By Mitzi Brabb
Gazette/Connection Correspondent
As a young lady, Lisa Boyle would take the same route along McLane Road to get to middle school and later Payson High School. She would leave her family’s apartment at the OxBow Saloon, where her mother tended bar, walk the street that was once considered “Main Street,” and pass a beautifully crafted home that had stood for decades.
“I passed it nearly every day and I always wanted to live in that house,” said Boyle.
That house was known as the old Gibson House. In 1917, William Washington Gibson, better known as “Wash,” built a craftsman style kit home, which was ordered from a Sears and Roebuck catalog.
About the turn of the last century, these Bungalow assembly homes could be purchased for $400-$1,350, depending on the model.
Between 1908 and 1940 more than 75,000 Sears kit homes were built in the United States. Ol’ Wash participated in the Sears mail-order home phenomenon, though some believe he may have taken creative liberties while building his home.
As historical objects grew more valuable over time, so did the Gibson House. Well maintained and rich in local history, it was listed for $220,000 just two months ago.
Boyle had never considered moving from her Payson home, but when she and husband Craig happened to be driving down McLane during an open house at the Gibson home, she had to stop.
“I always wanted to see the inside of the house. It was really incredible,” Boyle expressed.
The selling point for her husband was the large lot at the back of the one-acre property. It's the perfect place to build a hobby shop where he can enjoy refurbishing vintage pick-ups.
Shortly after the open house, Boyle again passed the house and noticed a realtor showing the home to a couple. She impulsively pulled over and approached the real estate agent.
“I’ll take it!” she said.
Taken aback, the realtor questioned her, but Boyle, afraid she would lose the house, adamantly told him she wanted it.
“I always loved this house and wanted to live here. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” said Boyle.
As firm as is the foundation of the Gibson house, so is the family ancestry. Just across the McLane live Don and Ron Gibson, twin brothers, who have spent much of their lives in Payson and know the history of the town.
Don Gibson recalled a time when Payson had fewer than 500 residents, and homestead families made longstanding names for themselves in the community.
“It wasn’t much more than a sleepy little cow town with a lumber mill,” said Gibson.
Gibson’s family, originally from Salt Lake City, were pioneers that settled in Gisela and homesteaded Gibson Ranch in Round Valley.
The other side of Gibson’s family were the well known Randalls. His grandfather, George Randall, worked for the Santa Fe Railroad crew in Denver before moving to the area in 1900 for a mining opportunity.
Gibson was raised in the Randall house, just across the road from Grandpa Wash’s home, with his family, Aunt Julia, and Grandma Gibson, after Wash passed on in 1930.
Although more rustic in appearance, the wooden framed home of Julia Randall still stands, a short walking distance away from the rock school building where she taught local Payson children. It was built in 1939 to educate a handful of students, but later became known as the popular Julia Randall Elementary School and the very school that Boyle attended when she was a schoolgirl.
Gibson said that the Randall house was recently recently bought and beautifully renovated on the inside by a family who, like Boyle’s, always wanted to live in an historic home.
According to Gibson, the rusty-brown Gibson House the Boyles purchased has been vacant since 1997. He’s certain that the new owners will put the same love and attention into the home that his grandfather did.
Boyle plans on making only moderate, tasteful renovations to her new home; to bring out the best of the original structure, and not to take away from the past.
We can only hope that those who purchase similar historical homes in Payson will be as mindful of the history that they protect.
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