WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
GEORGE F. WHITEHEAD HOME
St. George, Utah
LOCATION
241 North 100 WestSt. George, UT 84770
Plat A, Block 39, Lot 8 on the old pioneer map of St. George.
37° 6' 44.24" North Latitude, 113° 35' 8.88" West Longitude
2,786 feet MSL
Tax ID# SG-XXX-x-x-x
DESCRIPTION
The first room was made of adobe with a layer of lath & plaster. The plaster was made of lime, horsehair, and sand and was done by the Christian brothers, both inside and out.Rooms were gradually added until there were two bedrooms upstairs, one basement room, a kitchen, a dining room, a bath, and a bedroom with big walk-in closets that were unusual in that day.
There was a staircase in the front that ran from east to west and one in the back that ran from west to east with a common landing at the top.
Whitehead laid a pipe clean through the block to Diagonal Street where he had two barrels for water to run in. There was enough fall to the pipe that they had cold water in the upstairs bathroom tub. It was one of the first bathrooms in town.
The baseboards were about 6 to 8 inches thick and the door casings 4 to 6 inches wide. The home has wallpaper and had woven rag carpets on the floors. There were lace curtains on the windows. There was a fireplace in the dining room and parlor. There was no heat upstairs.
There was a porch on the west side where there was a 50 gallon can of water wrapped with burlap to keep it cool. They had to get the water first thing in the morning before the cows muddied the stream.
HISTORY
George F. Whitehead bought the whole city block and then built this home for his bride in 1883. He was a builder and insisted that everything about the house be substantial and of the best quality. He even insisted that the foundation be constructed and allowed to settle for one year before the walls went up. He and his bride, Esther Jane Morris, moved into the original part of the house on their wedding day, November 22, 1883.George never ceased making improvements. As as the family expanded, so did the home. Originally, of course, there was no plumbing in the house, but George added one of the first bathrooms in St. George. He ran a pipe from the irrigation ditch to a bathroom upstairs so the family could have (cold) baths. Eventually he added one feature that no other local house possessed, twin staircases, one running east to west, the other west to east, with a common landing.
Esther was a famous cook and noted for her hospitality. George was a counselor in the St. George Stake presidency for twenty-five years and later served as president of the St. George Temple. All of those years every member of the general authorities that came to St. George to attend the twice-yearly conferences were guests at the Whitehead home and always after told of the succulent meals they had enjoyed there.
Each year they would take the carpets up and take out the old straw, then put down new straw and replace the carpet.
The Whiteheads lived out their long lives in this house which they lovingly cared for. George was 98 when he died and Esther only two years younger.
Edna Cloward Whitehead's daughter (was Edna Cloward the daughter?), owned the house until 1965.
The house was sold and cut up into apartments.
In 1988 it was purchased by Jay & Donna Curtis and Jon & Alison Bowcutt. They had already restored and renovated the Woolley-Foster house next door opening it to the public as the Seven Wives Inn, St. George's first Bed and Breakfast Inn. Now they are working on the same type of restoration on the Whitehead home. They are carefully preserving its original beauty and furnishing it with furniture and artifacts from the time when it was first built.
BIOGRAPHY
George F. Whitehead was a skilled builder and many pioneer structures in St. George bear his mark. For example, he built the Arthur Miles house and the Woolley-Foster house.PHOTOS
WCHS photos:WCHS-00549 Jon Bowcutt sketch of the Whitehead Home
REFERENCES
Historical Buildings of Washington County (Volume 1), pp. 20-21.Landmark and Historic Sites: City of St. George
First Edition, January 2, 2009, pp. 13-1 through 13-3
Compiled by the St. George Community Development Department
Landmark and Historic Sites: Informational Guide of Historical Sites within the City of St. George
Second Edition, Revised 2011, pp. 25-26
Compiled by the St. George Community Development Department