Built 1907 of brick and white stone trim for David and Ellen Stoddard Eccles.
Architects: Monson & Schaub of Logan Renovation: 1972 by S. Eugene and Christie Smith Needham
The David Eccles Home is located at 250 West Center Street in the Logan Center Street Historic District in Logan, Utah, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places (#76001811) on July 30, 1976.
David Eccles built this home in 1907 for his second wife, Ellen Stoddard. It has 24 rooms and 11,000 square feet of living space. Emigrating from Scotland with his family in 1863, David Eccles became successful with interests in sugar, lumber, coal, and banking. The architects for the house were J. Monson and Karl Schaub. The style includes late Victorian, Chateauesque, and Neoclassical elements. Two large turrets and colonnades and a neoclassical porch dominate the façade of the beautiful structure. Of particular interest is the scrollwork on the front porch and the embossed abbreviation “D.E.” for David Eccles.
Throughout the house, decorative oak woodwork is prominent. Other features include 19 cut glass windows, detailed plaster cornice work, a large archway entrance to the living room, and hardwood floors. The house has been a university dormitory and fraternity and sorority house. Christie and S. Eugene Needham purchased it in 1970 and their renovation included adding a carport, a children’s play area, a formal garden, an art studio, and bedrooms.*
The David Eccles home represents several important themes in Utah and American history. As a poor emigrant from Scotland, the home symbolizes the successful business career of David Eccles and the important contribution he made to the economic development of the West. As the home of David Eccles’ second family, it is a unique part of the Mormon polygamy story. The home f s construction coincided with the end of the polygamy controversy after David Eccles became convinced he would be able to maintain both families in Utah without any interference. The home of Marriner Eccles during his last boyhood years, the site is also an important part in the history of this important figure in America’s economic history.
Architecturally the David Eccles residence represents the finer achievements of architects and builders responsible for the construction of the many late-Victorian period homes in the West Center Street area of Logan. The home is perhaps the best surviving residence designed by Logan architects Joseph Monson and Karl C. Schaub, both of whom were distinguished in their careers.
The David Eccles Home in Logan was constructed in 1907 at a reported cost of $75,000. The architects were Joseph Monson and Karl C. Schaub. Born May 12, 1849, near Glasgow, Scotland, David Eccles was forced to begin his business career at an early age when his father, a wood turner by trade, suffered almost a complete loss of sight from double cataracts on his eyes. Supplied with kitchen utensils made by his father and resin sticks used to ignite coal fires, the eleven year old David journeyed to neighboring towns to peddle his wares. In 1863, at the age of fourteen, David Eccles and his family emigrated to Utah with help from the LDS Church Perpetual Emigration Fund. After working in Utah and Oregon sawmills, and the Almy Wyoming coal mine, David took a contract in 1872 to supply logs to a portable sawmill. This venture led to further investment in the lumber industry first in Utah then Idaho, and by 1887 in Oregon. His success in the lumber industry made possible other investments in railroads, beet sugar refineries, food processing enterprises, construction, coal, land, livestock, banks, and insurance companies. After his death in 1912, his estate was valued at over six million dollars. During his business career he had founded 54 different enterprises. Because of his respect among both the Mormon and non-Mormon business communities, he was a leader in the secularization of business in the Mormon cultural region. His biographer, Leonard Arrington wrote:
To a poorly educated person from a family with no savings or social status, the only way out of poverty was hard work and careful use of time and resources. Eccles therefore concentrated his efforts toward the goal of accumulation. He did not expend his energies in “church activities,” nor in striving for social recognition, nor in unproductive political debate, nor in the pursuit of pleasure. Every moment, every ounce of energy, every expenditure had to count toward the goal of accumulation and profit. This was not a driving preoccupation but a a pattern of life he knew was right. He was neither tense nor humorless; he enjoyed his work and his endeavors to turn a profit. He worked with gusto, relished the attempt to make business succeed, found pleasure in investing in new enterprises. But he was careful, prudent, and shrewd. This was habitual with him and not just a “show” to induce a spirit of economy among his employees. Leonard J. Arrington, David Eccles, pp. 126-127.
