The Knight-Allen home was constructed in 1888 in the Victorian style. Containing a Moorish tin scalloped roof, an Italianate turret, distinctive lintels, Romanesque porch tiers, and several ornate window shapes, it is an excellent example of a Victorian Eclectic home. The Knight-Allen House was designated to the Provo City Historic Landmarks Registry on June 19, 1996.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as part of a multiple property submission that nominated seven and listed six Provo houses.
The house has been well preserved and recently underwent much needed renovations remodeling the second floor as an apartment and replacing the old furnace. The house still has some of the original fixings (horse ties, a carriage home) and has been kept true to the original design and construction.
Built between the years 1893 and 1908 in Provo, Utah, this group of Victorian mansions are historically significant and represent not only fine architecture but some of the most successful men of the city and state at the time. These mansions include the Charles E. Loose House, the William H. Ray House, the Knight-Allen House, the John R. Twelves House, the Jesse Knight House, the Knight-Mangum House, and the Thomas N. Taylor House. All of these homes derive from the high style: Eastlake, Shingle, Craftsman, Italianate, Classical, Moorish, Colonial, and Romanesque Revivals. Made primarily of brick, these homes exhibit the finest architecture and most ornate detailing to be found in the city of Provo.
The successful commercial mining of precious metals and minerals transformed Utah's economy from basically an agrarian base to a more industrialized state. Within this development the Tintic Mining District, located approximately thirty miles southwest of Provo, was founded in 1869 and by 1899 became the leading mining center in Utah with a value of output placed at five million dollars. A central figure in Tintic success was Jesse Knight and the Knight family who resided in Provo. Jesse Knight attained wealth with his Humbug mine in the mid-1890s. The large silver producer allowed Knight to develop other mines in the East Tintic area. Knightsville grew around the workings and became touted as the only saloon-free, prostitute-free, privately owned mining camp in the U.S. His strict adherence to doctrines of the LDS church made the town one inhabited primarily by Mormons.
Jessie Knight was able to expand farther than the tintic mines, reaching to the power plant in Santaquin, the Tintic drain tunnel project, the Knight Dry farm, and the smelters at Silver City. The Bonneville Mining company, the Knight Woolen Mills, Ellison Ranching Company, The American-Columbian Corporation, The Springville-Mapleton Sugar Company, The Spring Canyon Coal Company, Utah Savings Bank, The Layton Sugar Company, and the Tintic Drain Tunnel Company all represent facets of the Knight Investment Company. As a result of all these financial successes, the Knight-Allen house was able to be built. It was probably designed by Provo architect Richard C. Watkins.
The office was used as a Shaklee Office from 1970 to April of 2015 when my grandma passed away. This house is no longer in use as an office, the upstairs is being rented out by tenants, but he downstairs does not see any use. The main office is no longer publically accessible.
390 East Center Street, Provo, UT
Max and Marie Hansen