Brigham Young's Homes

Preface

Preface Once when Brigham Young was simultaneously president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, governor of Utah Territory, and head of the territorial militia, a visitor methodically addressed him by all of his assorted ecclesiastical, governmental, and military titles. Young replied, “Sir, you have omitted my most cherished titles—carpenter, painter, and glazier.”1 Brigham Young is most frequently remembered as a colonizer and builder on a massive scale. He led the dispossessed Latter-day Saints across hundreds of miles of plains and mountains, then directed their settlement in the Great Basin. He supervised the building of religious structures, organized the distribution of land in newly founded cities, and dispatched pioneer companies to build permanent settlements from San Bernardino, California, to Fort Bridger, Wyoming. He instigated and directed public works, including the Salt Lake Theater, the Council Hall, the public baths at the warm springs,2 the territorial prison, and various roads, bridges, and railroads. Yet Brigham Young was also a builder on a very personal level, and for him some of the most important projects he ever made or directed to be made were his own homes. Whether his projects were large-scale or small, whether he built them with his own hands or directed the labors of others, Brigham Young recognized the value of both public and private buildings and demonstrated ingenuity and skill in making them functional, beautiful, and sturdy. “For Brigham, every activity of man’s daily life was a part of religion.”3 Houses were places for the necessary functions of life—eating, sleeping, working—but they were also places to pray, to study scriptures, and to promote the growth of the souls who lived in them. In this book dedicated researchers have identified, described, and explained the uses of each of the many homes Brigham Young established for his wives and families. Such a study allows us a better perspective on this remarkable man and his equally remarkable family. We can also see into the times in which they lived, recognize the values on which they operated, and understand a little better how they managed to build a thriving civilization, time and again, in the face of opposition most of us will never have to know. One of the greatest difficulties in listing Brigham’s houses, however, is determining which of the various claimants to his former ownership are accurate. Several places are reputed to be Brigham’s homes, but fail to meet some fairly rudimentary criteria. For example, someone reported the building that formerly housed the Waking Owl Bookstore near the University of Utah was one of Brigham’s homes. However, when the owner established that the original house was built twenty-one years after Brigham’s death, we eliminated that one from our list. Other homes owned by family members, especially by his son, Brigham Jr., are sometimes assumed to have been Brigham Sr.’s. In addition, Brigham Young owned a great deal of property on which no home was ever built during his lifetime, but homes there now are sometimes assumed to be his. Identification of some locations is, of necessity, inexact. Many early cabins and temporary houses had no addresses in the sense we use them now. Other locations were stated imprecisely, probably because they were intended only as temporary expediencies to be torn down within a few years. Other problems stem from the loss of Brigham Young’s original will. Only copies remain, some of which have obvious errors.4 Despite any confusion in sources, we have been able to assemble a great deal of information about the homes in which Brigham housed himself and his families during his lifetime: architectural designs, exact or approximate addresses, maps, floor plans, details of life in the homes, names of subsequent owners, and current use of the building or the property. Few of Brigham Young’s homes remain standing today, and none are used for their original purposes. Preserved as museums, reception centers, or otherwise open to visitors, the few that are available provide examples of the architecture and lifestyle of the period. They do not simply stand as monuments to Brigham Young or to early Mormon pioneers , but give all of us a chance to connect ourselves with our communal past, a connection essential as our own society evolves and changes. In addition to the main text, photos and three appendices augment the essential information on Brigham Young’s homes and families. Appendix A summarizes the information...