In keeping with the standard set by prominent men of good standing in the Mormon Church before 1890, David Eccles married two women. His first wife and her family lived in Ogden and their home, now known as the Bertha Eccles Art Center has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
David married his first wife, Bertha Jensen, in 1875. Ten years later, in 1885, he married Ellen Stoddard a young girl eighteen years of age. Because of the pressure by federal officials to arrest Mormon men guilty of unlawful cohabitation, the marriage to Ellen was kept a secret. Ellen was well aware of the necessity for secrecy especially when her own father, a polygamist with four wives, was arrested and forced to spend several months in prison. During the late 1880’s, Eccles moved Ellen, her mother, sister and two brothers to North Powder, Oregon, near a sawmill built by John Stoddard, but then owned by his son-in-law David Eccles. In 1890, Ellen returned to her family in Logan where she gave birth to her first child, Marriner. With the fear of arrest for unlawful cohabitation still a threat to her husband, Ellen continued to keep her marriage a secret and while in Logan, carefully hung drying diapers under sheets on the clothesline in an effort to maintain her secret. Ellen remained in Utah and Southern Idaho until late 1894 when she returned to Oregon with her three children, Marriner born in 1890, Marie born in 1892, and Spencer born in 1894. Her father, a business associate of David Eccles in the lumber industry had made his home in Oregon and Ellen remained there until 1907. During her sojourn in Oregon, five more children were born.
After Ellen’s return to Logan in 1907, David’s relationship between his Ogden and Logan families settled into a comfortable routine. Leonard Arrington writes:
Eccles necessarily divided what time he had for domestic matters between his two families, so the responsibility for rearing their nine children necessarily fell to their mother Ellen. The oldest son of this family, Marriner, recalled, “she reared us all to share her own view of David as a man who was to be respected and loved, and not to be annoyed by noise and tumults on the occasions when he was home with us.” And his sister Nora concurred, adding that, even though Eccles kept unorthodox hours–in his later years he often came home as late as ten o’clock in the evening–her mother would attempt to have a full dinner for him, and a family of happy, if tired, children to greet him. The children loved to wait for his arrival. He would play games with them, such as dropping nickels and dimes on the sofa for them to find. When they would bring the lost coins to him, he would reply in his Scottish burr, “Losers weepers, finders keepers!” and laugh heartily. Leonard J. Arrington, David Eccles, p. 155. Marriner S. Eccles, Beckoning Frontiers: Public and Personal’ Recollections, (New York, 1951), p. 22.
The Historical significance of Logan and its historic district can best be described by historian Leonard J. Arrington who in an article on Cache Valley (wherein Logan is the commercial, educational, political and religious center) wrote the following:
The economic development of Cache Valley is unique in American history. Virtually all of the United States was settled and developed with “outside” capital. The Atlantic Coast states had extensive commercial connections with England, Northern Europe, and the West Indies, The Southeast, likewise, built its capital fund by exporting to England. The Midwest was developed primarily by eastern capital, while West Coast development was stimulated and financed by exports of gold, lumber, and wheat. Even most of the valleys in the Mountain states were developed by eastern and midwestern capital. Wyoming’s important range cattle business was largely financed by easterners and English-men; and the growth of Montana, Colorado, Nevada, and the Salt Lake Valley was largely induced by the immigration of mining capital from east of the Mississippi. Cache Valley, on the other hand, was settled by people who did not have capital when they came. This is one valley whose development was accomplished without the attraction of significant amounts of outside capital. Its people raised themselves, as it were, by their own bootstraps or rather, by their own bone and sinew. This is perhaps one reason why economic development was so slow. It also explains why the development was so solid and lasting.
The history of Cache Valley is also significant because it was one of the few economies founded for a religious purpose, dominated by religious sentiments, and managed by religious leaders. Some American states were founded for benevolent and religious purposes, and some were influenced for many years by religious attitudes and leaders, but there are few cases in which a church undertook such whole-hearted planning and organization for economic progress as in the case of the Mormon community in the Mountain West. Cache Valley’s settlers believed that God was with them. They regarded themselves as partners with God in subduing the earth and making it fruitful. They believed it was their solemn obligation and privilege to unite in building a Kingdom of God a Kingdom at once comfortable to live in and beautiful to behold. This unity in building a Godly Commonwealth gave flavor and distinction to the economic growth and development of Cache Valley.
The Logan Center Street Historic District is one of Utah’s Historic Districts and is bounded by ……. in Logan, Utah. It was added to the National Historic Register (#74001933) on April 26, 1979. The text on this page is from the national register’s nomination form.
Cache Valley’s history is significant, in the third place, because it illustrates the problems connected with the settlement of a semi-arid region. It is doubtful that any semi-arid region has faced up the particular problems involved in irrigation agriculture more resolutely, and documented the story more completely, than has Cache Valley. As the result, the valley is today one of the best watered in the West; its history and development are objects of study by scientists and technicians from as far away as Africa, Iran, and Australia.
Finally, Cache Valley history is significant because it represents in so many ways the pioneering experience which was typical of America. Dr. Ralph Barton Perry, in his justly famous book, Characteristically American, wrote:
Mormonism was a sort of Americanism in miniature; in its republicanism, its emphasis on compact in both church and polity, its association of piety with conquest and adventure, its sense of destiny, its resourcefulness and capacity for organization.
