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FROM MURRY MANSION TO MURRAY MUSEUM: A 125-YEAR JOURNEY

The John P. Cahoon Mansion in Murray is one of three historic Victorian homes turning 125 in 2025. The mansion has been recently renovated and will now be the new home of the Murray City Museum.

14 GOT OLD WOOD CO. BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO RECLAIMED BARN WOOD

Julie Adler-Birch gives old barn wood new life at Got Old Wood Co., turning weathered timbers into timeless home pieces.

20 STANDING STRONG: THREE VICTORIAN HOMES IN MURRAY CELEBRATE 125 YEARS

Three Victorian homes in Murray turn 125 this year. Learn about the less prominently placed, but still famous in its own right, Wesley and Frances Walton House.

Over the decades the walls of the Murray Mansion had been covered with layers of wallpaper, but during restoration they were stripped and the underlying layers of paint were analyzed then recreated in each room. “The colors you see are modern equivalents of the colors they had in here, including the red room,” Murray City Museum curator Rowan Coates said. “It seems like a bold choice, but the color is authentic.” (Ella Joy Olsen/City Journals)

FROM MURRY MANSION TO MURRAY MUSEUM: A 125-YEAR JOURNEY

By Ella Joy Olsen | e.olsen@mycityjournals.com

The Cahoon Mansion, an iconic dwelling located in the historic core of Murray City next to the new City Hall, is hard to miss if you’ve spent any time in Murray. Widely known as the Murray Mansion, it is set to have a big year in 2025.

The home is turning 125, and to celebrate its long history, the Cahoon Mansion will soon open to the public as the Murray City Museum, a newly-renovated space dedicated to documenting and sharing the history and memories of Murray and Murray residents. The museum grand opening will occur in late March 2025, and the March edition of the Murray Journal will spotlight upcoming events. However, this article is dedicated to the history of the Cahoon Mansion itself.

THE CAHOON FAMILY

The Cahoon Mansion was built by John P. Cahoon and his wife Elizabeth Gordon. Construction started in 1899 and the family moved in in 1901. It wasn’t their first house, as the couple had been married since 1877, but the mansion was a prize, a culmination of the success

The John P. Cahoon Mansion in Murray is one of three historic Victorian homes turning 125 in 2025. The mansion has been recently renovated and will now be the new home of the Murray City Museum.

Cahoon had attained in a variety of business ventures.

When the home was built, it boasted 33 rooms and was built using bricks manufactured by one of the companies Cahoon founded, the Salt Lake Pressed Brick Company.

Founded in 1874, the brick company was originally located on the east side of State Street near Big Cottonwood Creek, it moved to 3300 South and 1100 East (current site of Brickyard Plaza).

It was the first commercial brick manufacturing plant in the Western United States, and in 1893, at the World’s Fair in Chicago, the company won first prize for the best red brick. In 1939, the company was renamed Interstate Brick and is still widely recognized as one of the premier commercial brick manufacturers in the United States.

Cahoon’s additional business ventures included the Progress Company. Founded in 1897, the company generated and supplied electricity to many homes, farms and small businesses in Murray City. As such, the Cahoon Mansion was one of the first private dwellings

to be outfitted with electricity. The Progress Company was sold to Brinton Electric, and later to Murray City.

Cahoon conducted business for these companies (and also other business es in which he had an interest: Eagle Printing and Miller & Cahoon Compa ny) in the mansion in his main floor office, a brightly lit room on the south side of the dwelling.

In the book, “Utah Since Statehood,” originally written in 1919 by Noble Warrum, Cahoon was described as such, “In a word he is a man of big business, the extent and importance of his interests well winning him classification with America’s ‘Captains of Industry.’”

The book further describes him, “He is a member of no church but is liberal in his views and respects every man's belief. He has concentrated his efforts and attention upon his manufacturing interests and has won a high place in the business world, his name being today a well-known one in manufacturing circles throughout the country. He has never stopped short of the successful accomplishment of his purpose and therefore knows the joy of success."

LIVING IN THE “BIG YELLOW HOUSE”

The Cahoon's had 10 children and one of their daughters, Vadis, was young when the family moved into the house. Before she passed, she recollected to her niece, Georgene Cahoon Evans, that they called the mansion the “big house” or the “big yellow house.”

According to Vadis, there was a kitchen on the main floor with a coal stove. She and her sister would watch their mother roll cookies, make pies and prepare the meals.

The majority of the bedrooms for the children were in the basement, along with a playroom and a laundry room with an exit to the back yard. They had a milk room and a dumb waiter for delivering things from the basement to the other floors.

