National Register Listing

Hunt, Parley, House

a.k.a. Neville Residence

Canal St. near jct. with Virgin St., Bunkerville, NV

The Parley Hunt House is significant under Criteria A and c. Under Criteria A, the house is important as it relates to the settlement and development of Bunkerville, which began as a utopian Mormon colony in 1877. Bunkerville is the only one of several Mormon settlement attempts in Nevada to survive to the present day. The structure is also significant as an example of a regional vernacular house type. This house type relates to similar structures in other Mormon settlements, such as St. George, Utah, and to other surviving early structures in Bunkerville. The Parley Hunt House remains a dwelling, and is in good condition, but has been extensively altered. The period of significance is c. 1907 when the house was built.

Under Criteria A, the Parley Hunt House is significant as it relates to the settlement and early development of Bunkerville, which began in the 19th century as a Mormon Utopian community. Bunkerville is located in the southeast corner of Nevada, just west of the Utah-Nevada state border and south of the Virgin River. The Virgin River Valley previously had formed part of the "Old Spanish Trail", and then served as part of the "Mormon Corridor," both historic transportation corridors stretching from the interior of the Great Basin southwest to San Bernadino and toward the California coast.

The settlement of Bunkerville was part of a Mormon colonization movement that established many communities in Nevada. These colonization efforts were active in five periods in Nevada: 1855-1857, 1864-1871, 1877, 1898, and 1910. The present state of Nevada was once the western edge of the State of Deseret and the Utah territory.' It was thus seen by Brigham Young as available for colonization by his missionaries. Mormon colonization was implemented both by independent, unsanctioned (though not necessarily disapproved) settlements and by church-organized missions. Bunkerville is an example of an independently-settled community that was encouraged, though not specifically "called" by Brigham Young.

While Bunkerville followed several other Mormon settlements, including Mormon Station, Clover Valley, Muddy Mission, and Overton, Bunkerville was the first community in Nevada to follow the United Order, an economic system based upon the principles of communal property ownership and cooperative work ethic. These two principles were first proclaimed as a divine revelation by Joseph Smith, the spiritual founder of the Mormon Church. The basis of Smith's philosophy was the belief that no man could be equal in Heavenly things if he were not first equal in things on earth. Further revelations followed over a period of time, clarifying how this socioeconomic parity was to be achieved. These revelations, commonly referred to as the "United Order" or the "Order of Enoch" included the following principles:
1) The Earth belongs only to the Lord.
2) The people were not "owners," but rather custodians, or "stewards" of the Lord's property.
3) All property over and above what a steward needed was considered surplus and was to be donated, or "consecrated," to the local bishop and to be held in the bishop's storehouse.
4) The bishop, with the consent of the church faithful, was responsible for apportioning the storehouse inventory to those who needed it the most, as long as they remained in good standing with the church."

The United Order was first implemented in the Kirtland, Ohio, and Independence, Missouri settlements. These two experimental communities were soon to collapse, as a result of the economic Depression of 1837, harassment by neighboring gentiles, and a number of internal problems including a disparity of initial wealth among the settlers, and disagreements and divisions among the Church leaders.

After Smith's death in 1844, Brigham Young assumed leadership of the Mormon Church. Young was less enthusiastic than Smith about establishing the United Order and instead instituted a program of tithing. This policy was more popular with church membership and proved ultimately more economically successful.

In the 1870s, interest began to build in resurrecting the United Order. In 1873, Zion's Mercantile cooperative Institution (ZCMI) was founded in an attempt to regain control of the region's mercantile operations. Produce and goods were to be bought and sold exclusively through ZCMI warehouses, and gentile interests were to be boycotted. One month after the formation of ZCMI, Brigham Young said "This cooperative movement is only a stepping stone to the Order of Enoch". The Panic of 1873 also served as an impetus for reinstating United Order principles.

Several existing communities attempted to adopt the communal philosophy of the United Order but were unsuccessful. In 1876, a member of one of these communities, Edward Bunker of Santa Clara, Utah, asked Brigham Young's permission to establish a new community based upon the Order. Young encouraged Bunker to establish his settlement anywhere to the south of St. George, the location of Young's winter and retirement home.

on January 1, 1877, a company of 23 was organized for the new settlement. Eighteen set out to locate the community, leaving Bunker, Dudley Leavitt, Sr., and other company officers behind in Santa Clara for at least a year. On January 5, 1877, the company reached Mesquite Flats, beside the Virgin River. A site was selected just south of the river, approximately two and one-half miles east of the present location.

