12423 South Relation Street
Draper, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Lauritz H. & Emma Smith House

Statement of Significance:

The Lauritz H. & Emma Smith House, built in phases between 1884 and 1947, is a Victorian cross-wing of brick construction. The house and its contributing outbuildings are significant under Criteria A and C. Under Criterion A it is significant for its association with the development of Draper, Utah, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The house is also eligible under Criterion C for the relatively intact integrity of its many historic building phases. The owner and primary builder of the house was Lauritz Heber Smith, a second-generation Draper resident. His father was Lauritz Smith, one of Draper's earliest residents. The home Lauritz Heber Smith built for his wife, Emma Wright Shipley Smith, and their ten children, was part of the original Lauritz Smith homestead. The property is eligible within the Multiple Property Submission: Historic and Architectural Resources of Draper, Utah, 1849-1954. The associated historic context is the "Railroads, Mercantilism, and the Farming and Ranching Period, 1877-1917." The subsequent owners of the Smith home have been family members and the property also qualifies within the historic context for "Twentieth-Century Community Development and the Poultry Industry Period, 1918-1954." Although the house has experienced numerous historic and non-historic modifications over the years, the current owners are restoring the house with Utah State Historic Preservation tax credits. The Lauritz H. and Emma Smith House is in good condition and is a contributing historic resource in Draper, Utah.

History of the Lauritz H. & Emma Smith House

The first patent to the land on which the Lauritz H. & Emma Smith House sits was to Lauritz Smith [Sr.] in 1872. The patent was for 160 acres west of the Draper town site. Lauritz Smith deeded a portion of the land to his son, Lauritz Heber Smith, on April 1, 1890, but according to family records Lauritz H. Smith began building the house in 1884. Lauritz H. and his wife Emma moved in when the house was completed in 1888. Since that time, the house and the surrounding land have remained with descendants of Lauritz Smith. This phenomenon has been detailed in the draft Multiple Property Submission, the Lauritz Smith Homestead Land Use Study. Three related residences that were previously listed on the National Register are described in the draft MPS: the Lauritz Smith House (1350 E. Pioneer Road), the Mary Smith House (12544 S. Relation Street), and the Joseph & Celestia Smith House (12473 S. Relation Street). The Lauritz H. & Emma Smith House was not considered eligible when the draft was produced in the late 1970s due to modifications (primarily due to the asbestos shingles on the exterior).

Lauritz Smith [Sr.] was born in Denmark in 1830. He immigrated to Utah in 1854. The same year he married Maren Kirstine Mikkelsen (1827-1923), known as Mary Smith. Brigham Young sent the family to Draper to be one of two pioneer blacksmiths. Lauritz later married Johanne "Hannah" Kirstine Jensen (1851-1934), with whom he had twelve children. Lauritz and Mary had five children. Their two oldest sons, Joseph Michael, and Lauritz Heber, received large portions of land in 1890. Joseph Michael Smith (1856-1948) began building a home for his wife Celestia Ann Brown (1859-1914) soon after his marriage in 1879. His brother Lauritz Heber Smith helped him, and in return, they both worked at Lauritz Heber's home. The two homes are two-hundred feet apart on Relation Street and are similar in original design and materials.

Lauritz Heber Smith was born on July 6, 1858, in Draper, Utah. He was known as Laury to his family and friends. He was educated in Draper schools. He farmed most of his life and occasionally helped his father with blacksmithing. Laury married Emma Wright Shipley on May 17, 1883. According to family tradition, his older brother Joseph was eyeing Emma as a second polygamous wife, so Laury courted her while Joseph was out of town. Emma Wright Shipley was born on July 9, 1865, in Draper. She was the daughter of Robert Shipley, a shoemaker and farmer, and his wife Harriet Wright Shipley, who emigrated from England in 1850. Laury and Emma's first home was a rented log cabin, where their first two children were born. They had ten children, four sons, and six daughters. Their oldest daughter Mary Elida Smith died at the age of twenty-one, and one son Orin only lived twelve days. The rest (Robert, Wilford, Orson, Violetta, Vera, Janet, Ada, and Stella) lived to maturity. Six of ten stayed in the Draper area to raise their families.

Around 1884, Laury began to build a home for his family. It took a few years, probably because he was helping his brother Joseph with his house. The brothers quarried stone from the mouth of Willow Creek. A few local builders also worked on the home. A family history written by a granddaughter, Joyce Howlett Broderick, describes the work in this way: "After the foundation was in place, Charlie Jones was hired to lay up the brick. Heber J. Burgen, a building contractor, did the finished work in exchange for rock foundations Laury built for some of his buildings. Laury made his own nails in the blacksmith shop. Wooden pegs were used to put the window frames together." In April 1888, the family moved into the new house. The dining room wing was added only a few years after the house was built. Joyce Broderick describes how the family used their new home: "The family ate mostly in the kitchen. The dining room was used for large dinners, company, family gatherings, or parties. The parlor was treated almost as a sacred place used only for very special occasions." The piazza was ornamental but also attracted numerous nesting birds, which Emma Smith blamed for the infestation of bedbugs in the upper rooms. She was glad to see it torn down years later.

