3622 South 1100 East
Millcreek, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Amanda Conk Best House

Statement of Significant:

The Amanda Conk Best House, built in 1896. is a two-story Queen Anne and Victorian Eclectic style brick residence located south and east of Salt Lake City. The house is significant under Criteria A for its association with the historical development of its Salt Lake County neighborhood. Although the period of significance focuses on the life of the first owner, Amanda Best, the history of the house represents the broad range of land usage by families who lived in the Millcreek area of the Salt Lake Valley in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The home was built for Amanda James Conk Best, a polygamous wife of Alfred Best, an early pioneer farmer and merchant. After the death of Amanda Best in 1909, the farmstead was divided between her children. The house property was deeded to her daughter Meriba May Best Boyle, the wife of Dr. Albert C. Boyle, the first acting custodian of Utah's Dinosaur National Monument. The Boyles owned the property until 1947, but rented it out for many years. In the early 1920s, the property was a dairy farm operated by William and Laura Beal. By 1928, the large family of Japanese immigrants Peter and Toyo Aoki lived in the house and established one of several Japanese truck farms in the neighborhood. In 1947, during the post World War II suburban housing boom, the property was sold and converted to apartments. The house was converted back to a single-family residence in the 1990s. The current owners are completing the restoration work begun by the previous owner.

The Best House is also significant under Criterion C as a rare example of the Queen Anne style built in rural Salt Lake County in the late nineteenth century. The house is unusually large and elaborate for its setting and time period. One of the most interesting aspects of the house is that il has a twin built seven miles away in Salt Lake City's National Register-listed Avenues Historic District. The Barlow House in the Avenues was built in 1895, a year before the Best House. The Barlow House was constructed as a collaborative effort between the architect, H. H. Anderson, the brick mason, Charles J. Brain, and the Pacific Lumber Company. Although only the Pacific Lumber Company can be documented in the work of the Amanda Best House, the design and workmanship of the two houses are so similar that it is likely the result of the same team effort. Both houses are constructed of brick and sandstone with Victorian Eclectic brick work and an elaborate Queen Anne tower. Although the interior of the Best House was altered in a series of remodels, many of the original elements are intact. Moreover, the exterior of the house has seen only minor alterations. The Amanda Conk Best House is a contributing resource in its Salt Lake County neighborhood southern boundary of the original city plats (today's 900 South). Between 900 South and 2100 South, the land was laid out in rectangular blocks divided into five-acre lots, and known as the Five-Acre Survey. Further south, between 2100 South and 4500 South, the land was divided into larger lots of ten acres for the Ten-Acre Survey.

As soon as the Big Field surveys were completed, the lots were assigned to individual owners. There were a few scattered homes built in the late nineteenth century, but most of the land was used for agriculture. By the early years of the twentieth century, the northern portions of the Big Field survey area was developed extensively and absorbed into the city, but the southern parts (below 2700 South) remained primarily agricultural until the suburban boom of the 1950s. The borders of the survey blocks are still evident in the major thoroughfares through the area. The Amanda Best House is located on 1100 East, a north-south arterial through the Ten Acre Plat and halfway between the east-west arterials of 3300 and 3900 South.

The Best House, located at 3622 S. 1100 East, was in the southern portion of the Salt Lake County pioneer farm plats. The house is located within the Ten-Acre Survey, on Lot 14 of Block 21. The property was originally part of a larger pioneer farmstead owned by Robert Wimmer (?-l 873). On June 21,1866, Robert Wimmer sold the land to Emanuel M. Murphy (1809-1871) and moved to Payson, Utah. In April 1875, two of the Block 21 agricultural lots from the Emanuel M. Murphy estate were sold to Alfred Best. Three months later, his wife, Nancy J. Murphy (1813-1898), sold Lots 13 and 14 to Alfred Best along with water rights and one-half the adjacent street (1100 East). Alfred Best was born in Toddington, England, in 1829. He immigrated to Utah in 1851 and a year later married Margaret De Groot Oakley (1835-1933), a convert to the LDS Church from New York. Alfred Best established himself as a tinsmith and tin merchant in Salt Lake City, and later opened a hardware store. On October 3, 1866, he married a second wife, Mary Eliza Conk (1841 -1884), and on April 25, 1868, he married her sister, Amanda."* The family of John Thomas and Meribah Hyers Conk came to Utah in the 1863. Amanda James Conk was born in Toms River, New Jersey, on August 5, 1849.

