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Show Folsom: Pioneer Architect 251 Folsom's business ventures continued to prosper in the next few years. In 1873 he and Romney built a three-story brick building for the Dinwoodey Furniture Company. The same year, he also built a short street through his own property in order to subdivide and develop the land. The street, Folsom Avenue, still bears his name today. During this time, in association with Joseph Ridges, the builder of the tabernacle organ, Folsom designed and constructed one of the most famous residences in the city, the Gardo House that Brigham Young intended to use for entertaining important guests. It was designed in elaborate Second Empire style, with mansard roofs, arched dormer windows, elaborate bay windows, a tower, and a porch. The style of the building reflected Folsom's recent contact with the fashionable architecture of the East. The decorative elements of the style were used with consistency and skill, the richly decorated windows set off against plain areas on the exterior walls. Despite the elaboration of ornament, the building appeared substantial, well proportioned, and unified. The interior included fine wood and plaster details and a graceful staircase. Although begun in 1873, construction on the house progressed slowly and the building was not completed until after Brigham Young's death.23 In 1874 Folsom supervised the addition of a new wing to the famous Devereaux House that was then owned by William Jennings.24 He also altered the style of the existing portions of the home somewhat, adding dormer windows with classical pediments and decorative metal railings to the mansard roofs. In May 1874 Folsom was chosen to be a counselor in the presidency of the Salt Lake Stake, the presiding council for the church in all of the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding areas. In the fall of the same year, he was asked to go to St. George to direct the work on the temple there. The superintendent of construction, Miles Romney, had broken his leg in a fall. Folsom sold his interest in his construction business before leaving. His health deteriorated in St. George, however, and he returned to Salt Lake after only a few months. In 1875 Folsom formed a partnership with Obed Taylor, a recently arrived architect from San Francisco, and began work on yet another important monument in the city, the handsome iron-fronted building "' The Gardo House was completed in 1881 and was used by John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff during their terms as presidents of the LDS church and was also rented for a time. It was sold by the church in 1901 and finally razed in 1921 to make way for the Federal Reserve Bank. 24 Moss, History of William Harrison Folsom, 54. |