The Early Years


It is the oldest state-built residence in Utah, yet it wasn't built by the state and it's no longer a residence. It was built by the Territory of Utah as a model farm house, but for nearly a century it was The President's House, home to 12 presidents of Utah State University.

Alumni House in 1892

Alumni House in 1892

Utah State University was chartered by the Utah Territorial Assembly on March 8, 1888. Among the purposes for which the institution was established were prominently mentioned rural and household economy and the application of science and the mechanical arts to practical agriculture in the field.

An 1888 appropriation built the south wing of Old Main and established the functioning of the Agricultural Experiment Station, a model barn for agriculture students, and a model farm house for women taking the course in Domestic Science. The first Station Director, Jeremiah Wilson Sanborn of Missouri, successfully lobbied the Territorial Assembly for construction funds only four months after arriving in January of 1890.

He and Old Main architect C.L. Thompson quickly drew plans; the contract for the construction of the three buildings was let to Charles L. Crane and Company of Salt Lake City. The Board of Trustees estimated the cost of the house at $4,000, the model barn at $6,000, and the station (today Information News Services) at $5,000. The contract called for the completion of all three buildings by August 1, 1890 - a month before the College was scheduled to open.

The work was finished just a month past deadline, with President Sanborn pressing workmen to finish the house. The College ledger notes that the farm house cost $4,322.10 and the Experiment Station Building, $5,087.50. In keeping with the nature of instruction at USU in 1890, the model barn was the most expensive of the three structures, $6,003.56.

It was perhaps fitting that President Sanborn carefully oversaw the completion of the house, considering that the Board traded him the house for the five-room suite on the second floor of Old Main that had been given to him for living quarters. In August 1891, the President was given further authority to purchase lamps, window shades, and an organ for the house.

The home into which the Sanborn family moved in 1891 was large and stylish, with nine main rooms on the first floor. The exterior showed all the latest fashions of the Queen Anne style: cut shingle gables, channel rustic siding, porches adorned with elaborate fretwork and turned posts, double windows in the principal rooms, and the inevitable two color paint - in this case apparently white and dark green.

Whether or not the Territorial Assembly would have approved money for a President's House (rather than the proposed model farm house) is problematical, but the decision of the Board of Trustees certainly created identity problems. Perhaps it was because the arrangement with Sanborn was thought to be temporary, for until 1896 the College catalogs gave this description of the home: A farm home with dairy rooms associated with it, illustrates the modern conveniences that are found in connection with modern farm houses. The catalogs also suggest that while the President lived in the house, the ice house and dairy rooms were used by the Home Economics Department.

      Alumni House in 1950

        Alumni House in 1950

In June 1, 1894, after Sanborn's resignation, the Board elected Joshua H. Paul as his successor. The new president moved into the house, but the on-campus location was not to his liking. In September 1895, President Paul moved to downtown Logan and the house was used as a girls' dorm during the 1895-96 school year. With the appointment of the College's third president, Joseph Marion Tanner, in 1896, the model farm house once again became the President's Home. The 1896 catalog contained a photograph of the house labeled Residence of the President. In keeping with the change of status from dormitory to President's House, President Tanner approached the Board with suggested improvements. While Old Main and most of the instructional and laboratory buildings on campus had been electrified in 1895, the wires had not been extended to the President's House. Tanner asked that it be electrified. He also wanted indoor plumbing. He wrote the Board, I find the bathrooms all ready (sic) plumbed for bowl, tub, and closet, and connected with the cesspool, so only the expense of these articles need be incurred. Plumbing would eliminate the outhouse, which had been shared with the Director of the Experiment Station whose house stood just to the north of the President's House. The privy is one of the prominent features on the first known photograph of the USU Campus, Spring 1892.

Its short life as a dormitory had taken a toll on the house. President Tanner also noted in his request to the Board, The fact that this building has been partially used as a dormitory during the past year, and that cooking has been done in several of its rooms, makes cleaning and papering desirable before it is occupied as a dwelling. And, while he was at it, President Tanner also requested that the furnace that was in pieces in the basement of the Experiment Station Building be installed in the President's House. (Heretofore the building had been heated with coal stoves in each of the rooms.) He estimated the cost at $20!

The "A"

The "A"

The President also wanted a telephone. The first instrument had been installed on campus in 1894 - in the President's Office. In 1896 the President's House got its own line, number 361R on the local Rocky Mountain Bell Exchange.

With changes to accommodate the years, the house served the presidents of Utah State University and their families continuously from 1896 until 1983. Little substantial remodeling was done after the Tanner renovations. The porch was enlarged and extended to a screened second floor level in 1913. The kitchen was changed about the same time, in keeping with the recommendations that Mrs. Widtsoe formulated in a circular published by the Agricultural Experiment Station. Some room openings were enlarged to allow easier movement, a stairway was removed; but essentially, the building remained little changed from that designed in 1890 by Jeremiah Sanborn.

For nearly 30 years, the President's House was home to the young family of Elmer George Peterson, the sixth president of Utah State Agricultural College. The 34-year-old Peterson served as president from 1916-45, a difficult time for an administration which included two world wars.