How to Live Together

Mormons



Salt Like City, Utah, USA
Religious, Christian, Mormon
Private Property 
Plural Marriage
1823 - Present

1 Room of Harriet Watkins 2 Room of Margaret Watkins 3 Sleeping Alcoves 4 Fireplace / Kitchen 5 Linens Cupboard 6 Window for Refrigeration
After fleeing Nauvoo in 1847, the Mormon community headed west to Utah, where geographic remoteness allowed them to practice their religious beliefs, including polygamous marriage or “living the principle”. It has been estimated that during the second half of the nineteenth century, nearly 20% of Mormon families were polygamous. New forms of architecture  were developed to house multiple families, including cohabitation - having more than one wife in the same house.

Mormons adapted traditional, single-family housing forms to plural marriage needs, like the house of Harriet, Margaret, and John Watkins in Provo. The two-room adobe house provided separate entrances for each wife, while an entry vestibule gave the appearance of a single front door; a discrete facade. There is, present in the plan, a clear attempt at equality and privacy for both wives. The deep sleeping alcoves of the center partition (3) could be curtained to create privacy between parents and children who slept in the same room. However, the fireplace was shared for cooking (4) as the linens cupboard (5), and the deep window used for refrigeration (6). The house appears to have worked until Watkins married his third wife, Mary Ann Sawyer in 1863.