Mountainville Academy's Failure to Incorporate STEM Principals into Actual Practice: The Demolition of the Historic Carlisle House

Architectural salvage of the brick from the Fanny and Thomas Carlisle House, May 17 2024. Mountainville Academy will demolish the house for a parking lot and STEM building.

Demolition of the Carlisle House in Alpine has begun. Mountainville Academy (@mountainvilleacademy) refused the offer by Alpine City and the Friends of the Alpine City Library to purchase the property and turn it into a children’s library. As such, Mountainville has decided to demolish the house rather than let someone else buy it to be preserved or to utilize it themselves.

I visited the Thomas and Fanny Carlisle House on Friday, May 17 2024 and took these photographs. The workers in the images were hired by Alpine City (not Mountainville Academy) to conduct architectural salvage; their focus is on recovering the ca1910 brick, which I was told will be repurposed for the Alpine Library.

FOX13's Shanti Lerner reported that Mountainville plans to use the space for a parking lot and a STEM building… both purposes I find enraging. The parking lot is clearly a shortsighted decision and something that could have been designed to easily avoid the Carlisle House.

The lack of integrating the Carlisle House into a STEM building (an addition could have been added) is yet another shortsighted decision and illustrates Mountainville’s lack of creativity and willingness to incorporate the principles of STEM/STEAM into actual practice.

The entire drive back from Alpine all I could do was think of various science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics classroom exercises that utilized or focused on the Carlisle House. Incorporating historic preservation into STEM/STEAM would have been a true example of “Excellence.”

I helped build Utah’s first standalone STEM program of K-6 grades, at M. Lynn Bennion Elementary (soon to close) a Title 1 School that serves downtown SLC families. We did amazing things with very little funding.

It is so insulting to see a fairly privileged school like Mountainville Academy squander a unique opportunity. One quick example of a potential STEM exercise: make adobe bricks (sun-dried mud) with various compositions and then test their engineering strength.

This potential STEM lesson was on my mind because the adobe brick is now exposed while the exterior fired brick is being salvaged.

DEMOLITION PENDING on Carlisle House in Alpine, Utah

UPDATE - DEMOLITION PENDING on Carlisle House in Alpine, Utah. Mountainville Academy plans to start demolition (interior first) tomorrow (Tues May 7 2024).



So many people have stories about how this property is important to them (here and here).

Mountainville has rejected an offer by the City of Alpine and the Friends of Alpine City Library to purchase the historic home. The offer met all of Mountainville's requirements but it seems Mountainville really had no intention of considering selling the historic home so it could be preserved.

See parts of their official statement on the second slide (posted below), as well as my snarky interpretation.

You can call/email Mountainville at 801-756-9805 or info@malions.org.  Their contact page is also here.

Action Alert - Help Save Alpine's Carlisle House

The Thomas and Fanny Carlisle House located in Alpine, Utah is now under threat and is planned for demolition by the adjacent Mountainville Academy 

The Carlisle House at 129 S Main St Alpine, Utah.  Photos from Carlisle House Photo Studio.

Interior images of the Carlisle House at 129 S Main St Alpine, Utah.
Photos from Carlisle House Photo Studio.

BUT, this historic home has a real chance of being saved!  There is a cash buyer for this house and no reason to lose it as the city of Alpine has said they would sell another lot for the school to build upon. Demolition of this important community place is not needed as there are alternatives available that are feasible and make sense for all involved.

The house is noteworthy because it was the first to be constructed beyond Alpine’s “Old Fort Wall,” which was expanded in 1855 from a smaller fortification called “the Wordsworth Fort.” The house stands as one of the last remaining pioneer homes in Alpine.

It was built in several stages from around 1855 to 1910 and is associated with the early settlement and development of Alpine. The various building periods are noticeable externally due to the different materials that were used.

Carlisle House construction history, from USHS, colorized by author.

Carlisle House construction history, from USHS, colorized by author.

 Fanny and Thomas were famous inhabitants of Alpine who were friendly to everyone. They were renowned for their generosity and often had indigenous people camp on their property and dry their blankets after storms passed through the area. The Carlisle house was a symbol of friendship and a community hub for those in need.

Images from familysearch.org

The house remained in the family for many years until it was recently sold and transformed into a photo studio. Hundreds of families visited the studio and had their pictures taken inside the house and on the property. 