The land was as important as the house. Laury built a picket fence to keep stray animals out and Emma planted apple trees. In 1901, the Smiths planted a peach orchard. Lauritz H. Smith is listed on various census records as both a farmer and a fruit grower. A creek ran along the east side of the property. A spring fed a small pond. In winter, the pond provided blocks of ice. Mostly the pond was off-limits (to the children) and used occasionally for baptismal services. The blacksmith shop was located near the pond (demolished, date unknown, probably 1930s). There were also three chicken coops on the property (two circa 1920 and one built in 1949; now all demolished). The stone granary and the two-story barn were built about the same time as the house.
The lean-to kitchen was torn down and replaced around 1907, about the same time Orson turned the attic into a darkroom. Orson Smith made the cement bricks for the new addition and taught his little sisters how to dip the dried bricks into red dye. After the bricks were finished, Charley Jones was hired to lay the brick. The new kitchen has a pantry, sink, hall, and bathroom with a tub and basin. Soon after the kitchen was built, Laury went into the poultry business and needed a place to keep the eggs cool. He dug the root cellar south of the new addition and built a porch above it, which was enclosed shortly after. The house gained electricity and running water in 1912.

Except for a short time between 1902 and 1904, when the family moved to Idaho so Lauritz H. Smith could supervise canal construction, the family lived in the home on Relation Street. Lauritz H. Smith died on October 3, 1929, at home in Draper. In addition to being a farmer and poultry man, he was the superintendent of the East Jordan Canal. Lauritz H. Smith was buried in the Draper Cemetery.

Through the 1920s, Laury and Emma shared their home with several of their grown children. The enclosed porch was made into a second kitchen and the home was divided into two living areas. After her marriage in 1926, Ada Smith (1901-1995) and her husband Golden Howlett (1902-1980), lived in her parents' home while he got his start in the poultry business and remodeled a chicken coop to be their first home. In the summer of 1929, Orson Smith (1890-1955) moved from Sandy to live with his parents after his wife Mary Elsie Farrer died, while he built a new home for his family across the street from his parents. At about the same time, Estella Smith (1905-1994) and her husband, Arnold George Adamson (1903-1976) were also living with her parents, while he got started in poultry. Emma Smith had a small house built north of her home. She is listed there with Stella and Arnold on the 1930 census. The Adamson family eventually built a home across the creek to the southeast of the Smith house. Emma Wright Shipley Smith died on April 12, 1936.

In 1930, Emma Smith offered the farm to her oldest son, Robert Lauritz Smith, who had been living in Idaho. The parcel with the house was officially deeded to Robert L. Smith in 1934. Robert Lauritz Smith was born in Draper on October 21, 1885. He went with the family to Idaho in 1902 and decided to stay there with his brother Wilford. He homesteaded some property in Riverdale, near Preston, Idaho. Rob Smith married Doris Bennett on September 23, 1909. Doris Bennett was born on December 28, 1890. Rob and Doris had ten children. The Idaho farm had proved difficult so the family was glad for the opportunity to move back to Draper. He sold his home and farm in Riverdale, and the family moved to Draper in April 1930. Robert L. Smith raised chickens and also specialized in watermelon production. He was also the water master for the Draper Irrigation Company. Robert L. Smith became sick with cancer and died on April 10, 1943. Doris B. Smith continued the chicken business for many years. She learned to drive the family car so she could deliver her own eggs and pick up feed at one of the three poultry plants in Draper. In 1944, Doris B. Smith deeded the house to her son, DeVar Smith (1921-2003), and his wife Muriel Hannah James (1921-2004). The property was then passed to his sister, Rayola Smith Barnes; however, Doris B. Smith remained at the family home until her death on October 14, 1969.

Rayola Smith lived in her parent's home as a newlywed with her husband, William Vern Gordon (as did several other relatives). During this time, the parlor served as a bare room, which housed various newly married couples. Vern Gordon died in World War II in 1944. After Vern's death, Rayola married Max Miner Barnes (1916-1979). Rayola and Max Barnes were responsible for most of the remodeling of the 1960s. Max Barnes was an equipment operator for a construction company. After Max's death in 1979, the property title returned to DeVar and Muriel Smith. Rayola Barnes married a widower, Ronald E. Allen (1907-2003), in 1980 and moved into his home. DeVar and Muriel Smith lived in the house for almost twenty-five years before deeding it to David B. Smith. Dale O. Smith, and his wife, Sherri purchased the property in 2003 and are currently rehabilitating the ancestral home.