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The Beehive House Photo courtesy of Derek J. Tangren

The Beehive House was Brigham Young's primary residence while serving as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and governor of the Utah Territory. The house is named for the beehive which adorns the top of the structure and represents the strong work ethic exhibited by the early Saints as they labored to establish the State of Deseret.

Truman O. Angell, architect of the Salt Lake Temple, assisted President Young in the design of the home. Upon its completion in 1854, Mary Ann Angell Young and Lucy Decker Young, two of President Young's wives, moved into the Beehive House.¹

The Beehive House served as the location where President Young would entertain distinguished guests and others who visited the early Salt Lake community including Mark Twain, Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, and P.T. Barnum.² It contained a total of fourteen rooms, which were often occupied with visitors and guests.

After President Brigham Young's death in 1877, the Young family maintained the Beehive House until it was sold to the Church. For a time, the house was the offiical residence of the President of the Church and both Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith lived in the home. It was in this house that President Joseph F. Smith sat pondering in his personal study and received Section 138 of the Doctrine & Covenants.³

On July 13, 1920, the Beehive House became a boarding house for young women. It remained such until the late 1950s when it was renovated and reopened in 1961 as a museum.⁴

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SOURCES

¹ Clarissa Young Spencer, Brigham Young at Home (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1961), 36.

² "The Beehive House Is a Gospel Sermon," LDS Church News, June 10, 1989.

³ "Ponder Over the Scriptures," LDS Church News, October 28, 1989.

⁴ "Passing Events," Improvement Era, Volume 23, No. 11, (September 1920).