The Carlisle house is now under threat and is planned for demolition. Help us save this important community asset – post a comment and tell us your stories and memories of the Carlisle house.

Image from Google, modified by author.

Contact the Mountainville Academy and tell them why it is important to you and the Alpine community, and ask them to accept the offer to purchase the Carlisle house.

Contact the Alpine City Council and tell them to preserve the Carlisle house.

Also, fun fact, Thomas is my 8th cousin 4 times removed. I had to trace my ancestry back to the 1500s in jolly old England but we are related!

A selection of comments posted on my Instagram:

• Thank you for sharing! I'm an Alpine resident and I love this old house!
• Thank you for sharing the story wow!
• My family’s been in Alpine for a few generations, and my grandma worked at the old Bank of American Fork that sits right next to this house. Alpine as I remember it doesn’t exist anymore! Losing another pioneer home in Alpine would be a tragedy.
• Fanny was the oldest person in Alpine at the time of her death.
• Growing up, I moved a lot and didn't have a real "hometown." But my grandparents lived in Alpine for most of my life, so the drive past this house and up the hill toward Moyle Park is forever etched in my brain. It's the only place the feels like home to me. I'd buy that house immediately if I had the cash myself! Please, please save it.

Update - 4 Jan 2024
Mountainville Academy does not want to sell the Carlisle house to the private buyer who has submitted a cash offer.  Mountainville Academy has not been listening to the community and they are demanding Alpine City initiate a land swap with stipulations as the only way they will not demolish the historic home. Which now puts the burden on the Alpine City Council to facilitate their demand or face the loss of this important community gem. 

Update - 17 May 2024
Mountainville Academy has rejected an offer by Alpine City and the Friends of the Alpine Library to purchase the house for preservation and to use it for a children's library.  Rather than easily designing around the house, Mountainville will demolish this Civil War-era home for a parking lot and STEM Building. More here. 

Alwilda and Andrus Brinton House in Holladay Utah

This house is one of the oldest homes still standing in Salt Lake County and has recently been sold and is now threatened by demolition.

Brinton home at 4880 Highland Cir, Holladay Utah. Feb 2022.

Brinton home about 1900, from FamilySearch. 

This is the home of Alwilda Nancy Andrus Brinton and her husband Franklin Dilworth Brinton. The house was built about 1879 (accounts vary), likely a precursor to Alwilda’s marriage to Franklin. Both were 22 years old and both were children of very large polygamous families who were among the first to settle Holladay… Alwilda was the daughter of Milo Andrus and Franklin was the son of David Britton.

The home was built of adobe and finished on the exterior with brick (see photo). Square nails, likely made in the Brinton’s family blacksmith shop (near the corner of Murray Holladay Road and Highland Drive), were used when building the house and many of those are still visible in the house.

When the house was sold out of the Brinton family in 1957, it did not have plumbing, heating, or running water- except for a hand pump in the kitchen that drew water from a natural spring on the south side of the house. Several features of the original home remain, the large pine staircase being the most evident.

In Alwilda’s time, this house was full of music and family. Alwilda’s mother, Ann Andrus Brooks, moved into the house in the 1890s; she was known as the Piano Lady for insisting on transporting a big walnut piano across the plains. All the women in the family played that piano and Alwilda and Ann played for community dances and events.

Perhaps Alwild was not as fond of playing piano because after the death of her mother, Alwilda donated that piano to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1914 and it is now in their museum on Capitol Hill in SLC.

Alwilda was an avid gardener. The property featured all kinds of fruit and berries in addition to a flower garden and a vegetable garden. She dried flowers and herbs in the screened-in porch on the south side of the house. Franklin kept some cows and operated a small dairy in addition to the farm he ran.

The family was devoted LDS members and Alwilda served as president of the Relief Society. Alwilda’s 2nd son, Caleb, died in 1918 of the Spanish Flu in San Diego while he was serving in the Navy. His body was shipped by rail to Murray and then transported to the family home where a viewing was held before his burial. By that time all of her kids had moved out of the house, her mother had died, and it was just her and Franklin in the home.

When Alwilda was elderly and became ill, she could no longer climb the central pine staircase to her bedroom and the main floor parlor was converted to a bedroom, until she died in 1928. Franklin remarried a couple years later and his 2nd wife and step-daughter took ownership of the home after he died in 1932. It was sold out of the Brinton family in 1957.