It was not only a Mormon dream, but the dream of all Americans to build on this continent a Kingdom of God. It was the dream of all Americans to escape, as Goethe said, from the past of European man, and to build a new society a good society. The history of Cache Valley is a kind of summation of American history, a heightening, a more explicit formulation of that history. Cache Valley history is thus a study of American problems, of human problems, of the problems of all individuals making a living on the frontier of civilization, .whether in Siberia, Argentina, or New South Wales.
Logan is the biggest city of the several small communities nestled in a beautiful northern Utah basin called Cache Valley. This “structural valley,” the largest of its kind in the Wasatch Range, resulted from a long period of faulting and breaking of the once level floor. The fault lines can still be seen in the foothills, and though millions of years old, they still have the ability to give the contemporary resident a scare when it decides to find a more comfortable place to rest for another generation or so. This faulting not only created the steep mountains which rise to levels of 9,000 feet and are 5,000 feet above the valley floor, but millions of years ago they became the rim of Lake Bonneville which left its own legacy. This great and ancient lake at one time covered 19,750 square miles and inundated most of Utah, Idaho and Nevada. As the lake began to leave the valley, its gradual decline brought down large amounts of gravel, silt, sand and clay from the mountains and deposited these unknowing passengers on the floor of the valley, thus making it unusually level. As the winds blew and the rains came and time passed, a fertile brown soil of about eight inches was placed on top of this high, but level floor of Mother Earth, and the result was a valley that was most suitable for agriculture if the suitor could only overcome the thorns of a rather stoic sky (when it came to tears) and a few million grasshoppers and crickets.
These two problems, though severe to any man seeking a quick profit, proved not to be so overwhelming to a group of settlers willing to work together closely and to patiently survive the first few desperate years until the groundwork for a successful economy could be laid.
The Settlement of Cache Valley
The Mormons, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came to the territory, which is now Utah, in 1847 and first settled in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. They came to find a place in the West that nobody wanted where they could live and worship God as they pleased without conflict with non-Mormons.
Cache Valley is almost unique among Mormon settlements in that the settlers who came to build the cities in this valley were not “called” or assigned to go to Cache Valley by the great Mormon leader, Brigham Young. In the settling of Cache Valley, the pioneers came out of desire and love of the land, although they did get Brother Brigham’s blessing in the venture.
Cache Valley had been visited by mountainmen and trappers for years .before the Mormons came. In fact, Jim Bridger had told Brigham Young that this valley was probably as fertile as any around and certainly better than that of the valley of Salt Lake. But the nineteenth century Moses had already made up his mind on the valley to the south, and that is where the Saints first settled. But Young’s plans were for an empire expanding over the entire mountain west, and as soon as they had arrived, he began sending out explorers to evaluate other possible sights for his communities. Jessie C. Little headed for Cache Valley in August 1847 and reported that the valley was, “beautiful and had more timber than any place… explored. From an area of nine miles to nineteen and one-half miles, there were twelve streams flowing through a good country into the Great Salt Lake.” Fears of the valley’s killing frosts and harsh winters related to them by the trappers and the strength of the Shoshoni Indians, who considered the valley their hunting grounds, left the area free of Mormon settlers for a decade. However, the need for further expansion became more intense and in 1859 Peter Maughan received permission from Brigham Young to settle Cache Valley. Maughan and the several families that came with this seasoned pioneer founded a small community at the southwest end of the valley not far from the mountains through which they entered the valley. The community called Maughan’s Fort (later named Wellsville) immediately became the rendezvous spot for the flood of new settlers that surged into the valley in the late spring and early summer. Maughan encouraged the new settlers to find new sites and start new communities. He also advised them to follow his pattern of settlement– the fort style. This method of settlement was used extensively in the early days of Utah. The log houses and dugouts were very close together, but they were separated by a fence that encompassed a back yard of substantial size for the stock. All the houses were arranged inside a perimeter fence or stockade. One long street divided j the two rows of houses with a gate at each end. The fort style had several advantages. Most important, it aided in protection against Indian raids. The Shoshonis, though basically nomadic, considered Cache Valley their hunting grounds, and they were naturally disturbed to see the settlers come and compete with them for the wildlife and to turn their pristine valley into a civilization they could not comprehend. On numerous occasions, there were confrontations and killings. One Wellsville citizen explained the Indian experience this way:
We had a pretty hard time for three or four years to make a living. We had many times to guard the fort at nights and herd our stock in the day so the Indians could not steal them. In the summer of 1859, the Indians stole every horse that was out on the range.
