Ogden Central Bench Historic District

Page 40

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 27 Ogden Central Bench Historic District, Ogden, Weber County, UT deeded to Mr. Fowles, who then took out mortgages from the Federal Building and Loan Association, and had several homes built on the south side of the 1100 block of 20* Street and vicinity. The homes were purchased as soon as they were put up for sale. The homes built by Mr. Fowles look remarkably like the model dwelling featured in an early 1942 Ogden Standard-Examiner advertisement, claiming, "What Ogden needs today is hundreds of houses for defense workers, this does not mean, however, that houses cannot be attractive as well as practical."80 Other articles written surrounding that particular article in the newspaper include one instructing citizens to "timber up" their basement or other room for protection and emergency shelter, and another article urging citizens to convert their attics into a bedroom for workers in need of housing. Another interesting phenomenon changing the architectural face of the district came when the federal government requested that owners of large houses lease their property to the government for conversion into housing units. This usually meant the old large Victorian-era homes of the boom era, of which the district had many. Thus, during the 1940s a good percentage of the one-and-a-half to two-story Victorian dwellings in the bench area was divided into apartments. Although the interiors were altered, most of the exteriors remained intact. In a March 1943 article in the Standard-Examiner, one such renovation of an old home was chronicled. 81 It stated that sixty-five other jobs like it were slated for the near future and that many jobs were open for those who wanted to work on the renovation projects. The home was turned from a single-family to a three-room apartment, fully loaded with a kitchen, front room, bedroom, and bath. Incentives usually involved tax breaks and renovation work paid for by the government. One of the first homes in the district to be renovated during the this era was the historic Emerson residence located at 2325 Madison Avenue, which had been built in the early 1880s (since been razed and replaced with a senior citizen's center). This large twelve-room mansion was transformed in 1940 by architect Art Shreeve into four apartments, 82 a sign of things to come in the district. Indeed, housing became a large concern for the city in the early 1940s. As the older residential sectors of the city, especially the Historic Central Bench District, began to fill up, a building expansion began to develop throughout the rest of the city and county; for the first time people started to look conceitedly outside of the district for housing, as the district had finally reached near capacity. In the 1940s, the surrounding area outside the district continued to expand; the district area has changed very little since. Architecture The new homes built in the district during the 1940s are considered World War II Era cottages or Minimal Traditional style houses. The homes are generally small one-story structures. They are either in a rectangular or square floor plan. Most homes are made of brick, however, several are covered in asbestos shingles or aluminum siding. The reconnaissance level survey completed by the Long Range Planning Department in 1999 80 Ogden Standard-Examiner. 7 March 1942. 81 Ibid, 21 March 1943. 82 Ibid, 14 September 1940.