Covington Mansion (3) Markers

The oldest building still standing in Utah's Dixie was raised for a town barely two years old. Robert Covington — who had led twenty-eight families here to found the Cotton Mission in 1857 — built this house of native Navajo sandstone in 1859, and it did the work of a civic center. Downstairs served as a meetinghouse and a way station for missionaries headed to the Southern Paiute; Covington, Dixie's first bishop, lived here. Upstairs, reached by an outside stair, the spacious hall hosted the town's parties, dances, and plays until 1877. The sandstone has outlasted everything around it.

What the plaque says

In 1857, Robert D. Covington, directed by Brigham Young, led twenty-eight families to Washington, Utah, to establish the "Cotton Mission." In 1859, a large structure was built that would serve as a meeting house for the Saints, a way station for the early missionaries to the Indians, and the home of the first bishop in Dixie, Robert Covington. The spacious upper floor, entered by an outside stairway, became a community social center with parties, dances and plays held there until 1877. Built of native Navajo sandstone, it is the oldest remaining building in Utah's Dixie.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm — 6.9 mi
  Real dinosaur footprints preserved in ancient sandstone
• Snow Canyon State Park — 8.8 mi
  Red and white sandstone cliffs with ancient lava flows
• Hurricane Canal Trail — 13 mi
  The hand-dug canal that built Hurricane, now a walking trail blasted into the Virgin River gorge
• Grafton Ghost Town — 24 mi
  A photogenic ghost town used in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

More markers nearby

• Adair Spring The Birthplace Of Utah's dixie Washington City Utah — steps away
• Adair Spring — steps away
• Temple Timber Trail — 0.3 mi
• Relief Society Building Built 1857 — 0.4 mi