Building A New Life For An Old Home

By CHERYL JENSEN

The Progress

An historic Virgin Valley home is now in the process of a major renovation. The old William and Mary Jane Abbott home, on the corner of Mesquite Blvd. and Sandhill, has had its upper story demolished with plans to renovate and rebuild it to become the new location for a local business.

The owner of the building, Michael Gomes, who also owns All In Cycles in Mesquite, said that he was drawn to purchasing the building because of its rich local history and its old-fashioned charm.

But the old structure needed a good deal of tender loving care. Gomes said that the building has posed an “uphill challenge” to him. There were termites found in the wooden upstairs portion of the building. There were also some serious structural issues and electrical problems found in that portion of the home.

But the lower story of the home, which was built on a stone foundation with adobe walls no less than four blocks thick, is still in good shape and will be retained, Gomes said.

After the renovation, Gomes said he plans to use the upper floor as a headquarters for his online bicycle sales shop. The bottom floor will then be leased to a business tenant, he said.
“When it is all finished, we anticipate a beautiful structure to complement the area,” Gomes said. “We are excited about the project. We are proud of the history of the house and we are on track to move forward. We anticipate the home remaining on the historic walking tour of the city and we want to have the historical marker on site lighted at night.”

Early construction
The old home was built in 1901 by William Elias Abbott (1869-1949). The home was designed and built by Abbott and his brother, Jim. They hired local artisan Harvey Faubion to burnish adobe brick and lay it up for the home. They hauled in rock for the home’s foundation. And they used lumber which they freighted by large horse teams from Black Rock Mountain.

The home was designed with harsh southern Nevada desert climate in mind. The thick adobe walls kept the home cooler in the summer. The only heat needed in the winter was from the fireplace.
The structure initially served as the home for Abbott, his wife Mary Jane (1873-1956) and their large family. They also kept it as a wayside hotel offering lodging for weary travellers visiting or passing through the community.

A Mesquite icon
William E. Abbott was one of the most successful Virgin Valley farmers. It didn’t come easy, though. Like other early farmers, Abbott suffered many hardships in carving out a farm from the sandy desert soil.

Abbott organized the rebuilding of an earlier pioneer-era canal that brought water to Mesquite area farms. Among many other crops, Abbott and other local farmers started a seedless grape vineyard and won first prize for seedless grapes at the 1915 World’s Fair in San Francisco, California.

Abbott’s civic influence in Mesquite was great. He secured a post office and a voting precinct for Mesquite. He had a Pony Express-style mail contract to deliver mail between the valleys.

With a family of 13 children, Abbott was also involved in establishing a school system in town. He served many years on the local school board.

He was also involved in other civic improvement efforts. He served as chairman of the telephone committee that brought the first telephone service to the valley. He served for 15 years as the Justice of the Peace in Mesquite and often traveled to Las Vegas to serve as a judge there when needed.

Abbott was assigned to map out the roads between Las Vegas and Mesquite and from Mesquite to Littlefield.

He organized crews to build the road that is now Mesquite Blvd: six rods wide and a mile and a half long. That project took 2-3 years to complete with crews using shovels, picks and horse drawn “Fresno” scrapers. Abbott organized work-days and the men and boys from the communities came together to remove the rocks and brush from the roadway.

When the Virgin River Bridge was completed, he was in charge of the bridge day celebration.
Abbott served as bishop of the Mesquite congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 27 years.

William Abbott is considered to be the “Founding Father of Mesquite. A life-size bronze statue of William E. Abbott and his wife Mary Jane now stands in front of Mesquite City Hall. The work, sculpted by Edward Hlavka and L”Deane Trueblood, was unveiled in April 2006.

The statue also honors all the pioneers who helped settle Virgin Valley. In it, William is gazing west as if looking forward to the future. Mary Jane is standing behind him holding a baby. She symbolizes the loving mothers who cared for children and raised families; teaching the youth to carry on the legacy of faith, compassion and service.

Open to the community
In addition to housing the Abbotts’ large family, the home had many other community uses.
The large parlor was used as Will’s office when he was the bishop of the Mesquite Ward of the Church. But it was also used as his daughter Emily’s bedroom.

Upstairs were three large bedrooms and closets with one smaller room. Here they also stored sacks of flour hanging from the ceiling to keep the mice away. Will would also hang hams and bacons which he had cured himself on the north side of his home.

For many years, the Abbott home provided the only lodging accommodations in town. People traveling from St. George or coming from Las Vegas on Church business made the Abbott home a stopping place. It was a long trip by wagon and often the travelers would stay for several days en route to and from St. George.

The home was also a local school house for the children of Mesquite. After breakfast each morning, young Emily Abbott got ready for school and passed into a different room of the house to be in school.

The school district rented rooms from Will for the six upper grades of school. The fifth-grade class was in the northeast room of the home with teacher Selena Leavitt. Sixth grade was held in the southwest room with Emma Abbott as the teacher.

Charity and hospitality
Will and Mary Jane often took in families who were new to the community until they found a place to live in the valley. The children would crowd into half of the house and let the family stay in the other part. Sometimes they had two families living with them. Will never charged any of the families a penny for the beds or the food.

Mary Jane was sometimes known as “an angel of mercy” in the community. She often went to nurse the sick or act as a midwife and deliver babies since there was no doctor in the valley. It has been said that she delivered hundreds of babies. Her satchel was always ready by the door – filled with mustard plaster, castor oil, chaparral tea or other remedies for the sick.

Many women in the town came to Mary’s home to sit and visit while their children ran around playing with the Abbott children. Mary Jane would cook up a big meal for them and the children. She never wanted her guests to go home without feeding them.
She would laughingly say, “There’s plenty . . . such as it is!”

Mary Jane and the other women of the valley would preserve food, render lard after a pig was butchered and make soap and candles over an open fire. She comforted the sick and bereaved and made paper flowers to honor the deceased because the only flowers around were wild flowers.

In the years since
Over the many years since the Abbotts lived in the historic building, many other local families and businesses have made it their home.
Ann Hughes purchased the home. Her nephew, Kirk and Linda Brotherson and their family lived in it for a year. They did a lot of work on it, making bedrooms upstairs again.
After they moved out, the home was divided into three apartments and rented.

Later Tonya Hughes Bigelow and her family lived in the home. They did significant work to convert it from apartments back into a single family home. The Bigelows added the home’s first air conditioning system as part of their remodeling improvements.

In 1994 the home was rented for several years to Dr. Steve Anderson as a home for his large family and for his chiropractic office.
The house then became the “General Store” consignment antique store. An outdoor fire escape stairway was added to the building to keep it in compliance with fire code.

Philip and Brenda Moulton purchased the home later and it became their Mesquite Art and Frame shop from 2002 until 2008. It was a full-service frame facility with installation and appraisal service. It also housed a small art gallery. The old building became a great place for families to come for art classes and art experiences. The gallery sponsored two Native American Pow-wow events and an African cultural event.

Historical sources for this article were provided by the Virgin Valley Heritage Museum in Mesquite.