Sunny and Tom Richins: November 2011

ERNEST AND NORMA STRONG HOUSE

Ernest and Norma Strong were my Great Grandparents on my father's side. Above is a photo of the last house Ernest built during the 1930's in Springville, Utah. Ernest grew up very poor on a farm on the outskirts of Springville, Utah. When the time came, he left his girlfriend Norma, went on a mission to Germany and Switzerland and then came home, married Norma and started a road construction company and became a millionaire. Over the years, he would update his houses according to his wealth. This is the last house he built and the detail is simply awesome. The above photo is a picture of the house within a year or two of it being built. A couple notes to mention, the brick chimney is made from the same rock that the Manti Temple was made from and, in my opinion, the house resembles a house you would find in Germany that he would have seen while there on his mission.

Ernest was both an Architect/Engineer as well as a General Contractor. I see a lot of genius in his design of this bathroom. For example the ceiling radius is perfect in dimension. The toilet is placed perfectly center. The tile is laid diagonally which is a more labor intensive format for laying tile. I also like that the tile border matches the tile trim.

I have seen laundry chutes in hallways and occasionally you will see one in a bathroom, but Ernest took it a step further and added a laundry chute inside the shower itself. In my opinion it is as efficient as you can get.

The rumor to the lights in this house is that they are the same lights that are/were used in the Salt Lake City temple. This certainly fits Ernest's style and this style of lights does reflect the style of lights used in the temple. However my guess, after some minor research, is that the lights are from the same manufacturer. The Byrd family, who currently own the house, went through a remodel a couple of years ago and had some left over original light fixtures and were kind enough to give us one of them. I am excited to have one of my Great Grandfather's light fixtures from his old house to rehang in my old house.

I don't know why but I have always had a fascination with door handles. It seems that as they become more and more mass produced the more the fascination diminishes. Here are a couple original door handles in Ernest and Norma's house.

The railing is custom and this is the pattern that Ernest chose to go with.

Here is a steel pass through that Ernest had installed so that deliveries or groceries could be made regardless if the Strong's were home or not. This one is located in his kitchen. There is another more defined one in his lobby/office.

Picture of the living room. It was hard to shoot good angles in this house and since it was a self invited tour, we were thankful for the pictures we could get.

Here is a picture of the fire place from the inside. I cant tell if this has been remodeled or not through the years. I suspect the bottom is original and the top (above the brick) has been modified.

I saved these photos for last. Ernest understood construction and framing was his strong suit. While I was on my mission in Virginia, I met an old man who knew my Great Grandfather and he bragged about his quality and his speed. He said while building roads, they would be forming up one side and pouring the other side at the same time. The form workers had to hurry because the concrete was coming their way. Looking inside the attic spaces in Ernest's house, his framing was immaculate. I also noticed some job site materials made their way into his house as well.