and Evans whose limited domestic output consisted of more modest houses. The Rosenbaum House has excellent integrity in the qualities of workmanship, and materials.
The design of the house has all of the characteristics of the classical styles (e.g. fanlights, sidelights, multi-light sashes, dentiled cornice and classical pediments). The main floor features a formal hall, living room, and dining room that are particularly well-preserved, which enhances the high artistic qualities of the exterior. The integrity of the original design is somewhat impacted by an early 1990s side addition, but the addition is compatible and is separated from the original house by a breezeway. The period of significance is the period of construction, 1928.

Edward Rosenbaum, a banker, and his wife, Harriet, were the original owners of the house. The family lived there only a few years until Edward’s untimely death in 1930. The second owners, Prescott and Beatrice Dunn, lived there for 25 years, adding a swimming pool and bath house in
1948-1949. The Dunn family owned a large retail enterprise in Salt Lake City. In 1955, the property was acquired by an insurance executive, Frederick Moreton and his wife, Sarah. The Moreton family held the deed until 1992 and made very few alterations, preserving most of the residence’s distinguishing exterior and interior features.

The setting and location of the property also contributes to its architectural significance. The property represents the Bonneville-on-the-Hill development, a one-of-a-kind model for an exclusive suburb of Salt Lake City. The Bonneville-on-the-Hill development was conceived in 1917 with the acquisition of dry bench land above the popular Federal Heights subdivision. In a departure from the norm, a formal plat was never filed for Bonneville-on-the-Hill. Managed by a syndicate of influential men, the neighborhood did not possess the architectural uniformity of contemporaneous subdivisions. The neighborhood grew more organically as individual lot sizes were increased and sold ad hoc as wealthy families vied to build increasingly grander mansions from the 1920s into the 1970s. The Rosenbaum House on Circle Way, built in the late 1920s, represents the early phase of the high-status neighborhood. The addition of a swimming pool and bath house in the late 1940s (although now altered or replaced) enhanced the property’s status in its exclusive upper-class suburb. The property is a significant contributing resource in Salt Lake City’s Federal Heights neighborhood.

1428 East Circle Way in the Federal Heights area of Salt Lake City, Utah

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (#100005175)

Related:

• history.utah.gov

In 1847 pioneer Isaac Chase built a one-room shanty and a sawmill on Emigration Creek. A few years later he joined with Mormon leader Brigham Young, owner of the adjacent allotments, and together they built a flour mill and this house, the centerpiece of a 110-acre pioneer-era farm now known as Liberty Park.

Construction on the house began in the winter of 1853 and the Chase family lived here until 1860, when Young gave Chase land in Centerville in exchange for his interest in this property. The Brigham Young Jr. family, followed by other millers and their families, subsequently lived here. In 1881 the farm was sold to Salt Lake City for use as a city park, and for eight decades park employees lived in the house. In 1964 the Daughters of Utah Pioneers opened the house to the public as a museum, and in 1983 it became a gallery and later a museum for the Utah Arts Council.

The Chase home is one of a few remaining houses in Salt Lake City that date from the 1850s. Its symmetrical façade, smooth stucco, and boxed cornices with gable-end returns are all hallmarks of the Greek Revival style that was popular with early Mormon builders. The distinctive two-story front porch was a later addition, having been built sometime after 1916. In 2000 the home was renovated with donations from Salt Lake City, the State of Utah, and the LDS Church.

Related:

• D.U.P. #299 (about this home)
• Isaac Chase Mill
• Liberty Park