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WHY THIS GUIDE TO ARCHITECTURE? This architectural guide is provided by the Utah State Historic Preservation Office for those who have an interest in the historic architecture of Utah. We also developed it to aid consultants in architectural fieldwork. Input for the information came from fieldwork, architectural historians, and published sources. Much of the text and photographs for the earlier buildings comes directly from Thomas Carter and Peter Goss’s Utah’s Historic Architecture, 1847-1940: A Guide. This guide is not exhaustive, but it covers the most commonly found types and styles of historic architecture in the state--residential, commercial, agricultural and religious. Although it mostly covers “historic architecture”(more than 50 years old), in order to make it more useful for consultants doing architectural survey and inventory, the guide also covers some common examples of more-recent types and styles. Construction date ranges are estimates only and apply mainly to Utah. Dates in other states or regions vary.
Vernacular Architecture
This guide focuses on the buildings we encounter every day, more commonly known as vernacular architecture. Architectural historians debate what really constitutes vernacular architecture or how to best define it. But ultimately, vernacular architecture is the common architecture for any given region and at any given time. For the most part, vernacular buildings were not formally designed by an architect. In the broader view, however, that is not always the case; architects did design some examples that we consider here to be vernacular.
