Deseret Relief Society Hall

The small wooden building standing beside Highway 257 in Deseret represents an unusually important piece of Utah women's history. Its story began decades before the present hall was constructed. Deseret itself had experienced a difficult beginning. Settlers first attempted to establish the community along the Sevier River in 1860, when they constructed a dam to make irrigation agriculture possible. For several years, nature repeatedly defeated those efforts. Between 1862 and 1868, dams broke repeatedly, destroying crops. Combined with concerns about conflict with Native peoples, these agricultural failures eventually caused most settlers to abandon the area. For several years, only a few stockmen remained during the winters. Permanent settlement resumed in 1875 after construction of a dam finally provided a dependable enough water supply for crops to be successfully raised and harvested. As Deseret became established again, residents rebuilt the institutions necessary for a permanent community. The local Latter-day Saint ward was reestablished in 1877. On September 7 of that year, sixteen women organized the Deseret Relief Society. Mary Ann Warren became president, with Bell Lambert and Victory Black serving as counselors. At first, the women met in one another's homes. That arrangement did not last long. In 1878, under the leadership of a new president, Eliza Whicker, the women constructed a large one-room adobe Relief Society hall. The building provided the organization with a permanent home where women could meet, organize charitable work, and support their community. Relief Society responsibilities extended far beyond weekly religious meetings. Deseret's women stored wheat, cared for the sick, supported families in need, raised money for missionaries, contributed to temple construction, and performed many services that today might be provided by government agencies, medical institutions, or charitable organizations. By 1894, the women decided they needed a new Relief Society hall. They began carefully raising and saving money for the project. Then they received another request. The Church's General Relief Society leadership in Salt Lake City was raising money for a General Relief Society Hall. Rather than keep their savings for themselves, the Deseret women contributed the money they had accumulated toward the Salt Lake project. Their own building would have to wait. Eventually the women began again. Under the leadership of Deseret Relief Society president Amelia Cahoon, plans moved forward for the hall that survives today. William V. Black and Victoria Black donated a lot across the street and east of the ward chapel. The old adobe Relief Society hall was sold. Women raised additional funds, while men of the local ward volunteered construction labor. The new building was completed in 1906. It was modest in size—approximately 24 feet wide and 38 feet long—but considerably more architecturally refined than its simple dimensions might suggest. The wood-frame hall rested on a stone foundation and incorporated elements of Victorian Eclectic design. Its entrance porch provided most of the decorative detail. Lathe-turned columns and spindled brackets reflected Queen Anne influence, while cornice returns introduced a Classical element. The project represented a significant financial investment for a small rural community. Historical accounts associated with the DUP marker give construction costs of $743.65 for the hall and an additional $21 for an outhouse. National Register documentation provides an even more detailed accounting of the women's expenses, including the building itself, cupboards, gas lights, an organ, stove, and fence. From 1906 through 1934, the hall served as the center of Deseret Relief Society activity. Women gathered here for meetings, but the building quickly became important to the entire community. Socials, dances, plays, and other entertainment took place inside. The hall's versatility became especially important during emergencies. In 1929, Deseret's church building burned. The Relief Society Hall again became a place for regular church services while the community dealt with the loss. When the A.C. Nelson School was partially damaged by fire, public school classes were temporarily conducted in the hall. Boy Scouts later used it for meetings. The building also hosted picture shows and town dances. National Register records indicate that it even served a health-care role, including use as a clinic. When a new ward building was completed in 1934, regular Relief Society activities moved out of the hall. But the building's usefulness continued. At one point an upholstery business occupied it. Beginning around 1965, the Deseret Irrigation Company used the hall for business meetings and storage. Eventually the building's historical importance became increasingly apparent. By the 1990s, many of Utah's once-common Relief Society halls had disappeared. These buildings had been created specifically for local women's organizations during a period when Relief Societies performed critical religious, charitable, health, economic, and social functions in Utah communities. The Deseret hall had survived remarkably intact. On February 7, 1995, the Deseret Irrigation Company deeded the property to the Fanny Powell Cropper Camp of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. That same year, the hall received national recognition. On December 13, 1995, the Deseret Relief Society Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Mormon Church Buildings in Utah multiple-property listing. The National Register recognized the building's importance in architecture, religion, social history, and education. Restoration allowed the hall to return to a purpose remarkably similar to the one for which it had been constructed: preserving community connections and women's history. The Fanny Powell Cropper Camp erected a DUP historical marker at the property in 2008. That marker was labeled #553. However, #553 was also assigned within the DUP system to Pass of the Standing Rock in Idaho. The current International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers directory explicitly acknowledges the duplication and lists Deseret Relief Society Hall without an assigned marker number. Today the building survives at its original Deseret location. More than a century after local women sacrificed their first building fund to support a larger Relief Society project, the hall remains a remarkably tangible monument to their persistence. They raised the money twice, organized the project, secured donated land and labor, and created a building that ultimately served not just themselves but generations of their neighbors.

Deseret developed along the Sevier River in western Millard County, an environment where permanent agricultural settlement depended almost entirely upon successful irrigation. The first settlement attempt began in 1860 with construction of a dam. Repeated dam failures between 1862 and 1868 devastated crops and contributed to the temporary abandonment of the community. Successful resettlement began in 1875 after residents finally established irrigation works capable of sustaining agriculture. The Deseret Ward was reorganized in 1877, and its Relief Society followed on September 7 of that year. This occurred during a period when local Relief Societies throughout Utah were assuming increasingly important roles. The Relief Society had originally been founded in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1842. After Latter-day Saint migration west, local Relief Societies were reorganized in Utah communities during the nineteenth century. In isolated agricultural settlements, women's organizations could become essential community institutions. Before modern welfare programs, hospitals, professional social services, and extensive government assistance, Relief Society women provided food, clothing, nursing assistance, funeral preparation, emergency supplies, and other forms of aid. Many local Relief Societies eventually constructed halls of their own. These buildings provided women with dedicated spaces for meetings and charitable work at a time when most major public and religious buildings were controlled primarily by male institutions. The Deseret women first constructed an adobe hall in 1878. Their surviving 1906 building belongs to a later generation of more substantial Relief Society halls. Its architecture also reflects the transition occurring in rural Utah around the turn of the twentieth century. Although fundamentally simple and practical, its Victorian Eclectic details—especially the Queen Anne-influenced porch—showed that even a small rural meeting hall could incorporate popular architectural styles. The hall's subsequent history demonstrates how buildings in small communities frequently served whatever function was most urgently needed. It became a church when the church burned, a school when the school was damaged, a Boy Scout meeting place, entertainment hall, business space, storage building, and eventually a historic preservation site. Its 1995 National Register listing formally recognized that history. The building now stands as evidence of both Deseret's persistence as a community and the substantial role women played in building and maintaining Utah's pioneer settlements.