The fort style protected the settlers from possible intrusions, but it also gavel unity to the town and provided a sense of belonging which most emigrants needed as much as any physical object. One settler explained other advantages of the fort style:
… a splendid lesson had been taught and learned, it being really necessary to love the neighbors, their doors being only half speaking distance apart, which however was quite convenient in one respect, as people had to 5 borrow to quite an extent, it was not a great task to borrow and return.
The influx of new settlers brought on a settlement bonanza in 1859. In just a few months, Providence, Logan, Hyde Park, Smithfield, Richmond, and Mendon were established, creating a chain of closely linked villages instead of one overgrown town. The next year brought three more communities into existence in the valley of the north, making a total of ten village settlements in just two years. All of these communities used the fort style settlement thus rejecting the homestead method of western pioneering so common in all other western territories. This unique form of western settlement also helped the town life so deeply ingrained in the Utah way of life.
Logan’s Rise to Prominence
Logan’s birth came in June when two groups of settlers built their homes in the fort style along present day Center Street for about two blocks. The next year another block was added to the nascent, but burgeoning community. Most of the houses in this vernal village were built of logs with dirt floors and dirt roofs. Despite this terrestrial beginning, Logan became the most prominent town in the valley because oftwo reasons. First, it was about equal distance from the outlying communities which automatically gave it the cardinal position in the valley. Second, because it was settled on the banks of the Logan River, it gave the community the greatest source of water supply of any place in the valley. The chart below shows Logan’s tremendous growth compared to the other communities of the valley.
Population of Cache Valley Communities in Various Years:
1870
1880
1890
1900
Wellsville
885
1,193
1,045
908
Logan
1,757
3,396
4,620
5,451
Smithfield
774
1,177
1,386
1,494
Hyrum
708
1,234
1,423
1,652
Though settled in 1859, Logan and all other communities in Cache Valley were not incorporated for several years after settlement so the Mormon Church’s ecclesiastical leaders fulfilled this political void while maintaining the religious leadership of the communities at the same time. William B. Preston was chosen to be the Bishop of Logan in 1859 by Mormon Church Apostles Orson Hyde and Ezra T. Benson.
By 1864 the threat of the Indians had been minimized by the United States Army which had defeated the Shoshoni Indians in a battle the year before. So that year the county surveyor, James H. Martineau, and the territorial surveyor, Jessie W. Fox, surveyed and platted the town, making it ready for the establishment of city lots. Also that summer, Brigham Young visited Cache Valley and advised the settlers accordingly:
There are a few trees here. Raise orchards, if only for the welfare of your children…. Why not quarry rock and build stone houses and make stone fences? Stone makes a good fence and it will not winterkill. Build good fences, have good gardens and make yourselves happy, serving God…. Build meeting houses, put up the lumber and make bins in which to put up your wheat so that it can be safe for fifty years if needed.
As soon as these faithful followers of the “modern-day Moses” received their city lot (given to them by Bishop Maughan), they did just what President Young had advised. For the Mormons came to Utah and Cache Valley because they wanted a place where they could reside and worship as they pleased and build a kingdom for their God. There was no desire to exploit the natural resources of the area and then take the wealth from that exploitation back east for a prosperous life among the affluent. ( Such ethereal goals, however, would take time and determination. So the Mormons built sturdy rock homes because they were here to stay. Four of these rock homes (#100, 602, 600, 348) are still standing and are important elements of the district because they not only represent the first stage of the city’s developmental process, but they also signify the pioneer’s intentions of permanency. Since the wood and stone used to build the homes was all garnered locally, they are-excellent examples of vernacular architecture.
There is one other aspect of early Mormon culture represented in one of the rock homes in the district, and that is polygamy. Polygamy or plural marriage was a tenant of the Mormon religion until the federal government forced the church to stop the ; practice in 1890. The George L. Farrell home (#100) in the district was a polygamy home, and its survival explains much about that controversial Mormon Doctrine.
Logan and the City of Zion Plan
By 1864 the city had now been surveyed and laid out and the properties deeded, ! though in fact, they were just squatters on public domain since the land still remained officially in the hands of the federal government. But what was the plan of the city? The settlement of the city and its plans for future growth had been worked out long before the pioneers had ever come to Cache Valley. The founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, had determined the city plans for the “ideal” Mormon community in 1833.
“This ideal city was to be one mile square, with ten-acre blocks, divided .into one-half-acre lots, one house to the lot; a complex of temples was located on two city blocks. The ideal, according to Joseph Smith, was to fill this city then another one next to it, and so on as needed to fill up the world in these last days.”
