Constructed in 1893 by Oscar M. Booth, this house is an excellent example of the Queen Anne architectural style in Utah. Some identifying features of the home include its side-hall plan, asymmetrical massing, long wrap-around porch, and the octagonal tower with conical roof. Mr. Booth was a local carpenter and builder who is best known in the Nephi area for his design of the Whitmore Mansion, listed on the National Register. It is also reported that in addition to the work Booth did in Nephi, he also worked in the Avenues in Salt Lake City during the 1890s. He was born in 1868 in Utah and continued his building activities, primarily in Juab County, until his death in 1944. Mr. Booth, along with his wife rose, owned this home until 1897, when it was then sold to another local resident of Nephi. The home retains its historic integrity and is a contributing resource within the city of Nephi.
This full two-story brick home was built in 1875. Located on a corner, the north facade partakes of formal early American styling, especially the Federal and Creek Revival influences. Notice the symmetry, six-over-six windows and Federal lintels, central porch and entry doors and bracketed Creek Revival cornice. The east elevation has a cross-wing plan with recessed entry and original porch.
Morten Rasmussen was one of the original settlers in Mt. Pleasant. His wife Karen crossed the plains in an 1857 handcart company and met Morten while visiting friends in Ephraim. He helped erect the first fort and they lived there for two years, where Karen gave birth to a son Martin, the first male born in Mt. Pleasant. They moved here and built a two-room shed where Sophia and Lars were born. Their next house was a three-room adobe where John Mary, Annie, Henry and Erastus were born. Building this brick house was the pride of family members, who all assisted with the work. The boys hauled wood from the cedar hills to build fire for the kiln. Some of the bricks were fired too long and thus used on the back of the house where inconspicuous. Born here were Daniel, George, Will and Hyrum for a total of eleven children. Morten died here in 1885, followed by Karen 15 years later. In 1959 the house passed to Esther Rasmussen Rasmussen Christensen, the last of Morten and Karen’s grandchildren to be born in the home.(*)
One of the historic districts in Salt Lake, The East South Temple Historic District consists of that part of South Temple Street from State Street (100 East) to Virginia Street (1350 East) containing 10 1/2 large blocks on the south and 20 small blocks on the north, The street slopes gradually from east to west, and marks the boundary between the flatter areas of the original settlement and the steeper “dry bench” of the Avenues to the north. South Temple was the first stately residential boulevard in Utah. The district consists of that part of the street which continues to display many fine old homes of both architectural and historical significance. A. variety of buildings exists in the district, including large mansions, carriage houses, churches, commercial and office buildings, a school, hospital, medical clinics, clubhouses, apartment buildings and gas stations. The density of buildings per blockscape ranges from 1 to 12 with an average of 4.7 buildings per block elevation. Natural and geographic features are not prominent in the district.
The district consists primarily of large, high-style residences built from the late 1880s through 1915. There are also a few small vernacular residences which survive, though moderately altered, as remnants of the street’s pioneer period. Larger buildings before 1930 include major religious architecture (cathedral of the Madeleine, First Presbyterian Church, Masonic Temple), as well as large, significant apartment projects (Eagle Gate, Maryland). A. number of buildings have been erected along South Temple Street since the historic period. Some of these, particularly the earlier structures, are architecturally compatible with the period buildings. Many of the most recent larger structures are inconsistent with the residential character of the street.
