111789

Page 32

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB No. 1024-0018, NPS Form National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. 8 Page 12 Spring City Historic District (Addition Documentation), Spring City, Sanpete County, UT added in 1982. During this contextual period there were between two and four men working as mechanics and at least two automobile salesman. The architectural impact of the popularity of the automobile can be seen throughout the district with the addition of a garage on most of the town lots. The earliest examples are mostly frame, but there are several brick examples, and at least one adobe garage. The older garages can be found near the street frontage. Later as the dirt roads were improved, newer mid-century garages are set back with a driveway in a more suburban pattern. The automobile culture appears to have influenced the assignment of addresses in the 1990s. A majority of Spring City’s “houses with two fronts” have addresses that correspond to the garage side of the house. By the 1940s and 1950s, Spring City was a bustling small town with multiple cafes, hotels, a pool hall, a theater, a bakery, a confectionary, and a newspaper. However, it is mostly the homes that have represent the residents of this period. Several residents were employed in depression-era programs with the WPA, CCC, and NYA, working mostly in road and trail construction. There were over twenty teachers and school staffers in Spring City. Some women worked in the relatively new professions as hairdressers and stenographers. The two women-owned businesses on Main Street, a millinery shop operated by Lovinia Rasmussen and Diantha Larsen’s ice cream parlor, unfortunately no longer exist. Several Spring City residents commuted to work for Sanpete County in Manti or Snow College in Ephraim. The contributing houses constructed during the Civic Improvement and Specialized Agriculture Period (1912-1956) are significant as representative of the popular housing types and styles in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. Most of the dozen bungalows built in Spring City are similar to bungalows throughout Utah in the 1910s to 1920s. There are only four period revival cottages, all in the English Cottage style, with one built after World War II. Each design is highly individualized, for example, the large purple brick English Cottage at 80 N. 100 East. Just as there were no subdivisions, there are no examples of tract housing in Spring City. The period is also significant for a number of older buildings that were expanded with frame, brick, or concrete block additions. The census records for 1920 to 1950 list 22 Spring City residents working in the building trades. There were only two masons, August Amanson and John Carlson. Five men were specifically “house” carpenters: Fred Thompson, John W. Crawforth, James Thompson, Emil Sandstrom, and Evan Larsen. 72 A few men who worked in construction were specialists: Arthur Nunley, painter/interior decorator; Claude Harrison, house painter; and Vernal Justensen, plasterer. This period is also architecturally significant for a surprising number of large-scale agricultural buildings and structures within the historic district as farmers and ranchers transitioned into specialized agricultural enterprises (e.g. chicken coops, turkey pens, milking barns, oversized granaries, and corrals for large herds of sheep and cattle). Most of these outbuildings are frame, but many builders used more modern materials, such as concrete block and corrugated metal. For example, the 1940s barn behind the 1895 house at 260 N. Main is similar to older barn types in plan. The original nomination noted, that while “non-contributory” in 1980, “This barn demonstrates the tenacity of the vernacular tradition in the area.” 73 Because of its importance in the original nomination, the barn has been updated to a contributing primary resource for this amended nomination. Isolation and Decline Period (1957-1972) This period is architecturally significant for the few, typically American, suburban ranch houses built in the historic district, but even more significant for a lack of construction. The only significant non-domestic buildings from this period are a largescale turkey barn (1960) and a new brick post office (1961), the only Modern-style building in town. 72 Other carpenters were Clarence Mikelson, Willard Black, Fred Clark, William E. Ball, C. Thomson, Leo Lund, and James H. Peterson. J. E. Thompson and George Allred gave their occupation as both carpenter and farmer. Three men worked as plumbers. 73 Spring City History District, Site #185A Form.