564 West 400 North
Salt Lake City, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Nelson Whipple House

Statement of Significance:

The significance of the Wheeler House is that it is one of a mere handful of early pioneer adobes of this distinction and quality to be found in the Salt Lake City area. It is also the only one in Utah whose construction was carefully documented, step by step, and is therefore especially valuable as a "textbook" of early Utah building practices. Its other additional value to history derives from its associations with its builder and resident Nelson Wheeler Whipple, a man whose accounts of the early settlement experience were chosen for serialization by a Church publication (Improvement Era) during the 1930s.
Nelson Wheeler Whipple was born in Sanford, Broom County, New York, in 1818. Following his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1844, Whipple and his first wife made their way to Nauvoo, Illinois, to take up residence. In the unsettled conditions of Nauvoo, Whipple was assigned as one of the bodyguards to the Council of the Twelve... joining them in their flight across the frozen Mississippi on February 9, 1846.

After returning and removing his wife and sister from Nauvoo, Whipple made his way to Garden Grove, Iowa, and for over two years managed to make a living for himself in that temporary settlement. By 1850 he had earned enough to finance the passage of his family to Utah.

In his long career in Utah Whipple was a policeman, gunsmith, carpenter, and cabinet maker, and even, for a period, superintendent of the Municipal Bath House. His importance in Utah history centers principally on his activities in the lumber business. His shingle mill supplied the shingles for the Tabernacle on Temple Square and for many other public and ecclesiastical structures. He was paid $12 per thousand for the tabernacle shingles, but he had to part with $6 of that to pay for their transportation from his mill in Cottonwood Canyon into Temple Square. Whipple was a polygamist with three wives and seventeen children.

What secures Whipple's place in Utah history are his excellent journals and biographical reminiscences. While there are many Utah diaries covering the early settlement experience, the Whipple materials are unusually perceptive and richly detailed. They are an interesting source of information and insight into many early Utah construction practices. Whipple reported the operation of Brigham Young's Public Works Program and many other facets of community building in Salt Lake City. His writings are very readable and maintain their narrative quality throughout.

"I found very few of my old acquaintances in the city, and those I did find seemed as cold as cucumbers and I did not trouble them much. In a short time, I could not get the lot I was on so I inquired what course I should take to obtain one. I was informed that Heber C. Kimball wanted some of us to come every Saturday and he gave the lots to each one as it seemed him good, and they paying one dollar and a half could have their lots. My lot was located where my house now stands. I did as I was told and a lot was set off to me in the  nineteenth ward, lot four on block seventy-four in the new survey in the north west sixth of the city. I was directed by Brother Bullock where to find it and on my way there I found Father Alger who told me where the lot was I went and saw it and found it half covered with water. I saw by this I was not going to be able to do anything with the lot that fall if ever I did. When I was returning back to my wagon I found Peter Nebeker, who recognized me, although I did not know him. He enquired what I was going to do. I told him that it was a hard question. He offered me work all winter and to build me a house, etc. This I considered more like a friend than any I had met within the city. I took him up at his offer and went and removed my wagon over near his house and camped upon the very ground where my house now stands although I did not think of building there for several years after that."
The very attractive home that Whipple eventually constructed for himself stands on a street with a fair proportion of other homes of style and character. The neighborhood is located sufficiently close to the proposed Capitol Hill Historic District to partake of some of the potential for rejuvenation and renovation.

The feasibility of restoration has been established by the architect for the Utah Heritage Foundation, who chose to make this one of the properties funneled through their revolving purchase fund. The new owners are anxious to undertake a serious restoration based on the singular value of the Whipple House.