JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Work to restore the John Moulton property in Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park will temporarily close access to the much-photographed site through mid-summer.
The National Park Service and Grand Teton National Park Foundation are working in partnership to preserve and stabilize the historic Moulton property, including the famed ‘pink house’ on Mormon Row in the park. The area will be closed to the public now through mid-summer for preservation activities.
The project will include structural foundation work to stabilize the pink house and its iconic stucco, serving to improve the visitor experience through preservation of this important historic landscape. Preservation and conservation professionals completed analyses of the building’s condition and recent monitoring efforts indicated that the implementation of preservation actions should be completed soon.
Specialists with the National Park Service Historic Preservation training center will be responsible for the temporary removal, documentation, and storage of the stucco skirt and brick chimney. A contractor will move the building off the existing foundation, remove the existing foundation, pour a new foundation, and reattach the structure. Additional preservation on the homestead, including a full stucco preservation project, roof replacement, and rebuilding of the chimney, will occur within the next several years.
The pink house is a 1.5-story historic home constructed in 1938. It retains a high level of historic integrity with original doors, windows, cabinetry, wallpaper, flooring, and woodwork. The house is surrounded by a historic barn, bunkhouse, several other outbuildings, and cultural landscape elements including irrigation ditches, corrals, and fencing
Work at the pink house marks the beginning of a multi-year public-private partnership project between the National Park Service and Grand Teton National Park Foundation that will preserve the entire Mormon Row Historic District. The multi-million-dollar effort will, for the first time, holistically address preservation needs and improve the ways visitors learn about and experience the remarkable legacy of the district, bringing the history of this place to life.
The Mormon Row Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. It offers visitors an opportunity to connect with the history of the park and understand the difficulty and isolation associated with historic settlement in Jackson Hole, as well as experience the scenic beauty of the Tetons.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, established homesteads east of Blacktail Butte beginning in the 1890s. The community of Grovont was created, today known as Mormon Row. The homesteaders clustered their farms to share labor and build community, a stark contrast with isolation typical of many western homesteads.
