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Orem • For 120 years, the small, adobe-brick farmhouse stood on what once was the Provo Bench, overlooking Utah Lake.
The Bunnell home witnessed the introduction of Red Delicious apples to Utah Valley, and, as the orchards gave way to college buildings, it stood as a silent reminder of the area's agricultural heritage.
Now, the house, which had been used as a campus eatery and a storage shed, is in the way of expansion at Utah Valley University.
But rather than consign the historic home to the wrecking ball, the university is working with Orem to move the house to another location to preserve its legacy.
"We're partners with Utah Valley University, and we work together with them on a lot of issues," said City Manager Bruce Chesnut. "If we can help them, we will do so."
He said UVU approached Orem with the proposal to move the houseabout a mile and a half to Nielsen's Grove, which commemorates the gardens and park that Danish immigrant Jorgen Nielsen created in the 1870s.
UVU, Chesnut said, would pay to stabilize, move and restore the Bunnell home.
Currently nestled between the Sorensen Student Center and the Liberal Arts Building, the house has been used as a restaurant for student chefs and as treatment rooms for budding interior designers.
Carpentry students showcased their talents as well, installing a spiral staircase to the attic, a movecriticized by Helen Bunnell Weeks, granddaughter of the home's original owner, as a "non sequitur" in a 2007 interview.
In recent years, the building has stored excess furniture. But the home's charms remain — from smartly finished wood floors to stunning rusticbrickwork.
UVU is preparing to build a student life and wellness center, along with a five-story parking structure, and the home stands where the construction staging area will be.
Not everyone is happy about getting rid of the house.
Vegor Pedersen sees the prospect as bittersweet. Pedersen, an academic adviser at UVU, had worked as a student with artist-in-residence Alex Caldiero to convert the home into a campus cafe five years ago.
Although Pedersen is grateful the building is poised to be saved, the prospect of it leaving campus bothers him.
"It was of the one original buildings [from the orchards] on campus," Pedersen said. "In a lot of ways, it was the heart of campus."
In fact, it is one of six 1890s homes in Orem that retain their original outside appearance.
Pedersen welcomesthe new wellness center but would rather see the house moved elsewhere on campus.
UVU spokesman Chris Taylor, said the university tried to accommodate the home, but there was not enough room on campus to move it, and it was too fragile to leave it in place during construction.
Moving it to Nielsen's Grove is the best option, he said. The move will allow the university and the city to preserve the historic home. Taylor said it would cost $100,000 to move the house to Nielsen's Grove.
"It will be sad to see it go, but it is a win-win situation," Taylor said.
Taylor said the city and the university are still in talks, and both sides are looking at Nielsen's Grove or the Orem Heritage Museum at SCERA Park. Councilman Brent Sumner suggested moving it to SCERA Park.
While Caldiero's vision of a coffeehouse in the Bunnell home was as contagious as the common cold — even Weeks endorsed it — there was a problem: It was too expensive to fix. UVU officials said it would have cost $500,000 to upgrade the electrical system, stabilize the brickwork and make other repairs.
Pedersen said UVU President Matthew Holland couldn't clear the price-tag hurdle when he proposed converting the house into an interfaith chapel.
For now, preservationists are putting their faith in plans to move the historic home to another historic haven: Nielsen's Grove.
Twitter: @donaldwmeyers