The William Friend Young House at 550 E. Five Hundred N. in Pleasant Grove, Utah, United States, was built during 1885–86. Its exterior walls are soft rock. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
Physical Appearance
Built in 1885–86, the William F. Young House is a one-story hall-parlor house with a gable roof and soft-rock exterior walls. During the early twentieth century, additions were made to the rear, the house was stuccoed, and other minor alterations were made. The building was renovated in 1986, exposing the soft-rock walls once again and restoring a substantial degree of the building's original integrity.
The Young House is a typical hall-parlor house with a central transomed door flanked by a pair of windows on the facade and two rooms of unequal size on the interior. The house sits on a fieldstone foundation and has plain wooden lintels. There is an unfinished attic that is accessible only from an exterior upper entrance on the east or left side of the house. About 1910, a 19' X 12' brick addition with a stone foundation was added to the back of the house at the southwest corner. It consisted of a kitchen and a pantry. The pantry was converted into a bathroom in 1943. Soon after the brick addition was built, the soft-rock portion of the house was stuccoed and scored to Ph resemble smooth-cut stone, giving the house a more refined appearance. This was a popular technique used on soft-rock buildings in Pleasant Grove at that time. The stuccoed walls were covered by asbestos siding in 1952. A shed-roof frame addition was built on the southeast corner of the house in 1941. It is currently in poor condition. Both the brick and frame additions do not significantly detract from the historic appearance of the house because they are located at the rear of the house and they are relatively small in scale.
A significant interior feature of the house is the 13' X 12'-7" cellar that served as the Young family's original 1884 dugout home. It is located five feet south of the soft-rock portion of the house beneath the 1941 addition on the southeast corner. It consists of a single room with fieldstone walls and a dirt floor. The original pitched roof was removed to accommodate the 1941 addition. The house was substantially renovated in 1985–86.
Both the siding and the stucco were removed from the exterior walls, and the deteriorated mortar joints were repointed. The original front door was replaced and mirror-finish storm windows were added on the outside, leaving the original double-hung windows intact. Most of the woodwork on both the exterior and interior has been retained. Custom-milled baseboard and door casings have replaced some ruined woodwork. The position of the door between the soft-rock and brick addition was changed in 1931, but the integrity of the woodwork has been maintained. A cupboard and hutch that were built into the brick addition remain.
There are several outbuildings on the property, though none of them contribute to the significance of the property. They include a privy and barn, thought to have been built by William F. Young, the original owner, during the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries. An addition of railroad ties was built on the barn at an unknown date. Other outbuildings include a tie shed (date unknown), a frame chicken coop (1935), and a frame garage-shop (1935). These are all in fair condition.
