Some Personal Memories


Nancy Burt, a niece who lived with President (1945-1950) and Mrs. Franklin Stewart Harris, recalled the house in a letter to Alice Chase:

Utah State University       

"The thing I remember most about that old house is the multiplicity of outside doors... As I recall, each of the doors which had a bell, had one with a different ring so that it was possible to go to the correct door when someone rang. But when anyone knocked, you had to make an educated guess as to which door to try first, for the house seemed to diffuse the origin of the sound. It was often a race from door to door because, after knocking several times, the visitor would be sure that no one had heard him, and would go around to try another door and then another until he could be intercepted."

Alice Chase, USU's First Lady from 1954-1968, remembered the spaciousness of the house. She wrote:

"Another important discovery was that we had enough room upstairs so that each of us had a room in which we could spread out our papers and books and do our studying in order that we might keep the downstairs ready for official needs, which the three of us had decided was the function of the house."

During the administration of President Glen L. Taggart (1968-1979), landscaping around the house was substantially changed, with full-grown trees transplanted from new building sites to provide more privacy on the south side of the House. The south lawn and garden became an important adjunct to the house's public rooms.

The need for additional public space for official functions and the lessening privacy that a burgeoning enrollment brought to the area created a situation where, with encouragement from the Board of Regents, President and Mrs. Cazier (1979-1992) decided to build a home in Logan and transfer the historic house to the USU Alumni Association.