For the first two years, the town was known as Mesquite, after the area's regional name, Mesquite Flats. The name was soon changed to Bunkerville, in honor of the founder and first Bishop. This name was made official in 1879, with the establishment of the first Post Office. After the collapse of the United Order, some of the settlers moved across the river to find the present community of Mesquite.

The young community was industrious, immediately beginning the tasks of clearing land and planting crops. By 1878, a system of irrigation canals was dug and a flour mill was built. A "crude lumber dining hall with long table" was constructed." In 1879, John Steele of Tocqueville made a full survey of Bunkerville, dividing each block into four lots.

Although much progress was made under the United Order in Bunkerville's first three years, by 1880, a general dissatisfaction led to the dissolution of the United Order here. In her memoirs, Mary Luella Abbott Leavitt, one of the early settlers, relates that life under the United Order was "just like one large family...we...were as one, all united and interested in each other. When the order broke up, she states that she was surprised, but that the community "had got strong enough by this time to keep going."

While the principles of the Order did not last, the community of Bunkerville survived and continued to grow. In 1881, the town had 15 families. The first school house was constructed of poles and willows, and a larger, more permanent building to be used as a school, church, and social hall, was begun." Bunkerville was settling into permanence, but there were many obstacles for the young community.

Flooding from the Virgin River was a constant problem. Drying to a trickle in the summer and fall, the river was prone to flash flooding by spring. The first flood was experienced by the settlers in 1878, a more serious flood was to strike in 1882, destroying crops, barns, and homes, and damaging the all-important irrigation ditch. These floods were to occur frequently until in 1957 the town built a permanent, concrete dam. Mosquitos were also a problem and malaria was a common disease among the early settlers.

Once the agricultural infrastructure was established, an irrigation canal dug, and a cotton gin and flour mill built, the town turned its attention to building more permanent homes for its settlers. A brick kiln was established close to town, as was a lime kiln for the production of mortar." Many of Bunkerville's homes, including the Parley Hunt house, were built in the period between 1880 and World War I.

One of the more significant later events that were to change Bunkerville was the building of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s, which brought electricity to the town. The homes were to get running water shortly thereafter.

The development of Bunkerville has thus far been examined as a manifestation of the Mormon settlement movement, based in its early years upon the Utopian principles of the United Order. The history of a community can also be seen as a composite of the lives of its citizens. Parley Smith Hunt was typical of the early Bunkerville settlers in that he was a farmer and very active in the Mormon Church. Knowledge of Parley Hunt's life is also important to an understanding of the home he built.

Parley Smith Hunt, born in 1868 in Kentucky, was the second child of Jonathan and Susan Naney Hunt. When Parley was seven, Jonathan moved his family to Ogden, Utah, where his Mormon brothers and mother lived. The family was baptized into the Mormon church there. Jonathan moved his family to Hebron and then to Gunlock in southern Utah, where he died of tuberculosis in 1881.

After living briefly in Leeds, Utah, the family moved to Nevada in the mid-1880s, first settling in Mesquite. After about one and one-half years, the Hunts moved to Bunkerville, buying a few acres from Bishop Edward Bunker, Stephen Bunker, and Orange Leavitt. The land included a small, one-room wood frame shack.

In the mid-1890s, Parley went to work in the mines, after hearing that the pay was very good. In 1897, he was called to a Mission in the Southern States, spending about two and one-half years in Kentucky. In 1900, Parley returned to his family in Bunkerville.

When Parley's younger brother Nephi was called to Mission in 1907, Parley took full responsibility for his family. He finished building the brick house Nephi had begun, moved the family in, and then began work on a house next door for himself and his mother. The house was built of "native rock with mortar of clay and sand and home-kilned lime." Lumber was hauled from Parwan, 150 miles away. Parley worked for James S. Abbott and Abe Woodbury long enough to pay them for carpentry on the house.

When Parley's brother George's wife died in 1915, Parley and his mother moved in with them. Susan Hunt died in 1919. Parley, who never married, continued to live with George and help him rear his children. After leading an active life farming and in the church--he was called on two more missions, in 1928 and 1940 -- Parley Hunt died in 1953, at age 85.

