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The Olsen House and Mortuary, constructed in 1889 and later expanded, is a two-story brick house with a combination of Italianate and Victorian-era stylistic elements in Ephraim, Utah. The property is locally significant under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as the best example of a hybrid Italianate and Victorian-era house in Ephraim and Sanpete County. The architecture represents the introduction of pattern book domestic architecture in the isolated farming communities of Sanpete County in the late nineteenth century. The building is central-block-with-projecting-bays type house representing a unique adaptation of a pattern book design by its local builders: Hyrum Brimhall, mason, and Otto G. Olsen, owner and carpenter. The house was designed by Olsen to both house his family and aid his role as the first undertaker in Sanpete County. One of the three bays in the home’s parlor is deeper than the other two and may have been designed to fit coffins for viewing, as was common at the time. Two subsequent additions to the house in 1930 and 1949 were also designed to accommodate the continuing use of the house as a mortuary in the twentieth century. The period of significance spans from the initial construction in 1889 to the end of eligibility in 1972. Within this period, the property is also locally significant under Criterion A in the area of Commerce as the first and longest continuous use funeral home and mortuary in Sanpete County. Otto G. Olsen was a merchant and furniture maker. He became the first undertaker in the area through his work building caskets and later a horse-drawn hearse. Two of his children, Adolphe and Josephine, took over the business after his death in 1927. After her brother moved to Salt Lake City in 1930, Josie Olsen Rasmussen, a young widow, became owner of the house and sole proprietor of the mortuary. That year Josie took out a funeral director’s license. She appears to have been the first female funeral director in Utah not acting as an assistant to her husband. Josie ran the mortuary until she sold the property to Reuben Buchanan in 1944. The house continued to provide funeral services as the Ephraim branch of the Buchanan Mortuary in Manti, Utah, until 1981. During this time period, the house was occupied by Boyd H. Olsen, who drove the hearse/ambulance, and his wife, Geraldine Buchanan Olsen. Though the architectural integrity of the house has been compromised by out-of-period modifications, the impacts are minor and are mitigated by the Criterion A significance and continuous use as a mortuary through the period of significance.