There was also a fruit cellar where they would help their mother preserve jam in ceramic crocks, and there was always a keg of sorghum molasses and a can of honey in the cellar.

The home had an orchard in the back and a large garden, and in the winter, they’d flood the lawn for ice skating.

There was a dumbwaiter for delivering things from the basement to the otherfloors,recalledVadisCahoon,whowasayounggirlwhentheCahoon family built the mansion. She recalled many details about the home to her niece before her death. The dumbwaiter is pictured here in its current condition. (Ella Joy Olsen/City Journals)

There was an electric pump to carry water to the top of the house and fill a big tank in the attic, which allowed the home to have flushing toi lets and running water in the kitchen. The tank was filled by an artesian well located on the property.

“It wasn’t long after we built our home that everyone started to use flush toilets,” Vadis recalled. “We had a cesspool before they put the sewage system in. When one would get full, they would have to dig another one.”

AFTER THE CAHOONS

In 1923, the Cahoon family moved out of the mansion and subsequently, the dwelling became home to many owners, renters and businesses. Over time, there have been six owners of the mansion.

Originally, the Cahoon Mansion was heated with a boiler and cast-iron radiators. “When we started the renovation, I didn’t want to step foot into the boiler room,” Rowan Coates, Murray City Museum curator, said. “There wasn’t a light in there and it looked like a place where they’d film a scary movie.” (Ella Joy Olsen/City Journals)

In 1983, the Mansion was placed on the National Registry for Historic Places, and the addition of the ballroom on the north side was built that same year by Bill and Susan Wright, to accommodate their reception center and dance studio.

Susan Wright recollected to the Murray Journal that when they bought the home, they were surprised that the brick was yellow, not gray, as years of soot from the nearby smelter had coated the exterior walls. They had it sandblasted to the original color before building the ballroom addition.

Then in 2017, Murray City purchased the Mansion with the hopes of moving the Murray City Museum into the historic structure.

MANSION ARCHITECTURE AND RENOVATION

The yellow brick home sits on a raised grey sandstone foundation accented with heavy sandstone lintels and sills. Other decorative features include clear and frosted leaded glass in some windows and interior transoms. The main floor has 12-foothigh ceilings, ornate fireplaces, and decorative wood baseboards and trim.

“All of the wood floors you see in the Cahoon Mansion are original, in fact all of the moldings, trim and doors are original. Even the pocket-doors work,” Rowan Coates, Murray City Museum curator, said. “We rolled back the carpets and the fir flooring was in great condition. All four fireplaces and their tile hearths are original. We were even able to preserve the shellac on the wood mantles.”

Over the decades the walls had been covered with layers of wallpaper, but during restoration they were stripped and the underlying layers of paint were analyzed then recreated in each room. “The colors you see are modern equivalents of the colors they had here, including the red room,” Coates said. “It seems like a bold choice, but the color is authentic.”

Originally, the home was heated with a boiler and cast-iron radiators. The boiler and radiators were still functioning when renovation started, but to bring the building up to code the boiler was retired.

“When we started the renovation, I didn’t want to step foot into the boiler room,” Coates said. “There wasn’t a light in there and it looked like a place where they’d film a scary movie.”

After installing modern heating and air conditioning, the no-longer-functioning radiators in each room were polished and restored to their original appearance.

The basement and upstairs, though renovated, won’t be accessible to the public because they are not ADA-accessible. They will be utilized for city offices, conference rooms and museum workspace and storage.

“We didn’t want to jeopardize the historic designation by attaching an elevator to the side of the historic structure,” Coates said. “However, there is ADA access in the ballroom, and that will be the main entrance of the museum.”

The home architecture is high-Victorian Eclectic, and includes many ornamental details on the fireplaces and interior finishes, but the basic rectangular shape hints at the economy of design that produced the bungalow.

The Victorian styling is different from the playful turret and stained-glass details found in the “Red House,” a Queen Anne Victorian built in Murray about the same time as the Cahoon Mansion, and spotlighted in the October 2024 issue of the Murray Journal. For that article, see the link: www. murrayjournal.com/2024/10/07/508583/standing-strong-three-victorian-homes-in-murraycelebrate-125-years

MORE MANSION MEMORIES

“The place has been a big part of my own family history,” Max Reese, a lifelong Murray resident, said. “My grandma’s mother (Caroline Gordon) was the half-sister, through polygamy, to Elizabeth Gordon Cahoon, the first owner of the mansion.”

