418 South 200 West
Salt Lake City, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Albert H. Kelly House

Statement of Significant:

Built about 1884, the Kelly House, home of Albert H. Kelly, president of Kelly Company, a printing and bookbinding company, is significant as one of few extant examples in Utah of a common house type, the Italianate box with a side passage plan. There are only eight documented, extant examples of this type in the state. The Italianate style was made popular in the United States primarily by house pattern books, and became a common stylistic choice in Utah by the 1870s. There was great variation in the local expression of the style, ranging from vernacular to high style forms. Utah's Italianate, following a national trend for such houses, is found in three distinct forms: the large cross-wing house; the two-story box; and the one-story cottage. A great majority of Utah's Italianate houses were the two-story box type with a side passage, built as affordable middle-class houses. The attenuated verticality of the box form and the low-pitched hip roof with overhanging eaves provided the basic form to which additional elements of the style could be added if funds were available. The characteristic elements of the style which include rectangular massing and a side hall plan, a low hip roof with overhanging eaves, a wide cornice with decorative brackets, projecting bays, long, narrow windows, and other elements of classical ornamentation, in the Kelly House have been expressed in a simple direct statement of the Italianate aesthetic. The Kelly House is the best extant example in Utah of the vernacular form of the Italianate style which appeared in increasing numbers from the 1870s to the 1890s. Of the eight documented extant examples of the two-story box Italianate house in Utah the William Morrow House, 390 Quince Street, and the Jonathan C. and Eliza K. Royle House, 635 East 100 South, both in Salt Lake City, are listed in the National Register. Three others are eligible for nomination to the National Register. Other examples of the Italianate style listed in the National Register include: the Charles R. Savage House, 80 D Street (cross-wing type), and the Howe C. Wallace House, 474 Second Avenue (cottage type), in the Avenues Historic District, Salt Lake City; the Lewis S. Hills House, 126 South 200 West, Salt Lake City (cross-wing type); and the David McDonald House, 4659 Highland Drive, Salt Lake City (cross-wing type).

The Albert H. Kelly House was built about 1884 for Albert H. Kelly on property adjacent to his father's home which he had purchased from his father in 1883. At that time Albert was president of Kelly Company, a printing and bookbinding company which he and his brother, George B., had founded in 1873. They had learned the trade as young men working for their father, John B. Kelly, who reportedly established the first printing and bookbinding business in Utah soon after his emigration to Utah from the Isle of Man in 1853. After several years John sold his business to the Deseret News, the LDS Church-owned newspaper, but continued to operate the business as an employee of the newspaper until his death in 1883.

Albert H. Kelly was born March 14, 1851 at Douglas, Isle of Man to John B. and Enma Sims Kelly. Converts t o Mormonism, the Kelly's emigrated t o Utah in 1853 and settled in the Seventh Ward area of the city where John built the family home at 422 South 200 West. Albert, one of twelve children, apprenticed in the printing and bookbinding business under his father, then worked in various other shops as a journeyman for a year or two gaining more experience. Albert Kelly, like his father, also worked for the Deseret News as a printer before going into business for himself. He and his brother, George B. Kelly, firs t established the Salt Lake Lithographing Company, then Kelly Brothers in 1874. That company, whose name was late r changed to Kelly & Stevens, and then to Kelly & Company in 1888, was incorporated in 1899. Albert served as president of the company for many years. Kelly & Company was a leader in the printing, bookbinding and stationary business, and in 1889 published the Salt Lake City directory. He also served on the city council in 1892-93. Continued ill health forced Albert to turn over the presidency of the company to his son, Albert H. Kelly, Jr., around 1905. The Kelly Company has continued in the same line of business up to the present.

On October 26, 1874, Albert Kelly married Josephine Evans, who had been born in Salt Lake City in 1855 to David and Mary Holding Evans. Albert and Josephine, who had seven children, both lived in this house until their deaths in 1924 and 1940, respectively.

The house, which was divided into two apartments soon after Albert's death in 1924, was sold by the Kelly’s in 1942 to Steve and Maria Pappas. In 1970 E.O. Muir, the current owner, bought the house and has continued to rent it up to the present.