A large number of architectural styles are represented on South Temple. Many of the buildings are the best examples of their styles in Utah, as well as the best residential work of the architects who designed them. Examples include:
Chatequesque: Kearns Mansion, Carl M. Neuhausen
Victorian Romanesque: Cathedral of the Madeleine, C.M. Neuhausen
Gothic Revival: First Presbyterian Church, Walter E. Ware
Queen Anne: Emmanuel Kahn House
Classical Revival: Enos Wall Mansion, Richard K.A. Kletting; Keith-Brown Mansion, Frederick A. Hale
Shingle Style: Markland House, Frederick A.. Hale
Renaissance Revival: Alta Club, Fred A.. Hale
Prairie Style: Ladies Literary Club, Ware and Treganza
Egyptian Revival: Masonic Temple, Scott and Welch
Colonial Revival: Terry House, Henry Ives Cobb
South Temple is significant as the first stately residential boulevard in Utah and remains today, much of it still residential, as a reminder of a lifestyle that is gone. It served as the only primary east-west route in early settlement days between the city and Red Butte Canyon, and Fort Douglas (established in 1862). The buildings which line this street from Third East to Virginia Street are unique reflections of some of the people who have greatly influenced the history and development of the state of Utah. Included in this group of people are: senators, governors, mayors and other political figures; mining men, who made their fortunes in the small mining towns surrounding the Salt Lake Valley and then used their new wealth to build impressive, ostentatious mansions for their families; and immigrant merchants who became financially successful. Along the street are many fine structures of both architectural and historical significance. The excellence of design and craftsmanship, the landscaping, and the diversity of periods and styles represented, sets the street apart from any other area of Salt Lake City.
Historic Homes and Buildings in the South Temple Historic District
South Temple includes some of the best work by Utah’s major architects. Richard Kletting’s all-concrete Classical Revival mansion for Enos Wall is one of the largest of Kletting’s residential designs. Several of Frederick Male’s finest residences (including the Downey House, the Keith-Brown Mansion and the Markland house) and his Renaissance Revival Alta Club are on South Temple. Henry Ives Cobb, the New York architect who designed the Boston and Newhouse buildings on Exchange Place, did the Terry House, one of the most elaborate and academic Colonial-Georgian Revival houses in Utah. A number of other buildings on South Temple are among the very finest examples of their styles built in Utah and these include the Cathedral of the Madeleine, (C.M. Neuhausen) the First Presbyterian Church (Walter E. Ware), the Kearns Mansion (C.M. Neuhausen) and the Ladies Literary Club (Ware and Treganza). Two of the most architecturally significant apartment blocks are on South Temple, the Eagle Gate and the Maryland (Bernard 0. Mecklenburg). The loss of significant buildings on South Temple, attributable in large part to the zoning changes of 1935 and 1959, shows the continuing prestige of South Temple addresses — even though the newer architecture does not reach the standards of the old.
The South Temple Historic District includes a significant deviation from the original plat of the city in Haxton Place. Purchased by James T. Keith, a Salt Lake dentist, Haxton Place is reportedly modeled after London’s street of the same name and was laid out by Englishman Thomas G. Griffin. Although a simple cul-de-sac with two pairs of stone and iron pillars at the entrance, Haxton Place is distinguished by the unique variants of various Colonial Revival designs built there.
South Temple became important as the major traffic route between Fort Douglas and the city after 1862. During this period the roadbed was crooked and covered with deep, fine dust ground by wheels of military wagons and wagons going to Red Butte Canyon for building stone. Peddlers and merchants made frequent use of the street, which was also a parade route.
The full force of Victorian architecture began to express itself on South Temple in the 1870s. The Gardo House, built in 1876 and designed by Joseph Ridges and William H. Folsom for Brigham Young’s wife, Amelia Folsom, was a splendid French Second Empire monument, unfortunately razed in 1926 for the Federal Reserve Bank. Old adobe homes were gradually replaced with larger structures and lots were subdivided, reducing open spaces and eliminating orchards.
The gaslight era (the 1880s) was no more evident than on South Temple. Earlier kerosene lights were replaced by gas lights supported by fancy metal standards. Electric lights appeared by 1900. Modern water and sewer systems were also installed in the 1890s, replacing the pioneer water ditches which had served for irrigation and culinary purposes.
