The Knight Mansion

Continuing on Provo Center street, a little further to the west from the Knight-Mangum Mansion, is the Knight mansion.  This building is located at 185 E Center.  Just to clarify, the house was built by Jesse Knight, although I have found his name also written as Jessie.  He is the father of Jennie Knight Mangum, the owner of the Knight-Mangum Mansion.  Here are a couple of photos of what it looked like in 1906 and what it looks like today:

Photo courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society  

Photo courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society  

Once again, there is a great summary regarding the history of the house on Wikipedia and I am going to quote mostly from the website:


"Perhaps the wealthiest man in Provo at the time, Jesse Knight was born in the year 1845 in Nauvoo, Illinois. Jesse’s family migrated west, and reached Utah in the year 1857. Twelve years later Jesse married a woman by the name of Amanda McEwan, and began a ranch in Payson, Utah. Following an impression that he had, Jesse began a mining operation in the Eureka area and became rich. He subsequently bought other mines, founded a bank, purchased real estate in Provo, bought the Provo Woolen Mills, and started farming and cattle interests in Canada. Throughout all of these efforts Jesse remained an active supporter of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and his mines were called the 'cleanest mining camps in the west (Utah State Historical Society p. 2).' Jesse Knight died in 1921, designating much of his amassed fortune to B.Y.U. and various other institutions."



If you would like to read a really interesting history of Jesse Knight, click here.  Also, regarding his donations to BYU, he funded the Amanda Knight Hall and the Allen Hall .  Both are really cool buildings located near 800 N in Provo.


The house was constructed in 1905 and is built in the Colonial Revival Style , although one place I found said that it is actually neo-Classical.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and was designated to the Provo City Historic Landmarks Register on June 19, 1996.  Currently it is home to the Berg Mortuary.