31 Pioneer Ave
Sandy, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Archibald R. and Violet Clark Gardner House

Statement of Significant:

The Archibald R. and Violet Clark Gardner house, built in 1893 and remodeled in 1937, is '. significant under Criterion A for its association with an important period of development in Sandy's history. Archibald Gardner had early employment in Sandy's mining industries and later became a banker and a mayor of Sandy. The original house was built in the 1890s, but was altered in 1937 to resemble a Period Revival cottage. It is a good example of a prominent Sandy family remodeling their home in a popular style of the time and is being nominated as part of the multiple property submission. Historic Resources of Sandy City: The Specialized Agriculture, Small Business and Community Development Period (1906-1946).

HISTORY OF SANDY:

The first half of the twentieth century was a period of transition for the city of Sandy. The mining, smelting and small farm era was being replaced by a more diversified economy. In some ways the town still resembled the earlier predominantly agricultural community founded by Mormon settlers in the 1860s, especially as the "boom town" economy created around the mining industry waned. The population of Sandy remained around 1,500 for the four decades between 1900 and 1940.'' However, during that time the city was defining itself as the political, economic, civic and social center for a major portion of the southeast Salt Lake Valley. This period of Sandy's history laid the groundwork for city's eventual transformation from small town to suburb.

As sampling and smelting plants shifted to other locations, Sandy's impact as a mining town diminished. During the first decade of the twentieth century, the closure of smelters in the Salt Lake Valley was a hotly debated issue. While the dominant force in the economy of Sandy during the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s was undoubtedly that of mining, the local agricultural community had not ceased to develop. The establishment of the local agricultural economy saw Sandy through the mining boom and subsequent depression.

The community was also seeing a great deal of civic development. The city of Sandy was incorporated on September 26, 1893. By 1911 the city was managing its own water resources and had a volunteer fire brigade of twenty-five, complete with two fire trucks. Utah Power and Light began servicing Sandy in 1913, and by 1914 the city was managing a park and a cemetery

Economically, the city was changing dramatically. The depletion of the mineral resources in the Alta area and the loss of the smelting and sampling industries had changed the economic structure of Sandy City significantly. Moreover, a series of national and local depressions beginning in 1893 and continuing to the onset of World War II had made small-scale single crop agricultural enterprises nearly impossible. Sandy farmers had an especially difficult time, needing to overcome the additional challenges of water scarcity and the arid, sandy soil.

Fortunately, irrigation methods improved steadily through these years, and several Sandy farmers were able to successfully continue to raise hay and grain. A few farmers converted their fields to the raising of sugar beets. A "beet dump" was established near the railroad tracks, and Sandy beets were shipped to a West Jordan sugar factory, founded in 1916, and processed by the Utah/Idaho Sugar Company. Another successful agricultural industry was poultry. The Draper Egg Producers Association was formed in 1932. A few entrepreneurs survived by raising livestock ranging from Holstein cattle to mink."

However, despite the success of these specialized agricultural industries, most farming in Sandy during the first half of the twentieth century was purely subsistence level. Between 1900-1920, the number of farms doubled, but nearly all were very small scale. Eighty-five percent of the farms were smaller than forty-nine acres. Six farms were between two hundred and one-thousand acres, and one farm was 1,217 acres.

During the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of Sandy residents continued to live on their farms. Most managed to survive economically by combining subsistence farming with other occupations, primarily cottage industries and mercantilism. Sandy appeared to have at least one resident involved in occupations associated with early urbanization: a physician, a dentist, a barber, a plumber etc. The most common business listed were dry goods. The Sandy City Bank founded in 1907, employed four, and had the largest deposits of any bank in the southern portion of the Salt Lake valley. Several residents listed their civic responsibilities: city treasurer, postmaster, marshal, justice of the peace

The Specialized Agriculture, Small Business, and Community Development Period in Sandy was a time of transition from farmlands and mining industries to quiet neighborhoods and small-town civic pride. The architecture of the historic square mile of Sandy, as it is called and where the Gardner house is located, illustrates this transition, and stands in marked contrast to later development. In the years since World War II, Sandy has plated nearly 300 subdivisions and annexed over 10,000 acres, making it one of Salt Lake's largest "bedroom" communities. Though Sandy's city center has been moved adjacent to the mall, the city's historic downtown is a distinctive reminder of Sandy's small town past.