South Temple: The Keith Mansion

David Keith made his fortune on a lucky hunch. Born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and orphaned at the age of 14, Keith went to work as a miner in his native province before heading to the western United States. 

At the age of twenty, he left Nova Scotia, traveling to California by ship via Panama. He moved on to Virginia City, Nevada, where he worked as a miner, met his first wife, Ettie McLeod, and became proficient as a pump operator in the water-plagued mines of the Comstock Lode. His skill with mine pumps brought him to Park City in 1883 to help install the great Cornish pump; and he then continued as foreman in the Ontario mine.

1880 Census, Gold Hill, Nevada

He eventually became a foreman in a Park City silver mine where he met another hard-working miner, Thomas Kearns. Keith and Kearns leased an undeveloped Park City mine after noticing a rich ore vein headed toward the property. Their hunch about the ore proved correct. The two men became multi-millionaires and remained lifelong friends, business partners, and neighbors.

1900 Census, Salt Lake City

The newly-wealthy Keith and his second wife, Mary, hired Frederick A. Hale to design a stately mansion on fashionable South Temple Street. The mansion’s Neoclassical façade features a pedimented portico supported by four colossal columns. The interior is organized around an octagonal rotunda of polished cherrywood with a beautiful stained glass skylight made by America's most famous glass company - Louis Tiffany & Company. 

The mansion also had a ballroom and an ice box large enough to hold one ton of ice. The Keith Mansion's carriage house was probably the biggest on South Temple. Inside the carriage house were a bowling alley and a shooting gallery, as well as servants’ quarters.

The Keiths lived in the mansion until 1916 when they sold the property to their neighbors, the Ezra Thompson family. Members of the Thompson family lived in the house until 1969 when Terracor acquired it and adapted it for office space. After a fire caused severe damage to the mansion in 1986, Terracor conducted an extensive restoration and continues to operate in the building today.

Next:  The Gardo House, Home of Brigham's Youngest Wife and Utah's Silver Queen