The period from 1889-1893 marked the Utah Building Boom. Several fine residences in the new Victorian style — Shingle Style, Chateauesque and Eastlake — were built. Perhaps the period of heaviest growth for South Temple was 1889-1901 when the nouveaux-riche mining, railroad and commercial tycoons built opulent mansions on the street. Government officials like Mayor James Glendenning also were attracted to the street. Towers, pinnacles, vast porches and balconies, carved stone decoration, stained glass windows and imported materials, styles and craftsmen characterized the period.
Between 1900 and 1910 South Temple’s best known residences were built in 1900-1901. These include the mansions of Thomas Kearns, Enos Wall, and David Keith. Late Victorian and Neo-Classical Revival styles dominated the architecture. The dirt street, for so many years an inconvenience, was finally paved, first with brick and later with asphalt, in the early 1900s. The old rock wall which surrounded the city and ran along part of South Temple was dismantled and the orchards totally disappeared. By this time, oxen, mule and horse teams were being replaced by gas-powered automobiles. Jitney auto buses were gone. The street had the contrasts of beauty and utility, its palatial mansions serviced by a network of metal tracks, telephone poles and a thick web of electrical wires. Old church landmarks, including the Tithing Office, were replaced by the Bishop’s Building and Deseret Gym on North Temple and Hotel Utah on South Temple. The homes of early church leaders were replaced by turn-of-the-century apartments and club buildings: Eagle Gate Apartments, Covey and Buckingham Apartments, B.P.O.E. (Elks) Club, the Alta Club and the University Club. The change in land use spread to the east where older homes were replaced by the Romanesque Catholic Cathedral and the Gothic Presbyterian church.
Hyrum Straw Block The two-story, brick, Victorian Eclectic style Hyrum Straw Block was Built in 1900, shortly after Straw had purchased the property. Straw had acquired this lot and the Moroni Miner Block, which was located next door at 260 South Main Street. The construction of the Straw Block was financed by a $1,000 mortgage obtained by Straw in December of 1899. When originally built, the building was a small one-part, one-story block. In 1903, the property was sold to Thomas E. Child. Mr. Child, a brick mason by trade, owned the building for 20 years, during which he added a second story to the building for use as apartments. Serving many commercial enterprises for 80 years, the property was sold in 2001 to W. William Brown, Jr., and Marilyn Brown, who established the Brown Art Gallery.
Moroni Miner Block Constructed in 1892, the two-story, two-part commercial block building was built by Moroni Miner following a mortgage of $800 he had taken out in May of that year. Miner was an early prominent citizen of Springville, who engaged in several businesses over the years, including a grocery and meat market, and worked as a farmer and stockman. In 1897 Miner sold the building to William Endar, who in turn sold it to Hyrum Straw in 1899. In 1903 Straw sold the building to Thomas E. Child, along with the building next door at 274 South Main Street. In 1923 the building was acquired by Ellen R. and Maud Peterson and owned by members of the Peterson family until 1977. A variety of businesses occupied the building until it was purchased in 2001 by W. William Brown, Jr., and Marilyn Brown to house Bill Brown Realty.
These are two of the many historic buildings located on Main Street in historic downtown Springville, Utah.
The construction of the Hurricane Canal is one of Utah’s proudest stories of pioneer determination. This canal, built completely by hand, opened the Hurricane Bench to farming and the establishment of the town of Hurricane.
In 1893 two local men, James Jepsen and John Steele, decided to try to build the canal, even though earlier reports had determined it impossible. Company shares were sold to help finance the project. This stock was issued in blocks, not to exceed twenty shares. Each share was one acre of land with water rights. Nearly 100 men subscribed to stock in the Hurricane Canal Company; many of the shares were paid for in labor.