Elizabeth Gordon Cahoon, wife of John P. Cahoon and original matron of the Cahoon Mansion, was born into a polygamist family. Her father was James P. Gordon, and Elizabeth was the daughter of his first wife Mary Ballantyne. Caroline Gordon (Reese’s great-grandmother) was the daughter of James Gordon’s second wife, Mary Elizabeth Helm.

“My grandma (Ella Mary) was born in 1895 and was a little girl when the home when the home was brand new. Her mother (Caroline) would take her to visit the cousins, and they would race around the rooms of the mansion. The year was about 1903,” continued Reese. Of note, while both Elizabeth Gordon Cahoon and Caroline Gordon Nester were born into a polygamist family, neither entered into a polygamist marriage.

“The house was always one of the grandest in Murray, and I always kept an eye on it through the years,” Reese said. “Then in 1990, when the Murray Mansion was a reception center, my daughter was married there. And now she’s writing an article about the mansion for the Murray Journal, so it seems full circle.

“I’d imagine I’m not the only one living in Murray with more than a few memories of the place,” Reese said.

(A note: this particular interview was conducted with the reporter’s father.)

Very soon, the Cahoon Mansion, Murray Mansion and now the Murray City Museum will re-open to the public and everyone can enjoy the history of the city and the home, for themselves.

GOT OLD WOOD CO. BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO RECLAIMED BARN WOOD

By Rebecca Olds | rebecca.o@thecityjournals.com

For Julie Adler-Birch, old barn wood has a rich history that deserves to live on in people’s homes.

It’s something that encouraged her to take over Got Old Wood Co. in 2024 when the previous owner was looking to retire and sell the shop — now the South Salt Lake storefront is her ultimate passion project.

Her mother Tammy Barrow helps run the business side of things, while Adler-Birch does what she does best: get creative. It’s a mother-daughter shop that is unusual for the woodworking world.

The company, located at 2870 South 300 West, South Salt Lake City, tears down old barns across the state and salvages the wood, which will eventually be given new life as someone’s barn door, accent wall, mantelpiece, furniture or whatever else a homeowner can imagine. It’s also used to create smaller pieces of work including wooden chess boards, seasonal decor and more.

“When customers come in, they have a vision in their head as far as what they want: the color they want, the look they want,” Adler-Birch said. “My expertise and my creativity is to make that val-

Julie Adler-Birch (left) and Tammy Barrow (right) took over Got Old Wood Co. in mid-2024. (Rebecca Olds/ City Journals)

id and make it tangible for them.”

Though the bulk of the work the shop does is by commission, Barrow did say that the occasional “DIY-er” makes their way into the shop and wants to “make it themselves.”

Julie Adler-Birch gives old barn wood new life at Got Old Wood Co., turning weathered timbers into timeless home pieces.

“Julie is very good about giving them instructions if they need help, and how to process some of what they do, but most of the people when they come here, they prefer to let her do it because they don't have to go buy all the tools that we have,” she said.

In addition to private customers, larger contractors have also visited the shop to do full exteriors of cozy, character-rich cabins or office spaces with the old barn wood that mixes rustic and modern styles popular today.

No matter the project, Adler-Brich knows where each piece came from and in most cases helps individual customers connect with the origin of the wood. She often thinks of the person who last touched the wood or relic she finds in the barns.

One recent customer chose wood salvaged from a barn in Randolph (just south of Bear Lake) for a new shelf in his home because his wife is from there.

From rustic barn doors to reclaimed mantels and exterior siding, Got Old Wood Co. transforms salvaged barn wood into stunning home features, preserving history with every piece. (Photos courtesy of Got Old Wood Co.)

“You want to make that connection with them, with the wood, and where it came from because that's a special mark,” Adler-Birch said. “That's where it was last set, and now it's here. I want to feel the history behind the wood, where it came from, and make sure they know it’s special.”

“She has torn this barn down, she knows what's in it, she knows where it was, and she knows the history behind it,” Barrow said, “and she likes to share that with our customers.”

The crew treats each piece of wood as if it’s a historical treasure and special in its own right.

When someone calls in a barn they’d like torn down, each one is inspected by Adler-Birch before moving forward. If she approves, the disassembly begins.

“The cool thing is going into these older buildings, and being able to be the one to reclaim it and tear it down is such an honor to me as a person because these old-timers built these buildings so that's why they're still standing today,” she said.

She and her team take the time to denail each piece and remove any foreign objects, then thoroughly clean it with a powerwasher. Next, they inspect for mold or pests and keep only the best pieces of wood.

