Knight Block
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Knight Block
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Knight Block
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| Location | 1-13 East Center Street and 20-24 North University Avenue Provo, Utah |
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| Coordinates | 40°14′3″N 111°39′27″W / 40.23417°N 111.65750°WCoordinates: 40°14′3″N 111°39′27″W / 40.23417°N 111.65750°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1900 |
| Architect | Richard C. Watkins |
| NRHP reference # | 77001322 |
| Added to NRHP | December 2, 1977 |
The Knight Block is a historic building located in Provo, Utah. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Knight Block was constructed in 1900, and served as Jesse Knight’s financial headquarters. It was designated to the National Register of Historic Places in May 1977.
A three story building, the Knight Block is a rectangular structure containing a ground floor for retail, a basement, and two upper floors used for offices. The structure is made of red brick with gray limestone lintels. On the Southwest of the building is a clock tower which rises over the roof line of the building. Several additions have been made to the building, such as three bays built on the north end of the western face of the building and the inside of the main floor.
Perhaps the wealthiest man in Provo at the time, Jesse Knight was born in 1845 in Nauvoo, Illinois. Jessie’s family migrated west, and reached Utah in 1857. Twelve years later Jessie married a woman by the name of Amanda McEwan, and began a ranch in Payson, Utah. Following an impression that he had, Jessie began a mining operation in the Eureka area and became rich. He subsequently bought other mines, founded a bank, purchased real estate in Provo, bought the Provo Woolen Mills, and started farming and cattle interests in Canada. Throughout all of these efforts Jessie remained an active supporter of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his mines were called the “cleanest mining camps in the west (Utah State Historical Society p. 2).” Jessie Knight died in 1921, designating much of his amassed fortune to BYU and various other institutions.
The successful commercial mining of precious metals and minerals transformed Utah's economy from basically an agrarian base to a more industrialized state. Within this development the Tintic Mining District, located approximately thirty miles southwest of Provo, was founded in 1869 and by 1899 became the leading mining center in Utah with a value of output placed at five million dollars. A central figure in Tintic success was Jesse Knight and the Knight family who resided in Provo. Jesse Knight attained wealth with his Humbug mine in the mid-1890s. The large silver producer allowed Knight to develop other mines in the East Tintic area. Knightsville grew around the workings and became touted as the only saloon-free, prostitute-free, privately owned mining camp in the U.S. His strict adherence to doctrines of the LDS Church made the town one inhabited primarily by Mormons.
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