Work on the canal was difficult and dangerous. The canal’s 7-1/2 mile length clings to the sheer walls of the Virgin River Canyon, then follows the Hurricane Fault and circles the farmlands of the Hurricane Bench. The canal is 8 feet wide and 4 feet deep, laid out on a 12-foot shelf of conglomerate and limestone rock. Twelve tunnels had to be blasted through solid rock and six flumes on wooden trestles were built to span ravines. Ten cisterns were built on the hillside below the canal to hold drinking water. Construction could be done only during the winter months in order to leave the men free to take care of their farms. Work progressed slowly and landslides often wiped out months of hard labor. After eleven years of tenacious effort, the canal was finished in 1904, providing water for 2,000 acres of farmland and the new community of Hurricane.
Marker placed in 1992 by the Hurricane Valley Chapter, Sons of Utah Pioneers
The Kanosh Tithing Office, now the Sally Kanosh Camp D.U.P. Museum.
Built in 1870, the Kanosh Tithing Office is historically significant as one of 28 well preserved tithing buildings in Utah that were part of the successful tithing system of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon church) between the 1850s and about 1910. Tithing lots, which usually included an office and several auxiliary structures, were facilities for collecting, storing, and distributing the farm products that were donated as tithing by church members in the cash-poor agricultural communities throughout the state. Tithing offices were a vital part of almost every Mormon community, serving as local centers of trade, welfare assistance, and economic activity. They were also important as the basic units of the church-wide tithing network that was centered in Salt Lake City. In addition, the Kanosh Tithing Office is architecturally significant as one of eight extant examples of Utah’s tithing offices which were designed in the Greek Revival style. It is one of seven of those buildings which is a temple-form building. Of those seven temple-form buildings, it is one of the three best preserved examples of the type. The other two examples include the tithing offices at Escalante and Paradise. The temple-form building originated in the Greek Revival period of American building,’ and typically has its short end to the street and a pedimented gable end in imitation of monumental classical buildings. The temple-form building was the preferred building type for early religious buildings in Utah, having been brought to the area by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after 1847. 3 Very few unaltered, well preserved examples of this building type are presently extant in Utah.
Under the direction of Culbert King, bishop of the Kanosh Ward, the Kanosh Tithing Office was built in 1870 to serve as the center for the collection and distribution of “in kind” tithing contributions from members of the Kanosh Ward of the LDS church. Typical of most other Utah towns during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Kanosh was a cash-poor agricultural community, therefore tithing contributions were usually farm products, such as crops, dairy products, and livestock. By at least the 1920s, however, cash was much more plentiful and was used for tithing donations instead of the “in kind” commodities. Since the building was no longer needed for its original use, it was either left vacant or used as a meeting place by auxiliary organizations of the church for a number of years. Even when serving as a tithing office, the building was used as the first meeting place of the ward’s Mutual Improvement Association, the organization for the teenagers.
In 1952, the church granted the building to the local chapter of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, which has used it as a meeting place and relic hall up to the present.
This 1939 O’Mahony Dining Car # 1107 has been placed on the National Registry of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior.
This classic dining car was constructed and displayed at the World’s Fair in New York in 1939, towed to Massachusetts where it stayed 14 years before being moved to Rhode Island and finally to Oakley, Utah in 2007.
According to the property’s title history, Mary Jane George formally received the property in 1901 from James Gardner, although the George family had occupied the building in c. 1887 and had turned part of the dwelling into a hotel c. 1900. The upstairs of the building was left unfinished until it became a hotel at that time; the open second-story of the home was used until then as a dance floor and a space for LDS church activities until the church meetinghouse across the street was constructed. 6 Indeed, oftentimes during the late-1800s, local residences were used for church activities and other social functions in small communities in Utah prior to meetinghouses being constructed.
The property has been passed through the hands of several George family members since the original deed in 1901. Mary Jane George was listed as a hotelkeeper in the 1900 Kanosh census and husband William George was listed as the hotelkeeper in the 1900 Utah State Gazetteer; this was the first year that the George Hotel was listed. During the hotel’s operation (c. 1900 to c. 1920), being one of the very few hotels in the area, it was used largely by stagecoach passengers, tourists, hunters, businessmen, and others traveling to and from the Salt Lake City area.