For every barn torn down, Adler-Birch estimated about 90% of the structure is retained for their warehouse, making the practice extremely eco-friendly. The other unsalvageable pieces (10%) are thrown away.

When the wood has been picked by the customer and a design is imagined, Adler-Birch begins sanding and filling any holes that threaten the integrity of the wood. Adding the finish is the last step to seal the finished work making the already durable wood last a lifetime.

Old barn wood is meant to last in the elements and has done so “up to 100 years,” Barrow said. “We figure the wood is not going to perish anytime soon.”

Learn more about Got Old Wood Co. at gotoldwood.com.

Out in Got Old Wood’s warehouse and yard, wood is treated and prepped for homeowners’ projects. (Rebecca Olds/City Journals)

STANDING STRONG: THREE VICTORIAN HOMES IN MURRAY CELEBRATE 125 YEARS

FOR THE SAVVY HOMEOWNER

By Ella Joy Olsen | e.olsen@mycityjournals.com

There are three grand Victorian homes in Murray that turn 125 this year: the John P. Cahoon House (home of the Murray City Museum), the Henry J. Wheeler farmhouse (Wheeler Farm), and the Wesley and Frances Walton House, nicknamed the “Red House.” This article will spotlight the Red House. Profiles of the other Victorian homes will appear in subsequent issues.

Simpson David Huffaker came across the plains in 1847 from Nauvoo, Illinois with the first Mormon pioneers. In his breast pocket he carried the seeds of his favorite tree, the honey locust, and several fruit trees. Upon his arrival he was awarded a land grant of 160 acres in what would become Murray.

This property is where the historic Red House would be built.

He promptly used those carefully transported seeds to plant trees on his newly-acquired land. “Two of the honey locust trees still stand in the yard,” Rebecca Santa Cruz, Huffaker’s great-great granddaughter and current owner of the house, said. “And seeds from his fruit trees were coveted enough by his neighbors he earned the moniker, 'The Johnny Appleseed of South Cottonwood.’”

FIRST FAMILY

When Simpson Huffaker passed away, he left 27 of the 160 acres to his daughter Frances and her husband Wesley Walton. The couple were homesteading a ranch in Woodruff, Utah, but the Murray property is where they chose to build the Red House, a home for their family of 13 children.

The home is tucked town a little lane, located just off of Wesley Road (named for Wesley Walton) at about

Current owner and great-great granddaughter of the original owner, Rebecca Santa Cruz, stands outside her historic home. The home, called the Red House, is one of three Victorian homes in Murray turning 125 this year. (Ella Joy Olsen/ City Journals)

Simpson David Huffaker traveled to Utah with the original band of pioneers. He was granted 160 acres in Murray in 1847. The Red House was built on this property by his daughter and her husband, Frances and Wesley Walton. (Ella Joy Olsen/City Journals)

5200 South and between 1300 and 900 East. “People who’ve lived in the neighborhood for years often don’t even know it’s here,” Santa Cruz said.

“When the house was built none of the subdivisions that surround it were here. The drive entered from 1300 East and wound up the hill where the trailer court is now,” Santa Cruz said. “They must have had a sweeping and beautiful view.”

Three Victorian homes in Murray turn 125 this year. Learn about the less prominently placed, but still famous in its own right, Wesley and Frances Walton House.

Wesley Walton was politically active and was a state senator from 1905 to 1909. He grew up in Maine and his father was a supreme court justice. “This house was a great place for political gatherings and entertaining politicians from out of town,” Santa Cruz said. “He even hosted Teddy Roosevelt here.

“He likely would have run for state governor, but when he was 64 years old his bathrobe caught fire and he suffered burns. He died a year later, in 1917.”

Santa Cruz’s grandfather, Arthur Walton, was born the year the Red House was built in 1899. It was a big house built for a big family. Wesley and Frances had 10 boys (and one girl)

in quick succession. Then two more caboose-children (both girls) for a total of 13 children. Amazingly, all of the children survived to adulthood.

“My great-grandmother (Frances) had lost two sisters to disease during her youth, and as a young mother, she was determined to keep her children alive,” Santa Cruz said. “At the first sign of symptoms she’d pack up the wagon and take the healthy kids out to the ranch in Woodruff or to another nearby home. Back then, they believed the air surrounding a sick person was ‘bad air.’ It must have worked.”

The 10 brothers who lived in the house were a force to be reckoned with. They had their own family band and played at local events. “There were enough of them they created their own basketball and baseball team,” Santa Cruz said referencing a black and white photo of a band of 10 boys.

