How to spot a "polygamy house" apartment in Utah
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A 1910 duplex for Lula and Persis Richards, wives of Levi Richards, in the Avenues. Photo: Erin Alberty/Axios
As cities and developers nationwide scramble to convert schools and churches into much-needed housing, Utah has already tapped into a unique apartment-conversion source: houses built for polygamists.
The big picture: You can occasionally find apartments around Utah that once housed plural marriages.
- "I've definitely heard of a lot of them," said Jacob Barlow, a Mapleton realtor who blogs about historical sites around Utah.
Why it works: A lot of polygamous families lived — and still live — in homes that were effectively built as multifamily buildings or complexes.
- That means you can get a single-family feel but a better layout than your typical Victorian home-to-apartment renovation with paper-thin walls between tenants or a grand fireplace in a studio.
Context: Figuring out which buildings housed polygamous families can be tricky because so many tried to hide their kinship ties when "cohabitation" prosecutions ramped up in the 1880s under federal law.
- Property records before that can be patchy, Barlow told Axios. That's when I found when I tried to research the origin of the so-called sister wife apartment I used to live in.
- A lot of husbands built separate homes for their plural wives, so a house belonging to a known polygamist may still have functioned as a typical single-family household.
What's inside: Look for multifamily buildings with symmetrical layouts and multiple entryways, Barlow said.
Zoom out: Cities are increasingly looking to old factories, hospitals, offices, schools and churches to deal with housing shortages, Axios' Sami Sparber and Simran Parwani report.
- Researchers unsurprisingly did not tally polygamy-house-to-apartment conversions.
Case in point: The 1908 Knight-Mangum house in Provo was converted into units used by a polygamous family later in the 20th century — and now provides student housing in apartments, Barlow told Axios.
- Meanwhile, in Manti, an 1861 house known locally as "Polygamy House" is listed as apartments for Snow College students.
Zoom in: Here are some more examples of polygamy houses-turned apartments.
Reality check: There aren't a ton of these houses left.
- Barlow last week featured a Central 9th duplex that neighbors said was built for a polygamous family — but now is falling apart.
- Lots of them have been snapped up for other uses, from a crisis recovery center at Warren Jeffs' former compound to a wedding venue near City Creek. Brigham Young's 26-bedroom home, the Lion House, is now a restaurant and banquet hall.
Catch up quick: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints banned polygamy more than a century ago but allowed existing marriages to continue — and kept performing new ones in some cases.
- The practice continues in some break-away sects of Mormonism.
The latest: Not all polygamy houses are historic. A 19-bedroom in Hilldale, built in 1975 for FLDS members, is on the market now for a cool $849K.