Frederick Christian Sorensen House
62 East Center Street, Ephraim, Utah
The house was constructed by blacksmith and farmer, Frederick Christian Sorensen, circa 1862 for his first wife, Emelia Cecelia Marie Flinto and eventually their twelve children. Emelia Cecelia and Frederick Christian were some of the first Scandinavian converts to Mormonism and emigrated with the John E. Forsgren Company in 1854 to Utah from Denmark. Although Scandinavians settled in Sanpete County in great numbers, examples of architecture clearly reflecting Scandinavian design influences are not numerous. The Sorensen House is a notable exception.
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The one and a half story adobe house is significant as an American variant of an older Scandinavian folk house type, based on Swedish (Parstuga) and Danish (Tvllinghusor) three-room plan models. The Sanpete Scandinavians streamlined older designs to create an essentially new form - a three room "pair-house" type which looked back to earlier types while becoming a prototype in its own right. The Sorensen house epitomizes this ethnic side of Ephraim's character*. Note the horizontal emphasis of the facade and, despite its symmetry, the division of the interior into front three rooms, as indicated by the two chimneys over the inside walls.
The house was one of the first homes built outside Fort Ephraim, and it is an important example of vernacular architecture in the West, reflecting the environmental, ethnic, technological, and traditional aspects of life in an early Mormon settlement. The adobe exterior was originally plastered to simulate brick. The plaster was colored red, applied, and then scored to replicate brick flemish bond pattern*. On its 150th year anniversary, it retains most of the original construction materials and components including the oolitic limestone foundation, adobe brick, mud mortar, and mud plaster walls, red pine timber beams, plank ceilings and floors, glass paned windows, mill-work, doors and hardware, as well as important pieces of pioneer-era furniture original to the house.
The rear lean-to extension, also adobe, was added in the 1880's and provided more space that eventually housed the kitchen, bathroom, extra bedroom and an additional stairway to the upper floor. Beneath the house is a dirt cellar where vegetables and cured hams were stored. South of the house, the outhouse and granary still stand, but the large hay barn is gone, and livestock are no longer kept in the corral near the creek that runs through the lot. Sometimes referred to as Cottonwood Creek, it is the largest tributary of the Sanpitch River, named for a chief of the Sanpitch tribe.
Continued from home page:
The one and a half story adobe house is significant as an American variant of an older Scandinavian folk house type, based on Swedish (Parstuga) and Danish (Tvllinghusor) three-room plan models. The Sanpete Scandinavians streamlined older designs to create an essentially new form - a three room "pair-house" type which looked back to earlier types while becoming a prototype in its own right. The Sorensen house epitomizes this ethnic side of Ephraim's character*. Note the horizontal emphasis of the facade and, despite its symmetry, the division of the interior into front three rooms, as indicated by the two chimneys over the inside walls.
The house was one of the first homes built outside Fort Ephraim, and it is an important example of vernacular architecture in the West, reflecting the environmental, ethnic, technological, and traditional aspects of life in an early Mormon settlement. The adobe exterior was originally plastered to simulate brick. The plaster was colored red, applied, and then scored to replicate brick flemish bond pattern*. On its 150th year anniversary, it retains most of the original construction materials and components including the oolitic limestone foundation, adobe brick, mud mortar, and mud plaster walls, red pine timber beams, plank ceilings and floors, glass paned windows, mill-work, doors and hardware, as well as important pieces of pioneer-era furniture original to the house.
The rear lean-to extension, also adobe, was added in the 1880's and provided more space that eventually housed the kitchen, bathroom, extra bedroom and an additional stairway to the upper floor. Beneath the house is a dirt cellar where vegetables and cured hams were stored. South of the house, the outhouse and granary still stand, but the large hay barn is gone, and livestock are no longer kept in the corral near the creek that runs through the lot. Sometimes referred to as Cottonwood Creek, it is the largest tributary of the Sanpitch River, named for a chief of the Sanpitch tribe.
This pair house eventually accomodated Frederick’s four polygamous wives: Margrete Christensen, Cecilia Jensen, Jensine Christine Christensen, and Petrine Pedersen. The last two wives, Frederick Christian met on missions to Denmark. In 1862, Margrete divorced him and moved to Gunnison with their three daughters. Cecilia was wheel chair bound and bore no children, but she was a skilled seamstress, sewing for the family. Petrine gave birth to seven children only five of which lived to adulthood. In 1869, Jensine died in child birth and Emelia raised her daughter, Sophia Emelia. Emelia held the family together while Frederick Christian was called on missions to Denmark. It was said, she sat in the dooryard and sang in the evening, a talent passed on to her great-great-granddaughters. The home’s tall front door was open not only to Brigham Young, who was reported to have stayed there during visits to Sanpete County, but to the many souls who were birthed, sheltered and layed-out in the middle room at death. Frederick’s eldest son, Dykes Willard Sorensen and his wife Anna Neilsen Toft, lived in a dug-out their first winter in Sanpete and then stayed in the house while building their own home in Ephraim. Frederick died in 1891. Outliving Frederick and the other wives, Emelia Cecilia died in 1904. In 1907, George Willard Sorenson, son of Anna and Dykes, moved into the home with his wife, Jennie Caroline Blaine of Spring City, where they raised nine children. Besides her many duties as mother, chief cook and bottle washer, Jennie was a quilter, gardener, Relief Society secretary and lover of poetry and recitation, while George was a city councilman, cattleman, brand inspector and King Cowboy.
Electricity came to the house in 1920, and in 1937, son Kenneth and son-in-law Jess, put in a water heater and kitchen sink with running tap water. After hauling water all the years from the door yard hydrant, Jennie smiled behind tears of gratitude as she watched from the kitchen table. Indoor plumbing came soon after WWII. The house was originally heated with wood and coal stoves - ideal for the heat retentive quality of adobe. A forced air furnace was installed in 1985. In his later years, George Willard Sorenson asked daughter, Wanda Sorenson Bachman, to take responsibility for the home. Through the guidance of Tom Carter, Professor of Architectural History at the University of Utah, the house was nominated to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1980. The house is an important and enduring example of the longevity of natural, locally-sourced building materials and pioneer craftsmanship. The home is a continuing legacy for the Frederick Christian Sorensen family and Ephraim community.
-Researched and written by Betina Lindsey, 2013
*Excerpts from Thomas Carter
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