Utah Territorial Capitol | |
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Location | Fillmore, Utah ![]() |
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Coordinates | 38°58′06″N112°19′33″W / 38.968297°N 112.325771°W |
Built | 1852–55 |
Architect | Truman O. Angell |
Visitation | 6,615 (2022) [1] |
NRHP reference No. | 70000625 [2] |
Added to NRHP | September 22, 1970 [3] |
The Utah Territorial Statehouse, officially Territorial Statehouse State Park Museum, is a state park in Fillmore, Utah. The museum and park preserves the original seat of government for Utah Territory before the capital was moved to Salt Lake City in 1856. Built from 1852 to 1855, the statehouse was initially intended as a larger structure, but only the south wing was completed before the project was abandoned due to lack of federal funding. After its construction, the Utah Territorial Legislative Assembly met in the building for only one full session and parts of two others.
In 1851, Mormon leader Brigham Young and a group of lawmakers determined that Fillmore should become the capital of the provisional State of Deseret because of its central location. When the Congress of the United States turned down their petition for statehood and created the Utah Territory instead, Fillmore was designated as its territorial capital.
The original statehouse building plans called for four wings connected by a Moorish dome at the center, but only the south wing was completed. U.S. President Millard Fillmore had helped secure the first $20,000 for construction, but could not help the territory secure additional funding after he lost the next election. (Both Fillmore and the county in which it sits, Millard County, were named in honor of President Fillmore.) In 1856, after housing its first and only full session, the Territorial Statehouse was abandoned by the territorial Legislative Assembly in favor of a return to Utah's largest city, Salt Lake City. [4]
By the early 20th century, the building was vacant, decaying and threatened with demolition. During the 1920s, the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP) proposed restoring the statehouse to serve as a history museum. Under the direction of the Utah State Park and Recreation Commission, the museum opened in 1930 and was placed in the custodial care of the DUP. The statehouse and grounds became a state park in 1957. Today, the Territorial Statehouse serves as a museum which contains many artifacts from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Two restored cabins and a pioneer stone schoolhouse are also located on the grounds.
Utah's governor, Jon Huntsman, Jr. delivered his State of the State address from the Territorial Statehouse in 2005 while the State Capitol was undergoing renovations. The State of the State address in 2005 was the first official use of the Territorial Statehouse for a Utah Governmental Function since 1856.
Because they expected the red stone exterior to be covered with stucco, the stoneworkers who constructed the statehouse carved their initials into several of the stones on the outside of the building. Those initials are still visible today. The south exterior wall bears a plaque from the National Register of Historic Places. According to the plaque, the building was used by the 5th, 6th and 8th Legislatures who served in 1855, 1856, and 1858 respectively. There is also a plaque from the Daughters of Utah Pioneers dated August 3, 1935 that reads:
Creating Fillmore City and Millard County the territorial legislature of Utah selected Pahvant Valley as capitol site Oct. 29, 1851. This spot was selected by Governor Brigham Young. Construction work began in 1852. Truman O. Angell, architect and Anson Call, supervisor. This south wing was used by the Fifth Territorial Legislature Oct. 10, 1855. In 1856 the seat of government was moved to Salt Lake City. Later used as court house and county headquarters. Restored in 1928 and dedicated as state museum July 24, 1930. Custodians; Daughters of Utah Pioneers.
The basement currently contains several exhibits, including:
The first floor consists of a hallway and several rooms. Some of the rooms are described below:
The second floor consists of the Assembly Hall where the territorial legislature met. The Assembly Hall contains a piano, a podium and several chairs. It also contains maps showing the location and size of the Utah Territory.
Brigham Young was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877. During his time as church president, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, west from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Salt Lake Valley. He founded Salt Lake City and served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also worked to establish the learning institutions that would later become the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. A polygamist, Young had at least 56 wives and 57 children. He formalized the prohibition of black men attaining priesthood, and led the church in the Utah War against the United States.
Millard County is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 12,975. Its county seat is Fillmore, and the largest city is Delta.
Fillmore is a city and the county seat of Millard County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,592 at the 2020 United States Census. It is named for the thirteenth U.S. President Millard Fillmore, who was in office when Millard County was created by the Utah Territorial legislature.
The State of Deseret was a proposed state of the United States, promoted by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had founded settlements in what is today the state of Utah. A provisional state government operated for nearly two years in 1849–50, but was never recognized by the United States government. The name Deseret derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state. At its creation, the Territory of Utah included all of the present-day State of Utah, most of the present-day state of Nevada save for Southern Nevada, much of present-day western Colorado, and the extreme southwest corner of present-day Wyoming.
