For more than 125 years, the home of Duncan Spears Casper has watched Holladay transform from a small pioneer community into a bustling city. Located at 2394 E. Murray Holladay Road, the “Casper Cottage” is one of the oldest homes in the area and was recently added to Holladay’s Historic Designation list.

Owner Ron Hilton connected with Adrienne White, founder and CEO of House Genealogy, to learn about the home’s history and significance to the city. 

“It’s been a pretty fun experience to actually learn more about the house,” Hilton said. “We knew it was built in 1898 and that it was really hard to get insurance for it. Other than that, we didn’t know the history. But I’ve become more involved over that period of time and I’ve been a volunteer on the Holladay Historic Commission. It’s kind of a passion of mine. I’ve always been interested in local history, and I wanted to know more about our own house.”

Casper, along with his wife, Mathilda, and their three children, traveled to Utah with the John Hindley Company. The group consisted of nearly 50 wagons that arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September 1855. 

In 1879, Casper bought seven acres of land, now located at the southeast corner of Holladay Boulevard and Murray Holladay Road. He built a two-room brick cottage on the property in 1898 and died that same year. The home remained in the family until 1916.

 The single-story home is a cross-wing, shotgun cottage, a style common in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It features a covered porch and a facade with a brick “eyebrow” over the front window. Located near Spring Creek, where many early settlers built homes, the cottage was later improved to add square footage to the home, while leaving the original structure intact. 

“This property is an example of the simple type of home most early residents of Holladay would have lived in,” said Kim Duffy, chair of the Holladay Historic Commission. “The Casper house is important because it’s an increasingly rare remaining type that should be preserved as we demolish historic properties to make way for new builds. This house evokes the ambience of another time and reminds us of a simpler way of life in rural Holladay.”

Recent amendments to the city’s Historic Designation process provide a way for owners to add their properties to Holladay’s list of historic sites. The site needs to be at least 50 years old, have historic significance to the city and retain its integrity, meaning there have been no major alterations or additions. 

Hilton hopes that getting the Casper Cottage listed on the historic sites will encourage other homeowners to preserve their property as well. He would like to see the entire neighborhood become a historic district.

“There are a number of these similar vintage homes in this area,” he said. “It’s kind of a historic bungalow district where there’s a lot of early 1900s homes. There’s one of them that’s already on the registry. I’d like to see, at some point, maybe this whole area get designated as a district, because I’d love to see it preserved.”