Historic Lehi mill lost in 1979 fire

Lee Anderson | Lehi Historical Society

There used to be a large wood-structured building like the Lehi Roller Mills, located at 433 W. 300 North, right next to the Lehi Public Works. I used to walk by it nearly every day on my way to and from school. It seemed like it was vacant because I don’t remember ever seeing it being used. I always wondered what the building was.

In 1913, John Bradshaw and Horace Holbrook wanted to build a cannery, so they offered stock in the company in exchange for building materials. The building was built in 1914, and they called it the, “Lehi Canning Co.” The owners hired an expert, M. B. Mann, who ran the plant and trained local men, Leo Goates and George Lewis, to operate it. Unfortunately, the operation was plagued with problems and was only in business for three years.

Bradshaw and the other investors then bought the building and started the “Lehi Cereal Mill,” which was in full operation by 1922. It operated for five years and was purchased by T. H. Southworth, who reopened it as the “Lehi Lily Cereal and Feed Mills.”

In the late 1930s, Ray Stewart purchased the building and increased the mill’s capacity to 1,600 bushels of grain an hour. He also purchased property across the street to the south and established a lumber and hardware business. He called the place, “Stewart Lumber and Hardware and Feed.”

In 1950, the Grant and Dean Evans purchased the place and renamed it, “Evans Lumber and Hardware and Feed.” When the brothers died in the mid 1970s, the mill was closed for five years while the estates were in probate. The building was primarily used for storage of grain afterwards though plans were underway to clean up and reuse the old building.

On Aug. 1, 1979, around 6:50 p.m., smoke was seen coming out of the upper floors of the old building, and the fire department was called. Four units from Lehi and two from American Fork were called to the scene. At that very time, one of the American Fork units was at its station learning the operation of its new ladder-pumper truck. The company representative for the pumper-truck followed the unit to the scene and monitored the vehicle’s performance while they were on the scene.

The heat from the massive blaze was intense. I watched from nearly 500 feet away, and it was uncomfortably hot. The heat cracked a windshield on one fire truck, melted the light covers on the fire trucks and sent firefighter Stanley Gordon to the American Fork Hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion.

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The fire departments could not save the building, and it was a total loss. They had standby crews remain at the site all night and were summoned back several times as flames erupted out of the debris.

Most information found in “Lehi: Portraits of a Utah Town,” by Richard Van Wagoner.