963 Empire
Harry & Emma Wilson House

Tax Photo - circa 1930s

Recent Photo

Harry Wilson arrived in Park City around 1891. He met Emma Wright and they married in 1896. The next year they purchased this lot for $100, obtained a mortgage for $200, and built a T-cottage. In 1898, Emma gave birth to their first daughter. Harry and Emma eventually had four daughters and a son.

In 1901, they further mortgaged the home for $300 to Minerva Paull. Harry’s brother Archie partnered with Charles and T.H. Paull after Park City’s Great Fire of 1898 and opened a grocery and tin shop on Main Street. The mortgage allowed Harry and Emma to remodel the T-cottage into the more popular and much larger pyramid type house that you see today.

Harry worked at Paull Bros & Wilson grocery store and served on the Park City Police force. They moved often remembered grandson Ward Wilson Jr. They sold this house for $750 in 1904 and moved to Oakley but soon moved back to Park City. Their son Ward lived at 713 Woodside with his wife Nydia. Harry’s brother Archie and his wife Mary lived at 729 Crescent Tramway.

Times were tough and by 1930 Harry and Emma were living at 1027 Woodside with their divorced daughter Gertrude and two grandchildren Fay and William.

With Park City’s depressed economy, all five children move to the San Francisco Bay area. Harry died in 1945 and Emma moved California to be close to her children, taking turns staying with each. She died there in 1968 but is buried here, next to Harry, in the Glenwood Cemetery.