The Ellsworth J. Beggs House
The Ellsworth J. Beggs house was built in 1914 and is architecturally significant as one of only a few two-story Victorian style pyramid houses in Park City. The October 3, 1914 issue of the Park Record reported: “E.J. Beggs, the well known mill and carpenter, has pulled down his old home on lower Park Ave. and will erect on the site a modern 8-room, two-story house. Mr. Beggs has one of the finest building lots in the city and a two-story house will set it off splendidly.”
Ellsworth J. Beggs was a master carpenter, having just built the Summit County Courthouse in Coalville, so a high quality home could be expected. Beggs was born in Pennsylvania in 1861, and moved to Park City in 1889, the year he married a local lady, Eva Jane Lockhart. Eva was active in community activities, and many functions were held in her home. Once the yard hosted a picnic for some 200 people. Beggs was a prominent citizen serving as a city councilman. He also built and operated a tailings mill north of town on Silver Creek. After Eva died in 1933, Ellsworth sold the house in 1939 to Byron F. Wilde, a banker in town. Beggs died in Pennsylvania in 1946. Burnis and Betty Watts purchased the house in 1965 and lived in it until the City purchased it in 1997.