The plan was modified a little in regards to the number of temples in the area, but the rest of Joseph Smith’s ideal was applied to Logan with great care, thus formalizing the village concept. Each family received a town lot of about an acre and a quarter upon which they were to plant their vegetables and small orchard as I well as their home. In addition to the city lot, each family was given approximately two farm tracts to plant their crops. The tracts were situated on the perimeter of l the city lots just a short distance from their homes. This required a daily ride to their farms, but it also continued the close” relationship of the fort style life that, the settlers had previously known. This village lifestyle allowed for the close contact of the individuals with one another, thus allowing the development of culture through schools, neighborhoods, entertainment, commerce, and, of course, churches. Out of this lifestyle, unique forms emerged which contradicted some of the traditional frontier methods. For example, no one could own the water, though anyone could receive a share providing he did his part in the construction or maintenance of the canals. A similar condition existed with timber and to some extent land. New arrivals to these early communities received land allocations without charge.
The plan of Zion, as mentioned, set aside ground for particular buildings, namely a meeting place and a temple, and in 1865, excavation for the construction of a tabernacle began. However, for several reasons, the construction of the religious and public ediface was delayed and the tabernacle was not finished until 1891. This impressive structure has been used for all the conferences of the Mormon Church as well as many public meetings and performances. The structure is still standing and is an integral part of the district. Once again, most of the material for the impressive building is local, including the rock of which it is built.
The crowning stage of the implementation of the City of Zion Plan was the construction of a temple. Logan began the construction of this magnificent stone structure in 1877. The raw materials for the construction of the temple again came from the local canyons, and the work and the demand for the project created a virtual boom town atmosphere in the valley. The project took seven years of intensive labor and sacrifice from the valley citizens. Today, this beautiful edifice is still the symbolic structure of the valley.
Logan’s central location and its excellent water supply soon made it not only the religious center of the valley, but the economic and financial center as well. By the mid-eighties, the two major streets of the town, Center and Main, became the commercial center of the entire valley. These streets are still the center of the valley’s commercial district with some of the buildings dating back to the 1860’s. Most, however, are late nineteenth and early twentieth century. By the eighteen- nineties, Logan had progressed beyond the pioneer stage and was now entering into the! mainstream of American life. The town began to show the physical effects of the desire to be accepted by the rest of the American society.
Cooperative Economic Activities
It is interesting and significant to see how the basic needs of these pioneer settlers were met. The first problem of the pioneer settlers were those of survival – a thing which proved to be more difficult than most had anticipated. Fortunately, in the compact, well-organized villages, and in the habit of working together cooperatively, the early settlers possessed institutions aptly suited for meeting the enormous difficulties which were to arise. One of the most serious problems was the need to get the water from the many rivers to the land on which the pioneers used as farmland. Since the land immediately adjacent to the Logan River was designated as the townsite, the settlers had to somehow divert the water from the river to their farms some distance away. Irrigation canals were the natural answer, but this large task could not be done by the individual. Therefore, cooperation was used in the solving of the irrigation problems. As early as 1860, canals were in the process of being constructed. It was an immense project, one that took backbreaking efforts and a great deal of time despite the use of cooperation. One pioneer remembers that, “The man who could shovel the most dirt or cut the most hay or grain, or bring the largest load of logs or wood from the canyon was the hero of the community in those times.” Even today the very canals which were built over a hundred years ago are still in use and are a significant part of the district.
Another need of the Logan founders was lumber with which to build their homes, fences, and barns. The valley floor was virtually absent of trees and so were the adjacent mountain sides. The kind of lumber needed for building was far back in the canyons and quite inaccessible, especially for the individual. So once again, the Mormon pioneers relied on cooperation to solve the problem. Together, the settlers first built roads to the canyons and then cooperatively cut down the necessary timber and hauled it to the sawmills that were being established to cut the timber into usable lumber for construction.
The difficulty of this task delayed the use of wood frame houses for some time, do the first homes were either adobe homes or dugouts. Even with this cooperative method,
Homes and building development evolved slowly from the early dugout to the dirt-roofed log cabin, to the shingle-roofed log cabin, to the adobe and rock structures so popular in the 1870’s and 1380’s, to the “gingerbread” frame houses of this century dependent almost entirely on material imported into the valley from the outside.
The Coming of the Railroad
The material from the “outside” had to await the coming of the “iron horse” , which is another example of the cooperation in this Mormon community. Since the coming of the railroad to Utah, Mormon Church leaders immediately began sponsoring construction of interior branch lines to facilitate and expedite transportation through the principle settlements of the territory. The fourth of such projects was the construction of the Utah Northern which ran from Ogden, Utah to Logan. The Utah Northern was organized on August 23, 1871 with Logan Bishop William B. Preston vice-president and assistant superintendent. The directors of the company consisted almost entirely of Mormon bishops along the route the train was to go. The method of construction was as follows:
The plan of construction called for the appointment of superintendents in each of the major areas of construction. Labor was to be recruited directly by these men or through local bishops. Each priesthood-bearer was expected to do his share of the work. The men were to be paid principally in stock in the railroad, but in cases of necessity a certain amount would be given workers in “ready pay.”
