Eliza Gray Rumel House
Now a “hold out house,” an existing older home that didn’t give in to new buildings built around it.
The Rumel House, built in about 1886 for the second wife of John H. Rumel, builder, type manufacturer, plasterer and Mormon church leader, is significant as one of only nine documented Utah examples of the Greek Revival inspired temple-form vernacular house type. The temple-form house originated in the Greek Revival period of American building, and typically had its short end to the street and a pedimented gable façade in imitation of monumental classical buildings. 3 In its most common form the house had symmetrical fenestration with a door placed to the side of center, and an opening leading to a side passage containing the staircase. Popularized by such books as Asher Benjamin’s Builder’s Companion and Minard Lafever’s Modern Builder’s Guide, it became one of the traditional house forms in New England and in the upper Midwest. The temple-form house migrated to Utah with the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. The temple-form house type is important because it is one of several early house types in the state, and because it is a type traceable to a New England cultural hearth, it documents the important New England heritage of the early Mormon movement. It is one of seven basic house types that were found in Utah during the early years of settlement. These types are all traditional and include: the square cabin; the rectangular cabin; the hall and parlor house; the central passageway house; the pair-house; the double pen house; and the temple-form house. The house was popular in Salt Lake City, a fact supported by early Sanborn-Paris Insurance maps, early photographs, and a surprisingly accurate “bird’s eye view” rendering of the city in 1870. The basic temple-form type, exemplified by the Rumel House, was easily expanded by adding one or two wings to the sides of the house. The most commonly encountered variant is referred to as a “modified” temple-form house, and characterized by the placement of the principle entrance in the side wing. Another variant of the house type has the door centered on the gable façade, does not have a side passage, and may or may not have side wings. The Rumel House is a good example of the basic form from which these other variants were generated.
Located at 358 South 500 East in Salt Lake City, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#83003177) on July 7, 1983. The text on this page is from the nomination form from when it was added to the register.
The Eliza Gray Rumel House was built ca. 1886 for Eliza Gray Rumel, second wife of John H. Rumel. John, who had married Eliza’s sister, Abba, in 1847, married Eliza, in 1852 in keeping with the LDS Church doctrine of plural marriage, which was in effect from the 1840s until 1890. All three, John, Abba and Eliza were pioneers to Utah within the first two years of Mormon settlement in Utah, which began in 1847.
As a builder, type manufacturer, plasterer, and church leader, John Rumel had a long and important career in pioneer Utah. In 1851, two years after his arrival to Utah, he began working for the church as foreman of the plasterers, and continued for some seventeen years in the church’s public works system, a program designed to perform much needed public improvements while also providing jobs for the thousands of emigrants who came to Utah as converts to Mormonism. In 1854 John began the manufacture of type which was used by the church-owned Deseret News. He served for a time as a councilor in the 11th Ward Bishopric and was called to serve on the high council of the Salt Lake Stake in 1860.
In 1886 John was arraigned on charges of unlawful cohabitation, as were many other Mormon men with plural wives at that time as the federal government began strictly enforcing that law. John, who had apparently been living with both wives at his home at 213 East 100 South, pleaded guilty to the charge, but, after promising to obey the law in the future, was given a suspended sentence. Presumably in compliance with that promise, he had this house at 358 South 500 East constructed for his second wife, Eliza, and her family. She lived in this house until her death on May 16, 1910. Born in Salem, Massachusetts on November 4, 1824, she came to Utah in 1849 and married John Rumel in 1852. The marriage resulted in seven children. John lived with his first wife, Abba, after the court decision and died at her home (1814 South 500 East) in 1894.
The house has remained in the Rumel family up to the present, but has been used as rental property since the early 1950s. A daughter, Eliza Ann Rumel Lyon and her husband, Joseph, lived there from 1905 until about 1918, after which it was first rented then sold to her cousin, Ralf Rumel Woolley. A prominent hydraulic engineer and educator, Ralph served as Salt Lake City planning and zoning engineer, president of the Utah Society of Professional Engineers, and as president of the Utah Academy of Science, Arts and Letters. Mr. Woolley lived in this house until his death in 1948. Current owner of the house, Jean Woolley Poulsen, daughter of Ralf Woolley, has rented out the two apartments in the house for almost thirty years.
