A dozen owners of some of the Salt Lake area's finest historic houses will open their doors to the public next weekend for the 24th annual Historic Homes Tour sponsored by the Utah Heritage Foundation.
This year, the tour of "golden oldies" will be split among six homes located in the Perry Ave. area of Federal Heights and the Oakwood neighborhood of East Millcreek (2610 East from 3300 South to Evergreen Ave.)The two neighborhoods and the featured homes are rich in both architecture and history.
Lisa Thompson, research coordinator for the Heritage Foundation, said the Federal Heights segment focuses on early 20th century architecture, particularly the Arts and Crafts and Prairie School, popularized by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Thompson described the home at 126 Virginia St., as a "fairly classic" Prairie style home. The house was designed in 1904 by Salt Lake architectural firm Ware and Treganza, which also designed the Ladies Literary Club building at 850 East South Temple, among others.
Thompson said some of the homes, such as the one at 1408 Perry Ave., are currently undergoing restoration, while others, such as the home at 55 Laurel St. - which has had only three owners since it was built in 1916 - are little changed.
The south end of Federal Heights, where the tour homes are located, originally belonged to Fort Douglas. While small sections were deeded to the city beginning in 1874, most of the land belonged to Charles Popper, a cattle rancher who sold beef to the post and the city.
In 1907, the land was bought and subsidized by Colorado real estate firm Telluride Realty Co. and the first lots were sold in 1907, a newspaper ad of the time boasting of "$50,000 in improvements and high-class restrictions." The company cajoled potential lot buyers to "Think of the view, the pure air, the life above the smoke," the latter a reference to the pollution across the valley from homes and businesses heating with coal.
The East Millcreek segment represents a different approach from past Heritage tours, said Thompson, in that most of the houses revolve around a single family and its impact on the settlement of the Salt Lake Valley.
All of the homes but one were built by John Neff II, his descendants or close friends. Neff was a prosperous landowner in Lancaster County, Pa., who converted to the Mormon Church in 1841 and migrated to the Salt Lake Valley only a few months after the original party of pioneers in 1847.
Ten miles south of the main pioneer settlement, East Millcreek was relatively isolated, but Neff thought the stream a perfect site for the flour mill that Brigham Young asked him to build in 1848.
Eventually, some 20 mills were built on what was appropriately named Millcreek, but by 1904 Neff's original mill had been torn down.
That was the year that legendary "Silver Queen," Susanna Brans-ford, built a home, which she would use as a summer residence, on the site of Neff's original mill. The Bransford home, which she named "Oakwood," is owned by her descendants and will be open for the tour.
Of the six homes in the Federal Heights area participating, only five will be open for the regular tour, which runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The home described above at 126 Virginia will be used to kick off the event Friday, May 19, at the "Preview Gala" but will not be open Saturday or Sunday.
Tickets to the gala, $20 each, may also be used for the weekend tour. Otherwise, tickets to the tour Saturday and Sunday are $15 for the public and $12 for members of the Utah Heritage Foundation.
Tickets are available in advance at the Utah Heritage Foundation's office at the Memorial House in Memory Grove Park or in the two neighborhoods on the day of the tour. All proceeds benefit the Heritage Foundation. For more information, call the Heritage Foundation at 533-0858.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Participating houses
Here are the houses participating in this year's Utah Heritage Foundation Historic Homes Tour. The names are of the original, not the current, owners, and the date the homes were built.
PERRY AVENUE--VIRGINIA STREET NEIGHBORHOOD
1408 Perry Ave., Milton D. Grosh, 1905.
55 Laurel St., George H. and Euphemia L. Smith, 1916
74 Virginia St., Owen Herrick Gray, 1915.
87 U St., Charles F. and Nan Little, 1904.
126 Virginia St., Louis A. and Selma Wall Jeff, 1917 (Open for the preview gala only.)
OAKWOOD STREET--EVERGREEN AVENUE NEIGHBORHOOD
2661 Evergreen Ave., John Neff III and Ann E.B. Neff, 1897.
2610 Evergreen Ave., Samuel and Zua Neff, 1912.
2564 Evergreen Ave., Samuel and Zua Neff, 1912.
3565 Oakwood St., Bayard and Katherine Robison, 1936.
3525 Oakwood St., Sidney and Lorrine Cornwall, 1930.
3306 Oakwood St., L. Loraine and Elaine Neff Bagley, 1911.