If you’ve ever complained about the winter slush in Salt Lake City and dreamed of heading south to St. George, you’re basically following in the footsteps of a prophet. Honestly, Brigham Young was Utah’s original snowbird. Long before the golf courses and the retirement communities took over the red rocks, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints realized that his joints just couldn't handle the northern chill anymore.
The Brigham Young house St George isn't some massive, untouchable monument. It’s a real place. A home. It sits on the corner of 200 North and 67 West, looking surprisingly humble for a man who effectively ruled a territory.
People come here expecting a stiff museum experience. They get something much weirder and more personal instead. You see the "Brigham Oak"—which isn't oak at all, but pine painted by master craftsmen to look expensive. You see the office where he basically ran a sovereign nation via telegraph. It’s a glimpse into the 1870s that feels less like a history book and more like you just stepped into someone’s living room while they’re out for a walk.
Why Brigham Young Picked St. George (Hint: It Wasn't the Views)
By the early 1870s, Brigham Young was in his 70s. His health was failing. Specifically, he had a brutal case of rheumatism and arthritis that made the long, damp winters of Salt Lake City feel like a death sentence.
He needed heat.
The "Dixie" region of Southern Utah was already being settled. Young had sent families down there in 1861 to grow cotton—a mission that was, frankly, a massive struggle against the desert. But for a man with aching bones, the dry, blistering heat was exactly what the doctor ordered. He didn't build the house from scratch, though. In 1872, he bought a smaller home from James Chesney and then immediately set to work making it fit for a leader.
He doubled the size.
The front part of the house, the two-story addition you see from the street, was completed around 1873. It was designed by Miles Romney and his son, Miles Park Romney. If that name sounds familiar, it should; they’re the ancestors of the political Romney family. The architecture is a bit of a mashup of styles Young remembered from Nauvoo, Illinois, mixed with local "Dixie" necessity.
The Weird Details Inside the Brigham Young House St George
When you walk through the door today, the first thing you notice is how thick the walls are. We're talking two feet of adobe. This wasn't just for structural support; it was 19th-century air conditioning. Adobe keeps the house cool when it's 110 degrees outside and holds the heat from the sandstone fireplaces during those crisp desert nights.
One of the coolest—and honestly, kind of funny—details is the woodwork.
Pioneers in St. George were famously short on resources. They had pine from the Pine Valley mountains, but pine is soft and cheap. Brigham Young, ever the craftsman (he was a carpenter by trade, after all), had his painters use a technique called "graining." They took a special comb and painted the pine to look like high-end oak or bird’s-eye maple.
Local guides call it "Brigham Oak." It’s a total facade, but a beautiful one. It tells you a lot about the pioneer mindset: if you don’t have it, make it look like you do.
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The Office: Where the Real Work Happened
Right next to the main house is a small, separate white building. Don't skip this part. This was Young’s personal office.
While he was "vacationing" in St. George, he wasn't exactly sitting by a pool. He was directing the construction of the St. George Temple—the first temple finished in Utah. He was also standardizing church ceremonies that hadn't been fully written down since the move west.
Think about that. The theological future of a global religion was being hammered out in a tiny room in the middle of a desert outpost.
He had a telegraph line running right to this office. He’d sit there and send messages back to Salt Lake City, managing the entire territory from 300 miles away. It was the 1870s version of working from home. He did this for the last several winters of his life, from 1873 until his death in 1877.
Visiting Today: What You Actually Need to Know
If you’re planning to stop by the Brigham Young house St George, don’t expect a self-guided tour where you just wander around and look at plaques. It doesn't work that way.
The site is owned and operated by the LDS Church. This means the tours are led by volunteer missionaries.
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- Cost: It’s free. Totally, 100% free.
- Duration: Plan for about 30 to 45 minutes.
- Vibe: It’s respectful and historical. While the guides are missionaries, most visitors find the tour focuses heavily on the daily life and history of the era.
- The Stairs: Heads up—if you have mobility issues, the second floor might be a challenge. The stairs are steep and old.
The garden outside is also worth a stroll. They’ve planted mulberry trees and grapes, reflecting the original "Cotton Mission" goals. It’s one of the few places in downtown St. George that feels genuinely quiet, away from the traffic on St. George Boulevard.
Misconceptions and Local Legends
One thing people often get wrong is thinking this was his only house or that he lived here year-round. He didn't. He was a visitor. He’d arrive in November or December and head back north once the weather broke in the spring.
There's also the question of his family. He had a massive family, but only a small portion would stay here with him. Often, it was his wife Amelia Folsom Young who accompanied him. The house feels big, but when you imagine the scale of the Young family, it starts to feel very small, very fast.
After Young died in 1877, the house went through several hands. For a while, it was even a dentist’s office. A man named Jedediah Gates bought it in 1892 and practiced dentistry there for years. Can you imagine getting a tooth pulled in Brigham Young’s parlor? It almost faced demolition in the 1950s before it was saved and eventually restored.
Actionable Insights for Your Visit
If you want to make the most of a trip to the Brigham Young house St George, don't just do the house and leave. The whole neighborhood is a time capsule.
- Walk the Block: The house is part of the St. George Historic District. Within a two-block radius, you can see the Pioneer Courthouse and the St. George Tabernacle.
- Check the Season: While it’s open year-round, visiting in the winter gives you a much better "feel" for why he was there. The light hits the red cliffs differently, and the air is perfect.
- Ask About the Furniture: Many pieces in the house are "period-correct," but a few are original. Ask your guide to point out the actual pieces that belonged to the Young family—like the bedstead or some of the trunks.
- Look for the St. George Temple: You can see the white spires from nearby. Young’s obsession with finishing that temple is the reason St. George exists as it does today. He pushed the locals to finish it, even when they were exhausted from the harsh conditions.
To really understand St. George, you have to understand the man who decided this desert was worth a winter stay. He saw potential in the red dirt that most people just saw as a wasteland. Whether you're interested in the religious history or just like old architecture, the house is a rare chance to see the "Lion of the Lord" in his most human, vulnerable moments—just an old man trying to stay warm.
Next Step: Head over to the St. George Tabernacle just down the street after your tour. It was built using the same red sandstone you'll see in the basement of the Young home and offers a sense of the community effort that defined early Utah.