LDS Church 1932-1998**Milford City Governmental Office 1998-2018
26 South 100 West, Milford Utah
History of Building
In March of 1932 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ward membership had grown and the need for a larger church was apparent. A public meeting was held to arouse interest and to organize a committee for the planning and building of a new chapel in Milford. The house was crowded to overflowing. The question, “Do the members of the Milford Ward want a new chapel?”. This was put to vote and the favorable vote carried unanimously. In this meeting they started the slogan “We want a New Chapel within Six Months or Bust.”
The church ward planned to raise $5,000 cash and donate $5,000 in labor and the Church Headquarters would be giving $10,000. Arrangements for the erection of the new Milford LDS chapel started progressing rapidly. The Committee quickly began planning and considering two sites for the New LDS Chapel.
*On May 19, 1932, the Committee met to discuss a proposal of using the tufa stone from the Murdock Academy Building in Beaver, Utah to construct the new chapel. This splendid building, which was owned by the Mormon Church and Murdock heirs, was rapidly going into decay.
* The Murdock Academy School was established at Fort Cameron at the mouth of Beaver Canyon as Beaver Branch of Brigham Young Academy, 1898, and later functioned as a branch of Brigham Young University. The name was changed to Murdock Academy in 1911, and the academy was closed in 1922. The school offered a high school course, an agricultural course, and domestic science courses.
On July 7, 1932 the building site was selected in Milford. The site was the former home of the first elementary school and later the Sloan Apartment House which was located at 26 South 100 West. The old Sloan Apartment House was still standing; therefore they demolished the apartment building and used stored materials from the apartment building so it could be used in the new chapel.
On July 28, 1932 the Milford LDS Ward was deeded one-half interest of the old Murdock Academy building to allow for the brick to be used to construct a new LDS Chapel in Milford. On August 1, 1932 a large number of men arrived in Beaver to raze the old Murdock Academy. A camp was setup in the Fort Cameron Building and the local relief society prepared meals for the men razing the old Murdock Academy. It was reported that the beautiful red tufa stone started to arrive in Milford on August 25, 1932. The stone was being delivered to Milford for .30 cents per ton. It was a big job getting the salvaged material to Milford. The weight of the block caused strain on the trucks, trailer and tires. Every stone brought to Milford had to be cut and trimmed, so an experienced rock cutter was sent from Salt Lake City to assist with the job.
New Chapel Plans
The plan and specifications for the new chapel was an assembly room that will seat 255 in addition to a choir of 30. There would be an amusement hall 33’ x 54’ which, when the doors between were opened, it would accommodate over 500 people. The amusement hall would contain a modern stage and stand equipment. There would be five class rooms on the upper floor and three on the lower floor. A relief society room was planned which would be equipped with a kitchen and other conveniences. The exterior of the building would be red stone secured from the Murdock Academy building, the total cost of the new ward chapel would be between $27,000 and $30,000.
Construction of New Chapel in Milford
On September 8, 1932 the excavation for the new chapel was underway and construction had begun. Considerable material obtained in the Murdock Academy building was still being hauled to Milford. On October 16, 1932 the corner stone was laid. Countless hours were spent constructing the new chapel in Milford. It was reported that the Quarterly Conference Session was held in the new Milford Chapel on August 18, 1934.
Due to the depression, the Milford LDS Chapel was not paid off in full and formally dedicated until June 30, 1940.
First Addition
The beautiful tufa stone building served all the needs for the Milford LDS Church until 1966 when the two Milford wards had increased, therefore the old building could no longer accommodate the programs and activities of both wards. On October 17, 1966, a remodel and expansion project of the Milford chapel begun. It was to be completed in 180 days at a cost of approximately $134,000.
Construction of the new facilities were completed in 1968 at a cost of $140,000. The dedication of the remodeled chapel took place on January 31, 1971.
Second Addition
On July 22, 1980, plans were approved for remodeling the ward building and adding more classrooms. On September 7, 1982, the contract for the addition to the ward building was awarded at a cost of $277,418. It included 10 additional classrooms and changes in other parts of the building as well as all furnishings.
The tufa stone building with two additions served as the Milford LDS Church until 1998.
Milford City Governmental Building
In 1998, the Milford City Governmental Entities moved into the former LDS Church located at 26 South 100 West. The former LDS Church housed the Milford City Offices, the Beaver County Sheriff’s Department (Milford Offices), the Justice Court and Milford DMV Office as well as various civic functions until April of 2015, when the building was abandoned due to health and safety concerns from the severe bat infestation.
End of Service
In June 2011, a roof collapse led to the discovery of a severe bat infestation in the attic spaces of the building. City Staff soon began experiencing health impacts as a result of the bat guano and odors. Despite extensive efforts to clean up the infestation and seal the building from further intrusions, the bats continued to return and the problem only worsened. After consulting with several experts, the City learned that a full scale remediation and renovation to resolve the bat problem and bring the building up to current codes could cost millions of dollars. Due to the lack of availability of public funding for renovations, and the continued health impacts from the building’s condition, the Milford City Council decided that the building was no longer safe and removed its staff from the building in March of 2015. Subsequently, the City obtained funding to construct a new City Administrative Building on the same site following the demolition of the original LDS Church/Milford City Office Building.
All information provided came from various history books; An Appointed Place,
Milford First 100 Years and the Monuments of Courage.
Additional Photo Image Source: Church History Library and Sunrise Engineering.
For more information visit the Historic LDS Architecture Blog