Thomas H. Austin, a wealthy livestock rancher, built this elaborate home in 1901, at a cost of $4,000.

According to the house’s nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places on which it was placed on July 22, 1982, “The house draws its significance from its association with Austin and as the best example in Lehi of Victorian domestic architecture. At a time when eclecticism and irregularity in house design was at a premium, the Austin House projects an asymmetry of massing and mixing of historical details which is truly exceptional.”

When the house was built, it was fashionable to mix and match architectural practices, including the Queen Anne, Eastlake and Stick styles. This led to “a preoccupation with visual complexity … with architects freely choosing among many diverse historical periods for suitable elements of composition and decoration.”

It appears a pattern book was used as a starting point for the home, “however, the irregularity of massing and unusual combination of various motifs indicate that it is more than likely a unique composition.”

The nomination form goes on to say, “The Austin House seemingly takes both main facets of the [Victorian] design model to their extremes: the floor plan and roof outline of the house are self-consciously asymmetrical and complex (there are few straight lines left intact for the eye to follow), while the mixing of Classical and Queen Anne exterior motifs is both unusual and invigorating. Only the use of masonry walls prevents the attainment of the third architectural principle the texturing of wall surfaces. In all, the Thomas Austin House in Lehi is a fine extant example of Victorian architecture in Utah.”

Austin was born in 1864 in England and came to Lehi in 1868 with his parents after they joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By the mid-1890s, Austin was a successful rancher of Lehi sheep and cattle. In 1896, Austin employed 35 men to shear an estimated 5000-6000 area sheep in his corrals west of Lehi. The following year, 40,000 sheep were sheared between the Austin and Webb corrals. It was estimated the endeavor brought more than $60,000 into the area, “and many people around here [had] wool money to show.”

In 1914, Austin Brothers and his brothers purchased the Saratoga Springs/Saratoga Resort area with the intent to develop the resort’s surrounding property into lake frontage lots for “residential purposes at fancy prices.” The idea never materialized.

Austin married Lehi native Mary Eleanor Thomas on Sept. 2, 1887. When the couple built the home, they had seven children with three more to come. The home stayed in the family until 1927.[6]

After the death of Thomas Austin in 1923, the home was sold to Charles and Geneve Mercer who owned the property until 1948.

From 1948 to 1975, the property changed hands four times.

Today

C. Wesley and Geraldine Dalley purchased the home in 1975. At the time, the structure had been converted into an apartment building. For 20 years, they worked to remove partitions, exterior paint and coverings over the transom windows. They lowered ceilings and scraped old paint and wallpaper off the walls. 

They tracked down the stained-glass windows that had been sold to a local shop and repurchased them. They installed new door and window casings suitable for the era of the home as well as new furnaces, new plumbing, new bathrooms and so forth. Outside work included planting 100 blue haven trees and laying 20,000 red bricks to form a patio and two driveways. The labor of love was finally finished with the installation of new hardwood floors and carpet.[ii]

Under the ownership of the Dalleys, the Merrihew Building at 98 W. Main St., was also placed on the National Register of Historic Places, securing its preservation for generations to come.