This point marks a two-story brick home built in the 1860s, now boxed in by modern condos a block from the Provo City Library.
Last reviewed 4 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1849–now
The short answer
Peter Wentz House is a two-story Federal-style brick home in northern downtown Provo, built between 1866 and 1870 and believed to be Provo's earliest fired-brick building. Peter Wentz, a bootmaker who became a city councilman, justice of the peace and Mormon bishop, built it on a block he owned alone, now surrounded by later homes and condominiums.
The Peter Wentz House, a historic home in Provo , Utah , United States . — 2009 · Tricia Simpson · CC BY-SA 3.0
1866 to 1870
Peter Wentz built Provo's earliest known brick house
Peter Wentz House is a two-story brick home still standing in northern downtown Provo. It sits across the street from where Brigham Young Academy once stood, now the Provo City Library. The house went up sometime between 1866 and 1870, built in a Federal row-house style more common back East than in Utah. It was Provo's earliest known building made of fired brick.
The man whose name the house carries, Peter Wentz, was born in 1831 in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. Peter Wentz's father was a Methodist minister. The family fell apart after his mother died and money ran out, and young Peter had to leave school and apprentice as a boot and shoemaker. At twenty, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and walked from Nauvoo, Illinois, through St. Louis, and on to Salt Lake City.
Wentz settled in Provo in 1857 and opened a boot and shoe business. Wentz also traded goods and prospected in Montana. In 1864, he married Minerva Boren, and together they raised ten children.
When he built this house, Wentz owned the whole block it sits on. He placed the home near the middle, with no neighbors close by. As Provo's streets filled in around him, his house ended up surrounded, first by other homes and later by condominiums.
Wentz spent much of his life in Provo's public business. Wentz sat on the Provo City Council for ten years and served as a Justice of the Peace. For sixteen years he ran the Provo Bench Corral and Irrigation Company, which brought water to local farms. In 1871, he traveled to New York as a missionary for his church. He also served eighteen years as the first bishop of the Timpanogas Ward.
A booklet on historic Provo gives a different account, naming the original owner as John J. Craner, who sold the house in 1912 to J. Marinus Jensen.
1912 to 1978
The house changed hands and earned landmark listing
The disagreement about who built the house matters because of what came next. If John J. Craner was the first owner, he sold it in 1912 to J. Marinus Jensen. The house kept standing through the early twentieth century, while Provo grew up around it. It survived long enough to earn a listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
1980 to 1986
Developers traded the neighbouring block through many deeds
The ground this point marks sits on a different parcel from the house's own lot, a 3.64-acre block the county calls Plat C, Block 28 of the old Provo City Survey. Developers started trading it in 1977, before the county had even opened a file for it. A private buyer signed it over to the Cha Development Corporation that year, and so did a private buyer, in a separate deed recorded the same week.
The county created the parcel itself in 1980, folding those earlier transfers into one record. The deals kept coming. In 1981, the Jmb Construction Company deeded it to the Bya Partnership, and J. A private buyer passed his stake to the Great Northern Development Co. By 1982, both companies had sold on to a firm called Security Agencies Limited.
In 1984, Security Agencies Limited sold the ground to a private buyer. Over the following year, a string of smaller owners, the owners Management and Development, the owners the owners Associates, and others, signed their pieces over to the owners too, until he held the parcel whole.
1986 to 1994
The land eventually passed to Provo City
The owners sold the land to Historic Utah Inc. In 1986. It later passed through the owners the owners and Associates partnership to the Community Service Foundation of Utah Valley in 1990. In 1994, the Academy Square Land Associates deeded it to Provo City Corporation, which still holds it today.
The deeds trace a stretch of ground once bought and sold piece by piece for development, now settled into city hands near the library and the old Wentz lot. Provo City Library stands about 550 feet from this point, in the building that was once Brigham Young Academy.
The brick house still stands mid-block, hemmed in by condominiums, a holdover from a decade when one man owned the whole street.
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Modern
Fort Field Cemetery, near Geneva Road
Eight people died in Fort Utah's founding year of 1849, including William Dayton, killed in a cannon demonstration accident, and were buried at Fort Field Cemetery.
In early 1850, near the Provo River a few streets from here, a settler killed a Timpanogos man known to settlers as Old Bishop in a dispute over a shirt, and hid his body in the river.
Peter Wentz, a bootmaker, city councilman, justice of the peace and bishop, built the salt-box brick house 39 meters from you between 1866 and 1870, reportedly after seeing similar homes while on a mission to New York.
Philo Farnsworth, the television inventor, and Abraham Owen Smoot, an early Mormon pioneer leader, are both buried in Provo City Cemetery a short distance away.
Between 1977 and 1982 the lot passed from a private owner to Cha Development Corporation, then through Jmb Construction, Bya Partnership, and Great Northern Development, before Security Agencies Limited took title in 1982.
The county's parcel here traces back to Block 28 of the Provo City Survey of Building Lots, later known as the lower campus of Brigham Young University, though the modern parcel itself was only created in 1980.
Over 1984 and 1985, a private buyer bought out a series of owners, including the owners Management, the owners the owners Associates, a private buyer, and the owners, to consolidate title to the lot.
After further transfers through Historic Utah Inc and the Community Service Foundation of Utah Valley, Academy Square Land Associates deeded the lot to Provo City Corporation in 1994, the city's current owner of record.
The Peter Mastin Wentz House was added to the Provo City Historic Landmarks Registry on April 26, 1996, decades after it was listed on the National Register.
On July 4, 2026, a fireworks malfunction during the Stadium of Fire event at LaVell Edwards Stadium injured at least 27 people, six of whom were hospitalized.
What was here before the condominiums near Peter Wentz House?
Peter Wentz owned the whole block when he built his house between 1866 and 1870, with no neighbours close by; other homes and later condominiums filled in around it as Provo's streets developed.
Who built Peter Wentz House?
Peter Wentz, a bootmaker, Provo city councilman, justice of the peace and first bishop of the Timpanogas Ward, is credited with building the house, though a historic Provo booklet instead names John J. Craner as the original owner, who sold it in 1912 to J. Marinus Jensen.
When was Peter Wentz House listed as a historic site?
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and later added to the Provo City Historic Landmarks Registry on April 26, 1996.
Who owns the land near Peter Wentz House today?
Provo City Corporation holds the parcel today, after it passed through Historic Utah Inc, the owners the owners and Associates partnership, the Community Service Foundation of Utah Valley, and Academy Square Land Associates, which deeded it to the city in 1994.
What is near Peter Wentz House today?
The Provo City Library stands about 550 feet away, in the building that once housed Brigham Young Academy.
