Item Detail
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9657
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3
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0
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English
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Amelia's Palace : Brigham Young's Grandest Residence
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Montana
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1979
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29
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54-63
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Brigham Young, President of the Mormon Church, married Amelia Folsom 24 January 1863. She was the twenty-fifth wife, but appeared constantly at his side and assumed all the social duties of his 'first wife.' In 1875, Young commissioned Joseph Ridges, architect and builder of the Mormon Tabernacle organ, to design and construct an official residence for himself and Amelia. The four-story, Italian villa-style structure was the most magnificant in Salt Lake City. After Young's death in 1877, his successor, John Taylor, had the mansion finished in 1882. Subsequently known as the Gardo House, it served officials of the Mormon Church as a residence and office building until 1894. In 1899, Edwin T. Holmes purchased the structure and his wife Susanna had it beautifully redecorated. The Holmeses sold the property to the Mormon Church in 1924 and two years later the federal government purchased it, razed the house, and built a federal bank building. Secondary sources and manuscripts in the collections of the Utah State Historical Society, the University of Utah Library, and the LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, as well as the Brigham Young University Library, Provo.