A house on a quiet Draper street
The house at East Longbranch Drive in Draper, Utah, was built in 2004 on a lot platted in 2000 as part of the Oak Vista #04 At Suncrest subdivision, carved from valley farmland at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley during Draper's later twentieth-century suburban growth.
Valley farmland becomes a Draper subdivision corner
No fire, trial, or burial marks this stretch of Longbranch Drive. The address at East Longbranch Drive sits where Longbranch Court meets Longbranch Drive. This corner is like thousands of others across Draper.
Draper grew out of farmland at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley. The county's suburban expansion pulled it in through the later twentieth century. For most of its history, the land under this house was simply valley ground. It is part of the same basin fill and volcanic rock that runs under most of the Wasatch Front.
Longbranch is a common street name in new subdivisions across the American West. It was chosen for the sound of it. It was not chosen for any local history. What happens on this street is what happens on most residential streets. Houses went up. Families moved in.
Surveyors plat the lot as Oak Vista number 252
Before the house existed, the lot was a number on a map. On November 17, 2000, surveyors platted it as lot 252 in the Oak Vista #04 At Suncrest. That plat turned open land into an address.
Developers pass the lot between companies
The lot then passed between development companies. Traverse Ranch LLC signed it over to DAE/Westbrook LLC in 2001. Two years later, DAE/Westbrook split its interest. One share went to Centex Homes. The other went to Gold Medallion Custom Homes LC. Both deeds were dated the same day in June 2003. Each transfer moved paper, not people. The lot was inventory, waiting for a foundation.
Gold Medallion builds and sells to the owners
Gold Medallion Custom Homes LC finished the house and sold it in July to its first owners, a private buyer. The owners signed a trust deed with Countrywide Home Loans days later to pay for it. They held the house for nine years. Then they sold it in 2013.
A quiet street runs on, its ground marked only by deeds, not by anything that happened on it.
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and Strata will dig the ground under your feet instead, wherever that is, in about a minute, with every source shown.