The George family was part of the migration from Petersburg in 1875. They had resided in Petersburg since the 1860s, where they ran a hotel and dining establishment out of their house (setting precedence for the George Hotel in Kanosh). William George, shortly after arriving in Kanosh, became involved with the Kanosh Naduald Cooperative, operated by Albert Naduald. In 1884, William George purchased the co-op from the Naduald’s and other town members.
In 1911, shortly after the passing of her husband William George (William and Mary were married in 1868), Mary Jane George deeded the land to half-brother George A. George; where George, wife Mariah, and their eleven children resided in the building and ran the hotel. George worked as a stockman, farmer and financier; he was also one of the first directors of the State Bank of Millard County. George and Mariah’s daughter, Elizabeth George, was listed in the 1920 census as a hotelkeeper, the last year that the George Hotel was listed in the gazetteer. After 1920, the building was used solely as a residence for the large George family. In 1935, George A. George, deeded the land to Elizabeth. Elizabeth George then deeded the land to her brother Revell George in 1954, who two years later deeded the eastern half of his property to his son Van George. Part of the property left the hands of the George Family for a while, when in 1971 Revell George deeded acreage to Boyd Watts. The Watts family turned the land back over to the Georges in 1990. The entire property is currently owned by J.W. Vande Merwe, who obtained the land and vacant hotel in 2002 and is in the process of preserving and restoring the building to its early-twentieth century appearance.
The George Hotel, constructed c.1887, and located Kanosh, Millard County, Utah, is a one-and-one-half-story T-shaped crosswing-type dwelling, constructed of random sandstone ashlar masonry. The building exhibits a combination of Classical, Gothic Revival, and Victorian Eclectic stylistic traits, with the dominant theme being Gothic Revivalism. The primary section of the house faces west onto Main Street and has a secondary wing centrally placed at the rear. The corner property contains only a few deciduous trees and is mainly open with lawn surrounding the house and fenced-in open field to the north and east. There are two contributing outbuildings remaining on the property behind the dwelling. Located north to George Hotel is the Kanosh Tithing Office (National Register listed in 1985), and across the street to the west are some early-twentieth century commercial buildings.
The principal facade of the George Hotel faces west and is symmetrically arranged in a bilateral, tripartite scheme, typical of the classicism of early Utah territorial settlement. The centrally placed main entrance features two arched 2/3-length windows below which are two square panels. The doorway is surrounded on the two sides and top by window panels below which are wood panels historically faux-grained to look like hardwood. The center panel above the door is comprised of stained glass spelling out “George Hotel;” this appears to be a nonhistoric replacement. The heavy, flat stone header is partially covered by a decorative segmental wooden arch. The door is flanked on either side by two semi-octagonal bay windows with coupled two-over-two windows on the front and single two-over-two windows on the diagonally placed sides. The foundation walls of the bay windows are made of stone, matching that of the exterior walls of the house.
The second-story fenestration mirrors that of the main story, but is much simpler. The door is similar to that on the main level. The doorway on this level appears to have accessed the roof of a porch that once covered the primary entrance, but has since been removed. The two flanking windows are two-over-two double-hung wooden sash units with heavy flat wood lintels and thinner wood sills. These openings extend up into gabled dormers, the central one being larger that the other two. The dentillated cornice is incorporated into the gables, which do not have sidewalls.
The south facade reveals the rear T wing, which is also bilaterally symmetrical, although it only features two dormers in a bipartite scheme. The gabled dormers are incorporated into the cornice line of the roof trim, similar to the front fa9ade. The centrally placed entrance is flanked on either side by double-hung, two-overtwo windows. Similar windows are located directly above these on the second floor. All the fenestration on this and the other facades feature heavy flat stone headers. The south gable end of the front section of the house has four window openings, two equally spaced on each level, which are all two-over-two, double hung wood sash. Also visible on this portion at the apex of the roof is a brick chimney with corbelled brickwork.
