915 Norfolk
Neil Family home

Tax Photo - circa 1930s

Recent Photo

Ellen and James Neil came to Park City from Coalville in 1910. Ellen operated the St. Louis Bakery on Main Street. “My father was a prospector and he was always out on the desert looking to strike it rich,” remembered daughter Clara. “Mother worked to support us. . . .Mother took in boarders, we had boarders from the time I was a kid.” Miners were especially keen to live in a home instead of a mine boarding house and they appreciated the home cooking.

The Neil family appears on the 1920 census living in this home. James and Ellen had six sons and three daughters along with boarder Ernest Grand, a mining machinist from England. The Neil’s four oldest sons, William, Norman, Victor and Claude were also miners. Eldest son William worked in the mines until 1917 then enlisted in the army and fought in the Utah 362^nd Infantry regiment during World War I. Upon his return to Park City, he worked in the mines for a few years before becoming co-manager of the Oak Tavern.

1924 was a tragic year for the Neil family. Son Oscar was killed in the Castle Gate mine explosion. The coal mining camp of Castle Gate was opened in 1888 when a coal seam was found in that area, three miles north of Helper, Utah. On March 8, 1924, a tragic explosion rocked the mine killing 171 men, one of Utah’s largest mining disasters. William, Victor and sister Clara traveled to the scene of the disaster, in the hopes that their brother had survived. His body was not among those first brought from the mine.

Later in 1924, on July 1, James Neil died and was buried at the Park City Cemetery.

Mining took a toll on the family, in 1944, Victor Neil died of silicosis, only 48 years old.

This T-cottage house was built prior to 1900, the time period when this type of home was popular in Park City. The original double-hung windows on the front were replaced in the 1940s with the more modern windows still visible today. At that time a window was added in the gable end to allow light and ventilation to the attic space.