Italianate<\/h3>\n
Italianate, another important Picturesque style, introduced the broad flat roof with bracket eaves into American architecture. In Brigham City, these were relatively large boxy two-story houses with ornamentation around the eaves and a low-pitched hip roof. Very few were built in Brigham City. The only two surviving homes are located just behind the Box Elder Tabernacle<\/a>. The Oliver G. Snow house, 205 South 100 East, was a full two stories with a cross-wing floor plan and shallow-pitched hip roof with a bracketed cornice, long rectangular windows with wooden hood-molded detail, and a fancy front porch. This home was altered when it became a mortuary. The Moroni Faulkner house, 177 South 100 East, is also a two-story boxy adobe brick home, a relatively plain version of the side passage Italianate type. It also has a bracketed cornice and long horizontal windows.2<\/a><\/sup>Historic Resources of Brigham City<\/em>, Brigham City Museum.<\/span>\nThis was the style chosen to modernize the exterior of the County Courthouse in 1887<\/a>, the period in which it was most popular in Utah.<\/p>\n Prosperity was a driving factor in the home-building rush of the 1890s. Coupled with the arrival of electricity and a pressurized city water system, the time was right for multi-storied, showy Victorian homes.<\/p>\n The two-story Knudson house is typical for the time period. Its form is a central block with projecting bays, Distinctive eclectic features are a Queen Anne corner tower with intricate dentils and scroll design; a wrap-around porch; and shingle-style gable ends. The walls of the house are constructed of locally-fired brick and have an insulating adobe lining behind the brick. Soft California pine woodwork is a prominent feature of the interior of the house. An elaborate staircase, baseboards, doors, door moldings, and built-in cupboards are all made of this wood.6<\/a><\/sup>National Register Nomination, Jonathan C. and Jennie E. Knudson House,<\/a> Brigham City Museum, 2.<\/span><\/blockquote>\n Its form is a rectangular block, a common type of Victorian house in Utah, but the only one in Brigham City. This form is based on the side passage plan where the narrow end of the house faced the street and contains the main entrance… The Jenson house has three shallow bays, attached to the east, west, and north (facade) side of the house… All roofs are gabled and the facade contains a porch with a balcony above the entrance door. Original turned columns and decorative molding of the porch are still intact and in good condition… The interior has all original features: door with transoms, the staircase with grained panels, parlor and dining room fireplaces inlaid with tile, hanging light fixtures, and even original brass door knobs.7<\/a><\/sup>National Register Nomination, Nels and Minnie H. Jenson House,<\/a> Brigham City Museum. See photos at http:\/\/pdfhost.focus.nps.gov\/docs\/NRHP\/Photos\/00001588.pdf<\/span><\/blockquote>\n These elegant homes were not the average, but standouts, in the community. A 1986 survey of Brigham City showed 30 Victorian Eclectic homes, with only 14 large enough to be two stories.<\/p>\n The more common, less-expensive house during the period was called the Victorian Cottage. Its usual forms were the cross wing and the central block with projecting bays, with entry into the front room or parlor. Their simpler form and smaller size made them much more likely to be expanded or remodeled, although the original form is usually recognizable.Mansard<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/brighamcityhistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/BicknellFrenchCottagePlate2.jpg\")
\nThe Second Empire style, most commonly encountered in the form of a Mansard roof, was often placed upon a Picturesque<\/a>-era house type. This style is characterized by a flat or gently sloped roof that curves outward over part of the top story, so windows protrude from the roof. This style was particularly popular in Brigham City, enough that it was the subject of an architectural study.3<\/a><\/sup>Cindy Yurth, \u201cMansard Roofs Posed Mystery: Why Were There So Many Here?\u201d Box Elder Journal,<\/em> Brigham City, January 14, 1981, 1.<\/span>\nAlthough common in the Midwest, Brigham City seems to have by far the highest concentration of Mansard roof houses in Utah. The local homes do not have the intricate features of the Second Empire style. Except for the fancy roof, they are rather plain, either rectangles or L-shaped.
