City restores details of building's small-town past
By Susan Whitney
Deseret Morning News
In the application for the National Register of Historic Places, the American Fork City Hall is described as having a "provincial yet earnest manner."
Kim Raff, Deseret Morning NewsA replica belfry will soon be placed on the new roof of the reconstructed City Hall. These days, Juel Belmont can't remember exactly who wrote those words. The City Hall made it onto the National Register back in 1994, so the application was prepared a dozen years ago, and several people helped write it. Over the years, lots of folks have worked to save the building.
Belmont says Wilson Martin may have been the one to notice the building presents itself in a "provincial yet earnest manner." Or it may have been Roger Roper who wrote those words.
But most likely, Belmont says, she herself wrote them. "Because buildings are speaking to me all the time," she says.
Of course buildings do go silent once they are torn down — and Belmont can recite a list of historic buildings in American Fork whose voices she will never hear again. The Carnegie Library, the LDS Tithing Office, Chipman's Mercantile, the old high school ... "I've certainly lost a lot more than I've saved," she says.
This summer, however, she can celebrate. The restored City Hall will reopen in a month or so. It is the largest success to date for the American Fork Historic Preservation Commission.
The Salt Lake firm of Cooper Roberts Simonsen Architects is in charge of the restoration, and architect Allen Roberts recently showed the Deseret Morning News through the building. Roberts says the cost is coming in at less than $1 million. He notes that, at $100 a square foot, the restoration costs significantly less than new construction of a comparable building.
The hall was well worth saving, Roberts says. "It was built in 1903 and is probably one of the oldest continuously used city halls in the state."
The City Hall sits just north of Main Street, next to the 1894 Harrington School. The old Community Presbyterian Church is across the way. This part of town has been the ecclesiastic and government center since the 1850s, when American Fork was first farmed and platted.
Kim Raff, Deseret Morning NewsJuel Belmont is the chairwoman of the American Fork Historic Preservation Commission. Church and government often shared offices in the small towns of the Utah Territory. (That must have made life easier for people like Leonard Harrington, who served simultaneously for 29 years as American Fork's mayor, postmaster and LDS bishop.) After Utah became a state in 1896, even small cities and counties built separate structures for their government offices.
The blueprints for the 2 1/2-story American Fork City Hall were drawn up by James Pulley, for which he charged $50. The building measures 50 feet by 50 feet. The east and west sides are identical, framed by Romanesque arches. The foundation is made of limestone, and the walls are masonry, faced in red brick. When it was first built, the hip roof sported a belfry with Queen Anne trimmings.
Beginning in 1916, the building was painted white. It was sandblasted in 1977, which restored its original color but also removed a portion of the brick, leaving it open to more rapid weathering. At that time, too, mortar was repaired with caulking.
In 1959, the belfry was removed. Some say it had to go so air conditioning could be installed. Roberts says another reason the belfry may have been removed is that belfries are heavy and the roof may have been starting to sag. Interior remodelings in 1959 and 1977 further obscured the original features. Several original doors and windows were removed. Other windows were covered or painted shut.
Still, the City Hall is structurally sound for a building of its period, Roberts adds. When the restoration began, he found no cracks in the walls or foundations. The original stairs were still in good condition, as were the newel posts. The majority of the original windows were still in place.
Kim Raff, Deseret Morning NewsSome of the windows on the second floor had been blocked. Renovators took down the false ceilings and restored it to one big room. This restoration includes seismic upgrades, a renovated secondary staircase and a new roof, designed to support the belfry. The 1977 caulking has been replaced with limestone mortar. Windows have been restored. The restoration has resulted in a building that is 467 percent better insulated, according to the architects.
Contractors took down the false ceilings and discovered that much of the original tin ceiling was still in place. They discovered patches of the original paint, in dark Victorian gold and black, and they found a deep green, as well — probably from the '20s, Belmont speculates. The bell tower's original tin finial was found in the attic, and carpenters used it to design a replica.
Roberts believes people will say "wow" when they first walk into the upper floor. For as long as anyone can remember, the square second floor was divided into tiny offices with low ceilings. Now it is one big room again, with more than 20 tall windows and with bead board and millworked moldings and other pretty details.
The City Council will meet in this room, which can hold at least 100 people. The space will also be used for small concerts and receptions. In addition, the American Fork Arts Council, which will have offices on the first floor, will use the second floor for classes.
Belmont can't help but think everyone who stands in this sunny, high-ceilinged space will hear a whisper from the past. If they don't, there is always the bell. If they hear nothing else, people will hear the bell.
When the belfry was taken down, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers were given the bell, and they placed it in a park. Under their bylaws, Belmont says, they can't give the bell back to the city, but they can allow it to be placed in a new location. Thus in a week or so, the newly constructed replica of the belfry will go atop the City Hall, and the old bell will be placed inside and will ring once again.
Kim Raff, Deseret Morning NewsA craftsman works on one of the Victorian Romanesque windows at American Fork City Hall. A new generation will mark its days with that bell, just as Belmont's mother's generation did. Belmont says her mother, Lois Peters Andersen, told of listening for the bell every morning as she walked to school. If the bell rang before she got to the river, she knew she'd be late.
Belmont's mother passed away this June. So Belmont is especially glad today's schoolchildren will be able to know the City Hall and its bell and its charm. She will think of her mother on the day City Hall reopens — new again, after 103 years.
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Sources: Utah History Encyclopedia
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