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Show United States Department of the Interior National Park Service I National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMS No. 1024-0018 Green-Rasmussen-Beck House (Expires 5/31 /2012) Salt Lake County, Utah Name of Property County and State In the early summer of 1917, J. R. Allen, a member of the school board of the Jordan School District, was so impressed by the teaching methods of a young principal named Reid Be k in Provo that he offered him a substantial increase in salary to become the principal of the Draper Park Schoo. raper a a long tradit ion of educatIOnal excellence begll1nll1 I the remar e r. 0 . ar (1833-1900), who began his teaching career as a local teacher in Draper, in the 1860s. Dr. Park started the first rural high school in Utah in the Draper community, implemented many of the policies used by education in Utah today, and later became the president of the University of Utah. When the co~munity built a new school in 1912, it was name.5Lfo~ Dr. Par~ . • Durin.g his ~~-Six years as an educator in Drap.er, ! \,.VJ:. ~ "'" ~ \J\4-iz - ~t"'<t4'7 .Pe4 I ~ Reid Beck was favorably compared to Dr. Park. I I 1<0'1'\- Reid Beck was born in Spring City, Utah, in 1887. He graduated with a teaching degree from Brigham Young University in Provo in 1908, the same year he married Annie Passey (1890-1918) of Mesa, Arizona. Reid l).~ d A l!.I1.~~ ~~ k h ~/qur children, three daughters and one son . Reid Beck was serving as the principal of the ~Ho~Hn'cprovfb 1I1Zf9 171md initially refused J. R. Allen ' s offer. After further negotiations, Reid Beck accepted the offer, whicJ(included the privilege 12 of bringing eigh~Ch~~.r ~ him, including six from the Provo School District. According to local tradition, the offer also included .a ~h live in only half a block away from the Draper Park School. Reid and Annie Beck moved to Draper probably in time for the beginning of the 1917-1918 school year. Annie Beck died of complications from influenza and childbirth on November 25 , 1918. On June 18, 1919, Reid Beck married Wilda Maycock, one of the teachers who had transferred from Provo to Draper the previous year. Wilda Maycock was born in Springville, Utah, in 1890. Wilda continued to teach for a few years in addition to helping to raise the children . In 1927, Reid and Annie ' s only son, Reid W. Beck died of leukemia at the age of twelve. 10 In addition to his teaching duties, Reid Beck served as the bishop of the Draper Ward for five years. He often met with members of the ward in the little office on the south side of the house. In October 1935, Wilda and Reid Beck purchased their home from the Jordan School District. The upper floor of the home was used as a boarding house for the convenience of single female teachers at the Draper School. Reid Beck continued his own education, completing his bachelor' s degree in 1929, and was working on his master' s thesis at the time of his death . On December 21 , 1943 , Reid Beck died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident on an icy road not far from his home. His daughter Yanice Beck Black wrote the following tribute : Many people came to him for counsel and he had many friends. He loved children ; in fact, he loved people of all ages. He knew the name and face of every child in his school and community ... He knew the problems of the farmer, the dairyman, the sheepman, and the poultryman because he had been all of them. He knew suffering and loss, for he suffered much and lost much both materially and personally. He always had "the common touCh. ,, 13 Wilda M. Beck moved to Murray, Utah, sometime before 1960. Wilda Maycock Beck died in Murray on June 20, 1988, at the age of ninety-eight. For many years, Joy and Sheldon Baker rented the Draper home from Wilda Beck. Sheldon Lenoy Baker and Helen Joy Bement Baker were the parents of five children so it was unlikely that the home continued to be used as a boarding house during this time. In 1967, Wilda Beck transferred the deed to Joy and Sheldon Backer, who sold it the same year to Ralph Lester and Peggy Naomi Wadsworth. Ralph Wadsworth owned a construction company and completed much of the remodeling of the interior. The Wadsworths also had a large family. They lived there until 1990 when they sold the home to Deveral and Doreen Decker. The Deckers remodeled the kitchen and made other ~ l..and Shan noll. Moed) -i,n ~99 , who lived there until recen.t ly()~hen improvements before selling to the cu rr~nt owners, B it was converted to a rent~ ~~ t.... ~\~ \.. (. I ~ cx..,. ~l ~ ~ ~ _~E..c.\- ~c-\ .>\) ~~ l ~ ~ -11-T-h-e-D-r-a-p-er-P-a-r-k-S-ch-o-o-I-a-t-12-4-4-1 S. 900 East ~C-&v.-T~- J\Ot~<?\J~~Z-e-- ~dt~~onal Register of Historic Places on May 1980. fJ"\A4:df.'6000~'1I; 12 The eight teachers included his brother, Erastus Ray Beck; sisters, Freda and Edna Jensen; sisters Wilda and Ella Maycock; Elma Haymond; Lida Hermer; Ruth Lindsay; Marguerite Williams; and Albert Southwick. Not all taught in Draper. History of Draper, Volume One: 101 . 13 Ibid, 101. 9 |
