To spot the Harvey H. Cluff House, just look ahead for a handsome red-brick home with white, lacy trim and bay windows, standing slightly behind some tall, shady trees at the edge of a green yard-almost like it’s playing peekaboo from the 1800s.
Welcome to the Harvey H. Cluff House! Imagine yourself standing here back in 1877, when Provo was mostly dirt roads, horse-drawn wagons, and everyone knew your name-especially if your name was Harvey Cluff. This house was built by a good friend of Harvey’s, architect John Watkins, and it was meant to impress. See those white wooden decorations along the roof line? They’re called bargeboards-think of them as Victorian house jewelry! And those steep roofs with the dormer windows almost make the house look ready to host a rooftop tea party or maybe shelter a family of roof-loving raccoons.
This isn’t just any old architecture. The style is a blend of Greek Revival elegance-notice the “temple” shape-and Gothic Revival touches: the pointy bits, carved wooden details, and those big bay windows poking out like they’re eager to watch the world go by. Only about six homes in all of Utah were built in this fanciful style, so you’re looking at a pretty rare piece of the state’s puzzle!
Now, if you listen closely (or just use your imagination), you might hear echoes from when Harvey Cluff lived here. Born in Ohio in 1836, young Harvey and his family crossed miles of wild country to settle in Provo. By the 1850s, the Cluffs had opened a furniture factory-Harvey could probably carve a chair leg with his eyes closed!
He soon became a builder of landmarks, overseeing the creation of the Provo Tabernacle and BYU’s Academy Building. Quite the resume, right? But Harvey didn’t stop at bricks and mortar. He ran the city newspaper, guided a bank, managed a foundry, and served as basically every kind of community leader you could dream up: city councilman, bishop, even a mission president in the far-off Sandwich Islands. I bet he barely had time to mow the lawn.
Even as life swirled with political debates, church meetings, and big city changes, the Cluff House stood steady. After Harvey moved to Salt Lake City, the house was sold to W. Ray Ashworth, who kept it neat and humming with family life for decades more. At one point, you might have seen neighbors gathered on the porch, gossiping quietly or waving as the mailman walked past.
In 1982, the Harvey H. Cluff House earned its spot on the National Register of Historic Places, which means it’s officially recognized as a local treasure. So, while you stand under these shady branches outside its door, just imagine all the stories-of ambition, family, adventure, and daily life-that these walls have soaked up for over 140 years. If these bricks could talk, I have a feeling you’d never get them to hush!
