Bertha Eccles Community Art Center (2) Mark

This turreted Victorian on Ogden's east side was a banker's showpiece before it was an art center. Built in 1893 of imported red brick and Utah sandstone, with steep metal-shingled roofs and leaded glass, it was designed for the banker James Armstrong — but sold in 1896 to David Eccles, who had risen from a boy peddling his father's whittled wood to become one of the West's great industrialists. His wife Bertha, well-traveled and civic-minded, left her stamp on Ogden's schools and social life, and the house now bears her name as a community gallery.

What the plaque says

The Bertha Eccles Community Art Center, a Victorian style home, was built in 1893 of red brick imported from the midwest and red sandstone from northern Utah. Some of its unique features include the steep roofs and turrets which are covered with metal shingles, the heavy leaded glass windows and the large porch which extends from the west entrance of the home. The home was designed by Samuel T. Whitaker and was built for James C. Armstrong, a prominent Ogden banker. Armstrong sold the home in 1896 to David Eccles, another prominent northern Utah businessman. Mr. Eccles worked his way from, as a boy, selling various wood articles made by his father, to financial prominence before his death in 1912. Mr. Eccles' first wife, Bertha Jensen Eccles, traveled extensively and became a prominent influence on Ogden's educational and social life. Her home became the center for Ogden's cultural festivities and social activities. Before her death, she requested the home remain in use as a center for these types of activities.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ogden Union Station — 0.6 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex
• Snowbasin — 5.6 mi
  One of the country's oldest ski areas and a 2002 Olympic downhill venue — world-class terrain that somehow still skis uncrowded.
• Hill Aerospace Museum — 7.0 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac
• Powder Mountain — 15 mi
  The largest ski resort in the United States by acreage — a famously uncrowded "PowMow" now remaking itself under Netflix's Reed Hastings.

More markers nearby

• Weber College-The Moench Building — steps away
• Pierre-Jean De Smet — 0.3 mi
• Bigelow/Ben Lomond Hotel — 0.3 mi
• Ogden Municipal Building — 0.3 mi