Springer Home

65 North 200 West

Built in 1899, the Springer Home is a story-and-a-half hall-parlor house with foundations of pot rock and brick. Matilda Robey Springer purchased the property from Thomas Wilson in 1885, fourteen years before the home was constructed. Historical records suggest she may have built it as a rental property.

Over the years, several early Midway families were associated with the home, including Leo Joseph Haefeli and his wife, Emily Zelleweger, and Carson Oscar Smith and his wife, Ellen Melissa Springer, who was Matilda's daughter.

Matilda's son, Jeremiah “Jerry” Robey Springer, led an adventurous and varied life. At just ten years old, he accompanied his father, Nathan C. Springer, to Nicaragua, where Nathan died in 1888. Jerry later attended Utah State Agricultural College and went on to work as a deputy sheriff in Soldier Summit, where he also operated a coal business. A skilled blacksmith, he followed in his father's footsteps with mining interests in Park City, Alta, Snake Creek, and California.

In 1904, Jerry married Lydia Rosetta Bigler, and together they had six children. His work frequently took the family away from Midway, so the house on 200 West was sometimes rented to others or left vacant during their absences.

Over the years, the original home underwent several changes, including an addition on the southwest corner and a front porch built in the 1950s. The property has since been transformed into a commercial space, bearing little resemblance to the original Springer Home.

Interestingly, timbers from old Fort Midway were incorporated into and can still be seen in the building today. Although the Springer Home itself has largely disappeared, a piece of Midway's earliest history remains visible at this location.