This home is the last remaining piece of Brinton’s Corner. As is now common, because it sits on a larger size lot the property is valuable. Preliminary plans have been approved by Holladay City to demolish the home and replace it with 11 townhouses.

Front door and external hardware.

Original pine staircase, looking down.

Side view of original pine staircase.

Frank A. Brinton (Alwilda’s son) on the original staircase, ca. 1950s. From FamilySearch.

A cross-section of the original adobe wall and external brick façade (left).

Hand forged square nails are common in the house.

Spring house on the south side of the house. 

Update April 18 2023

he historic Alwilda & Franklin Brinton home in Holladay has made the news. Check out this article from last Sunday's (April 16 2023) 

Salt Lake Tribune article, April 16 2023.

One thing I want to point out is that Holladay Mayor Robert Dahle is quoted as saying that Holladay City has no options when it comes to historic preservation... which is not exactly true. There are plenty of options but Holladay City has chosen to reverse course on historic preservation.

Holladay City once had designated only 4 buildings as historic but a few years ago it made changes that removed historic protections from even those 4 buildings.

If Holladay City really wanted to preserve its history it would re-instate the city code (or something better) that provided protections to historic buildings and work with property owners to see if they are interested in preserving their building's history.

When a property is formally listed as historic through local city processes it does not mean that property owners become stuck in a museum; there are plenty of ways to reach a balance.

One of these balanced programs in this article is talked about by David Amott, previously of Preservation Utah, who highlighted the Provo City ordinance which allows property owners to opt into a program that places more protections on historic preservation.

Renovations and additions can still occur to historic buildings. Solar panels can be added and energy efficiencies achieved. There are options. And demolition is never off the table either.

Every city manages its history differently. But I am truly surprised that given the amount of amazing history in Holladay, there is little effort by the elected officials to show leadership in this area.

And for those who are curious, the 4 properties that once had protection but no longer do are: 1) David Branson Brinton home. 2) Santa Anna Casto home- which, to its credit, Holladay City preserved and relocated to Holladay City Hall Park in 2012. 3) William J. Bowthorpe home. 4) George Boyes home.

This means that nothing in Holladay has historic protections. Nothing on Walker Lane (settled by the famous Walker family) or the mid-century Lakewood Parade of Homes neighborhood. Nothing!


Update May 18 2023
Update on the Alwilda and Franklin Brinton house at 4880 Highland Circle in Holladay, Utah in this news story by Spencer Joseph on Fox13 Utah. 

This is the last remaining adobe home in Holladay, Utah.

The home represents 2 prominent Utah pioneer families - Andrus and Brinton. You can read about the home's history in a past post of mine.

After this home's previous owner died (he owned it for the stated purpose of preserving it), the home and its large lot were sold to a developer who plans to demolish it and replace it with townhomes.

The thing I find interesting about this reporting is that Holladay Mayor Robert Dahle seems to be feeling some pressure about Holladay City's lack of any sort of historic preservation measures.

Back in April, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Robert Dahle said Holladay City has no options regarding historic preservation. Now, Robert Dahle is saying that Holladay needs to consider other options.

Hopefully, Mayor Robert Dahle and Holladay City will enable the Holladay Historical Commission to actually do the work it should and help preserve Holladay's history.

It's so disappointing to visit Holiday City only to see commemorative signs of what used to be there rather than smart growth with adaptive reuse of historic buildings.

Embracing a place's history (the good, the bad, and the ugly) is what makes a place interesting.


Update Update Dec 30 2023
No changes. The house is still standing, for now.

James and Mary Jane Gardner Miller House in Murray

The historic James and Mary Jane Gardner Miller House once sat on a 160-acre homestead but now lays hidden within an apartment complex in Murray, Utah. It was built in two phases between 1865 (adobe house) and 1882 (Victorian-style house- most of what remains today). The Miller House is significant as one of only five known extant homes built during the homesteading period of Murray's history.

James Miller began farming the homestead in 1859, but was also a prominent merchant in farm implements. Mary Jane Miller raised silk worms and contributed to the pioneer silk industry in Utah.

The farmstead included a flour mill where hundreds of residents from neighboring communities came to grind their wheat. Two mill stones were found in the pond during the construction of the apartments; one is now installed as a monument near the house and the other is believed to be on display at the Gardner Mill in West Jordan.

