Mormon history

Lion House, ca. 1910

5 Comments

Brigham Young’s Lion House, in about 1910, before the Church Administration Building was built next door. (I’ll have to find out what was on that site, which we can barely see to the left of the Lion House here. I don’t know.)

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MLA: Parshall, Ardis E. "Lion House, ca. 1910." Keepapitchin.org, 02 May 2014, https://keepapitchinin.org/2014/05/02/lion-house-ca-1910/.

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5 thoughts on “Lion House, ca. 1910”

  1. This photo is interesting to me. (Ever since reading Kathleen Flake’s book about the Church at turn of the century, I’ve been a bit intrigued by this time period — which sits between the pioneer era and the modern Church era.)

    This photo makes me wonder what the average 1910 passer-by would think of the Lion House. The House was built early in the Utah period (1850s), and is surely a representation of the pioneer era of the Church. To the 19th century Saints, the buildings was Brother Brigham’s home, and home to many of his wives and their many children. Those dormers on the side of the building say it all.

    Now, in the year 2014, we look at such a building and it is a beloved reminder of a by-gone era. We celebrate another building having been saved from razing and “redevelopment districts” and etc. And we quietly venerate the historical space where important ancestors trod.

    But in 1910? What did this place mean in the collective conscience? In 1910, the United States was rapidly changing, becoming a world leader. As for the Church, it’s second- and third-generation was moving into a modern world. And the Church was definitely moving past plural marriage. All of Brigham’s plural wives had passed away or were getting far along in years.

    So, I look at this photo and wonder if the average passer-by even noticed the building? How did the rising generation feel about a building that so visually represents the polygamous past?

    Sorry to be so long. If you got this far, I’ll add that I hope somebody reads this and provides a comment. Jeff Johnson, I’m looking at you! [grin]

  2. Was it the Lion House or the Beehive House that for a time in the early to mid-20th century was used as a home for young single working women?

  3. Brother Wick E. Pedia says that, after President Joseph F. Smith’s death, the Beehive House “became the home economics wing of Latter-day Saints’ University, and then a dormitory for young women.”

    I wasn’t aware that JF Smith lived in the Beehive House (the last Church president to do so).

    I’d forgotten about this Keepa post about saving the Lion and Beehive Houses (here).

  4. David, Thanks. I thought I remembered one of the two Houses also serving as an apartment-type building for strictly young single working LDS women.

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