\nThere are three explanations for the anomaly: mail-order plans, trading of labor, and (oddly enough) genealogy. Pictured on the front page of \u201cBicknell\u2019s Village Builder and Supplement,\u201d published in 1878, is the pattern for a Mansard roof house, described as a \u201cFrench cottage . . . simply but conveniently arranged for a small family.\u201dBicknell\u2019s Village Builder and Supplement, New York, 1878. (Designed by architect Lyman Underwood of Boston, \u201cIt is intended to be built of wood (although the local models are brick or adobe) and painted to harmonize with the surroundings . . . the cost under ordinary circumstances would be about $3,800.\u201d (Adjusting for inflation, about $88,000 in 2013.) See the complete Bicknell\u2019s Village Builder and Supplement, 1872 edition<\/a>.) No one knows if this was the actual plan used by local builders, but it was the only one located by a historic architect.4<\/a><\/sup>Yurth, citing Dr. Peter Goss of the University of Utah.<\/span>\nBuilders often traded their services, especially relatives, and almost all of these homes were built for (or by) families related to the Forsgren family by blood or marriage. Probably built first and most faithful to the original plan is the August Valentine home, 494 South 300 West, in 1888. Other examples are the homes of John Christensen, 361 South 300 East, 1888; George Craghead, 92 South 100 West, 1890; Charles Higley (built by Jim Romer), 177 North 100 East, 1893; George Reeder, 135 North 100 West, circa 1894; Lars Nelson, 477 North 300 West; circa 1894; John Wesley Horsley, 48 South 300 West; Oleen Stohl, 155 North Main, 1895: Columbus Valentine, 37 West 600 South, circa 1896; Oscar Forsgren, 124 South 500 West, 1903, which has intriguing details like a curved roof and porch and spiral staircase.<\/p>\nVictorian<\/h3>\n
Jonathan C. and Jennie E. Knudson House<\/h4>\n
\nNo family better exemplified this affluence than the Knudson brothers, major exporters of fruit and produce, who branched out into other commercial ventures and built many of the city\u2019s commercial buildings. That included the Union Block, one of the first two-story business blocks along Main Street, built in 1892. It first housed both the Wilson Saloon<\/a> and Knudson Brothers\u2019 produce on the first floor, with professional offices on the second floor.5<\/a><\/sup>National Register Nomination, Jonathan C. and Jennie E. Knudson House,<\/a> Brigham City Museum, 2.<\/span> They later built two more commercial buildings in the same block, located on the east side between the Courthouse<\/a> and 100 South. Their wealth was reflected in their homes. Located on the corner of 100 South and 100 East, the residence of Charles W. Knudson was an elaborate multi-gabled Victorian house with three fireplaces on the ground floor. It was demolished in 1972 to make way for a bank. Two other Knudson homes, 244 South 100 West, and 15 South 100 East, still stand but have alterations.
\nStill magnificent in its historic integrity is the Jonathan C. Knudson home at 48 South 100 East, with construction started in 1898. Its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places gives the following description:<\/p>\nNels and Minnie H. Jensen House<\/h4>\n
![](\"https:\/\/brighamcityhistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Jenson_House.jpeg\")
\nThe Nels and Minnie H. Jenson house, built circa 1896, at 136 East 100 South, is also a fine example of the larger Victorian eclectic houses in the city. Jenson was an attorney, as well as a businessman and engaged in farming. This two and one-half story house is one of the largest older homes in the city. Its national register nomination notes:<\/p>\nVictorian Cottage<\/h4>\n
\nThe 1986 survey noted 55 Victorian cottages still standing, only 17 of which had not had major alterations. An example of this simpler form is the Albert Jeppson home at 631 North Main, a modest brick Victorian cross-wing with a wrap-around porch, built circa 1895.8<\/a><\/sup>National Register Nomination, Albert Jeppson House,<\/a> Brigham City Museum, 2002.<\/span>\nAlthough many period homes have been demolished, renovated and remodeled, Brigham City is fortunate to have a good number of homes serving as of this period in its history.<\/p>\nNotes<\/h2>\n