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Show OMB No. 1024-0018, NPS Form United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. 8 Page 2 Ogden Central Bench Historic District, Ogden, Weber County, UT Adams and Madison Avenue, approximately one-third of the district. Originally, the streets in the district were given names other than United States Presidents. Starting at the western boundary of the district moving eastward the streets were titled Spring (Adams), Smith (Jefferson), Pearl (Madison), Green (Monroe), East (Quincy), 1 st East (Jackson), and 2nd East (Van Buren). The streets that ran east to west have also been changed. Twenty blocks were added to its original development, and for instance 1 st Street and 4th Street are now known as 21 st Street and 24* Street, with twenty blocks added northward to its original development. Ogden Valley's geographical make-up played an important role in the early settlement of the city and subsequent development in the Central Bench District. On the eastern border of Ogden lies the Wasatch Mountain Range, with the Weber and Ogden Rivers flowing through it and emptying into the Great Salt Lake, lying just west of the city. In the early 1850s as Mormon families began to move to Ogden in large numbers, the most desirable land was that which was located between the two rivers in the northwest corner of town, with its rich soil and easy irrigation. A good portion of the area was surveyed into farming tracts and large numbers of people settled portions of the riverbanks. By the mid-1850s this desirable portion of town was largely populated and the community started to look eastward for expansion. And in 1855, under the direction of Isaac N. Goodale, appointed by Brigham Young, construction of the Ogden Bench Canal had begun. Canals and irrigation ditches were a common feature in almost all Mormon platted towns. The building of the canal was an important endeavor, as an editorial in the Ogden-Standard Examiner stated in 1945, "The story of the Ogden Bench Canal is pretty much the history of early Ogden."7 The purpose of the canal was to use the canyon streams east of Ogden to provide irrigation to the bench area in order to sustain the newly developing community. 8 Running north to south the canal flowed from the northern tier of the city (at the time 21 st Street) to the southernmost boundary (28th Street), and from east to west it cut through just below 2nd East (Van Buren Avenue) and ended up near Green Street (Monroe Boulevard). Another important early canal was the Weber Canal. Although it did not run through much of the district (it only ran through the area of the 2800 and 2900 block of Porter Avenue (a half-block between Adams and Jefferson Avenues) and left the district westward on 28th Street) it did give the Boyle family, who resided between Adams and Jefferson Avenues on 28l Street, power to run tools to make their patented furniture. The curved street between 28l and 29* Streets on Porter Avenue is a good reminder of the canal; when the block was subdivided in the early 1900s the street was graded following the crooked path of the canal. Community Development and Planning By 1860 limited building and settlement had started to take place in the district. A Deseret News article described the gradual movement of families to the area in 1863, "A few of the settlers, preferring to dwell on more sightly [sic] ground and where the streets, with slight grading, would be passable most of the year, have located themselves on the upland, or bench, as it is usually called, where the houses generally, as in further witness of their good taste, if not superior judgment, are of a neat and comfortable appearance and, so far as I 6 Reps, Cities of the American West. 315. 7 Oqden Standard-Examiner, Editorial, 24 May 1945. 8 Pioneer Forts in Qgden, Utah (Sons of Utah Pioneers-Ogden Chapter, 1996), 6. |
