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Presidents’ Homes

As noted in the Daily Herald, for many years the central neighborhoods of Provo were home to most of the faculty. The first principal of the Academy, Warren Dusenberry, lived in a two-story concrete house across from the Provo Tabernacle at what is now the southeast corner of 100 South and University Avenue. The location is now the site of the Utah County Health Department building.

According to Karl G. Maeser’s son Reinhard, when the family moved to Provo in August 1876 they first lived at the Lucy Kimball home at the corner of 100 North and University Avenue, before moving to an adobe home on 200 East. In the 1880s, after the death of Reinhard’s wife Mary, the Maesers moved into a larger brick home on the southeast corner of 200 North and 200 East. This home was later heavily renovated, but still remains visible today.

Benjamin Cluff, Jr., who succeeded Maeser in 1892, lived with his wife Mary a little more than a block from Academy Square at 688 N. 200 East. A one-story brick home at the southeast corner of 200 East and 700 North, the home no longer exists having been replaced by a parking lot.

When George H. Brimhall became president of Brigham Young University in 1903, he was living in a one-story brick home at 356 N. 100 West. This residence no longer exists, but by 1911 the Brimhall family were living in what is now known as the John R. Twelves House at 287 E. 100 North. He remained in this two-floor brick home throughout his presidency, and brought his replacement Franklin S. Harris into the house in 1921. Brimhall would eventually move into a smaller, newly-constructed home on the north end of the property (143 N. 300 East) the following year, where he remained until his death in 1932. Both homes still exist on the site.

Then, in 1928 the Harris family moved into what is now known as the Former President’s Home. Located on the southwest edge of the current campus, it was originally constructed for Henry Peterson around 1909. The home was later purchased by the university in 1923 and remodeled and expanded in a Tudor style. From 1928 until the end of the Holland Administration, the building was then used to house the university president and his family. Since the end of the Holland Administration, the building has housed the university Visitor’s Center (1990-2008) and Graduate Studies (2008-present).

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