Provo's oldest home to be dedicated

Provo's oldest home to be dedicated

(Courtesy of Stevens Nelson)


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PROVO — A historic adobe home rescued from demolition will be dedicated at its new location Saturday.

The 1853 home was slated for demolition in October to make way for a church parking lot expansion, but was rescued after local historians rallied together to move it to Pioneer Village in Provo. After months of renovation, the home will be dedicated and opened to visitors.

“We’ve been able to take the building down brick by brick, move the bricks in and rebuild it as it was originally in 1853,” said Pioneer Village director Steve Nelson. “It is now finished and it is looking really good. We’re really pleased with the way it turned out. It couldn’t be any nicer.”

Nelson and a local historian will speak as part of the dedication at 11 a.m. A descendent of James Loveless, who built the home, will be coming from Ogden to give a dedicatory prayer.

In addition to the dedication, Pioneer Village will be hosting a craft fair starting at 10 a.m. There will be demonstrations of pioneer skills, live music performances and activities like woodcutting for kids. Visitors can also watch a blacksmith at work.

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There has been a lot of community support for the renovation project and many people have made generous donations, Nelson said. The home is especially significant as a historical artifact because even though a lot of people imagine log cabins when they think of pioneer homes, he said 80 percent of buildings in the 1850s and '60s were made of adobe.

“Because adobe is so incredibly fragile, we have very little evidence of it,” he said. “To be able to bring this house in and have it standing as an adobe house that was in fact built in 1853 is a major, major addition to the village and the community.”

The home is also a special addition to Pioneer Village because it was built by the founder's father. David Loveless began the village and neighboring museum in 1931 with donations of buildings and artifacts.

“That little house has some real history,” Nelson said.

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