The company broke ground at a religiously directed dedication ceremony on August 1871 and by January 1873, the track had been completed to Logan. Virtually all the wards in Logan participated in the construction work receiving only railroad stock for pay.
The citizens of Logan were so excited with the completion of their railroad that when a severe snowstorm stopped the train that winter, several hundred people turned out to break the blockade.
The railroad had a tremendous impact on Logan as it did when it came to other isolated communities, bringing it more into the national picture economically and culturally. But like many early railroads, the Utah Northern soon went bankrupt and its property was sold to the Oregon Short Line in 1877 which in 1899 sold out to the king of railroads the Union Pacific. Five years prior to this last sale, the Oregon Short Line constructed the present beautiful rock depot. This sturdy rock station is still standing and is the western boundary of the district.
United Order Manufacturing and Building Co.
Another good example of the cooperative efforts of Logan’s citizens was their practice of economic cooperation in the business sector also. In 1875, the Logan LDS Second Ward combined two private mills owned by members of the ward into the United Order Manufacturing and Building Company. This cooperative was designed to give employment to the members of the ward and all “good Mormons” were expected to patronize it rather than the gentile store. The store was a huge success and became the biggest lumber mill and building company in the valley. The most prominent structure that it built and which is still standing is the Cache County Courthouse constructed in 1881-82. The building is a beautiful, white brick, Neo-classic structure that today is the oldest functioning courthouse in the state of Utah and is one of the landmarks of the district.
Summary
Logan’s historic district contains most of the elements of the various stages of growth in the town’s past and is, therefore, an excellent microcosm of the colorful past of this northern Utah community.
The first stage of development in the community was the establishment of the fort style mode of village life. The heart of the district is on the very street that came into existence as a result of the fort style pattern and after which the district is named. There are even a few log cabins and adobe structures left depicting the j very earliest elements of beginnings in the town. The next stage of growth and progress is exemplified by the rock homes which are present. These stone structures represent the sense of permanency that was instilled in the minds of the early pioneers despite the serious challenges of Indians, grasshoppers, crickets, and drought. One of the rock homes also symbolizes another aspect of the early Mormon pioneers lifestyle; for it was a polygamy home. These adobe and rock homes represent the ability of the pioneers in the early stages, for they were well built and their use of totally local materials makes them excellent examples of vernacular architecture.
The district is also a superb example of the “City of Zion” plan of town life. The blocks inside the district are ten acres each, and the original plats show that the blocks were divided into eight equal lots which were big enough for a home, barn, vegetable garden, and stock corral. These large lots have since been sub-divided with the growth of the town, but the style of early development is very much present. Further, the central elements of the “City of Zion” plan are still the central elements of not only the district, but the town as well. The temple, sitting high on the east bench still is the structural symbol of the valley. The tabernacle is very prominent as well for it continues to watch over downtown Logan as the early pioneers believed God watched over them.
The canals of the early pioneers that carried the valley’s life blood to the outlying farm lots are still in use and in the district. The canals graphically express the determination, vision and skills of the fathers of Logan City.
Finally, the styles of the later period (1890-1915) which were the styles that were popular in other parts of America and are the ones that now dominate the Center Street are there as if to say, “Accept us America.” We are part of the whole and are here to stay.
Verbal Boundary Description
The northwest corner of the district begins approximately 100 yards northwest of the Union Pacific Depot and runs east to Forth west along backyard properties lines off Center street. At Fourth west it runs north to First North and then east to Third west and then north again to Second north. The boundary then runs basically east to the north east corner of Third East and Second North with some intrusions left out of the district. From the northeast corner of Third East and Second North the boundary runs south to First North and then west to Second East. The boundary then follows the canal to Center Street and then west to first East, then south to First South. The boundary then runs west to a point approximately 100 yards south of the corner of Fourth West and First South. From here it goes north to the back property lines off Center Street and then west to approximately 100 yards southwest of the Union Pacific Depot then runs due north to the point of the beginning.
