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Deane & Norm's Motorcycle Trip to Alaska | |
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August 13 - Tremonton, UT to Cortez, CO - 510 miles |
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About
510 miles you say? How come
such a long riding distance, after the more gentlemanly pace that Norm and
I were riding most of the trip? Well, I had planned a more manageable 440 miles, but as I stopped for coffee after getting out of the Salt Lake City basin, I decided to make a detour to see my Great Grandfather Crawforth's house! It would only cost me 70 miles more. What a great decision that was!! My
Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother Crawforth emigrated from England
in 1853, went directly across the whole of the USA by wagon train, and
settled near Provo, Utah. Some
time later, they moved to the area of Spring City, Utah, (about 100 miles
southeast of Provo) and later yet built a splendid house for the times. The house had been lived in until about 1925, but had fallen
into disrepair after that. A
couple of years ago, one of my brothers had stopped to see it, and said
that someone had bought it and was either restoring it or had restored it.
So that was what attracted me.
And
indeed it was restored beautifully on the outside, so I stopped and
introduced myself to the owner. After
finding out that I was a great grandson, who is kind of the family
historian for my generation of Crawforth's, and who had done his genealogy
homework, the owner gave me a red-carpet tour !!
The particular points of interest for this house are that it is built in the style of English manor houses of the mid-1800's (remember, my Great Grandfather left England in 1853) and that the outside is completely faced with quarried limestone fitted together with no mortar or cement, only clay to seal the joints for weather. My Great Grandfather was a groom on a big landed estate in England and of course left for a better life, which indeed he made for his family. The current owner and an architect-historian from University of Utah think the home was built between 1880 and 1884. The owner is an interior decorator, with offices in Salt Lake City, so I guess this is a weekend house for him. When he restored the house, he had to add electrical wiring and an inside bathroom, as it had neither. In addition to restoring the house itself, he has furnished the interior with collected antiques, many of the period and several actually built in Utah at the time of early settlers. A national magazine, "Traditional Homes", has
recently done a four-day picture taking tour and interview, so will be
featuring this home in one of its next issues.
(Anyone interested in when this magazine will produce that issue,
let me know by e:mail and I'll notify you - it should be a really good
issue, considering the interior furnishings also.) Another
unique thing is that there is a "Coach House", with its outside
completely faced with the same quarried limestone. The owner's logic is that since my Great Grandfather
Crawforth was a groom in England, he felt the need for a coach house for
the buggies and tack, separate from the barn, and a "successful"
person would have one. The
current owner is also a horse fancier, so he has three restored buggies in
the coach house to pull. What
a wonderful find, just by riding my motorcycle 70 miles out of the way!! |
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I
found the house in Spring City, after asking one of the local people.
The
house has been restored to the point that it is listed in the National
Register of Historic Places!