Clarkston Tithing Granary

Around 1905, the Clarkston Tithing Granary was built as part of a larger tithing lot serving the agricultural community of Clarkston. At the time, cash could be scarce in rural Utah. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints frequently paid tithing "in kind" by contributing a portion of what they produced. Grain and other farm products could therefore become tithing just as money could. Communities throughout Utah developed tithing lots to handle these contributions. A typical lot could contain a tithing office, granary, and other auxiliary buildings needed to receive, store, and distribute agricultural products. These facilities became much more than storage areas. In agricultural settlements such as Clarkston, tithing lots functioned as important centers of trade, economic activity, and welfare assistance. They were also local links in a much larger Church-wide tithing network centered in Salt Lake City. The Clarkston complex did not survive intact. During the 1950s, the other buildings on the tithing lot were demolished, leaving the granary as the surviving structure. Its survival became increasingly significant as similar tithing buildings disappeared across Utah. In recognition of its historical importance, the Clarkston Tithing Granary was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 25, 1985. It was included as part of a statewide study documenting the surviving tithing offices and granaries associated with the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century in-kind tithing system. Eventually the Doug and Ruth Clark family donated the granary to the Martin Harris Camp of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. On September 8, 2018, preservationists moved the historic building from its former location near 94 South 100 East to its present location on West Center Street. Moving the structure provided a setting where the deteriorating granary could be preserved and interpreted. The granary was restored and adapted as a Daughters of Utah Pioneers satellite museum. Today the Clarkston Heritage D.U.P. Museum contains artifacts gathered from the surrounding area that tell the story of Clarkston and its residents. Even the historical marker incorporates part of the building's earlier history: stone from the granary's original foundation was reused in creating the marker. Daughters of Utah Pioneers Historical Marker #592 was dedicated in 2022. Together, the marker, restored granary, and museum preserve a rare physical reminder of an economic and religious system that once played an important role in everyday life throughout Utah's pioneer communities.

From the mid-nineteenth century until roughly 1910, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operated an extensive system for receiving tithing contributions in kind. This system was particularly practical in Utah's agricultural communities, where families might produce crops, livestock, and other goods while possessing relatively little cash. Instead of paying every contribution with money, members could donate agricultural products. Local tithing lots were developed to receive and manage these goods. They commonly included a tithing office, granary, and auxiliary structures. Goods could be stored, distributed for welfare assistance, exchanged, or incorporated into the larger Church tithing network. Because of this role, a tithing lot often became an important economic center within a settlement. The system connected religious practice with the agricultural economy of everyday community life. As Utah's economy became increasingly cash-based during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the need for in-kind tithing facilities declined. The system largely disappeared, and many of the buildings associated with it were demolished, converted to other purposes, or deteriorated. The Clarkston Tithing Granary survived this transition. Its rarity was formally recognized when it was included in a statewide National Register study of historic Latter-day Saint tithing offices and granaries and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The building's relocation and restoration in 2018 preserved that history while allowing the granary to take on a new role as an interpretive site and local museum.