Encircle Home receives restoration awards – Daily Herald

Since opening on Feb. 14 of this year, the Encircle LGBTQ Family and Youth Resource Center has received a lot of attention.

Some of that recognition was by two historical organizations for the masterful way the group has restored the William D. Alexander House at 91 W. 200 South in Provo.

Josh Yost, preservation planner in the Provo Community Development office, nominated the Encircle home to receive the Provo Landmarks Commissions Provo Preservation Award, and the Heritage Award for Adaptive Use, given by Preservation Utah.

The Alexander house has been one of the standout historic homes in downtown Provo for many years. The house was built in 1891 and has had various owners over the years, as well as gaps of vacancy.

It is a rare Utah example of the decorative Stick Style, and also combines Eastlake porches, and Queen Anne shingling, wrote Yost in his description of the home in the nomination application.

The house is distinguished by this eclectic style, its unusual wall dormers with rounded bottoms, and its unusual orientation with three corner porches.

The Eastlake styling is the same architectural design used in the Provo Tabernacle and, most recently, the restoration of the Tabernacle into the Provo City Center Temple.

Yost added the building was in good original condition, the house is basically unaltered.

The Stick Style was one of the two most purely American styles of the nineteenth century, Yost stated. The geometric pattern of crossing horizontal and vertical sticks on this house is reminiscent of Japanese framing as seen in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia which influenced the Stick and later Prairie styles, and may have been an influence in this house.

Architectural designer Jared Connors said this was the most restoration he has ever done on a project.

It was beat up, Connors said. Obviously we wanted to keep it the way it was, just clean it. We celebrate its history.

Connors said the same ideas were a metaphor that applied to those who would find peace in this house. It would be a place to discover who you are under all the waxed and worn surfaces.

According to Yost, several steps were needed to get the building up to restoration standards including cleaning and repairing parts of the house, and removing non-historic elements, such as wall and floor coverings, a jetted tub, exposed ducting and trim. There were also upgrades to electrical and mechanical systems and reconfiguring the main floor service area to accommodate an ADA-accessible restroom.

By following their desire to leave it alone Encircle completed the interior rehabilitation while making only limited changes and maintaining a patina of age and use that enhances the sense of historic authenticity experienced in the house, Yost wrote in his nominations.

Yost continued, Encircles work and long-term commitment to the property has already created a sense of stable investment in the surrounding area and will ensure the continued use and preservation of this unique house long into the future.

Companies and individuals that helped in the restoration of the Alexander House include Dean Peterson of Demar Construction, Jared Connors of Connors Design, Mountain Land Design, Arizona Tile, Juilliard Rivas, Holly Alden and the John Williams Memorial Foundation.

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Encircle Home receives restoration awards - Daily Herald