8850 South 120 East
Sandy, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Hyrum & Mary A. Terry Peterson Mickelson House

Statement of Significance:

The Hyrum & Mary A. Terry Peterson Mickelson House built c. 1913, is significant under Criterion A for its association with the Specialized Agriculture, Small Business, and Community Development Period (1906-1946) of Sandy City's development. The house is being nominated as part of the multiple property submission, Historic Resources of Sandy City. The first owner and longest occupant were Mary Peterson Mickelson. Her first husband, Hyrum Peterson, was a mining engineer, while her second husband, Christian Mickelson was a smelter worker. The bungalow-type house was fairly common for the era and is in good condition, and despite alterations, contributes to the historic resources of Sandy.

Historical Significance

The Specialized Agriculture, Small Business, and Community Development Period (1906-1946) is the second period of development in Sandy. It encompasses the first half of the twentieth century and was a period of transition for the city. The mining, smelting, and small farm era (1871-c. 1910) was being replaced by a more diversified economy. In some ways, the town still resembled the earlier predominantly agricultural community founded by Mormon settlers in the 1860s, especially as the "boom town" economy created around the mining industry waned. The population of Sandy remained around 1,500 for the four decades between 1900 and 1940. However, the city was defining itself as the political, economic, civic, and social center for a major portion of the southeast Salt Lake Valley. This period of Sandy's history laid the groundwork for the city's eventual transformation from a small town to a suburb. One of the earliest signs of community development was the creation of subdivisions from large farming parcels. During the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of Sandy residents continued to live on their farms, however, most managed to survive economically by combining subsistence farming with other occupations, primarily cottage industries, and mercantilism. Many Sandy residents continued to work in the mining and smelter industries in nearby communities after Sandy's smelters closed down. Mary Peterson Mickelson was a second-generation resident of the south Salt Lake Valley and her family represents the economic transition of Sandy after the turn of the century.
The parcel on which the house sits was originally owned by LeGrand and Grace Young. The Youngs owned a large portion of land in the Sandy area. They sold the property to John and Hilda Larson in 1894. The Larsons sold the property to Christian P. Tolboe in 1902, who in turn sold it to Soffe A. Tolboe in 1907. Hyrum Peterson acquired the property on September 4, 1909.
Hyrum Niels Peterson was born in Logan, Utah, on September 6, 1864. He married Mary Terry on March 25, 1896. Mary Albina Terry was born in Draper, Utah, on March 3, 1875. Her parents were Joseph and Margaret, and Allen Terry. Hyrum and Mary Peterson continued to live in Draper while their two sons, Claude Lincoln, and Jess Leon, were born in 1896 and 1900 respectively. Sometime before 1910, the family moved to Sandy where they were listed at an unspecified address on the 1910 census. Hyrum's occupation was listed as a mining engineer. The Mary Peterson Mickelson house was not shown on the 1911 Sanborn map. Although the Petersons purchased the property in 1909, the house was not built until c. 1913. It is not known whether Hyrum Peterson lived in the home before his death on May 22, 1915.
The first occupants may have been Mary Peterson and her second husband, Christian Peter Mickelson, who were married on September 13, 1916. Christian Peter Mickelson was born in Denmark in about 1874. At the time of his marriage to Mary Peterson, he had an eight-year-old daughter, Gladys, from a previous marriage. Christian and Mary Mickelson are listed on the 1920 census, living in the house with Gladys and Mary's younger son, Jess. Christian Mickelson's occupation was listed as a smelter worker on the census. He later worked for the Western Steel Company in the late 1920s. Christian Mickelson died on September 19, 1932. The property remained in the Peterson family and the title was transferred to Mary (as Mrs. C.P. Mickelson) in 1931. Mary Peterson Mickelson continued to live in the home until her death on November 18, 1940. Her sons retained ownership of the property. Jess Peterson and his wife Louise are listed as living in the house starting in 1939. The Petersons sold the house to Norene Greenwood in 1947. The house was used as a rental unit from the 1950s to the 1980s. Dan Hansen acquired the house in the early 1990s and began rehabilitation. Hansen sold the house to Scott Halvorsen in 1996. A year later the house was sold to the current owners, Ryan and Katharine Munson.

Architecture

The center of Sandy's initial settlement possesses a unique character due to several components. First, the width of the residential streets remains consistently smaller than many towns in Utah that were laid out with wide streets and ten-acre blocks. Although Sandy employed the grid pattern of development, the streets, other than the major thoroughfares such as Main Street, are relatively narrow. Secondly, the scale of the residences is consistent, mostly one or one-and-a-half-story homes with a modest footprint. Third, the earliest buildings are sporadically placed within the city's core. The buildings built prior to 1910 provide the streetscape with a strong sense of historic association as they are located among homes that date from the 1920s through the 1940s. The blending of pre-1910 buildings within the narrow streets of smaller-scale residential structures provides a distinctive quality to Sandy's historic core.

Because of its unusual configuration, the Mary Peterson Mickelson House is difficult to classify within Sandy's community architecture. In general, when the Sandy mining boom ended in 1893 and local commerce turned to agricultural business, construction slowed and the quality of houses improved. The homes built at the turn of the century in Sandy were permanent, substantial structures made of brick, stone, or frame with drop or shiplap siding, and adorned with decorative woodwork of trained craftsmen.
Stylistically, the Mary Peterson Mickelson House is a hybrid of the Victorian Eclectic and the bungalow. Both styles illustrate the early twentieth-century changes that were occurring in Utah. Rural areas were less isolated from stylistic developments occurring on both the national and local levels. The pattern book styles and standardized building components were available and easily adapted for use with local materials. The former isolation of rural areas was no longer an obstacle to building well.4 The Mary Peterson Mickelson House is an example of a local builder's ability to adapt common house types and styles for a particular purpose. In the case of the Mickelson House, three principal rooms each with a separate entrance might have been for the convenience of Mary Mickelson's nearly grown sons after her second marriage. However, the real reason may never be known.