720 E Ashton Ave
Salt Lake City, UT, USA

720 E Ashton Ave, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Statement of Significant:
The George M. Cannon House built in ca. 1890 is significant as the only house associated with George M. Cannon, an important business and political leader, whose principal contribution to Salt Lake City's history was the establishment and promotion of Forest Dale, a residential streetcar suburb. The house documents the establishment of one of the earliest and most successful streetcar subdivisions in the city, and reflects a late nineteenth century trend of middle- and upper-class families to seek residences outside the older and more established areas of the city. I t is also significant as one of the first buildings designed in Utah by John A. Headland, a prominent local architect. As a unique creation, it documents the existence of and possibilities for eclecticism which came to dominate Utah's architectural endeavors in the late Victorian period. In addition to his real estate and business activities. Cannon also served as County Recorder from 1884 to 1890, a member of the state constitutional convention, chairman of the Territorial Republican Committee in 1895, and as president of the first state senate in 1896.

George M. Cannon was born in a wagon in St. George, Utah on December 25, 1861 to Angus M. and Sarah Mousely Cannon, Mormon pioneers who had been sent to help colonize Utah's Dixie several months before. Angus M. Cannon, who had been a member of the group sent to establish Parowan as the mother colony of the Iron Mission in Southern Utah in 1850, married sisters Sarah Man ah and Ann Amanda Mousely in 1858 before being called as a member of the St. George group. Angus served as mayor of St. George for four years, then returned to Salt Lake City in 1868, where he managed the LDS Church-owned Deseret News until 1874. Angus also served the church as president of the Salt Lake Stake from 1876 to 1904, while supporting his family with his wagon and implement business.

George Mousely Cannon attended school in Salt Lake City and worked for the Grass Creek Coal Company as a youth, weighing coal and keeping the company's accounts. In 1878 he graduated from the normal school at the University of Utah, but taught school for only a few years. In 1884 he was elected County Recorder, a position his father had held for the previous eight years, and which he held until 1890.

On December 25, 1885 he married Marian Adelaide Morris, daughter of Elias and Mary L. Morris. (Elias established in 1860 Elias Morris & Sons, a major supplier of stone and construction materials in the state, which is still in operation today) In addition to raising her nine children, "Addie" Cannon served for thirty years in the presidency of the Forest Dale Ward Relief Society, seventeen years as president, and as an active member of the PTA.

After his term as County Recorder ended in 1890, George devoted full time to his real estate business, which he and his brother, John, had begun in 1886. Purchasing part of what had been Brigham Young's Forest Farm in 1889, he set about developing the area as a residential subdivision by dividing the land int o building lot s and renaming the area Forest Dale. The Forest Farm, which had been so named because of a grove of trees there, was used by Brigham Young as the site of his own dairy herd and as a sort of experimental farm for the territory, where several new crops were first tried. Some of those crops, such as alfalfa, sugar beets, and mulberry trees, late r played important roles in agricultural and industrial developments in the territory . Brigham Young had a large frame house built on the farm in 1863,2 which was used by one of his wives and others who helped run the farm. Young, however, never lived there himself.

Cannon realized that Forest Dale's success as a residential area depended on the availability of streetcar transportation to carry the residents the few miles that separated the development from town. He negotiated a contract with the streetcar company wherein, for a bonus of $21,000, they would "furnish continuous service at a minimal rate of fare for twenty years. The area grew rapidly and young people especially found it to be ideal for residential purposes. Cannon instigated the successful move to incorporate the town of Forest Dale (500 East to Highland Drive, 2100-2700 South), in 1902, however, due to rising municipal costs, the town disincorporated in 1912 and was annexed back to Salt Lake City.

In 1892, George M. Cannon accepted the position of cashier of Zion's Savings Bank and Trust Company, but continued to be active in his real estate business as well. He was elected chairman of the Territorial Republican Committee in 1895, and served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention that same year. In 1896, when Utah was granted statehood, he was elected as a state senator and chosen to serve as president of the first senate.

Lucille Cannon Bennion, a daughter of George and Addie, and her husband, Glynn, bought the house from her father in 1935, although he lived with them for much of the time until his death in 1937. The Bennions lived here for about seven years, dividing the house int o two apartments around 1940. Title to the property was transferred to Cannon Beneficial Realty Company in 1939, and in 1945 the house was sold to David H. and Inez H. All red, who live d here only two years. David was was the state director of the U.S. Production and Marketing Administration. Max D. Rodgers, who bought the house in 1947, lived here for only a few years i n the mid-1950s, renting it out the remainder of the time until selling it in 1958. That year the property changed hands several times, from Rodgers to R. George Gregersen, to Harlan W. and Geraldine M. Clark, then to Morris D. and Blanche T. Webb, al l of whom lived elsewhere and rented out this house. Franklin E. and Gwen Y. Wilcox bought the house in 1965, renting it out also until selling it in 1973 to William A. and Diane B. Goldsmith. Mr. Goldsmith is currently living in the house and renting out a rear apartment i n the house.

This large, two-story house was one of the first Utah buildings designed by John A. Headlund. Born and educated in Sweden, he came to the United States i n 1880. After having initially settled in Kansas City, Missouri, working with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad doing general work in the engineering department, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was employed by the firm of Van Brunt and Howe as a superintendent. Later he was superintendent of the building enterprises of W. S. Stratton. Headlund first resided in Salt Lake City in 1889, when he designed the Cannon House, but returned to Colorado Springs until 1891. At that time, he returned to Salt Lake City. His contribution to American architecture included the design and construction of more than five hundred buildings in Utah, Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming. He is perhaps best remembered for his design of the Immanuel Baptist Church, 401 East 200 South, Salt Lake City, listed in the National Register in 1978, and the WoodruffRiter-Stewart House, 225 North State Street, Salt Lake City, listed in the National Register in 1979. The Cannon House may have been Headlund's earlies t monumental building in Utah, having been designed during his first short residence in the state.