If you have spent time in downtown Salt Lake City in recent years, you likely have noticed scaffolding around the Lion and Beehive Houses on Temple Square. Part of a restoration project that encompasses structural improvements and preservation work, these buildings have undergone some very complicated evaluations and remain a work in progress.
Once the home and offices of Brigham Young—who served as territorial governor and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—these buildings hold general interest. Nearly bulldozed for a parking garage in the 1960s, if not for the church’s then-Young Women leader Florence Jacobsen (1913-2017), the Lion and Beehive Houses stand among us today as emblems of a time, of a place and, particularly, of an important historical figure.
They will go on and be treasured by countless people, but the man who once occupied them remains somewhat elusive, which is unfortunate, given his entwined place in our understanding of ourselves as a city and state. Having worked extensively with Young’s papers, I have noticed this disconnect especially in our relations with one another—itself a work in progress…