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Show Form No. 10-300a (kev. 10- 74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE I" lTRIOR . NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ITEM NUMBER . ',:' U~r: ~ O'NtV-;;,,: '~ '·;:;i,.'f..;-,,~,;; . ,1::,;, .~..~; ..t;:;. ',~.. ~?-{(;~:""_;.:~..~""- SC'-:- . D:~ENTE'E~~!i~,~;:;JL,., NATIONAL REGISTER OF I-llSTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM CONTI NUATION SHEET OR N'PS 8 PAGE 2 In 1864 Neff remodeled the mill and replaced the overshot wheel with a turbine wheel. He also put in a rock foundation for a basement and boarded up the top floor of the structure John Neff died in 1869 and his two sons, John and Franklin continued to operate the mill. Franklin Neff died in 1882 and his son Seymour inherited the mill. In 1891 William H.H. Spafford purdlased the mill site with the mill machinery for $4,500. Spafford was a Salt Lake City Councilman, and a wealthy mine owner. He was also known throughout Utah as a real estate magnate . Spafford tore down part of the mill and remodeled it into a dance hall. Ech"ard H. -Airis purchased the property in- 1898: He paid $8,000 for the mill site, water power, and the \,Tate:r rights'. Airiswas , the Secretary of . the ~~ rcurGold Mining . -Company ahdhad reai estaieholdings in Salt Lake City. The mill was completely destroyed sometime between 1898 and 1905. Part of t.."lJ.e mi ll burr was saved and set in a monument in front of the East Mill Creek 1\ardhouse, one half block east of the mill site. The mill pond which was also Used for many years fer 1.D.S. baptisms was later cemented to serve as a swinnning pool. In 1904 Airis sold this property to Mrs. Susanna Bransford Emery-Holmes. Mrs. Holmes was known throughout the , world as the Silver Queen; due to her first husband:s investments in the Silver King Mine in Park City, Utah. It was Mrs. Holmes who built this house asher S1.IDUller retreat and -named it Oakwood. ' Mrs. Holmes had humble beginnings in Richmond, Missouri where she was born in 1859. Her family moved to Park City, Utah five years later. In 1884 she married the first of her four husbands, Albion B. Emery. He was an early speaker of the Utah House of Representatives and had mine holdings . . At the time of his death in 1899 his mining stocks were declared worthless. Mrs. Emery refused to sell the stocks and eventually parlayed her holdings into a huge fortune. She owned an interest in every major mine in Utah. Because of her mining successes and her elegant parties she was given the title the "Silver Queen". In 1900 she married Col. Edwin B. Holmes, a millionaire from Detroit. The couple lived at the Amelia Palace in Salt Lake City, the former home of one of Brigham Young's wives. The Holmes were leaders of Salt Lake Society and entertained lavishly at the Amelia PcUace and in Washington; D.C. They traveled around the world many times and were received by Pope Leo, Queen Victoria and Russian royalty. ' At Oakwood the "Silver Queen" built this house to serve as her stnmner res idence. The area is heavily wooded and had beautifully landscaped grounds. Over the creek and irrigation canals she built many small wood bridges. A small house was buil t behind the main house to produce electricity for Oak\.JOod. Mrs. Holmes paid Utah Power and Light Company one dollar each month for the right to produce her own electricity. About 1927 when the power company lines reached the Mill Creek area, the home made power source was abandoned. The small |
