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Show AUGUST 1995 PARK CITY’S grinding late-night session during 12 years on the Park GROWING PAINS City One Man But Watts SURRENDERS HIS FIGHT AGAINST DEVELOPMENT By David Hampshire BB: you ask yourself when the sign first went up. Naw, there’s some mistake here. Burnis Watts is as much a part of the community as that house, that garage. What do you mean he wants to tear them down? Like it or not, applications to demolish historic structures in Park City aren’t that uncommon. But most of them fit a pattern: 1. Rich guy from out of state buys adjoining Old Town lots with nice views. 2. One lot happens to contain an old miner’s cabin, recently occupied by a bunch of ski bums. 3. Rich guy tells the city he wants to bulldoze the cabin — which has no foundation, no stud walls and a leaky roof — and build a 3,000-square-foot chalet. 4. City makes him jump through all the hoops, but finally, reluctantly, gives him a demolition permit. 5. City loses another historic home. If you’re a member of the group that reviews these cases — the Park City Historic District Commission — you'd like to save ‘em all. But you also have to recognize economic realities. So you wince, shake your head and move on to the next item. But the case of Burnis and Betty Watts and 703 Park Ave. has stopped everyone cold in their tracks. Burnis and Betty Watts, both native Utahns, moved to Park City in 1964. Burnis had been named superintendent of the Park City School District. He served in that position for three years, then took a job with the Utah State Office of Education in Salt Lake City. But Park City remained home to the Watts. One of the best in Park City In 1970, Burnis and Betty bought one of the best — if not the best — preserved mining-era resi- dences in town. The two-story box house at 703 Park Ave. was built about 1907 by Ellsworth J. Beggs, local contractor and one-time member of the Park City Council. Beggs is perhaps best known as the man who built the Summit County Courthouse in Coalville. A 1984 research paper on the Beggs house by the Utah State Historical Society noted that all the remaining examples of the two-story box house were “on prominent sites along Park Avenue, (once) the most prestigious street in Park City.” In an unpretentious mining town where the one-story miner’s cabin was the norm, this was “more than a utilitarian dwelling,” it said. E Planning Commission. He also served on the board of adjustments and the sewer district and ran for mayor in 1985. When the Park Record newspaper profiled Watts in a 1986 story, the writer concluded the piece by saying, “He’s as solid as Park City.” So, when Watts applied for a permit to demolish his house and garage last summer, more than a few people in town simply couldn't believe it. other words, EJ. Beggs was try- ing to make a statement. A photograph taken about 1930 by Park City photographer Pop Jenks show an aging EJ. Beggs and his wife on their front porch, the house framed by majestic cottonwoods, a rarity in an area where most of the mature trees had been devoured by the mines. Unfortunately, those cottonwoods later were cut down, apparently to allow the construction of a sidewalk PAGE it was no bluff, insists. “I’ve lost my real reason to be here,” he said from his living room that looks out onto Park Avenue. “I wanted to live here. I wanted this part of town to Burnis Watts, long-time Park City Resident. remain historically significant. But it's been now modified to on the west side of the street. the point where (it) isn’t conducive Unlike many of Park City’s other to this neighborhood or the lifestyle historic houses, the Watts home sits that I enjoy, or want. I don’t like all on a solid foundation. Inside, the this impact. wood trim and wainscoting may well “We've lost our residential, have been installed by EJ. Beggs because there are no families left, himself. permanent families living here, that North of the house stands the old I'm aware of, in this immediate livery stable, believed to have been area.” built by Beggs and later converted Burnis described a neighborinto a garage. The building is a hood that, in 1970, was still rooted in favorite of photographers because of its mining past. its weathered facade, its different lay“It was very low key,” he says. “It ers of paint representing different was just strictly residential. It was the owners of the garage. The sign main artery into town, of course. But wanted to live here. But it’s been now modified to the point where (it) isn’t conducive to this lifestyle that I enjoy, or want. I don’t like all this impact. painter was Axel Fletcher, who once lived across the street. Later, his son, Mel, could and watch sit in his front window as Mother Nature undid his father’s work. As the layers of paint flaked off, one at a time, they would reveal an earlier work underneath, like the work of an old master being restored by an art historian. the impact of traffic was minimal.” On the opposite side of Park Avenue — next to the two modest miners’ houses occupied by the Mel Fletcher family and Mel’s mother, Blanche — was a large tract of vacant land bisected by railroad tracks leading to the Union Pacific Depot. A block to the north towered the 80-foot-high Silver King Coalition Building, the old ore-loading station, abandoned but revered by both oldtimers and newcomers. Half a block to the south stood the Eley Garage, now the Kimball Art Center. Today, it’s a different place. In July 1981, the majestic old Coalition Building burned in a blaze so intense that it scorched houses on the other side of Park Avenue. Some of the most dramatic photographs of the fire were taken by Watts himself. A few of them hang on the wall in his living room, a constant reminder of mining’s fading presence in Park City. Historic nature fading As Park City began its dramatic transformation from struggling mining town to upscale ski resort, few people were more involved than Burnis Watts. He endured many 8 Almost Depot was another fire; arson, but made. four years later, the partially destroyed in investigators suspected no arrests were ever Continued on page 9 |