Logan Center Street Historic District, Cache County, Utah. The northwest corner of the district begins approximately 100 yards northwest of the Union Pacific Depot, and runs east to 400 West along the backyard property lines of the buildings facing south on to Center Street. At 400 West the boundary turns north running to 100 North where it turns east down the center of 100 North to 300 West where it turns north again running approximately three quarters of the length of the block to a point just north of 154 North 300 West where it turns and runs east through the block to the north of 165 North 200 West facing east on 200 West. Continuing across 200 West it makes a quick or short jag back to the south before continuing east again just north of 162 North 200 West where it turns south running along the back property lines of the buildings facing west on 200 South. At the point where it reaches 100 North the boundary turns from the south continuing east to 100 West where it turns north running up 100 West to 200 North. At the corner of 100 West and 200 North the boundary turns east again running along the southern side of the street to the center of the block between Main Street and 100 East. At this point just to the west of a non-contributory building the boundary line turns south running to the middle of the block where it turns east again running through the middle of the block to 100 East Street. At this point it turns up 100 East Street north to the northside of 168 North 100 East where it turns east again running east through the middle of the block to the back property lines of 183, 181, and 165 North 200 East where it turns north again passing on the north side of 183 North 200 East to 200 East. The district boundaries then continue east, then south, then west again around the Logan Temple Block to a point at the intersection of 100 North and 200 East where it turns south to the southern boundary property line of 192 East 100 North, then west to the back (west) property line of 192 East 100 North. It then turns south running along the back property line of the buildings which are all non-contributory facing east on 200 East. The boundary continues south to Center Street where it then turns north again running up Center Street to 100 East, then south down 100 East to 100 South where it turns west up 100 South, then south again and west again around 1420 North 400 West, then north again back to 100 South where it continues along 100 South. Then it runs around 1301 North 600 West on the south side of 100 South and along 100 South to 200 West where it turns south, then west again around the back property lines of 154, 136, 132, and 120 South 300 West and 294, 288, 272, 256, 246, 244, 236, and 226 West 100 South which face north on 100 South. It then turns south along the back property lines of 202, 198, 192, 184, 164, 154, 136, 132, and 120 South 300 West running south along the back property lines of those buildings to 200 South where it turns west along 200 South, then north again along the back property lines of 125, 131, 145, 155, 163, I’ll, 179, and 191 South 300 West which face east along 300 West. The district then turns west again along the back property lines of 394, 386, 368, 374, 362, 350, 338, 326, and 320 West 100 South running west along the back property lines of these buildings facing north on 100 South. The line continues west to 400 West where it turns north up 400 West to a point just south of Center Street where it turns west running along the back property lines of 570, 562, 554, 530, 528, 520, 510, 502, 494, 478, 470, 454, 444, and 432 West Center which face north on Center Street. Running along the back property lines of these buildings, the boundary line goes west to a point approximately 100 yards from the southwest corner of the property lines of the Union Pacific Depot where it turns north back to the point of beginning.
From A sampling of cache valley’s historic homes: Built in the 188os (est.), the house was originally owned by Mary Ann Weston Maughan, wife of early Cache Valley pioneer Peter Maughan. Their grandson, Russell, was a pioneer pilot and fighting ace during World War I. On June 23, 1924, he made the first dawn to dusk flight across America. The media called it the “Maughanumental Achievement.”
Construction of the two-story brick factory building and warehouse began in 1904 but there were five key construction phases between 1904 and 1945. It was a milk factory with large ties to the Cache Valley dairy industry that remains prominent to this day.
“The plant in Logan was one of the two earliest and largest of the five canned milk plants built in Cache Valley in the early 20th century. These plants processed and shipped condensed and evaporated milk throughout the Intermountain West,” historians noted.
While originally local, it was sold to the Borden Company in 1912. It’s still in the hands of Borden Holdings, LLC, and went through a renovation that ended last year. Nonhistoric additions (from eras after 1945) were removed and remaining historic features were preserved.
The Borden Company Plant is located at 290 South 400 West in Logan, Utah and was added to the National Historic Register (#100006935) on September 20, 2021.
The Agricultural College of Utah was established by act of the 1888 Territorial Assembly. On March 26, 1889, the Board of Trustees met in Logan, accepted the offer of the campus site, and instructed the secretary of the Board “to advertise ‘for plans for a $20,000 building, plans to be delivered to the secretary before the 15th of April. On April 15, the Board met in Logan, accepting the plan of C. L. Thompson for a three-section structure. On May 18, 1889, the Board awarded the construction contract for the south wing to Sommer, Peterson and Company of Logan for a total cost of $20,305. The south wing was completed and accepted by the trustees on February 22, 1890. The College was dedicated on September 4th and officially opened on September 5, 1890, with the south wing of Old Main as the only complete classroom facility. As it stands today, Old Main is the oldest continuously used building at an institution of higher education in the State of Utah. During its history, it has housed virtually every University department or office. It is the best example of the “Campus Gothic” of the last century.
