8650 South Center Street
Sandy, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Frederick C. and Anna Anderson House

Statement of Significant:

Built c.1890, the Frederick C. and Anna Anderson house is significant for its association with an important period of development in Sandy's history. The house is an example of the cross-wing house type ubiquitous in Utah during this time period^ and built by residents of Sandy during the Mining, Smelting, and Small Farm period of 1871-1910. The Anderson house retains its historic integrity and is being nominated as part of the multiple property submission, Historic Resources of Sandy City.

HISTORY OF SANDY:
Located 12 miles south of Salt Lake City, Sandy is at the crossroads of what was once a busy series of mining districts. Paralleling to a large extent the history of mining in Bingham Canyon to the west and Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons to the east, Sandy's history and development either boomed or declined based on these mining operations. Sandy's first major period of development, known as the "The Mining, Smelting, and Small Farm Era, 1871-C.1910". This period coincided with the discovery and mining of precious metals in nearby canyons beginning in 1863, and with the arrival of the transcontinental railroad to Utah in 1869. Extending south from Ogden, the Utah Central Railroad reached Salt Lake City in 1870. From there the Utah Southern Railroad extended south from Salt Lake City reaching the Sandy area in 1871." This placed Sandy at a crossroads between Salt Lake City, Bingham Canyon, and Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. Soon after the arrival of the railroad to Sandy, spurs were constructed to Bingham and to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, allowing materials to be shipped to and from the mining operations.

Since Sandy was a strategic shipping point, it was only logical that sampling mills and smelters were built in the area. Three smelters were built in Sandy between 1872 and 1873. These smelters treated those ores which generally came from Little Cottonwood and Bingham, though small lots came from the Big Cottonwood, Tintic, and other districts. The existence of these operations, as well as several sampling mills in Sandy was directly linked to the successes of the mining operations.

With the increase in population due to the coming of the railroad and the expanded mining operations, a 160-acre townsite was platted in 1871 The construction of a "boom town" followed with the associated hotels, stores, saloons, and brothels. The population of Sandy likely peaked during the mid-1870s with hundreds of miners, smelter workers, teamsters, and railroad men working or passing through Sandy.

The boom period of the 1870s was short lived with the failure of several mining concerns which fed Sandy's economy. With the failure of the Big Emma Mine at Alta and the demise of the city of Alta, as well as the failure of other mining operations, the smelting and sampling concerns of Sandy began to close, first the "Saturn" in 1876 and then the "Flagstaff" in 1877. With this came a drop in the population which in 1880 fell to 488. Mining, however, continued to have a large impact on Sandy in the years following this initial slow down.

While the dominant force in the economy of Sandy during the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s was undoubtedly that of mining, the local agricultural community continued to develop. A series of wells and ditches were dug beginning as early as 1869 to supply the city and smelters, as well as farms, with water. In 1880 the Salt Lake City Canal was dug through the area and in 1883 the East Jordan Canal reached Sandy. These and other sources of water aided greatly in the establishment of the local agricultural economy which saw Sandy through the mining boom and subsequent depression. The majority of those involved in agriculture were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon Church) who were encouraged to pursue agriculture instead of mining.

By 1882, after the mining boom had passed and many of the "gentile" population had removed from the region, there was a sufficient number of Saints who had located in the area to organize the Sandy Ward, which had heretofore been a branch of the Union Ward. These early agricultural pioneers, which generally established small, family type, farms, were by forerunners of a later, agriculturally oriented lifestyle which was to dominate Sandy's economy.

During the 1890s, despite a downturn in the mining industry, Sandy continued to establish itself as a permanent community in the Salt Lake Valley. New business enterprises came into being to support the local agricultural economy, new schools were built, and the city was incorporated in 1893." With the relocation of sampling and smelting concern to other sites, Sandy's impact as a mining town diminished. Soon after the turn of the century Sandy had lost much of the mining component of its economy, marking an end to its initial phase of development. The agricultural component also shifted at this time away from small family farms toward larger, more specialized farming operations, inaugurating a new phase of development in the city.