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Show THE HISTORY BLAZER XEU7S OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. tTT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 Scottish Stonemason Left His Stamp On Beaver A SCOTTISHST ONEMASON AND BUILDING CONTRACTOR, Thoma F mwas 30 years old when he converted to Mormonism and immigrated to Utah. Settling first in Lehi, he was asked seven years later to relocate to Beaver, 170 miles south. Beaver had been settled in 1855 by transplants from nearby Parowan. But the town's 6,000- foot altitude had proven more conducive to stockraising than farming, and the little settlement had not thrived. In 1862, on a tour of the southern Utah missions, Brigham Young chided the community for its few improvements. He released the local church leaders and brought in John R. Murdock from Lehi to reenergize the settlement. Soon Beaver had a tannery, sawmill and store, and by 1868 residents were ready to erect more permanent homes. Frazer's arrival that year was probably no coincidence. Using black lava stone ( or basalt) readily available on the foothills and in river beds, he first helped put up a church woolen mill. It turned a solid profit its very first year and inspired three decades of local prosperity. After completing the miU and coop, Frazer turned his attention to the emerging residential market. He and his apprentices would be responsible for most of the masonry houses built in Beaver between 1870 and 1890, including his own house erected in phases starting in 1870. The modest, one- story Frazer house still stands. Its well- cut, squared stones and meticulously beaded mortar joints of uniform width reflect Frazer's craftsmanship. The house also exhibits characteristics that would wme to distinguish Frazer's style: dormer windows, white- stained mortar, and combined Greek Revivalist and Federalist influences. The years 1872- 73 brought another d e w r e from housebuilding when Frazer served as a major contractor for Fort Cameron, a new army post. This was a major undertaking for a remote village, employing every artisan from miles around. The compound ultimately comprised two large barracks, six officers' quarters, a two- story hospital, and headquarters and laundry buildings, plus stables and outbuildings. By the mid- 70s Frazer was back to designing and constructing stone houses, sixteen of which stand today. The summit of his achievement was the Duckworth Grimshaw house. Built in 1877, it has all the features of a mature Fmer design: the masterfbl stonework, graceful dormer windows, steep- pitched roof, and gable in the center front. This gable is peculiar to Beaver houses, hovering above an upstairs door that apparently leads nowhere. Actually, such doors led to small wooden balconies which have since disappeared. ( more) But the stonework seems indestructible and Frazer's vernacular design equally so. One architectural historian has praised the sophisticated harmoniousness of Frazer's designs, derived from his contrast of black stone with white mortar and woodwork, dormer roofs whose slopes repeat the pitch of the main roof, perfect symmetry, and overall unity. Frazer also worked in brick ( kilned about 10 miles west of the town). Fifty- six pioneer brick houses may be seen in Beaver. Possibly, too, he worked in " tuff, " a pink stone first quarried in the 1880s and soon supplanted by basalt as softer and less expensive to cut. Tuff was used on the third addition to Frazer's own house. Thomas Frazer was by all accounts a mild- mannered person with a Ulive- and- let- live" philosophy elucidated in his poem by that title published in a pioneer magazine. Yet his mark on Beaver was anything but timid. One measure of that influence is the sheer number of substantial masonry houses surviving from Beaver's pioneer period- as many as in all other southern Utah towns combined. Frazer blended his Scottish heritage, observation of English and eastern American building traditions, and Mormon utilitarianism to create a unique folk architecture. Sources: Richard C. Poulsen, " Stone Buildings in Beaver City," Utah Historical Quarterly 43 ( 1975); Linda Bonar, " Historical Houses in Beaver: An Introduction to Materials, Styles and Craftsmen," in Chronicles of Courage, vol. 4 ( Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1994); Nomination Forms for the National Register of Historic Places, Harriet Shepherd, Thomas Frazer, and Duckworth Grimshaw houses, Prese~ ation Office, Utah Division of State History. nzE HXS~ RBYLA ZERi s produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Cente. mbl Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533- 3500. 960613 ( BB) |
