Things to see - The Brigham Young Home

The Brigham Young Home
67 West 200 North

Brigham Young suffered from arthritis and found relief from the harsh Salt Lake winters in St. George’s warm desert climate. The Brigham Young home is made from rock, adobe and plaster. The two-story home is indicative of homebuilding in Utah at the time. The home has a large wrap-around front porch, thick insulating walls, a vegetable storage room in the basement, and several bedrooms. Brigham Young caused the front portion of this home to be built in 1873. Young’s home also had a detached office with telegraph station, and a large master suite upstairs. Orchards and gardens surrounded the home on three sides. The large mulberry tree supplied the leaves for feeding silk worms, the cocoons of which provided the thread for silk fabrics produced by pioneer women here in St. George.


More on the Brigham Young Home

In 1861, the original settlers of St. George were members of the LDS church who were sent by their church leaders to grow cotton in the red rock cliffs and desert of southwestern Utah. Brigham Young thought it would be necessary to raise cotton after the Civil War broke out and sent many settlers to St. George who originally came from the southern states. The Mormon settlers found the hot, dry region practically unlivable, but Brigham Young desired St. George to progress and instigated public work projects to help residents. In 1869 Brigham Young bought the James Chesney house and made St. George his winter home.

Brigham Young suffered from arthritis and found relief from the harsh Salt Lake winters in St. George’s warm desert climate. The Brigham Young home is made from rock, adobe and plaster. The two-story home is indicative of homebuilding in Utah at the time. The home has a large wrap-around front porch, thick insulating walls, a vegetable storage room in the basement, and several bedrooms. Brigham Young caused the front portion of this home to be built in 1873. Young’s home also had a detached office with telegraph station, and a large master suite upstairs. Orchards and gardens surrounded the home on three sides. The large mulberry tree supplied the leaves for feeding silk worms, the cocoons of which provided the thread for silk fabrics produced by pioneer women here in St. George. Representative of the principal reason for the settlement of Utah*s "Dixie", the garden still produces both cotton and grapes. Brigham Young spent the last winters of his life in St. George enjoying the warm weather and directing the building of the St. George Temple and Tabernacle.

The contributions of Brigham Young to Utah and the West are immeasurable. Born of humble parents in a log cabin in Vermont, June 1, 1801, Brigham Young became a man of extraordinary intelligence, loyalty, faith, and courage. In 1847 he was called to be the second prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Seeking religious freedom, which had been denied his people in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, President Young led thousands of pioneers across the United States in one of the most amazing journeys in American history and directed the establishment of more than 300 communities in the West. He actively participated in community building, becoming the Governor of the State of Deseret, later named the State of Utah. Before his death on August 29, 1877, he had helped develop roads, canals, telegraphs, railways, schools, theaters, factories, banks, whole industries, and universities.