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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 Christensen, Herbert & Lillian, House Name of Property OMB No. 1024-0018 Washington County, Utah County and State Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.) Architectural Significance The Christensen House, built in 1936, is architecturally significant as a hybrid product of several architectural styles. The owner/builder, Herbert Christensen, had experience building bridges and tunnels as a young man, but was not a contractor by trade. He obtained the design and much needed technical advice from his father-in-law, Albert Anderson. Niels Albert Anderson was born in Bellevue (now Pintura), Washington County, Utah in 1883. He started out as a rancher, but eventually found his contracting business was more lucrative during the depression years. The Springdale LDS Ward Chapel was one of his earliest large commissions and was built around the same time as the Christensen house. He also remodeled the St. George Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple, including installing an elevator. During World War II, Anderson helped to build defense plants in Utah and the surrounding states. Albert Anderson died in 1948. The unique design for the family home in Springdale was likely influenced by seasonal workers or visitors to Zion National Park, as well popular styles and culture in the 1930s: the popularity of the English Tudor cottage, the materials and techniques of the Craftsman and National Park Rustic styles, and the imaginative examples of the "storybook" cottage, also known as the Provincial Revival movement, primarily found in California. English Tudor Revival Architecture The Christensen House is most easily classified as an English Tudor period revival-style cottage. The rise of the English Tudor and French Norman Revival in American in the 1920s and 1930s began with the popularity of the style by doughboys recently returned from Europe after World War I. 3 In Utah, the English cottage or English Tudor cottage was the most popular of the period revival styles. Thousands of English cottages were built throughout the state, particularly in the urban areas of Salt Lake City, Ogden and Provo. The majority of urban examples were simple brick tract houses with a narrow asymmetrical fa<{ade and a deep footprint. Larger homes with elements of faux-half timbering were found in more affluent neighborhoods. In more suburban and rural parts of Utah, the English cottage style was used by local builders in individualized designs including a large number of frame and stucco examples. The uniqueness of the Christensen House can be understood in the context of architectural surveys of St. George and Springdale in Washington County in the southwest corner Utah, which have identified 119 period revival cottages, of which nine are significant English Tudor stucco and stone examples. Because of the dry climate, stucco is more common in southern Utah. Six of the nine examples are fairly plain and clad partially with either historic or non-historic stone veneers. Only three in St. George have specific details in common with the Christensen House. 4 A house at 410 N. Main, built circa 1935, is a boxy symmetrical example, featuring cobblestone rails flanking the front steps and stones randomly projecting through the stucco to simulate a weathered exterior. A house at 245 E. 300 South is asymmetrical with one steep gable that features a stone veneer base. This house has curving wood strips over stucco in the gable trim. 3 Thomas Carter and Peter Goss, Utah 's Historic Architecture, 1847-1940: A Guide, (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1988: 145. 4 st. George is the largest city and county seat of Washington County. It is 45 miles from Springdale. Section 8 page 10 |
