Hatch House

The sign's 1874 is one of two dates. The National Register nomination and the state's own reference paper give 1874, while architectural surveys and the Franklin historic district give 1872. Either way, English stonemasons who had settled in Franklin cut the local stone for a Greek Revival house with quoined corners and a temple front, the largest in town. Lorenzo Hill Hatch was Franklin's bishop, its first mayor and the first Mormon elected to Idaho's legislature. His descendants lived here until the 1940s, and the state bought the house in 1979.

What the plaque says

Hatch House In 1874, Bishop L. H. Hatch built a mansion that has been preserved as a fine example of pioneer Idaho architecture. Idaho's only railroad, serving Montana's thriving mining camps, reached here that year--a time of depression between gold rushes, when Franklin was Idaho's largest city. Two years later, rail construction resumed, and freighters moved on. But Hatch's elegant house remains as a reminder of a bygone era. 388 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Preston and Napoleon Dynamite — 6.4 mi
  A farm town in the north end of Cache Valley that a former student turned into a set in the summer of 2003, without changing much of anything.
• Boa Ogoi (Bear River Massacre Site) — 10 mi
  The Northwestern Band bought back the ground where its people were killed in 1863, and is turning farm fields back into the river bottom they knew.
• Tony Grove Lake — 12 mi
  A glacial alpine lake at 8,100 feet surrounded by wildflower meadows
• Beaver Mountain Ski Area — 14 mi
  A family-owned ski hill that has been run by the same family since 1939

More markers nearby

• Idaho's Oldest Town — 0.3 mi
• James Hendericks Memorial — 6.6 mi
• Richmond Fort — 6.6 mi
• Pioneer Home and Granary — 8.3 mi