Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Jerry Hancock has transformed his Victorian home into a museum showcasing western Weber County's history.
- The West Weber museum, known as Elm Tree Corner, is filled with pioneer-era artifacts and is open to visitors by appointment.
- Hancock, an artist, hopes to preserve the collection well into the future through a trust arrangement.
WEST WEBER, Weber County — It all started with a car crash several years ago that left Jerry Hancock with several broken bones.
Maybe it got him thinking about mortality, but whatever the spur, he decided he had better start inventorying the extensive array of items he had gathered in his home in the West Weber area of western Weber County. Some of his family members, it seems, were starting to eye the collection — representative of the area's local history dating to the pioneer days — with raised eyebrows.
"I thought if I could just get kind of started labeling some of the stuff, my family wouldn't throw it away," he joked.
Whatever the push, it worked, and Hancock has converted his distinctive Victorian home at the crossroads of a pair of rural roads — Elm Tree Corner — into a museum. In 1972, Hancock bought the home — previously owned by his parents, his grandparents and Archibald McFarland, one of the original Mormon Pioneer settlers in the area — and still lives in it.
Multiple rooms are full of historical mementos "from the original owners, my family and the West Weber area. It's a live-in museum," he said.
More items — horse-drawn farming implements, an old buggy, barbed wire samples and more — sit in or around a converted chicken coop adjacent to the house.
As he lives at Elm Tree Corner, Hancock, 86, only accepts visitors by appointment. But he's enthusiastic about showing off all the stuff he's collected and has it neatly organized and arranged, even if seemingly every corner of the home is full.
"People seem to enjoy it. I've had people from all over the United States and it's all word of mouth," he said.
Among others, it's garnered the attention of the Weber County Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit group focused on preserving and cataloguing the county's history. The organization created a short video about Hancock's home and museum, offering an abbreviated inventory of the many things inside.
"You won't believe what's here," says the video's narrator before reeling off a partial list and showing the items. "A crank doorbell, sacrament relic, steamer trunk, banjo ukulele, antique valentine, lightning-fast butter churn, flowers made of hair, clawfoot bathtub, pond turtles, sad irons, marbles, opium bottles, doll parts, buttons, locks, original poor man's stained glass, flour sack bonnet, tatted snowflakes, Shoshone grinding stone, farm tools ..."
Hancock is an artist by trade and his artwork also adorns the walls of the structure. Outside and in the chicken coop, there's more, including an outhouse made as part of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration and a yellow 1929 Ford.
"I've got cars and buggies and tractors and wagons and every kind of implement you can imagine that was horse-drawn," Hancock said.
The multi-colored Victorian home with intricate gingerbread trim dates to 1867, when McFarland started building the structure. He was directed to the area by Brigham Young and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to Hancock. Hancock's grandparents bought the home from the McFarland family in 1931 and it subsequently passed to Boyd Hancock, Jerry Hancock's dad, and then Jerry Hancock.
Many of the items at Elm Tree Corner were handed down from the varied generations who lived in the main structure while Hancock would also keep alert to opportunities for relics from his West Weber neighbors. "As historic buildings were demolished in the area, Jerry would run in and save historic items from inside," reads an accounting of the home that Hancock helped prepare.
Hancock hopes the home and museum will last a long time. "I've got it set up in a trust for 200 years," he said.
Meanwhile, he continues to draw inspiration from the place. "I still enjoy it," he said.
For information on visiting Elm Tree Corner, located at 4100 West and 400 South in Weber County, contact Hancock at 801-731-1613, his sister Joan Kendell at 801-450-5492 or his niece Heather Jensen at [email protected].
