Places:

Brigham Young’s Forest Farmhouse: It might surprise people to know that Brigham Young’s large pink farmhouse that now sits in This Is The Place Heritage Park was located on Ashton Avenue near 700 East and 2300 South in the Forest Dale area. The house was built in 1863 on Brigham Young’s 600-acre farm. The farm was primarily used as a dairy farm and an agricultural experimental farm, raising silk worms. In 1889, George M. Cannon purchased the property and estate from Brigham Young and created the Forest Dale Town. The farmhouse was used as a LDS meeting house starting in 1891, but by 1900, the congregation outgrew the house and a larger meeting house was constructed. In 1962, when the construction of I-80 started, many of the historic homes in the area were demolished to make way for the freeway. Preservation of Young’s farmhouse was a concern. In 1975, the home was traded by the State of Utah for Young’s winter home in St. George and the farmhouse was relocated to This Is The Place Heritage Park in 1976. Visitors can take tours of the home there. 

Irving Junior High School: Located at 1179 East and 2100 South, this red brick building no longer serves as a junior high. The school opened in 1916 and served as the middle school for the Sugar House neighborhood. It was built in three sections in 1916, 1926 and 1930 with additions of steep gables, arches, Elizabethan windows and pinnacles. The building acted as a school until 1977. Sadly, in 1990, a fire that started in the school’s gym destroyed the school’s east and central wings. Seventy-five firefighters from different agencies took 3 ½ hours to control the fire. The building now serves as luxury apartments, but the exterior remains somewhat the same. 

Faces: What is your favorite Christmas tradition? 

Nicole Stephenson: Sledding at Sugar House Park. My mom or dad would fill up a Thermos with hot chocolate and then we’d take sleds or inner tubes over and sled on the hill all day, usually on the first day we get snow. 

Steve Jorgensen: Our family’s Christmas tree hunt (and everything we do with our tree). We’d go drive off to the woods and cut one down, with a permit of course, bring it home, flock it, decorate it and put a village underneath with snow made from Ivory soap.