1872: Beginnings

The Lehi Ward Tithing Barn was originally built in 1872 as a feed and livery stable. It was located north of the Utah Southern Railroad Depot, near the present-day crossing of 200 East by Interstate 15. At that time the Utah Southern rail line terminated in Lehi. The stable’s owners furnished transportation for passengers and goods disembarking at the end of the line. When the Utah Southern rail line was extended to American Fork in 1873, business in Lehi declined. Consequently, the Lehi Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bought the barn, disassembled it, and moved it to the tithing yard on the north side of Main Street between 300 and 400 West, where it was reconstructed near Bishop David Evans’ property.

(Van Wagoner, R. S. 1997. A Guide to Lehi City’s Historical Sites and Places. Lehi Historical Preservation Commission, pgs. 19-20.)

1876 – Independence Day at Centennial Hall

In 1876, the United States celebrated its centennial. Community dances in Lehi were usually held in the Lehi Music Hall. But arrangements could not be made to hold the celebration there, so committee members fixed up the tithing barn for the festivities. Red pine logs cut in the Boulder Mountains west of Rush Valley were hauled to Cedar Fort and sawed into lumber. These thick, rough planks were then laid crosswise on sleeper beams of West Canyon timber, and a dance floor was ready. The barn was then bedecked with cedar boughs, flowers, bunting, flags, pictures, and mottos. “To say that it looked beautiful,” wrote Lehi native, Andrew Fjeld, “is putting it mildly for it looked like a veritable fairy palace.” Other events were also held in the barn which citizens thereafter called Centennial Hall.

Israel Evans’ family served ice cream, the first ever seen in Lehi. The treat was sold in 5 and 10 cent bowls. Because money was so scarce, many children asked for one dish with three spoons. Footraces, ice cream eating and dancing were not the only events held on that long-ago Independence Day. When the evening skies darkened, the first fireworks ever exploded in Lehi were set off. The unsuspecting crowd was startled by the bursting rockets. “[People] surged from one side of the tithing lot to the other like a herd of wild cattle in a stampede,” Andrew Fjeld later noted. “No one was hurt for the fire did not fall” and “all together the day was a glorious success from start to finish.”

(Van Wagoner, R. S. 1997. A Guide to Lehi City’s Historical Sites and Places. Lehi Historical Preservation Commission, pgs. 19-20.. Van Wagoner, R. S. 1990. Lehi Portraits of a Utah Town. Lehi City Corporation. p 268.)

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1880: Relocation

After Thomas R. Cutler replaced Bishop David Evans in 1879, one of his first official acts was to relocate the tithing yard near his house. Accordingly, Lehi’s second tithing yard became situated on the northwest corner of Sixth North and Second East. In 1880, the Tithing Barn was moved to its present location. The structure remains intact, though it was moved twice. A major portion of the historic barn still stands behind the Bruce Webb home.

(Van Wagoner, R. S. 1997. A Guide to Lehi City’s Historical Sites and Places. Lehi Historical Preservation Commission, pgs. 19-20.)

1890: Agricultural Offerings

The barn was but one of several agricultural outbuildings that composed the tithing yard. Sanborn Maps from 1890 show two wood frame sheds and a large root cellar on the property in addition to the barn and the tithing office with its attached granary to the rear of the building. A corral adjoined the barn to the northwest.

(National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, p. 3, 1998.)

1914: Things of the Past

On Nov. 12, 1914, Mrs. Robert Ball paid $120 in tithing with this check to the Lehi Tithing Office. In the years preceding World War I, the bartering nature of the American economy became essentially replaced by cash transactions. The need for a tithing yard with its barns, granaries, and corrals became a thing of the past.

(Van Wagoner, R. S. 1990. Lehi Portraits of a Utah Town. Lehi City Corporation. p 119.)

1931: End of a Era

By 1931, the last year Sanborn Maps were produced, the office had been removed and three houses built on the lot. The barn remains the only building of the original tithing yard to remain.

(National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, p. 3, 1998

1933: Credit in Cash

Though cash donations had replaced “in-kind” tithing contributions, the Great Depression of the 1930s made money scarce. Farm and garden produce were again accepted as tithing throughout the Lehi Stake. The Lehi Free Press of Sept. 28, 1933, specified that “credit in cash” would be given for the donated goods.

1998: Legacy

The Lehi Ward Tithing Barn/Centennial Hall was put on the National Register of Historic Places.

(National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, p. 3, 1998.)

Today

Bruce and Dina Shaw Webb purchased their home at 651 N. 200 East in 1973. They did not know the significance of the barn until years later when Lehi historian, Carl Mellor, informed them. Records show the property of their home was deeded to the Lehi Ward of the Utah Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1881, not too long after Thomas R. Cutler was called to be the second bishop of the ward in 1879. The Church owned the property until 1917.

Bruce, a retired BYU agronomy and horticulture scientist, said, “We have been the beneficiary of the soil from the corrals,” of the Tithing Yard. “The sand makes for a good garden spot.” He explained that when the property was the Tithing Yard, sand would have been brought in to help control the mud in the corrals. Today, his sandy, shady spot has made a wonderful garden.

(Lara Bangerter, “Conversation With Bruce Webb,” May 28, 2025.)