Things change. Cities grow. Old gives way to new, which in time gives way to newer. There's nothing more certain than that. We honor the past with plaques and monuments: Here was the first school. Here was the first fort. Here was the old theater. We try to bring meaning and context to what went before. History, by definition, is the study of the wases not the ises.
Still, a few things manage to hang on, surviving the decades in a world of change, providing tangible evidence of the past.And so, as the world's odometer is about to turn over the 99s for 00s, and we look ahead to the 21st century, what is left of the 19th? Actually, more than you might think, says J. Cory Jensen, an architectural historian at the Utah Division of State History.
A recent search of the Utah State Historic Preservation Office's database revealed 2,247 buildings and sites remaining in Utah from the pioneer period of 1840 to 1880, says Jensen. "These are the ones recorded in our office. There might be others that haven't been identified yet."
The numbers include 13 buildings and sites from the 1840s. "Not much is left from those first three years in the valley, and very few are left in their original location." And that can be a problem, he says. "Once something is moved, the context is lost." On the other hand, the context may change radically and at least something has been saved.
Among the items on the 1840s list are the Miles Goodyear cabin, which now is at Tabernacle Square in Ogden. Built in 1845, it is the oldest structure in the state.
There's also the Deuel cabin, built in 1847-48 and now sitting on the plaza by the Museum of Church History and Art.
One of the most important sites from the 1840s, one that still retains a lot of its context, says Jensen, is the Fielding Garr ranch on Antelope Island. Although the main house and some outbuildings have been altered and added to over the years, the ranch complex itself has important historical value, he says. The state bought the land in 1981 for a state park and is renovating the site. A September opening is planned.
Another remnant of the 1840s is the William Hawk cabin, which is still in an early location, tucked behind another house on 300 West. Family tradition suggests the cabin was built in 1848 and that it may have been part of the original fort. It may have been moved to its present site by Hawk, a member of the Mormon battalion who may have worked at Sutter's Mill when gold was discovered, and who lived in the cabin with his family from 1852 to 1883.
The cabin is in poor condition, and concerned preservationists hope to find someone who is interested in moving and restoring it. Otherwise, it may soon be torn down.
The first settlers lived largely in temporary shelters, notes Jensen. These structures were made of logs or adobe or were dug out of hillsides. No dugouts remain, that he knows about, although some are in the process of being re-created.
But by the 1850s, the pioneers started building more permanent structures. Adobe was still the most common because it was easy to make; homeowners could do it themselves. Then the adobe was plastered over to protect it from the rain. Even so, it's a building material that weathers and ages poorly so was often replaced in later years.
But Jensen's survey found 127 structures and sites from the 1850s still remaining, many of them made of adobe.
Among the best-known are Brigham Young's Beehive and Lion houses, which were built between 1853-56. The Isaac Chase mill and house in what is now Liberty Park were also built in 1852-54. Both are in need of repair. The mill may be used by Tracy Aviary; the home, which is used by the Salt Lake Art Council, is closed for renovation until 2000.
By the 1860s, stone became a big part of local architecture, particularly in certain areas. Sanpete County, Davis County (especially Centerville and Farmington), Beaver County and Box Elder County have some particularly good examples of stone structures from the 1860s and later.
But adobe and stucco continued to be used. One of the oldest houses on the Avenues, the Barton house on B street, was built between 1860-67 and has stucco finish covering either adobe or frame.
"Sometimes determining the actual age is difficult because land records weren't kept until the 1860s. So, unless you have family documentation, you have to judge based on materials and styles," says Jensen.
Basically, he says, for the first 25 years, the pioneers were building what they built based on their own knowledge, and they had to fashion or gather their own materials," Jensen explains. This is called building in the vernacular or folk tradition.
"A lot of it is based on what they learned where they came from. We find styles here that were common earlier in other places. Greek Revival, for example, is common here from about 1850 to 1865. It started in the 1820s and '30s in the eastern part of the country. Settlers here didn't get into Victorian styles until much later than the rest of the country."
The coming of the railroad brought a lot of changes in local architecture, Jensen says. "More knowledge, more materials, more manufactured parts came from outside. Patten books became common. And pretty soon, everything built here began looking like the rest of the country."
Jensen's survey found 484 structures from the 1860s and 1,623 from the 1870s. "The number increases exponentially as each decade passes," he says.
The styles of the 1860s and '70s tend to be similar. "In the late '70s and '80s, you start to see the Victorian influence in dormers over windows and bigger size. Up through the 1870s, most of the buildings are based on classical proportions. The Victorians are more asymmetrical, with lots of towers and doodads."
Some historic buildings from this period can also be seen at Fort Douglas, which was established in 1863. These range from simple adobe and log structures to native red sandstone Gothic Revival buildings of the 1870s. Some of these buildings are being converted to offices and student housing by the University of Utah as it turns the fort into the Olympic Village.
There are some nice pockets of old residential homes on the Avenues and north and east of the Fairpark, many built in the 1870s and '80s. The Marmalade District west of the State Capitol is from about the same time.
Gardner Village in West Jordan has another collection of historic houses and buildings, many of which date from the 19th century. The mill, originally built in 1853, was replaced by a larger one in 1877. The mill has been added to, but the original silo remains. A number of houses from the pioneer period have been brought to the village to be used as shops.
Barns and outbuildings from the pioneer period may still be around. "With barns, it's really tough to tell their age without documentation," Jensen says. "One of the unique attributes of the regional Mormon culture is that they didn't paint their outbuildings, so the buildings weathered very quickly. They also used the same construction techniques well into the 20th century." Barns and outbuildings are usually included with nearby houses on his survey, he says.
Most of the commercial buildings in downtown Salt Lake City date from the 1890s and the turn of the century, says Jensen. A particularly nice example, he says, is the Oddfellows Hall on Market Street, built in 1890 and saved from demolition when plans that called for expansion of the courts building to the east were changed.
Why are surveys like this one important? What does Jensen hope we can learn from these numbers?
"They provide a picture of what we still have and what we are quickly losing," he says. "It is unfortunate that so few early buildings remain. But if these numbers can stay constant (or -- as we learn of more buildings -- increase rather than decrease) then perhaps the message is getting out that it is important to save these irreplaceable resources."
Historic buildings are a visual reminder of the past, something easily accessible that everyone can see, he says. But more importantly, "historic buildings lend character to a community that new buildings can't. I can't think of a better word than character. They evoke an era of handcraftsmanship. It was a lot more work to build back then; people's souls went into these buildings."
And that's worth honoring and remembering, no matter how times change.