Arts & Culture
Part II: Driving tour features beautiful homes of Lehi settlers
Lara M. Bangerter | Lehi Historical Society and Archives
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part driving tour featuring the homes honored at Lehi Heritage Day on Labor Day 2022.
These historic Lehi homes are more than 100 years old and were highlighted by their owners or previous owners at the Lehi Historical Society and Archives’ “100 Years of Beautiful Lehi Homes,”-themed Lehi Heritage Day on Labor Day. This tour is expected to take about 30 minutes.
#14 Samuel I. Goodwin/LeRoy and Edna Gammon Home (1896), 80 W. 400 North—Samuel served on the Lehi City Council, was president of the Alpine School Board, vice president of the State Bank of Lehi and bishop of the Lehi Second Ward. He was employed by the People’s Co-op for 36 years before establishing his own dry goods store, Goodwin’s Golden Rule, in 1926. The Gammons purchased the home in 1946, and it remains in the family today.
#15 William and Charlotte Gough Hadfield Home (1906), 946 N. 500 West—William served as a mail carrier for the Lehi rural route from 1907-1944, making him one of Lehi’s longest-running postal carriers. Everyone knew Hadfield as he delivered to all of Lehi, covering half of the city in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. In about 1906, William purchased and tore down the old J.L. Biggs home at the Point of the Mountain to use the materials to build a two-room home with a lean-to kitchen for Charlotte. The house stayed in the family until 2000.
#16 Christian Knudsen Home (1909), 123 E. 100 South—Christian opened his huge Victorian home as a halfway house for Scandinavian travelers on their way to and from Salt Lake City. He built the house well, intending that it remain until the Millennium. During World War II, the home served as a detention center for several Japanese families.
#17 John Y. and Emmerett Elizabeth Cutler Smith Home (1903), 518 N. 100 East—John, married to Emmerett, daughter of Thomas Cutler, was director of the Lehi Silver Band, cashier of the Lehi Commercial and Saving Bank and eventual Utah State senator. In 1914, Dr. Frederick Worlton leased the home, living on the first floor and creating Lehi’s first hospital on the second. Six months later, Worlton moved the hospital to the Cutler Mansion (#10 from last week’s installment). Portions of the 1984 movie, Footloose were filmed here. The Glade Dalton family restored the home when they purchased it in 1964. They lived here the longest of any of its residents. Today, homeowners Jess and Shaylie Green are working to restore the home to its former glory.
#18 Samuel Abraham and Harriet Jane Webb Smith Home (1885), 1589 N. 300 East—Samuel and Harriet built their own two-room adobe house on the five acres given them by Samuel’s father as a wedding present. As their family grew, they finished two rooms upstairs and later added a two-story addition. At the same time, Samuel was buying more and more lands until his holdings were considered among the largest in the community. His ingenuity with soils and animals developed a very diversified farm.
#19 Edward Southwick/Despain/Gordon Bennett/Murphy Home (1904), 213 N. 200 West—Nineteenth mayor of Lehi, Southwick’s administration was responsible for Lehi’s first public library. He served in the Utah House of Representatives from 1913-14 and again from 1917-18, and in the Utah Senate from 1919-1923. He sponsored the income tax bill of 1921 and introduced a bill to prohibit the advertising and sale of cigarettes in the state. He was a director of the State Bank of Lehi for many years and operated a profitable real estate business on Main Street.
#20 Gerald Taylor/Abe and Geraldine Ekins Home/Jeremiah Cutter Home (1911), 314 W. 100 N.—After living in Hawaii and California, Abe and Geraldine moved to Lehi in 1948. They had been reminded that they would miss baptisms, farewells, weddings and so forth if they made their home far away. They bought this home from Geraldine’s father, Gerald Taylor, proprietor of the Lehi Drug Company on Main Street. They were never sorry they came back!
#21 Alfonzo Davis/Merrill Wathen/McKinnon Home, 168 N. 300 West—Alfonzo was the brother of Orinda Allred (Home #2from last week’s installment). His obituary said he was “an ardent supporter of democracy and scarcely ever a political campaign took place that he was not foremost in the battle. … In all his public life he proved a man worthy of one’s trust, true to his convictions and reliable in every detail.” He served as a county commissioner, justice of the peace and secretary of the Lehi North Bench Irrigation Company. He died in 1927.
#22 Heber Charles and Harriet Mindwell Evans Webb Home (1910), 477 N. 200 West—The family called this their “home place.” With the help of his brother, Heber built the home on the two acres given to him and Mina by her father, Abel John Evans (#13). The property eventually had a barn, cow shed, two chicken coops, two granaries, a coal shed, a grain binder shed, a haystack with a derrick, a straw stack, stock corrals and a pasture. Heber was a farmer and stockman.
#23 George H. Wing/Woffinden Home (1900), 897 N. 700 East—This home was a two-room, living room and bedroom, brick home with a lumber addition serving as a kitchen. Wing, who lived across the street, purchased the house in 1903 without telling his wife. He served as Lehi’s police and fire marshal from 1912-13.
#24 Ross Schoolhouse (1872), 171 E. 400 N.— By the early 1870s, railroad business in the northeast part of Lehi effectuated a population boom and the need for a school in the area. This one-room wooden school was dedicated in 1873 and cost $282.95. It was named after its long-time schoolmaster, John E. Ross. It is one of the oldest, still-standing public buildings in Lehi.
#25 Sego Lily School (1896), 723 E. 900 North—The 24’ x 28’ school was expected to accommodate 50 children. In 1903, when the Lehi Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was divided into four wards, the school doubled as a meetinghouse for a time. The school closed in 1929. In 1933, the vacated building was sold to the highest bidder for $410.
To learn more about these homes and families, visit the Lehi Historical Society and Archives at 99 W. Main STE 100, Monday through Thursday from noon to 5 p.m., or see the Archives’ online catalog at lehihistory.com.
