Bernard O. Mecklenburg Residence
Rehabilitation and Restoration
951 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT
Bernard O. Mecklenburg Residence
Original construction: 1906–1907
National Register: Contributing resource, South Temple Local Historic District
The People Behind It
Owners: Jesse and Erin Deller
At a Glance
The Mecklenburg Residence receives the Rehabilitation and Restoration award for an owner-led project that set an exceptionally high standard for what individual commitment to historic preservation can achieve. When Jesse and Erin Deller purchased 951 East South Temple, the home designed and built by one of Salt Lake City's most prolific early twentieth-century architects had been divided into apartments, filled with debris, and left to accumulate years of damage. What they found beneath the original woodwork, tile, windows, wallpaper, hardware, and light fixtures was worth saving, and they saved it. Paint was stripped from historic sandstone by hand. Original wooden windows were repaired or rebuilt from scratch using traditional techniques. The original floor plan was restored by removing non-historic partitions. The front door, buried under layers of paint at the rear of the house, was dismantled into its twelve original components, restored, and returned to the facade it was always meant to anchor. The work was done without institutional backing or historic tax credits, guided throughout by a straightforward principle: repair over replacement, and respect for the materials and craftsmanship that make this building what it is.
The Story
The Classical Box residence at 951 East South Temple was designed and built by Bernard Ollington Mecklenburg, one of Salt Lake City's most prolific and celebrated architects of the early twentieth century. Born in Nebraska in 1878, Mecklenburg arrived in Utah around 1900 and quickly won acclaim for work that ranged across building types and scales, including Holy Cross Hospital, the Maryland Apartments at 839 East South Temple, multiple bank buildings, and the completion of the Cathedral of the Madeleine following the sudden death of its original architect. He was closely associated with mining magnate Samuel Newhouse and shared an ambitious vision of transforming Salt Lake City into a modern urban center.
True to his reputation for expressive stonework and large balustrades, the home features a hip roof, side chimneys, a front center dormer with fluted pilasters and metal finials, second-floor windows with art glass transoms, a three-sided wooden bay window, and the dramatic double-curved stone stoop set on a rough-faced stone foundation that anchors the facade and remains its defining feature.
Mecklenburg sold the home in 1914 to J. Frank Judge, son of John and Mary Judge, a family whose silver mining wealth underwrote both a significant Utah fortune and the Catholic charitable institutions, including what became Judge Memorial High School, that Mary Judge founded after her husband's early death. During World War I, Mecklenburg was relocated to a detention camp for Americans of German ancestry, one of the more sobering footnotes to a career of outsized civic contribution. The house passed through several owners across the mid-twentieth century before decades of deferred maintenance and conversion into apartment units left it diminished and at risk.
Preservation Work
By the time Jesse and Erin Deller purchased it, the home had been divided into multiple units, filled with debris from a hoarding situation, and left to accumulate years of damage. Twelve large dumpsters and two trailers were needed just to clear the interior before any assessment of the structure could begin. What emerged was remarkable: original woodwork, tile, windows, wallpaper, hardware, and light fixtures, an exceptional amount of history still intact and worth saving.
On the exterior, multiple layers of paint were carefully removed by hand from the historic sandstone masonry, avoiding abrasive methods that could damage the stone. A later enclosed porch was reopened to restore the facade's original character. The roof was replaced after removing three accumulated layers of asphalt shingles. Original wooden double-hung windows were repaired and conserved or fully rebuilt by hand using traditional techniques, such as hand planing, routing, and carving, with custom removable storm windows installed to improve energy efficiency without altering the historic appearance.
Inside, non-original partition walls were removed to restore the original floor plan. Paint was stripped from historic woodwork, and sagging structural beams were reinforced using modern materials concealed from view. Building systems were comprehensively updated; knob-and-tube wiring, failing cast-iron plumbing, and a non-functional radiant heating system were all replaced, but the original radiators were retained and restored, new HVAC vents were placed as close as possible to their original locations, original bathtubs remained in place, and historic wallpaper was preserved where possible. Antique mirrors and small pieces of furniture were repurposed as bathroom vanities, reinforcing the home's period craftsmanship throughout.
One of the project's most satisfying discoveries came late in the work: the home's original front door, relocated to the rear of the house and buried under layers of paint and plastic coating. The door was fully dismantled into its twelve original components, stripped, squared, and meticulously reassembled, restored to the facade it was always meant to anchor.
Why It Matters
When the Dellers purchased the property, neighbors asked whether it would be torn down. It was not. By prioritizing repair, custom fabrication, and traditional techniques over wholesale replacement and doing so without institutional backing or historic tax credits, Jesse and Erin demonstrated that even deeply compromised historic properties can be successfully brought back. The home now contributes positively to one of Salt Lake City's most significant historic streetscapes, and its story stands as a model for what individual commitment to preservation can achieve.
The project is documented on the Deller Home Revival YouTube channel, where Jesse and Erin have shared the full arc of the work with a broad audience, extending the story of this house well beyond the block it sits on.