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Show NFS Form 10-900-a Utah WordPerfect 5.1 Format (Revised Feb. 1993) 0MB No. 10024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. 8 Page 4 Gibson/Sowards House, Vernal, Unitah County, UT She was a Sunday School teacher, Primary teacher and First Counselor in the Relief Society. Mary and N.G. had ten children. 10 After their son, Leland Sowards, and Ruth Louise Jones were married in 1938, they moved in with his parents into this house. Leland farmed and ranched for his father and later followed his grandfather's lead in politics, serving as state representative and state senator. Ruth was a nurse at the Uintah County Hospital until her retirement. Leland and Ruth had seven children. 11 Ruth Sowards is the current owner and occupant of the house. ARCHITECTURE: Victorian forms were popular in Utah 1885-1915. The central-block-with-projecting-bays house type was an important basic form of the Victorian house. Projecting bays were added to the principal rooms to achieve a desired external irregularity of design and made the rooms larger and brighter. This house form is characterized by a roughly square central section punctuated by bays on one or several sides. The main roof is hipped or pyramidal, while the bays are usually gabled. In the smaller, less expensive houses, the entry was usually directly into the living room or parlor. 12 The style of the Gibson/Sowards house also describes the early twentieth century and the changes that were occurring in Utah. This central-block-with-projecting-bays house type with Victorian Eclectic styling is important in describing the end of Utah's isolation in the late nineteenth century. Rural areas were less isolated from stylistic developments occurring on both the national and local levels. The pattern-book styles and standardized building components were available and easily adapted for use with local materials. The former isolation of rural areas was no longer an obstacle to building well and the quality of design and workmanship were also affected during the Victorian era. 13 10 Leona Adelia (1894), Ethylene Marie (1896), William Carl (1899), Leland Nelson (1902), Mary Louisa (1905), Orlin Lewis (1909), Shirley Gibson (1910), Francis (1911), Orval Lorin (1915) and Vaughn Clinton (1917) 11 Ruth LaVan (1938), Carol Ann (1940), Robert Dean and Barbara Jean, twins (1945), Janet Lee (1954), Donna Marie (1957) and David Kevin (1959) 12 Carter, Thomas, and Peter Goss. Utah's Historic Architecture 1847-1940. p.44. 13 Ibid, pp.110-111. |
