The Centennial Building

(Left: The Centennial in 1896) In the late 1880s, unmarried Park City miners working for mining companies were required by law to live in the mine company boarding houses at the mines, while married miners could live in town. It was an unfair, unpopular law, and in 1901, the Mine Boarding House Bill was passed, allowing single miners to live in town. Suddenly there was a great demand for rooms in the boarding houses in town. Joseph Durkin saw this as a profitable opportunity, and he purchased a piece of property at the top and east side of Main Street. He demolished a small wood-frame house on the property.

The October 12, 1901, issue of The Park Record reported, “Joseph Durkin is erecting a neat two-story residence on upper Main Street.” Consisting of a large kitchen and ten sleeping rooms, it enabled miners to live close to the saloons, shops and restaurants. The building at 176 Main became known as the Durkin Boarding House and was owned by the Durkin family until 1911. Subsequent owners of the building were Joseph Piva, D. L. H. DeGrover, his son Joe Grover, Hilda Johnson, Richard Ringwood, Clair Rasmussen, Dale Nelson and Judy Jackson.

(Right: The Centennial in 1983) It was Nelson who undertook a ten-year project that included the addition of two dormers, an octagonal tower with a weather-vane and an addition to the rear of the building. He also coined the current name of the building, The Centennial. It contained seven apartments with 13 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and seven kitchens. Improvements included new plumbing, a new foundation, thermal windows, insulation and an interior fire sprinkler system.

Nelson could do nothing, however, to prepare for the event of July 20, 2004. A heavy rainstorm in the canyons south of town turned Poison Creek into a raging torrent that overflowed the creek banks, flooding the ground floor apartments of The Centennial. Nelson’s loss was between $10,000 and $15,000, and the residents in the bottom floor apartments also sustained heavy losses. After Nelson repaired the damage, he sold The Centennial to Judy Jackson. The current owners, Mountain Seas Development of Park City, purchased The Centennial in April 2006. Sadly, in February of 2007, The Centennial was condemned as currently uninhabitable, so as of press time, the future of this historic landmark remains unknown.