Don Carlos Young

Don Carlos Young
Church Architect
1887 – 1893
Called by	Wilford Woodruff
Predecessor	Truman O. Angell
End reason	Office dissolved
Personal details
Born	Joseph Don Carlos Young Salt Lake City, Utah Territory
Died	Salt Lake City, Utah
Resting place	Salt Lake City Cemetery 40°46′37.92″N 111°51′28.8″W / 40.7772°N 111.858°W / 40.7772; -111.858 (Salt Lake City Cemetery)
Alma mater	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Notable works	Architect for the Salt Lake Temple
Spouse	Marian Penelope Alice Naomi Dowden
Parents	Brigham Young Emily Dow Partridge
Signature

Joseph Don Carlos Young (May 6, 1855 – October 19, 1938) was an American architect and the Church Architect for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1887 until 1893. In 1893, the office of Church Architect was dissolved (to be reinstated for a time in the mid 20th century), Young thereafter practiced privately with the LDS Church as a frequent client.^[1] Young practiced as an architect, landscape architect and designer from 1879 to circa 1935. A preponderance of his work centered on church commissions, or commissions offered him by extended Young family members, or higher echelon church friends.

Early life

Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, the son of Brigham Young and Emily Dow Partridge (a daughter of Edward Partridge). He studied at the Deseret University and then the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York. At Rensselaer he studied civil engineering and architecture.^[1]

Early career

After graduating in 1879, Young returned to Salt Lake City and practiced as a railroad engineer; gradually his first love of architecture, landscape architecture and design took precedence over engineering. Young is considered Utah's first academically trained architect and landscape architect.^[2] He married Alice Naomi Dowden on 22 September 1881. They had ten children.

As his father Brigham Young had hoped of him, Young taught in Utah's schools, first as an instructor and later as a professor of "architecture and mechanical drawing" at the University of Deseret (Salt Lake City) from 1883 to 1888; and later as a teacher of mathematics at Brigham Young Academy (Provo, Utah) from 1897 to 1900. Young also served on the Brigham Young Academy's Board of Trustees from 1886 to 1901. Young also served two terms in Utah's Territorial Legislature (1883–1887).^[3][4][5]

Young's early landscape design commissions include the Utah Territorial Insane Asylum (1881, with architect John H. Burton as the asylum architect) and Salt Lake City's Liberty Park (1881–83, via a public design competition). These commissions represent Utah's earliest academically informed landscape design projects. Young's noteworthy early architecture commissions include a dormitory for Brigham Young College (1882–1885; Logan, Utah Territory), the Bear Lake Tabernacle (1883–1888; Paris, Idaho), the Brigham Young Academy (designed in 1884, completed 1892; Provo, Utah Territory) and the Templeton (Zion's Bank) Building (designed in 1883, completed 1890; Salt Lake City). The Bear Lake Tabernacle and the Brigham Young Academy buildings are extant examples of Young's early design work, and are considered two of the LDS Church's most beloved last 19th century architectural landmarks.^[6][7]

Appointment as LDS Church Architect

In 1887 after the death of Truman O. Angell, Young was appointed Church Architect, and the architect for the Salt Lake Temple, by LDS Church president Wilford Woodruff. After designing the towers and finials, and the final appearance of the windows, Young focused his energies on designing the temple's lavish late Victorian/Neo-baroque interior. Besides the construction of interior supports, none of the interior designs drawn by Angell (or Wm. Ward, Wm. H. Folsom, and Angell's son T.O. Angell, Jr.) had been executed. Thus as Angell is considered the primary architect of the temple's exterior, Young is considered the primary architect for its interior. He also designed the Temple's original Annex, the Temple Square electrical system, heating plant and greenhouse, and the general landscape design for Temple Square. With the completion of the Salt Lake Temple in 1893, Young was released as Church Architect.

Mid to late career

At mid career Young practiced with his oldest son Don Carlos Young as Young & Son, Architects; and was responsible for the design of the 2nd Eagle Gate (ca. 1892, an over arching symbolic gateway to Brigham Young's Salt Lake farm), Latter-day Saint University (later LDS College and LDS Business College, located on the corner of North Temple & Main Street); the LDS Church's Bishop's Building (50 North Main St.), and the Church Administration Building (47 East South Temple).

Between circa 1920 and 1935, he practiced as an institutional architect, designing (or supervising the designs) of hundreds of different yet mildly standard plan-like buildings for the LDS Church.^[8] Young worked for his step brother Willard Young, who served as head of the church's building department. Thus, even though he was no longer sustained in the Church's General Conference as church architect, Young was essentially described as such from 1887 to this death.^[1][9][10]

Influence on other architects

Young acted as mentor to dozens of younger architects and engineers, including many of his own children. This familial list includes Don Carlos (Don) Young, Jr., who assisted his father in a failed circa 1911-1917 bid to design the Utah State Capital building. Young & Son took second place behind Salt Lake City architect Richard K. A. Kletting.^[11] D. C. Young, Jr., was also responsible for designing with Danish emigrant Ramm Hansen (as Young & Hansen, architects) the LDS Church's flagship meetinghouse in Washington, D.C., known as the "Washington Chapel," located on 2810 Sixteenth Street, N.W., sheathed no less in railroad shipped Utah granite. Finally, J. D. C. Young's youngest son George Cannon Young, was also a successful mid 20th century Utah architect. With his son Richard Young, G. C. Young designed the LDS Church's twenty-eight story Church Office Building (completed 1972; Salt Lake City) which was the tallest building in Salt Lake City until 1998.^[12]

Young died in 1938 in Salt Lake City as the oldest remaining son of Brigham Young.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Jenson, Andrew. Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Company, 1941) p. 138–139
2. ^ [1]Utah History Encyclopedia; Goss, Peter L; The Architectural Profession in Utah
3. ^ A History of the University of Utah College of Engineering, p. 2
4. ^ [2] Westwood, P. Bradford, The early life and career of Joseph Don Carlos Young (1855-1938): a study of Utah's first institutionally trained architect to 1884 (1994), p. 9, 47-49 and 77-79
5. ^ Ernest L. Wilkinson, ed., Brigham Young University: The First One Hundred Years. (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1975) Vol. 1, p. 573.
6. ^ [Deseret Evening News, "The Old Fort Square," 3, March 1891.
7. ^ [3] Westwood, P. Bradford, The early life and career of Joseph Don Carlos Young (1855-1938): a study of Utah's first institutionally trained architect to 1884 (1994), p.70-76, 80-94, and 132-146
8. ^ Paul L. Anderson and Richard H. Jackson, "Building Program", Encyclopedia of Mormonism.
9. ^ [4] Westwood, P. Bradford, The early life and career of Joseph Don Carlos Young (1855-1938): a study of Utah's first institutionally trained architect to 1884 (1994), p. 81-86 and 152-153
10. ^ [Deseret News, "Brigham Young's Last Surviving Son Expires," 20 October 1938.
11. ^ Capitol Preservation Board; Cooper/Roberts Architecture. Historic Structures Report: Construction History. pp. II. 11–12. 
12. ^ [5] Kohler, Sue A., et al; The Commission of Fire Arts, Sixteenth Street Architecture, Washington, D.C., Vol. 2 (1988) p. 522.

• Don Carlos Young at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Young, Joseph Don Carlos
Alternative names	Young, Don Carlos
Short description	Utah's first academically trained architect
Date of birth	6 May 1855
Place of birth	Salt Lake City, Utah
Date of death	19 October 1938
Place of death	Salt Lake City, Utah