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Show This text message is used to keep the image from rotating in ocr process. Be sure to crop the top .25" off after the ocr process. 6274 S HIGHLAND DRIVE DANIELSON HOUSE SALT LAKE COUNTY, SALT LAKE COUNTY UTAH STATE HISTORY 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 3 9222 00535 5800 ASSOCIATION Clippillg Service (801) 328-8678 SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Jack Goodman Unusual home on Highland Drive took six years to build, beginning in 1922, when an immigrant stone mason began hauling granite for its walls from Little Cottonwood Canyon. House Is Framed in Distinction Now that the old Holladay· Cottonwood neighborhoods have formalized their municipal exist· ence and will soon possess such attributes as a mayor. a council and the like. you may get the no· t10n of exploring the suburbs in the lee of the Wasatch peaks and Big Cottonwood Canyon. If so. you may spot an odd looking house on the west side of Highland Drive - the structure in today's sketch. Set well back from the heavily traveled thor· oughfare south of the Van Winkle 'Expressway. it can be found by looking for a signs reading "Frame· Up" in Old English·style lettering. The building at 6274 S. High· land Drive is just outside the boundary of the new/ old town with the hyphenated name. It is a reminder of a not·too·distant time when individuals built homes without plans or architects, using instead the notions inside their noggins. Today a skilled framemaker named Don Boulter occupies the premises. He is busy. but not averse to outlining the history of this unique house. a building his "Frame·Up" establishment has occupied since 1985. The tale be· gins in 1922. That's when a Scan· dinavian named Danielson ar· rived on the scene. At that time there was no "di· agonal." as local folk call the Van Winkle Expressway. Highland Drive was a two·lane, asphaJted street. while 62nd South was nar· rower. It led east up a consider· able hill beyond a water·powered electricity generating plant, on past Bill's Cobblerock Inn, up to Knudsen's Corners. the Old Mill and Big Cottonwood Canyon. There were rumors, in those Pro· hibition days, that one could quaff beer or other alcoholic bev· erages at the Cobble rock. Well. the Danielson in ques· t10n was a Mormon convert, a stone mason by trade, a man who probably never visited a sus· pected beer joint. (Another aside - if you journey east on 6200 South through Cottonwood to Holladay Boulevard, you now can pause for legal beer and even gar· Iic burgers at the Cottonbottom.) On arrival, Danielson had funds enough to purchase land near his homesite and plant a siz· "able orchard. He ftrst used a JACK GOODMAN small house that has disappeared. but spent the next six years con· structing the present long but odd building in the sketch. It took six years. in part because the house. to the height of its windows. is built of solid granite. Its con· structor journeyed by horse and wagon some 10 uphill miles to Lit· tle Cottonwood Canyon. where he selected and loaded granite from the same mountainside that pro· vided the enduring material for the Salt Lake LDS Temple and for the new conference center under construction today. Whether he once intended to build his entire home of granite is not clear. The ultra·thick walls above his carefully laid masonry appear to be brick. covered with plaster. The outside upper corner where walls meet the shingled roof are "coved" (curved). Within all the doorways to the 14·foot· high living room, the bedrooms. bath. kitchen and other spaces are likewise "coved." making for a series of interior archways. By the way. this living room is 36 feet long and 14 feet wide. large enough to hold two pianos when a piano teacher held forth there. Why a IHoot ceiling? The belief is this: the Scandinavian stone mason had learned. in Nor· way, Denmark and Sweden. that "upper·class people" lived in hlgh·ceilinged houses or castles. while working-class folks made do with low·height houses. Outside, the main entrance to the house is by means of terraced. roughly laid brick steps, leading to a double door topped by a big stone slab and a "tree-of·life" de· sign towelled In place by the adept stone mason. The entry· way is granite to the roofline. In· side there is a sizable fireplace topped by an oversized chimney. with a timbered ceiling enhanc· ing the living room . There are stone and plaster wall designs. and one unusual touch - an a uthentic·looking coat of arms. signalling that the builder's wife was a member of the Brodbeck family . There is a small patio at the southeast corner of the house. concealed within a recessed cor· neromaking it almost invisible from Highland Drive. The pine trees planted by the original oc· cupants are gone now. with a sin· gle smaller pine and one decidu· ous tree remaining to flank the overgrown foundation planting. One neighborhood rumor per· sists. not concerning beer but spotlighting Charles A. Lind· bergh. the "Eagle of the U.S.A." This rumor has It that when the trans·Atlantic hero visited the Salt Lake area after his heroic flight. the only Scandinavian mansion deemed fitting to shelter the self·described Norseman was this Holladay·Cottonwood home. Long afterward - after the last Danielson granddaughter moved away in the 195Os. Re id Smith bought the house. which then sheltered a variety of ten· ants. Finally Don Boulet, the picture·frame expert. moved in back in 1985 and has remained to practice his craft. By that time "the diagonal" highway had long since been cut through to connect 700 East traf· fic to the soon·to·arrive "Belt Route" a block or two south and change the rural setting for· ever. Such neighbors as the Bruce Mills Chevron Station are now gone. along with Bill Gadget's grocery, the Hy Cafe. Chesly Drug and even Bill Mertlich's Panorama Inn. a block away on Highland Drive, where the Inn's escaping pheasants often dis· rupted traffic. Nowadays a win· dow glass shop. a carpet sales place and the mall across the way are the nearest neighbors. Even a KFC fast·food shop has moved a block south. leaving the Daniel· son house. with Its 15· inch gran· ite walls, in isolated grandeur. If you visit this house that took six years to finish. you'll agree "they don 't build 'em like that any· more." Not even in the new Holiaday·Cottonwood city. Jack Goodman has been associ· ated with The Sail Lake Tribune as a staff writer or free·lance writer for 53 years. I |
