The Charles W. Nibley home

When Charles and Rebecca Nibley set up housekeeping after their marriage, they moved into a little adobe house on the corner of Young Street (now First West) and South Street (now First South). A photograph of the house, with a later brick addition on the west is in the Compton collection at Utah State University. The location of the house is not identified.

Photograph USU Special Collections

A tantalizing clue was provided by the view of the building across the street. From the photograph, the building appears large and imposing, much like a public building, and appears to have three storeys. But no large public building with windows like that are known to have existed in Brigham City. It was Richard Watkins who finally located the Nibley home, in an autobiography of Charles W. Nibley. The location was confirmed by checking the Sanborn fire insurance maps. With the location of the Nibley home established, it then became clear what the building across the street was. This writer remembers the home before it was torn down to build the offices of Drs. Smith and Hannum. It was the old William Wrighton home (William Wrighton of peach stone fame). It was not a three storey building, but rather the two-storey Wrighton home, with its tall, central Italianate tower, which, through the obscuring trees was not clearly a tower. Then, Mr. Watkins located a photograph of the Wrighton home, making the matter clear.

Photograph courtesy Richard Watkins