George H. Wood House (former)

George Henry Wood was one of the first residents of Cedar City to have been born there. His parents, George Lamar and Mary Davis Wood, were early pioneers in Iron County. The elder George Wood was born in 1822 in Leagley, Staffordshire, England and migrated to America after joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the LDS or Mormon Church). He was among the group of Mormons who settled in Parowan in 1851. His log cabin, said to be the earliest home built in Iron County, was moved from Parowan to Cedar City. The elder Wood later built a new home and store for his family downtown, opposite the Escalante Hotel location, and ran a boarding house for a number of years. In 1921, the children of George L. and Mary Wood presented their parents' pioneer cabin to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers; the cabin was moved to a city park in 1927. It is said that 24 children were born in this cabin.

The son, George H. Wood, had the saltbox house built in 1889 on N. Main Street in Cedar City. He married Elizabeth Ann Bryner and the couple went on to have 14 children. Their eldest, George Albert "Bert" Wood, was born in October 1878 in New Harmony, Washington County, Utah and died in Cedar City in 1964. Bert became a building supervisor for the Union Pacific Railroad and supervised building of the El Escalente Hotel in town and the Utah Parks Company Lodge at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. A daughter of George H. and Elizabeth, Verena, was born in Cedar City in April 1894. George H. Wood once served as a Cedar City Councilman and also owned a ranch. A reunion of the family of George H. Wood was an annual event. Seventy-seven people attended in July 1948; the event was held at the Wood Ranch in Cedar Canyon.

When the George H. Wood House was documented for listing in the National Register in the late 1970s, the house, of light salmon-orange brick, had a one-story, gable-roofed addition of the same brick built onto its northeast corner. An outbuilding in the yard east of the house, a combined milkhouse and summerhouse, was constructed of the same kind of brick and was one-and-a-half stories tall, facing east. An exterior stairwell on the east side accessed the upper level of the outbuilding, which was rectangular and covered by a gable roof. The main block of the house featured two rooms on each floor, with each room being two rooms deep. Mantels were wooden and floors were fir in the simply-designed home. The window sills and lintels were wooden; door bays featured transom windows and raised panel doors. Two brick chimneys extended upward from the south wall. It was one of only a handful of Saltbox style homes in Utah that survived into the 1970s.

Toadz Bar and Restaurant has been in town for fifty years, according to their website, although it's unclear if all of those years were in this 432 N. Man St. location, or if the current buildings incorporate any remnants of the Wood house or outbuildings.

Anonymous. "Dedicatory Services of Pioneer Cabin Saturday." Iron County Record (Cedar City, UT) June 16th 1938.

Anonymous. "Card of Thanks." Iron County Record (Cedar City, UT) October 24th 1940.

Anonymous. "Descendants Honor Birth Anniversary of George Wood." Iron County Record (Cedar City, UT) November 20th 1941.

Anonymous. "Wood Reunion Held." Iron County Record (Cedar City, UT) July 29th 1948.

Anonymous. "Cedar Matron Dies of Lingering Illness, Service Set." Iron County Record (Cedar City, UT) March 15th 1952.

Anonymous. "George A. Wood will Observe 80th Birthday" Iron County Record (Cedar City, UT) October 23rd 1958.

Anonymous. "Last Rites Accorded George Albert Wood." Iron County Record (Cedar City, UT) November 12th 1964.

Anonymous. "Homes placed on Register." Iron County Record (Cedar City, UT) December 21st 1978.

Powell, A. Kent. Roberts, Allen D. . NRHP Nomination of George H. Wood House. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1978.

Toadz . Toadz Club and Bar - Home, Toadz Cedar City Club and Bar. September 1st 2020. Accessed September 3rd 2020. http://www.toadzbar.com/.