The George Washington Baker house in Mendon, Utah (located in Cache Valley), was constructed in 1869 and is significant as an example of a one-story stone “double-pen” vernacular type. This house form, with its distinctive six-bay, double-door façade, is significant as one of a small number of traditional house forms common in Utah communities during the 1850-80 “pioneer” settlement period. The “double-pen” type migrated out of the upland South into the Midwest during the early nineteenth century. There it was utilized by early Mormons and transferred to Utah in the late 1840s and 1850s. This dwelling was the home of the George VI. Baker family, and remains one of four stone houses that exist in original condition from the early years of Mendon’s settlement.” The James Gardner House was listed in the National Register in 1982 and the Samuel Baker, Joseph Baker, and James G. Willie stone houses will be nominated to the Register in December 1982. Baker was an early settler in Cache Valley and one of Mendon’s original inhabitants. He was a farmer and in 1870 served as the first mayor of the incorporated town of Mendon. The small two-room house was enlarged around 1875 with a stone addition of several rooms to the rear.

Located at 115 N 100 W in Mendon, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#83004416) on February 10, 1983.

Mendon, in Cache Valley, Utah, was settled in the 1856-60 period by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as part of the larger colonization of the Great Basin region during the second half of the nineteenth century. In the 1850s, Cache Valley served primarily as range land for the LDS church livestock herd, but in 1856-57 the Valley became the home of a small band of farmers. The effort to settle the area was temporarily interrupted by the Utah War of 1857 when an army was dispatched from Washington to quell the so-called Mormon “rebellion.” At this time, outlying colonies were abandoned and settlers pulled back to the larger towns. Mormon families came back into Cache in 1858 and permanent settlements were established, including the one at Mendon on the west side of the valley. Mendon was surveyed in 1859, and in 1860 a fort, consisting of two rows of joined log cabins, had been erected.2 The year 1865 found the people of Mendon breaking up the fort and moving out onto their city lots. The first permanent houses were built at this time, often of locally quarried stone. George Baker completed the original section of his new stone house in 1869.

George Baker was born in 1837 in Pomfort, New York. His parents were converts to the LDS church and migrated westward to Utah in 1847, settling first in Salt Lake City. During the 1850s a young George Baker worked as a herder on the LDS church ranch in Cache Valley and eventually made the area his home in 1860. Baker built one of the log houses in the Mendon fort and in 1861 married Agnes Richard. By 1862, the first of the Baker’s ten children was born. George’s brother, Joseph, constructed the first rock house in Mendon outside the fort in 1865 and George began work on his own house soon after, finishing the dwelling in 1869.

The house Baker built was a traditional type consisting of two square rooms under a gable roof. Historians have often called this house the “double-pen” type. The house form migrated out of the upland South into the Midwest during the early nineteenth century. There are Mormon examples of the type in Nauvoo, Illinois, their city on the Mississippi, and the house occurs throughout the Mormon settlement region in the West. The house often has a four- or six-bay façade with two front doors arranged symmetrically.. The presence of the two front doors has caused this house to be erroneously called a “polygamy” house. There is, after all, a door for each wife. This house type might certainly have served such a purpose, and indeed, examples can be found in the state which were occupied by two families. Yet, the double-pen type’s firm roots in the traditional architecture of the nineteenth century and single family examples like George Baker’s served to effectively dispute it’s exclusive association with polygamy. The double-pen house is typical, then, of the early domestic architecture of Utah and becomes significant as one of several stone houses remaining in Mendon from the early years of settlement. (The Robert Gardner House, c. 1875, was listed in the National Register in 1982. Research is continuing on the remaining half-dozen early homes in the town for possible nomination.)

The George Baker house in Mendon, Utah, is a one-story vernacular house constructed of locally quarried metamorphic stone. The walls are coursed rubble, with special attention devoted to the regular jointing on the façade. There are large ashlar quoins at the corners. The stonemasons who worked on the house are not identified in the Baker family records. It is known that two Cache Valley masons, Robert Crookston and Robert Murdock, worked in Mendon, but no specific information is available to link these individuals with particular houses. Also, the 1870 census for Mendon includes Richard Mills, an immigrant mason from England, who could have assisted in the construction.

The original 1869 house consisted of two roughly square rooms (15’4″ x 14’4″ and 14’6″ x 14’4″ the difference being the width of the internal partition). The house had a symmetrical six-bay façade and two front doors. There was a large, centrally placed stone fireplace in the south room. External ornamentation was limited to Greek Revival returns and entablature. The sills and lintels are plain. The house originally had a porch spanning the length of the façade, but it was removed after the present owner purchased the dwelling (ca. 1940s). A rear “T” extension also of coursed rubble stone, and containing two rooms, was added to the house. Judging from the quality of workmanship and material, this addition probably occurred in the 1870s. A lean-to shed was attached to the north side of the rear “T” in the 1940s and the large central fireplace was removed at this time. Later, after the porch was removed, hooded coverings one a gable and the other a shed roof–were placed over the two front doors. These alterations do not detract from the historical visual integrity of the Baker home. The structure remains in good condition with some deterioration evident on the external woodwork.