1458 South 1300 East
Salt Lake City, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Frank M. and Susan E. Ulmer House

Statement of Significance:

The Frank M. and Susan E. Ulmer House is one of the first houses built in Lincoln Park, a streetcar suburb in the southeastern section of Salt Lake City. It was built in 18913 in the midst of the speculative real estate boom in Salt Lake City that took place in the 1880s and early 1890s by mainly non-Mormon architects and developers, primarily from out-of-state and often from the Denver area. It is significant under Criterion A as an example of the turn-of-the-century suburban growth of Salt Lake City and the change in land usage from agricultural to residential. It is also significant under Criterion B as the largest and finest surviving documented example of the residential architecture of Frank Ulmer, the "Lincoln Park Architect." Its significance dates from the years (1891-1893) that the Ulmer family lived in the house while Frank Ulmer was using it for his office. Frank Ulmer moved to Utah from Denver to participate in the real estate boom and ended up staying in Utah for the rest of his life. In addition to his residential commissions, he also designed public, commercial, and church buildings during his forty-year-long career involved with building in Utah.

Frank Ulmer

Frank Merriam Ulmer was born on January 31, 1849, in Appleton, Maine, to Philip and Lucy Runnells Ulmer, both also born in Maine. On April 11, 1869, he married Susan Elizabeth Bogle in her hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. They lived in Scituate, Massachusetts, where Frank was working as a house carpenter in 1880. Five of their seven children were born while they lived in Massachusetts: Lyman M., Frederick Dean, Florence M., Laura M. (Pauline), and Charles H. The family then moved west, settling in Sterling, Kansas, around 1884-5, where another daughter, Susan M., was born in 1886. After their home in Kansas was destroyed by a tornado' they moved to Denver, Colorado, before arriving in Salt Lake City by 1890. Their last child, Ruth, was born in Salt Lake City in 1891.
In Salt Lake City Frank Ulmer initially worked with a Denver architect, A. E. White, and they advertised their services together as " White and Ulmer" with offices in the Progress Building in the 1890 Polk's Salt Lake City Directory. White's home address was given as Denver so presumably Ulmer was the only partner actually located in the Salt Lake City office. By the next year (1891) the city directory listed Frank Ulmer by himself as "F.M. Ulmer" with offices at his house on Thirteenth East.

Later he added two of his sons to his practice, Lyman M. as draftsman, and Fred D. as draftsman/surveyor, and moved his offices to the Dooly Building. The Dooly Building (demolished) was a prestigious Salt Lake City address, built-in 1894 by Louis Sullivan, the renowned Chicago architect. By 1894 Lyman had moved to Denver, Colorado, and Frederick D. was listed as a surveyor at the firm. Soon the firm was listed as "F.M. Ulmer and Son." Fred moved on to be a civil engineer elsewhere and Charles, the youngest son, joined the firm as an architect by 1912. In 1922 Frank Ulmer was in his seventies and working at the board of education. By the time of his death at the age of ninety in 1940, he had been living in Salt Lake City for fifty years. Frank Ulmer was actively involved in architecture and building for his entire working life.

Often in new subdivisions the architect or developer lived in the area for the first few years to give the area legitimacy.10 The Ulmers most likely lived in the house at 1458 South 1300 East while Frank used it for his office from its construction until it was sold in 1893. After its sale, they moved to 1551 South 1100 East (now demolished), still in Lincoln Park, and by 1896 to the house Frank Ulmer built at 1156 Kensington Avenue11 (now demolished). He and Susan lived in this house on Kensington, a block from Lincoln Park, for the rest of their lives. Susan died in 1922 at the home and her funeral was held at the Third Presbyterian Church on 1100 East and 1700 South (now demolished). A Masonic funeral service was held for Frank following his death in 1940.