Attewell Sr. & Cynthia Wootton Home

5 West Main Street

Standing on the southwest corner of Main and Center Streets, the Wootton Home has a history closely tied to Midway's early settlement and the development of its schools.

Attewall Wootton arrived in Heber Valley in the early 1860s. His wife, Cynthia Jane Jewett, and their family joined him the following summer. The family lived within the original fort, where Attewall may have begun teaching in the settlement's log schoolhouse. He later taught for many years in the stone school and became Wasatch County Superintendent of Schools around 1885.

As the settlement grew beyond the fort, Attewall may have moved his original dwelling across the street to the property where the brick home would eventually stand. In 1897, he built the oldest surviving portion of the house, the section with the porch facing Main Street, using locally fired brick.

Attewall and Cynthia raised eleven children, although only some of their younger children are believed to have lived in the brick home.

The house grew in stages. An early room was added behind the original structure, using brick so similar that it may have been built shortly afterward. A larger story-and-a-half addition facing Center Street followed, possibly around 1900 or sometime after 1912, when William L. Van Wagoner purchased the property for $2,000. This addition featured a gabled roof with long cornice returns and was constructed with smaller, more evenly fired brick. The different sections offer a glimpse of how the home evolved over time.

William and his wife, Charlotte Sharp Van Wagoner, made the house their family home, raising seven of their ten children here. William was active in both church and public affairs. He served as a counselor in an LDS bishopric, was a member of the stake high council, served on the Wasatch School Board, and represented the area for three terms in the Utah State Legislature.

Around 2002, the Hardy Foundation restored the home, preserving its distinctive brickwork and the additions that tell the story of its growth.