Alfred Best's first wife, Margaret Oakley Best, maintained her own residence in downtown Salt Lake, but the 1870 census records Mary Eliza and Amanda living together in a household next door. By the 1880 census enumeration, Margaret Best is still living downtown, but Mary Eliza and Amanda are sharing a household in Millcreek, presumably on the farmland purchased by Alfred Best in 1875. The Salt Lake City directories of the 1890s indicate that Alfred lived in town with Margaret at 274 E. South Temple (demolished). In 1887, one year after her sister's death, Alfred Best deeded Lots 13 and 14 to Amanda J. C. Best. In 1894, Amanda took out a mortgage on the property from a Mrs. Rhoda P. Farmer. In May, 1896, the Pacific Lumber Company placed a $415 lien on the property for "materials and labor performed" on the construction of the house. The lien was removed in September 1896, and the mortgage was paid off in 1898.

It is likely Amanda Best raised her sister's younger children, as well as her own. She had four children, Alfred Conk Best, who died as an infant in 1869; Walter Conk Best, born in 1871; Harold Conk Best, born in 1874; and a daughter, Meriba May Best, born May 23, 1880." Most of Amanda and Mary Eliza's children would have been nearly grown by the time the extant house was built, and while it was common for a polygamous wife to have her own dwelling, to have such an unusually large house built for an empty-nester was unusual. At the time Amanda's house was built, Alfred and Margaret Best had retired to a home in the south Salt Lake area (675 E. 2100 South, demolished).

The proliferation of polygamous marriages in Utah reached a peak in the 1850s and 1860s when Alfred married the Conk sisters, and reached the average number of wives, three, for practicing polygamous of the time period. Typical living accommodations for the period might include multiple families in a large house, or one large house for the first wife with smaller homes for the subsequent wives on the same lot. The most important criteria were each wife have "equal comforts"'' In Salt Lake City, it was not uncommon for a man to have a "downtown" wife, usually the first one. and another who managed on the outlying family farm, as was Alfred Best's case by the 1880s. The practice of plural marriage was discontinued by the LDS Church in 1890, but Fonner polygamous wives were able to live out the rest of their lives without adverse consequences from the Church. The unusually large and ornate house built for Amanda Best may have been intended for entertaining, or it may have been assumed Amanda would outlive the older Margaret Best, and Alfred would take up residence there. However, records indicate that Alfred Best, who died in 1905, never lived on 1100 East for any length of time.

In 1900, Amanda Best deeded a portion of her land to her sons. By the time of 1900 census enumeration, Amanda and Meriba May Best are the only occupants of the large house; however, Walter Best (1871-1953) and his wife Nellie Croft (1871-?) are living next door, and Harold Best (1874-1933) and his wife, Agnes Tmelson (1873-1931) are living three doors down. Amanda did not list an occupation while both Walter and Harold are listed as day laborers. All three of Amanda's children are listed as fanners in the state gazetteers for the same period. By the 1920s, Harold had moved to nearby Riverton and Walter was living on Canyon Road in downtown Salt Lake City.