On the interior, the Miller House has an exceptionally rare collection of 19th-century interior murals with scenes of the pioneer era including line-drawn scenes of a cattle roundup, a farmer plowing, a cowboy, and a landscape of what appears to be the former Mormon settlement of Nauvoo, Illinois.

The historic address of the home was 864 East 4800 South but is now known as 4929 S. Lake Pines Drive, Murray, and is located just off the Van Winkle Expressway.

Thanks to the Murray City Museum for helping me track down this information! Source: Miller House NRHP Nomination site form.

Note: Although this house was submitted for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, it was determined to not be eligible for listing on the National Register because of recent alterations.

St Mark's Hospital Cornerstone

St Marks Hospital was established in 1872 and was the first hospital in SLC. It was originally a 6 bed facility in an old Adobe house in downtown SLC. It then moved to 700 North and 300 West in the early 1890s. This cornerstone from that building is now on display at the current St Marks at 1200 E 3900 South.

Early picture of St. Mark's Hospital located in north Salt Lake City.
Courtesy Bishop Watson, From UDSH.

Robert Gardner Home in Millcreek

Robert Gardner, Jr built this adobe home for his family in the winter of 1848 with a foundation of river stones that he carried from the nearby creek and set with hand-mixed cement. 

Gardner built this home next to his sawmill along Mill Creek. The sawmill is now gone but the home remains. Located at 1475 E. Murphy's Lane in Millcreek, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has recently undergone a $1.5M renovation by the Gardner family. Interpretive signs are placed out front for visitors to learn more about the home. 

 Visit www.robertgardnerhome.com for more information.

Great Western Match Factory, 615 S 300 East

First match factory in Utah. Frank Yeager pictured here worked
in the match factory. Courtesy Olive Burt. From UDSH.

Mr. Frank Yeager (1868-1950) standing in front of the adobe structure that housed the Great Western Match Factory, where he worked as a youth. 

 The Great Western Match Factory was the second match factory in Utah and was located at 615 South 300 East in downtown Salt Lake City, where the present-day Central City Recreation Center is situated. (The first match factory was a home manufacturing endeavor by Alexander Neibaur in 1851). 

The Great Western Match Factory was established about 1875 by Swen W. Anderson (although it wasn't named the Great Western Match Factory until 1881) and was closed around 1910. The adobe building stood until sometime after 1950 at which point it was described as vacant and dilapidated. The match factory burned a few times in its history, the most noteworthy on July 17, 1882, when it was a complete loss. It was soon rebuilt and stocked with new machinery. 

 The match factory used local Quaking Aspen for the boxes, Red Pine for the match sticks, and Sulphur from Cove Creek for the distinctive red cap tip.

Sources: Utah History Blazer Aug 1996; Deseret News 1883-06-20, SL Democrat 1885-06-19, SL Telegram 1950-12-14

Ancestral Puebloan Artifacts were Displayed at the 1893 World's Fair

Prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan bowl and
mug were on display at the LDS Church
History Museum, January 2016.

This prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan bowl and mug were on display in the Utah Pavilion at the Columbian Exposition (aka, the 1893 World’s Fair) in Chicago 1893. 

The booklet behind the pottery describes the exhibits of the Utah Pavilion. At the time, these two items were a part of the collections of the Deseret Museum of Salt Lake City.

The Deseret Museum was Utah’s first museum which opened in December 1869. The Utah Territorial Legislature declined to support the museum, so it was largely a private institution run at an economic loss of its founders and curators. It originally included a live animal menagerie and focused on taxidermized animals, geologic specimens, and archaeological materials.

The Deseret Museum originally occupied an adobe house located near the present-day site of Hotel Utah. The museum moved to several larger locations throughout downtown Salt Lake City until 1918 when the museum closed.

Following its closing, the collections of the Deseret Museum were divided among several museums and institutions of Utah including Brigham Young University, University of Utah, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, and the LDS Church History Museum.

The two Ancestral Puebloan artifacts shown here are in the collections of the LDS Church History Museum (as of Jan 2016).

Source of text: Eubanks, Lila Carpenter. "The Deseret Museum." Utah Historical Quarterly 50, no. 4 (Fall 1982): 361-76.