The east (rear) facade features the gable end of the T wing, which has a single window on each level, one directly above the other, located to the right of the gable end. A brick chimney, similar to the two on either side of the front section projects from the ridgeline at the east end. The rear wall of the front portion is visible from this side and has no fenestration. Attached to the north side of the wing is a wood-frame shed-roof addition that connects to the rear of the front section of the house as well. This has been re-sided with plywood and the roofing replaced with standing seam metal. There is a single window in the east elevation of the addition.
The north elevation is the most visually simple. The wood-frame addition has a door located in the center with a single window to the right of the door. The gable end of the front section of the house on this facade has only two windows, one on each floor, both left of center, although not directly lined up. These are similar to all the other windows. There is also a brick chimney similar to the other two located at the ridgeline of the roof.
The interior is virtually intact historically. The main level in the front portion of the house is arranged in typical central-passage fashion. The center hall contains the staircase to the second level that runs front-to-rear. Running along the right side of the stairs is the passage leading back through a doorway to the kitchen area in the rear wing. A closet is situated under the stairs and the paneling and balustrade of the staircase is elaborately painted with faux oak and walnut graining, which is in very good condition. A single room is located on either side of the hall; both are similar in appearance, although the room to the north side has a doorway leading into a bathroom in the frame addition. The rear wing has the kitchen area as well as a pantry and bathroom at the east end of the wing. All of the woodwork on this level is in original condition and is being retained, and that which has been damaged is being restored. All the door, window, and baseboard molding is done in Eastlake fashion. Although much of it is painted, the details, such as the patera, are all faux grained to appear as hardwood. All the doors are also faux grained in elaborate patterns, with panels and framing done in contrasted grains and colors.
The second story appears to have been expediently finished around the turn of the twentieth century. The layout reveals its use as a hotel, with several small rooms spartanly finished; prior to c. 1900 it was open and sometimes used as a dance floor for local dances before the Mormon meetinghouse was finished in 1894. The framing studs are visible in portions of the walls, and the primary wall sheathing over the framework is bead board. Until recently there is no ceiling and all the rough-sawn roof trusses were visible. It is probable that muslin was the only ceiling material since there are remnants apparent. Drywall ceilings have recently been installed. There are six rooms on the upper level, although it appears that at least one wall was removed at an unknown time. At the landing at the top of the stairway, one faces a wall to the east that has an interior window.
This opened into a long narrow room along the north side of the rear wing. It is likely that this was where guests would check their baggage when they stayed here. In the short hallway to the left of the stair landing is the entrance to one of the rooms located at the north end of the main section of the house. This room has a deep interior wall cavity used as a closet and accessed by a doorway built into the wall. This room is divided off from another room to the west, at the front of the house. On the south side of the front portion of the house, separated from the above-mentioned rooms by a hallway that runs along the stair opening, is a single large room that also has a built-in closet. Going back through the hallway to the east end (past the bag room on the left) is the rear wing, which is divided into two sections, one on the north and one on the south. One must pass into the south room to access the north room. The south room is fairly large and open. The north room (baggage room) has more recently been divided into a storage room and a bathroom.
The property retains its historical appearance, situated on an open lot with only a few small deciduous trees. Directly around the house the yard is planted with grass, the rest is untrimmed field. A post and wire fence separates the yard from open fields both to the north and east. Behind the house to the east is a large gable-roof, wood frame and plank shed that may have served as a small barn. Although somewhat dilapidated exact construction date unknown, it was constructed during the historic era, and is considered a contributing building. To the southwest of this is a smaller historic (date unknown) wood frame and plank shed, which is also a contributing building. The George Hotel is one of the largest historic buildings in this small town and sits prominently on the main road through town. It retains its historic integrity and appearances and is a contributing resource in the small town of Kanosh.
