A home for sale in northern Utah has made it to Zillow Gone Wild, and it’s not just because it’s described as a “mid-century modern architectural masterpiece” inspired by the famed Frank Lloyd Wright.
This home listed for $800,000 in Providence, Utah — near Logan and an hour’s drive from Bear Lake — has one feature in particular that’s catching eyes: a hallway drinking fountain.
“Drinking fountain is proof that parents would do anything to keep the kids out of the kitchen. It’s the stylish alternative to drinking from the hose,” one commenter posted on Zillow Gone Wild’s Instagram post. “That drinking fountain and tile are taking me right back to the hallway outside of 7th grade Spanish class,” another commented.
However, the home is so much more than the drinking fountain, which gives off major ’60s school nostalgia with its bright orange tile backsplash.
Yes, the home’s original owners — now-deceased Utahns Eugene and Alice Haycock — likely installed the drinking fountain to “cut down on all the glassware” while they raised their five daughters, said the listing’s real estate agent Heather Maughan, with North Realty.
A drinking fountain is installed in the hallway of this midcentury modern house for sale in Providence, Cache County, Utah.
Heather Maughan, North Realty
But the home’s backstory is far more interesting. An architect, Eugene Haycock designed and built it himself after his previous home in Logan was taken by eminent domain, Maughan told the Deseret News.
“Interestingly, his house (was) where the Aggie Bowl is at Utah State (University) right now,” she said. He used the money paid by the state to compensate for his condemned home to design and build his dream home.
Before he died at the age of 93 in 2020, Eugene Haycock designed many buildings in northern Utah: “Romney Stadium, Logan Rec Center, middle schools, Beaver Mountain Lodge, Logan Airport, Elks Lodge, and many Latter-day Saint churches like the ‘Golden Toaster,’” according to his obituary.
“His favorite design was his home with the Hyperbolic Paraboloid roof,” his obituary says, “known as the glass house built in 1967.” Its roof “attaches onto these two buttresses on either side of the house, and it just spans the house and acts more like a bridge,” Maughan said.
The home’s wing-shaped roof and almost entirely glass exterior walls are truly what makes the Haycock home unique. There’s a suspended concrete slab for the upper floor. The downstairs walls are also concrete. Then add in the blue velvety carpet, wood-paneled walls, retro orange couch, the classic linoleum flooring that is “original and shockingly in great shape,” Maughan said, and the result is an untouched ’60s haven.
“Nothing has changed. They haven’t changed the carpet or anything,” Maughan said. “Alice, the mom, I think she was a scrubber. ... (Everything) is really clean.”
Alice Haycock indeed “enjoyed keeping her house clean and beautiful,” her obituary states. “She loved working in the yard and garden and loved peonies and all kinds of flowers.”
The home sits on a roughly 3/4-acre piece of land with an apple orchard. The apple trees predate the home and are about 100 years old, Maughan said. There’s also a pear tree and an apricot tree.
“It’s just magical,” she said. “Just magical.”
The Haycocks’ home is now owned by their daughters, who put it on the market about a month ago, Maughan said. One prospective buyer put an offer on the home below the listing price, but they didn’t accept it.
The home was initially listed for $820,000, but they reduced it to $800,000. Amid today’s high interest rates, Utah’s housing market has indeed slowed and seen home prices dip. Homes sit on the market for an average of 60 days in Providence, Maughan said, “so we’re doing pretty good.”
Three other buyers, including a man from New York who curates glass houses, have also expressed interest, Maughan said.
“All the kids are just happy to wait for the perfect buyer. They want somebody who loves the integrity of the property and the roof, because it’s a special place for them,” Maughan said. “They were raised in this iconic glass house, so it has a lot of meaning and they want a particular buyer that will honor it.”