Historic Roots

The historical “Baddley House” sat on 10 acres when it was settled in 1871 (some sources suggest 1851), and was an agricultural hub/culinary water source for the community. In between excursions to settle Utah’s Dixie, pioneer George Baddley operated a distillery onsite while his wife Eliza created and sold pottery with clay discovered on the property. The man grew sugar cane, and processed molasses in his mill to use for his whiskey, which he traded for other provisions such as food and livestock (as evidenced by classified ad found in a 1900s Salt Lake Tribune). We unearthed several old whiskey bottles (and countless marbles) from the cellar floor but unfortunately they were all empty.

According to one of the Baddley decendants who recently stopped by for a visit, George Baddley ultimately left the LDS church after a quarrel with Brigham Young over ownership rights to the distillery (it sounded like Brigham Young tried to usurp the rights to Baddley’s distillery after the church asked for tithing in the 1910s).

Professional plans of the house were prepared by the architecture department at the University of Utah who took peculiar interest in the property.