A 25-acre historic district, built on mining money
This point sits inside the Provo Downtown Historic District, several blocks of Center Street and University Avenue lined with brick buildings from Provo's boom years.
Last reviewed 4 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1849–2022
The short answer
The Provo Downtown Historic District is a 25-acre stretch of Center Street and University Avenue in Provo, Utah, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Its 43 brick buildings, mostly raised between 1880 and 1930, were paid for largely by silver fortunes from the Tintic Mining District, particularly Jesse Knight's Humbug mine.
The Provo Tabernacle, an early Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Provo , Utah , United States . — 2009 · Tricia Simpson · CC BY-SA 3.0
1880 to 1930
Silver from Tintic mines built Provo's brick business blocks
The Provo Downtown Historic District is a 25-acre stretch of Center Street and University Avenue now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Most of the 43 buildings the register counts here went up between 1880 and 1930, built of brick in Victorian and Classical Revival styles.
The money behind them came from silver, not farming. Thirty miles southwest of this point, the Tintic Mining District struck it rich in the 1890s. Jesse Knight made a fortune there from his Humbug mine and brought it home to Provo. He built the Knight Block on Center Street and put up a mansion in town. Charles E. Loose, another mining man, bought up property along the same stretch, including the building still known as the Loose Block.
Before the mining boom, Provo's business district sat elsewhere. In the 1850s, storekeepers clustered where 5th West met Center Street. Andrew J. Stewart, the city's first merchant, ran his shop out of his own home there before moving it onto Center Street. By the 1860s, the city had two grist mills, three shoe shops, two hotels, and a pottery, all crowded along that same stretch.
The 1860s also brought friction. Brigham Young pushed church members to boycott merchants he saw as overcharging farmers, and urged cooperative trading instead. The Provo West Co-op, the city's first cooperative store, opened in the same building Stewart had once lived and worked in.
By the 1880s, the business center had drifted east, toward where this point now sits. Brick replaced wood and adobe. The Gates-Snow Building, built around 1890, carried a stamped sheet-metal front shipped in from St. Louis. Candy maker George Startup started his business downtown in 1895, and two years later built a factory with his brother Walter that still stands nearby.
1900 to 1930
A library and courthouse followed the mining money
Public buildings followed the money. The Provo Public Library went up in 1907 on the corner of Center Street and 100 East. Provo's business owners organized a chamber of commerce in 1887 to promote the growing district. Two years later, the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company signed a twenty-year deal to wire the town.
Between 1920 and 1926, the city built a Classical Revival city and county building nearby. It later became the Utah County Courthouse. By then the district carried three decades of brick construction, stacked up from three separate building booms.
1940s to 1978
Modern facades replaced the district's original brick fronts
Tastes changed, and so did the storefronts. Through the 1940s and 1950s, owners stripped many of the older ground-floor facades and replaced them with flatter, more modern fronts. By 1974, the city's planning department had noticed the damage. Its Central Business District Plan called for rejuvenating the altered facades and putting architectural controls in place to stop further losses.
The city followed through on the public spaces too. In 1978, crews landscaped Center Street and University Avenue, widened the sidewalks at the intersections, and planted trees along both.
1967 to 1968
Provo City deeded a nearby block to Utah County
Just southeast of this point, Provo City Corporation handed over a different piece of ground. In September 1967, the city deeded a 3.66-acre block, all of old Plat B's Block 21, to Utah County by quitclaim. The county's own land records still call it that: "ALL OF BLK 21, PLAT B, PROVO CITY." The parcel was formally created in 1968, folding the whole block into a single county-held lot. Utah County has held title to it ever since.
1980 to now
National Register listing protected the district's 43 buildings
The National Register of Historic Places listed the district in 1980, protecting the 43 buildings inside it. Twenty of those are counted as architecturally or historically significant on their own. Center Street and University Avenue still carry their original brick storefronts, some restored since the 1970s push to undo decades of modernizing.
Brick commercial buildings from Provo's mining boom still line Center Street and University Avenue around this point.
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Modern
Fort Utah, near present downtown Provo
In August 1849, three Mormon settlers shot a Timpanogos Ute man called Old Bishop at Fort Utah, then gutted his body, filled it with rocks and sank it in the river.
In the winter of 1849 to 1850, measles passed from Mormon settlers into Ute camps near Fort Utah, killing many and sharpening the tensions that led to the February massacre.
Before the Provo City Cemetery opened in 1853, both Timpanogos Utes and early settlers were buried at Fort Utah and nearby ground, though the exact resting places of the massacre's dead are unrecorded.
Settlers who arrived in 1849 built Provo's first stores, mills and shops along 5th West and Center Street, the seed of the district that now surrounds this spot.
Provo River encampment and Fort Utah, near modern BYU
In February 1850, militia acting on Brigham Young's orders surrounded a Timpanogos Ute camp on the Provo River for two days, killing between 40 and 100 people, and later displayed severed heads at the fort.
Joseph Higbee was killed on February 9, 1850, when he raised his head above a defensive log during the fighting with Timpanogos warriors near the fort.
Silver money from Jesse Knight's Humbug mine and from Charles E. Loose paid for the brick Victorian blocks, including the Knight Block, that still frame the district.
Provo City Corporation deeded this parcel to Utah County in 1967 by quitclaim, and the county's land record for the 3.66-acre block has run since 1968.
Forty-three contributing buildings along Center Street and University Avenue, mostly built between 1880 and 1930, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
What was here before the Provo Downtown Historic District?
Provo's first business district sat further west, where 5th West met Center Street, home from the 1850s to storekeepers, two grist mills, three shoe shops, two hotels and a pottery. The business center drifted east toward the current district only in the 1880s.
Who paid for the brick buildings in downtown Provo?
Silver money paid for them. Jesse Knight made a fortune from his Humbug mine in the Tintic Mining District and built the Knight Block on Center Street, while fellow mining man Charles E. Loose bought up property along the same stretch, including the Loose Block.
When was the Provo Downtown Historic District listed on the National Register?
It was listed in 1980, protecting 43 contributing buildings, most built between 1880 and 1930, along Center Street and University Avenue. Twenty of those buildings are counted as architecturally or historically significant on their own.
What happened to the district's storefronts in the mid-20th century?
Through the 1940s and 1950s, owners stripped many original ground-floor facades and replaced them with flatter, modern fronts. By 1974 the city's planning department called for rejuvenating the altered storefronts and introduced architectural controls to stop further losses.
What changes came to Center Street and University Avenue in the 1970s?
In 1978, city crews landscaped Center Street and University Avenue, widened the sidewalks at intersections and planted trees along both streets, part of a broader effort to restore the district's appearance after decades of modernizing.
