Ezra and Abigail Shomaker House

194 W 400 North

This house was the first home in Manti to have electricity.  Ezra Shomaker, built in original structure in about 1866 - with significant additions in 1880 and 1895.  Ezra Shomaker twice served as Manti City Mayor (1891 - 1893 & 1900 - 1902).  Mrs. Shomaker (Abigail Tuttle Shomaker) served as the matron of the Manti Temple from 1906 - 1916.  

The vacant and dilapidated structure was rescued from demolition in 2002 by Jim & Shannon Miller, who spent the next 8 years rehabilitating and restoring the home, which now serves as their residence.

The Greek Revival and Victorian Eclectic-style house was built in three major phases between 1866 and 1895. The earliest section of the house is a 11⁄2-story Greek Revival-style hall-parlor house built of cream- colored limestone circa 1866. Around 1880, a one-story stone ell was built on the rear. The final wing was built of brick circa 1895, and modified the floor plan to a double cross wing in the shape of the letter H. The north porch was enclosed a few years later, and later rebuilt in 2010. The house is built on a stone foundation with some areas of newer concrete. The roof was re-sheathed with small grey fiberglass shingles in 2004. The Shomaker House sits on the southwest corner of a one-acre lot with new landscaping. The property includes a non-contributing altered stone garage, and a contributing group of small, connected agricultural structures. A non-contributing garage and workshop was built behind the house in 2007. The current owners, who purchased the house in 2002, have completed a substantial eight-year rehabilitation of the house. The 2003 to 2011 rehabilitation has reversed a considerable amount of damage and alteration to the property that occurred during in the 1980s and 1990s, and has modified the interior plan.