Located on the Utah State University campus in Logan, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#72001258) on February 23, 1972.
The original plan by C. L. Thompson was for a three-section buff colored brick and stone structure 270′ x 100′ with sections that could be readily erected independently of each other. The south wing was completed February 1890. In 1892 the Board authorized the construction of the north wing and the east portion of the central section. The original plans of C. L. Thompson were re-drawn by Carl S, Schaub, a Logan architect. The new plans called for a building of 342′ x 190′. The Thompson plans for the north and south wings were maintained, though Schaub modified the projected tower and greatly enlarged the central section of the building, which until then had been planned as little more than a glorified hall between the two wings, A completion date of 1894 was postponed by the panic of 1893. Finally in 1901 and 1902 the front 80′ including the tower, was added to the structure.
In 1892 the catalog described the structure’s many uses:
“It contains . . . recitation rooms . . . workshops, cooking, sewing, householding, dairying, laundering, engineering, agricultural and business departments . . . laboratory, museum, library and gymnasium rooms and a military drill hall of ample size. Its audience room or chapel will hold 1600. Three large rooms have been set aside for halls for the literary societies. Its rooms are light and pleasant to a rare degree and its halls wide and roomy, extending on each floor the entire length of the building. In the near future, large bath rooms will be put in for the accommodation of both sexes, where baths can be taken at pleasure.”
Though the interior has been remodeled and some incongruous modernization done, Old Main retains enough of its original style to stand as the principal Utah example of the “Campus Gothic” of the late 19th century.
Major Irrigation Canals Constructed in Cache Valley
Before canals existed in Cache County, the agriculture was limited to dry farms and grazing. To pioneer settlements, water was not only the source of wealth, but of human existence. Construction of the Logan and Hyde Park canal (9) was started in 1860. Work on four more Logan River canals (8,10, 11, and 12) began in 1864. The highest canal (7) was begun in 1881.
Tools for canal construction included shovels, picks, spades, wooden plows, and go-devils. Go-devil ditchers were constructed of two large logs fastened together in the shape of an A, like a snow plow. Loaded with men and pulled with several yoke of oxen or teams of horses, this machine pushed the loose dirt to the sides to make the bank for the canal. It was estimated that up to 32 teams of horses were simultaneously working in the valley at one time. Blasting was used in the last Logan River canal (7) to provide channeling in rocky areas along the canyon walls. Concrete reinforcement was also required.
For the early canals, proper grade for water flow was established with homemade devices consisting of a horizontal 16 to 20 foot board with a vertical plumb bob hanging from a vertical frame in the middle and a vertical stake at each end. One stake was longer than the other so as to determine the amount of fall required to assure the water could flow downhill. On one canal the plumb bob level was accidentally reversed so the water was expected to run uphill and the project had to be resurveyed.
When cash was unavailable, canal workers were paid with deeds for acreages to be irrigated. Food and tents were provided as workers lived on the job. Bank loans could not always be repaid and one project went bankrupt and remained idle for seven years. Completed canals were often breached and maintenance was a continuing activity. Despite numerous difficulties, using homemade devices and working in close cooperation, the pioneers brought some 50,000 irrigated acres into production by 1880 and more than 90,000 acres by 1900. This represented 1,255 farms in 1880 and 2,506 in 1900. By 1900 there were 118 separate cooperative canal systems in the valley. Most of these early cooperatives never incorporated and in 1956 remained mutual companies managed by and belonging to the farmers they served.
This historic marker is #184 of the historic markers erected by the Sons of Utah Pioneers, it was erected in 2014 and is in Canyon Entrance Park in Logan, Utah.
Thirty feet east of this spot was built, in the winter of 1865-1866, under the leadership of Benget P. Woolfenstein, the first community center of the Logan Fifth Ward. Consisting of but one room, 16 by 20 feet. It served, nevertheless, as church building, amusement hall, and school house. William G. Cole being the first teacher.
At that early date, eager for religious, social, and educational growth, the ward united upon the project. Even boys of school age helped men with teams get the logs from Green Canyon. Others laid them into the building that rose. A humble symbol of the cooperative spirit of the Mormon Pioneer. – To commemorate that enterprise this monument was erected by the Scout Explorers, Troop 105, of the Logan Fifth Ward. John Q. Adams and Dan A. Swenson ward committee, Henry K. Aebischer troop leader. The Original key, affixed to a stone from the foundation of the old house, has been made part of this marker.
This historic marker was erected in 1935 by the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association and is #63 in the series, their markers were later adopted by the Sons of Utah Pioneers. It is located at 480 North 400 East in Logan, Utah.