Meriba May Best married Albert C. Boyle Jr. on October 16, 1901. Albert Clarence Boyle was bom in 1879, and was the son of Albert Charles Boyle (1849-1933) and Elizabeth Boam (1867-1923) of Millcreek, Utah. Meriba and Albert may have lived with Amanda during the early years of their marriage, but they are also listed boarding at 4400 S. 1100 East in 1905. In July 1905, Amanda deeded the house to Meriba May Best Boyle. By 1909, Albert and Meriba had moved to New York City so that Albert could work on a PhD at Columbia University. Amanda James Conk Best died on March 17, 1909, about two weeks after retuming to Salt Lake City from a visit to New York. On the 1910 census, Meriba May Boyle be listed in Salt Lake City living with her in-laws at the comer of 900 East and 4500 South. Albert and Meriba were living in Laramie, Wyoming at the fame of the 1920 census, where Albert was employed as chief geologist for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1935, Dr. Albert C. Boyle was appointed the first acting custodian of the Dinosaur National Monument in Jensen, Utah, a position he held until 1940. Albert and Meriba May Boyle did not have any children. Meriba May Best Boyle died on February 22, 1941, shortly after they returned to live in Salt Lake City. Albert C; Boyle Jr. sold the Millcreek property on May 9, 1947. Albert C. Boyle was living at the former home of his parents at the time of his death on October 1, 1951. Although, the Boyles did not live in the house on 1100 East, they continued to store items there. Recently, the current owners of the Best House found a packet of love letters between Albert and Meriba May Boyle be dating from his time at Columbia.

The house and property were rented between 1910 and 1920. but the available historical records provide no clue to the names of the occupants. Beginning in the early 1920s, the occupants of the house can be traced through the Salt Lake City and suburban directories. Between 1923 and 1926, William Beal (1862-1938) and his wife, Laura Etta Rust (1858-1930) lived in the house. William Beal's obituary states that he moved to Salt Lake City in 1919 to start a dairy business, so he was likely running a small dairy farm while living on 1100 East. In 1927, the house is listed as vacant. At the time Peter Chorijo Aoki (1873-1941) and his wife Toyo Mayobayashi (1886-1936) were living next door at 3604 S. 1100 East with nine children (house demolished circa 1980). Peter Aoki was bom in Nagano, Japan, and immigrated to the United States in 1900. He moved to Salt Lake City around 1917. Toyo Aoki came to Salt Lake City in 1918. Beginning in 1928, Peter and Toyo Aoki rented the larger Best House and by the time of the 1930 census they have eleven children. The directories give Peter Aoki's occupation as gardener, while on the 1930 census he is listed as farmer on a truck farm. A crop mortgage was issued in 1932 to the Aokis for "crops grown on land of M. Boyle and Esther Dummer," the Dummer family-owned property owner north of the Boyle property. In 1934, the Aoki family moved to 1901 W. North Temple. The Aoki family operated one of several Japanese truck farming businesses in the Millcreek area in the 1930s. According to his obituary, Peter C. Aoki was the first Japanese Christian minister in Utah.

Between 1935 and 1955, the house had a series of renters, none of whom stayed more than five years. A sampling of names and occupations from this time suggest that the occupants had no economic ties to the land. Oscar Nielsen, a cleaning supply salesman, lived there with his wife, Minnie, in 1935. George W. Langsford, a trucker, and his wife, Elda, lived there in the early 1940s. In 1947 Albert C. Boyle sold the property to Albert Cecil Pehrson (1914-1999) and his wife, Ethel Rhodes Pehrson (1908-2000). The Pehrsons converted the house into apartments divided between the upper and lower floors. The Pehrsons lived in the lower apartment for a few years. Examples of tenants in the 1950s include, Darwin L. Nyborge, a serviceman for Greyhound bus, and his wife, Jeannine; also, Neil L. Morris, a salesman for Ballard Auto, and his wife, Udora. Neighbors report that there was a Holquist family who had a mink farm on the property.

In February 1952, Albert and Ethel Pehrson sold the property to Eureka Watrous (1898-1989). Eureka Watrous was born in North Carolina, but lived most of her life in southern Caledonia. She retained the house as a rental, but sold off the remainder of the acreage in 1955. In 1972, Eureka Watrous retired to Utah and further divided the house into four apartments, which she rented mostly to other women." After her death in 1989, the property was sold by her estate to Lawrence D. Phillips. Lawrence Phillips began the monumental task of retuning the house to a single-family residence. He intended the project as a second home, but was unable to finish it. In October 2003, he sold the house and property to Steven and Sarah Iribarren, the current owners.