Salt Lake City's First Mansion, Built 1857
334 W South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to view exterior; interior use is by private LDS Church reception only.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic mansion with main-floor accessibility within an urban Salt Lake City block
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1857 · First Mansion in Salt Lake Valley · National Register of Historic Places · Utah War Negotiation Site · William Jennings, First Salt Lake Millionaire
The Devereaux House, also called the Staines-Jennings Mansion, was built in 1857 for William Staines and designed by William Paul. It is the first building in the Salt Lake Valley constructed on a scale that could be described as a mansion. Joseph Angell Young, oldest son of Brigham Young, purchased the house in 1865 for $20,000 and sold it in 1867 to William Jennings for $30,000.
Jennings, believed to be the Salt Lake Valley's first millionaire and a mayor of Salt Lake City from 1882 to 1885, expanded the house using Paul again as the architect. Jennings named the mansion 'Devereaux' for a family property at Yardley, Birmingham, in England.
The Devereaux was a regional social center in the late nineteenth century. Brigham Young met Governor Alfred Cumming there to resolve the Utah War, and Jennings hosted Secretary of War William Seward, General Philip H. Sheridan in the 1860s, and General William Tecumseh Sherman in the 1870s. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased the home in 2005 and uses it for receptions and church functions.
Sources
Regional Utah retellings of the Devereaux Mansion describe a figure of a young girl, often described as about eight years old, seen at an upstairs window. The figure is described as humming, singing, and at times speaking to herself, with reports that she resembles individuals depicted in nineteenth-century photographs displayed in the house. Reports include objects thrown to the floor and doors that close when left open.
Workers and visitors have described cold spots in specific interior locations. These accounts circulate in regional Utah ghost-tour writing and KSL News coverage rather than in named-investigator publications. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints's stewardship since 2005 places the property in regular private-event use, and the haunted reputation is treated as folklore in regional coverage.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
View Salt Lake Valley's first mansion from the public sidewalk on West South Temple. The interior is used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for receptions and is not open to general public foot traffic.
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