Moab First Meetinghouse

Constructed of adobe in 1889, the Moab L.D.S. Church was built nine years after the establishment of Moab in 1880. Angus Stocks supervised the laying fo the foundation and adobes. Within a few years of the original construction, an addition was made to the rear of teh building. The church was used by the Moab ward until 1925 when a new church was built and this church deeded to the Grand County School District. In 1937 the Grand County camp of the daughters of the Utah pioneers began holding meetings in the building and have continued to use the building, with the exception of a ten year period between 1954-1964 when it was used for classrooms.

One room of this building, formerly the L.D.S. Church, was erected in 1888. Two years later a second room was added. The bishop was Randolph Stewart, building committee O.W. Warner, who donated the land, Henry Holyoak, and O.D. Allen, supervisors were Hyrum Allen, Hauling of Rock, J.H. Standifred, Carpentry, W.J. Bliss, stone cutting: Angus M. Stocks, stone and adobe laying. labor, Money and materials were donated and the first services were held in May, 1889.

Log cabins used to be common in Moab. I am the oldest one left. I was built, most likely, by the first bishop of Moab, Randolph Stewart for his third plural wife, Marietta, about 1881. The Stanley's, a family of four lived here in 1908 after they moved from the Wolfe Ranch in the Arches. A couple of bachelors, Howard Balsley uranium mining pioneer, and Bish Taylor, local newspaper editor, lived here in 1912. I am listed on the National Registor of Historic Places as an Historic Landmark.