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Show NPS 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 2 Ramsey, Lewis A., House, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, UT Louie Keysor died unexpectedly at the age of forty during an operation on September 27,1916.6 Sometime near the death of his wife, James Keysor took up residence at his office on Main Street. The Keysors' four children were subsequently raised by Louie Bouton Felt, and Mrs. Keysor's sister Vera Felt. 7 The house was sold in the name of the Keysor children to Lewis A. Ramsey on May 19, 1919. The Ramsey family had been living in the house since 1918. Lewis A. Ramsey was born in Bridgeport, Illinois on March 24,1873 to George Ramsey and Amanda Ross. His family joined the LDS Church when Lewis was twelve years old and moved to Payson, Utah. Lewis Ramsey showed an early inclination toward art and within a year had moved to the nearby town of Springville, to study under John Hafen, one of Utah's most prominent artists. At sixteen, Lewis was studying at the Brigham Young Academy in Provo, supporting himself by teaching penmanship. In 1895, at the age of twenty-two, he went to Boston to study art. He was awarded a scholarship to study in Paris, however he had to decline for financial reasons. He returned to Utah briefly before moving to Chicago to study at the Smith Art School. Finally in 1901, Lewis Ramsey was able to study at the Julien Academy in Paris. He stayed there two years under the tutelage of Jean Paul Laurens and Adolphe Bouguereau. It was during his time at the Julien Academy that Lewis Ramsey began to receive recognition for his work. He was commissioned to paint portraits of several "Parisian luminaries," and Lillian Judge, the fiancee of John W. Young (Brigham's son) who was in Paris at the time.8 Returning to Utah in 1903, Lewis Ramsey taught art at the Latter-day Saints' University in Salt Lake City for two years. During the same period, he taught private lessons and painted portraits of several local residents. He was appointed by Governor Wells to the governing board of the Utah Art Institute in 1903. Lewis A. Ramsey married Elizabeth Patterson Brown on October 12,1904. Elizabeth (Bessie) Brown was born on November 15, 1885 in Evanston, Wyoming. Elizabeth had been a model for a Ramsey painting entitled "Mother and Child." Lewis and Elizabeth had six children: Allan, Ralph, Ross, Lewis G., Elizabeth and Jean. Between 1905 and 1916, he supported his family by painting oil portraits almost exclusively, including eighteen portraits of LDS Church leaders. In 1910, Ramsey painted his most celebrated work, a posthumous portrait of cburch founder Joseph Smith. It was highly praised by 6Louie Ellis Felt Keysor, obituaries, Deseret Evening News, September 28 and 30, 1916, and Salt Lake Tribune, September 28,1916. See also SLC Polk Directories. 7"Louie Bouton Felt" in The Children's Friends: Primary Presidents and Their Lives of Service by Janet Peterson and LaRene Gaunt, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1996), 9. 8Richard Oman, Lewis A. Ramsey, 1873-1941, unpublished biography, Tms [1980]. Photocopy in possession of author. This biography was gleaned from multiple sources for the life of Lewis A. Ramsey which can be found in the Lewis A. Ramsey Family Collection available at the LDS Church Historical Department. Other sources used for this nomination include the Driggs interview and obituaries of Lewis A. Ramsey in Salt Lake newspapers. X See continuation sheet |