Santa Cruz has spent much time renovating the historic home and she continually finds messages carved or penciled onto the brick, particularly around the kitchen door and various places on the wraparound porch. “It depends on how the light hits, but you can read initials and little notes,” Santa Cruz said. “I think the house is sending me messages.”

A MAGAZINE FOR THE SAVVY HOMEOWNER

Current owner, and great-great granddaughter of the original builder and owner, Rebecca Santa Cruz (and her dog Gus) show off the original six-burner coal stove. (Ella Joy Olsen/City Journals)

The historic Red House, a Queen Anne Victorian home, has all of the original woodwork, windows and tile, including this beautiful mantle and hearth. (Ella Joy Olsen/ City Journals)

A MAGAZINE FOR THE SAVVY HOMEOWNER

HISTORIC HOME: HAUNTED

AND ALSO HAPPY

The house sat empty for 24 years after Frances Walton (wife of Wesley and mother of the 13 children) died in 1942.

Santa Cruz’s father called it the “haunted house” because it was furnished and somewhat abandoned. In the front hall stood a stuffed wolf (because one of the boys dabbled in taxidermy), and above the wolf hung a picture of Faust, the character who made a deal with the devil.

“It wasn’t the most welcoming of vestibules,” Santa Cruz laughed. “Local kids would come over and shoot BB guns at the front door. There are still holes in the brick and the surrounding woodwork.”

When she was a child, Santa Cruz’s grandmother lived across the street and occasionally Santa Cruz would get to wander around the old house, which also housed a stuffed deer in the attic. But the place was so big and needed so much work, no one in the family was willing to take it on. And so, it sat.

Then in 1968 one of the 10 boy’s sons (Santa Cruz’s uncle) fixed it up. He sold off some of the land to pay for the renovations and eventually sold the home to a buyer who wasn’t a member of the Walton/Huffaker family.

But the house had a hold on Santa Cruz. “I thought about it throughout my life, and nine years ago, I bought it,” she said. “And I brought it back to the family.”

Taking care of the old Victorian requires constant work. The first thing Santa Cruz did was take out 9,000 square feet of pink carpeting. “It was on every single floor and staircase.” Under the carpeting were the original old-growth fir floors, some of the planks over 100 feet long.

The beauty and historic appeal of the place has drawn filmmakers throughout the years. The 2017 version of “Little Women” was filmed almost entirely in the Red House. The attic turret was Jo’s room where she is portrayed writing the iconic tale.

An aside for those who don’t recall the story, “Little Women” is a

novel published in 1868, and is a somewhat autobiographical story written by Louisa May Alcott about her childhood and her sisters, in which Alcott portrayed herself as the character Jo March.

There were also episodes of “Touched by an Angel” filmed in and around the house, and a crew will start filming this October on a new project (which cannot yet be revealed).

“I feel like the house is trying to chip in where it can,” Santa Cruz said. “I anthropomorphize the place. And when we have reunions, I can feel the house is happy getting all of its people together.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A VICTORIAN?

The Red House, built in 1899, is built in the Queen Anne Victorian architectural style.

Queen Anne was a British Monarch who reigned from 1702 until 1714, and a popular architecture style emerged during her reign, featuring sweeping exterior stairs and hand-worked ornamentation. During the later reign of Queen Victoria (1837 to 1901), this architecture style entered a revival period and changed somewhat.

During the Victorian revival, the Industrial Revolution was in full-swing and the designers embraced new materials and technologies to create houses with many pre-fabricated flourishes. Mass-production and mass-transit via the railroads made this architectural detailing more affordable, and it therefore became plentiful throughout cities and suburbs across the United States.

“The typical features in a Queen Anne are that the design is asymmetrical and it has a turret,” Santa Cruz said. “There is often stained glass, a wraparound porch, pocket doors and detailed woodwork.”

The Red House is one of three beautifully preserved historic Victorian homes located in Murray. On the state historic registry, the Red House proudly boasts many of these features in original form.

The first family to own the historic Red House consisted of 13 children, 10 of them boys. The boys formed their own band, baseball and basketball team. (Ella Joy Olsen/City Journals)

The 2017 film version of “Little Women” was filmed at the historic Red House in Murray. Pictured is Jo’s turret room, retaining some of the decor installed for the movie. (Ella Joy Olsen/ City Journals)

Builders and original owners of the historic Red House, Frances Huffaker Walton and Wesley Walton raised 13 children in the home. Their great-great granddaughter, Rebecca Santa Cruz, now owns the home. She says the home is happy during reunions and gatherings, because “the family is home.” (Ella Joy Olsen/City Journals)