Olsen Home and Mortuary 

Otto G. Olsen, who was a merchant and furniture maker, became the first undertaker in Sanpete county when he began building caskets and later a horse-drawn hearse. This building was used as a mortuary from its original construction in 1889 until 1972, during which time, two additions were built in 1930 and 1949 to facilitate its continuing use. After his death in 1927, two of Otto’s children, Adolphe and Josephine, took over the family business. However, when Adolphe moved to Salt Lake City in 1930, Josephine, who was a widow at the time, became the owner of the house and the sole proprietor of the mortuary. It seems she was the first female funeral director in Utah at the time, who wasn’t acting as an assistant to her husband. She ran the mortuary until 1944, when she sold the property to Reuben Buchanan.

This building is a unique blend of pattern book Italianate houses and Victorian influence. Italianate houses, whose defining features were cross-wings and side passages, were popular in Salt Lake City in the 1870s, but weren't common in more rural communities, such as Ephraim, until the 1880s. A few of the key characteristics of this style included a low-pitched hip roof, overhanging eaves, bracketed cornices and tall windows capped by slightly arched and hooded window heads. There is a foyer in the southwest corner of the house where the original owner of the house had started to build a spiral staircase, however, this staircase was never finished and the exterior door remained blocked off until the building's mortuary functions were upgraded in 1930. The spiral staircase was completely removed and a door was put into the east wall of the foyer, which led into a bedroom that had been converted into a body preparation room. In the living room, the floorboards had visible ruts which were made by funeral gurneys over the years, but these were mostly fixed when the floor was redone. The exterior of the house has an irregular footprint with 10-foot-wide square bays facing north and west and the foundation is made of oolite limestone. The window openings consist of segmental arches with soldier brick drip moldings. The upper windows have similar moldings but are partially obscured by the Italianate bracketed cornice. There is also a tall brick chimney with a corbelled cap which is centrally located on the roof of the 1889 section of the house. Both before and after 1972, when the home was no longer used as a mortuary, it went through numerous additions and renovations. In 1930, a 1 ½ kitchen wing was added to the rear. In 1949, a one-story entry and room was added to the northeast corner. Sometime in the 1980s, a carport was also added. The final addition was a one-story family sun-room built on the south elevation in 2006, and the carport was converted into a garage.