The Salt Lake City Council Hall is currently home to offices of the Utah Office of Tourism and the Utah Film Commission and is located on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake City, Utah. Built in 1864–66, the building is historically important as the Old Salt Lake City Hall or just Old City Hall from 1866 to 1894. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975, as an emblem of the conflicts between the governments of the Utah Territory and the United States in the 19th century.
Originally, the Salt Lake Valley was inhabited by the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute and Ute Native American tribes. At the time of the founding of Salt Lake City the valley was within the territory of the Northwestern Shoshone, who had their seasonal camps along streams within the valley and in adjacent valleys. One of the local Shoshone tribes, the Western Goshute tribe, referred to the Great Salt Lake as Pi'a-pa, meaning "big water", or Ti'tsa-pa, meaning "bad water". The land was treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone was ever recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States. Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Spanish Franciscan missionary is considered the first European explorer in the area in 1776, but only came as far north as Utah valley (Provo), some 60 miles south of the Salt Lake City area. The first US visitor to see the Salt Lake area was Jim Bridger in 1824. U.S. Army officer John C. Frémont surveyed the Great Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Valley in 1843 and 1845. The Donner Party, a group of ill-fated pioneers, traveled through the Great Salt Lake Valley a year before the Mormon pioneers. This group had spent weeks traversing difficult terrain and brush, cutting a road through the Wasatch Mountains, coming through Emigration canyon into the Salt Lake Valley on August 12, 1846. This same path would be used by the vanguard company of Mormon pioneers, and for many years after that by those following them to Salt Lake.
The Liberal Party was a political party established in the latter half of the 1800s in Utah Territory before the national Democrats and Republicans established themselves in Utah in the early 1890s.
Jedediah Morgan Grant was a leader and an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was member of the First Council of the Seventy from 1845 to 1854 and served in the First Presidency under church president Brigham Young from 1854 to 1856. He is known for his fiery speeches during the Reformation of 1856, earning the nickname "Brigham's Sledgehammer". Grant is the father of Heber J. Grant, who later served as President of the Church.
Cove Fort is a fort, unincorporated community, and historical site located in Millard County, Utah. It was founded in 1867 by Ira Hinckley at the request of Brigham Young. One of its distinctive features is the use of volcanic rock in the construction of the walls, rather than the wood used in many mid-19th-century western forts. This difference in construction is the reason it is one of very few forts of this period still surviving.
The Utah State Capitol is the house of government for the U.S. state of Utah. The building houses the chambers and offices of the Utah State Legislature, the offices of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, the State Auditor and their staffs. The capitol is the main building of the Utah State Capitol Complex, which is located on Capitol Hill, overlooking downtown Salt Lake City.
Truman Osborn Angell was an American architect who served many years as the official architect of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The brother-in-law of Brigham Young, he was a member of the vanguard company of Mormon pioneers that entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. He designed the Salt Lake Temple, the Lion House, the Beehive House, the Utah Territorial Statehouse, the St. George Utah Temple, and other public buildings. Angell's modifications to the Salt Lake Tabernacle are credited with perfecting the acoustics for which the building is famous.
The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 state representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 state senators. There are no term limits for either chamber.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
The "Runaway Officials of 1851" were a group of three federal officers, Judge Perry E. Brocchus, Judge Lemuel G. Brandebury, and Territorial Secretary Broughton Harris, who were appointed to Utah Territory by President Millard Fillmore in 1851. These men arrived in Utah in the summer of that year, and though they were cordially welcomed, they soon came into conflict with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Latter-day Saint settlers of the territory. The confrontation centered around several features of the Mormon pioneer community, most significantly their practice of polygamy, which the appointees publicly denigrated. Eventually disagreements over territorial administration became rampant between the non-Mormon federal officials and newly appointed territorial Governor and President of the LDS Church, Brigham Young. By the end of September 1851, each of these officers left his Utah appointment for the east and their posts remained unfilled for the next two years. This was the first in a series of disagreements between the Latter-day Saint residents of Utah Territory and the United States government which would finally result in the Utah War of 1857–1858.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the U.S. state of Utah.
The Council House, often called the State House, was the first public building in Utah; being constructed in 1849–50. The building stood in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, on the corner of Main Street and South Temple Street. On June 21, 1883 the building was destroyed when a neighboring wagon depot caught fire and several barrels of gunpowder exploded, spreading the fire to the Council House.
The Utah State Fair is held at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The fairgrounds are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The fair takes place each year starting on the first Thursday after Labor Day and lasts for 11 days.
Seraph Young Ford was the first woman to cast a ballot under a law that made women citizens' voting rights equal to men's in the United States. She voted in Salt Lake City's municipal election on February 14, 1870, becoming the first woman to vote after the Utah Territory passed a women's equal suffrage law, just two days prior.
The 5th Utah Territorial Legislature was elected on August 6, 1855.