The John Y. Smith House was constructed in 1903 at 518 N. 100 East in Lehi. A significant businessman, civic leader and Utah state senator, Smith built the house for his residence and lived there until 1911. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on Dec. 4, 1998.

The unknown designer of the home freely combined popular styles of the period to create a Victorian form with Colonial Revival elements. According to the house’s registration form for the National Register of Historic Places, the “wood Tuscan-style columns [of the porch], paired and mounted on paneled wood boxes [to] support a dentelle classical cornice and flat roof,” were common Colonial Revival elements on Victorian Eclectic structures. The home is an example of the substantial houses built in Lehi at the beginning of the 20th century as Lehi matured into a thriving agricultural, industrial and transportation center in Utah County.

John Y. and his wife, Emerette Cutler, built the home in the business district that quickly sprang up when the Utah Southern Railroad reached Lehi in 1872. Emerette was one of 12 children of Laura E. Coons and Thomas R. Cutler, Lehi’s most prominent and successful citizen of the time and the second bishop of the Lehi Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her parents’ 15-room Cutler Mansion, located at 150 E. State St., was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and is located a block north of this house.

In 1900, Smith was appointed manager of Saratoga Springs, the popular resort on Utah Lake, following its purchase by the Utah Sugar Company. He was manager for only a short time before he moved to other commercial interests. By 1905, Smith was a partner in the Union Hotel, Lehi Roller Mills, the Standard Knitting Company and the Kenley Clay Beds of Cedar Valley. Primarily, however, he was the cashier of the Lehi Commercial and Savings Bank, which became the People’s Bank of Lehi.

Smith was a founding member of the Lehi Silver Band and the leader until 1897, when he left Lehi to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was city attorney from 1901-1904, a charter member of the Lehi Commercial Club in 1905 and elected to the Utah State Senate in 1906, serving from 1907 until 1911. The Smiths left Lehi in 1911 and moved to Salt Lake City.

Mrs. Samuel A. Smith owned the home until 1920. During this time, the house became Lehi’s first hospital, though it only remained so for a few months. In March of 1914, Dr. Fred Worlton, rented the house for use as a hospital, opening the facility in June 1914.

The Worltons lived on the first floor while four rooms on the second floor functioned as patient rooms and an operating room. After just four months, the hospital was moved to the Cutler Mansion on State Street.

In 1920, Ruth Pearl Fowler Cutler and her husband John Franklin Cutler bought the house from Mrs. Smith. In 1925 the Cutlers sold the house to Israel L. Lott. The Lott family owned the house until 1951.

In 1964, Glade L. and Laurelle Dalton purchased the house. They remained there until 1985. Through the years, the house remained in a largely original state though in the 1970s, the Daltons constructed a one-story addition to the east side of the house to store Glade’s collection of antique cars.

In 1984, portions of the movie Footloose were filmed in the house.

Today

Jess and Shaylie George Green purchased the home in 2012, According to Jess, “Funny enough, we’ve tried to keep everything as original as possible instead of new and modern.”

The John Y. Smith House historical marker was unveiled on Sept. 10, 2025, at 518 N. 100 East. It was the 13th marker installed in the Lehi Historical Marker Program.

Information taken from the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places registration form for Smith, John Y. and Emerette C. House, 5 November 1998.https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/98001452_text, accessed 14 July 2025.