The Parley Hunt House has thus far been examined in relation to the settlement and early development of Bunkerville by the Mormons. The architectural context of this building will now be discussed.

The typical Bunkerville house of the 1890-WWI period, based upon those still standing, was a side-gabled L or T, one, one, and one-half or two stories. The primary facade was three or four bays wide, with one or two main entrances, centrally located on the facade. Walls were constructed of brick or stone. Ornamentation, if used at all, was very simple and confined to limited areas, such as gable ends. The houses were variants of a common American vernacular form, built with available materials and adapted to the needs of the settlers.

The first white settlers in Bunkerville built a crude, makeshift shelters, from whatever materials they found at hand. Dug-out and crude homes of willow were the colonists' first homes, along with a communal dining hall described as "a makeshift board shack."
One of the problems facing the settlers was a lack of building materials, particularly of lumber. One early settler, Luella Leavitt, remembers her husband going to Mt. Trumble for lumber to build a house in 1881.50 Mount Trumble is in northwestern Arizona, approximately 60 miles from Bunkerville. The first wood frame house was built in 1878 by Edward Bunker, Jr. Other frame houses followed. In November 1878 Myron Abbott built the town's first adobe house."

In the 1880s, the community began to build from brick and stone. A brick kiln was built near town at this time, as was a lime Kiln for producing mortar. The use of these materials may be due in part to the difficulty in getting lumber. It also may be attributed to a recommendation of Brigham Young, who believed that brick and stone should be used for all construction since these materials are more permanent and enduring. Many of Bunkerville's citizens were no doubt familiar with Young's own retirement home in nearby St. George, Utah. This two-story brick gable-roofed structure was built c. 1870.

In form, the homes of Bunkerville were built in a simple vernacular style, one defined by Virginia and Lee McAlester in A Field Guide to American Houses as "National."33 This style is broken down into several variants. The Parley Hunt House most closely fits the one-story hall and parlor house type. One room wide and one room deep, often with a rear wing forming an "L", these houses are based upon a traditional British folk form. The two-story, I-house type, two rooms wide and one deep, were also found in Bunkerville, particularly with a rear wing forming an "L" or "T". These houses all have side-gabled entries and porches.

Within this vernacular type are features that appear to be typical of these Bunkerville houses. These include chimneys, kitchen placement, doors, and ornamentation. These houses had two or three chimneys. While the Thomas Leavitt house has two end chimneys on its primary block, the Parley Hunt and other houses have a central chimney, sometimes coming from a double fireplace. The Parley Hunt House may also have originally had a second chimney, at the rear gable end. This rear room was originally used as a kitchen, and a chimney would have been needed for the stove. Both the Dudley Leavitt, Jr. House and the Thomas Leavitt House have rear gable end chimneys rising from the kitchen similarly located at the rear of the structure.

Another characteristic feature of these houses is the great number of outside doors. This house has three original outside doors for a three-room house. Other houses, such as the Thomas Leavitt House, with 12 doors for a six-room house, had even more. These were small houses, built without corridors. The many doors served to preserve at least a degree of privacy for the large families that typically lived in these houses.

The ornamentation of the Parley Hunt House, as well as other Bunkerville houses of the same period, is a very simple "carpenter's vernacular," with traces of Queen Anne detailing. No original interior trim remains. The exterior is almost devoid of ornamental trim, which is confined to gable ends. These areas feature shingles, flared eaves, and decorative rake moldings. This treatment links the structure, loosely, with the Queen Anne style, which featured gable roofs, a combination of shingling with masonry, and the concentration of ornament at the gable ends. The Queen Anne style was popular from about 1880 to 1910.

These vernacular house types, sometimes incorporating features from Queen Anne or Shingle Style, remained in use until World War I. After the war, the Bungalow form became popular, supplanting the older vernacular forms, and finally, the one-story "ranch". In many cases, older houses were remodeled and re-shaped to conform to these newer styles. Today, the mobile home appears to be the most popular house type.

The Parley Hunt House is significant architecturally as an example of an early Bunkerville house type, a variant of an early vernacular style that can be defined as "National." The house is also significant historically as the survival of Bunkerville's early period of development.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1991.