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ST. GEORGE — St. George police are asking for the public's help identifying a person caught on video vandalizing the historic Brigham Young Winter Home.
About 1:45 a.m. on March 27, someone threw rocks through the windows of the home and museum at 67 W. 200 North, causing approximately $4,000 in damage.
In surveillance video released by St. George police on Tuesday, a man who appears to be dressed as if he is running, wearing a headband, shorts and a reflector vest over his sweater, stops at the home and throws rocks from the sidewalk at the structure, then adjusts his earbuds and continues running. St. George police detective Josh Wilson said the runner also went to the back of the property and broke more windows. Wilson did not have a count of how many windows were broken, only saying there was more than one.
Police posted the video on social media Tuesday along with the hashtags, #WhoThrowsRockThroughWindows, #YouCanRunButYouCantHide, #SomebodyKnowsYou and #TurnYourselfIn. Anyone with information on the identity of the vandal is asked to call Wilson at 435-627-4317.
The incident marks the second time in March that someone threw rocks through the windows at the museum. Wilson said there was another incident sometime around the beginning of the month. That person threw rocks from the sidewalk but did not go onto the property, he said. Police say they have a good idea who was responsible for that incident and do not believe it was the same person responsible for the March 27 vandalism.
President Young, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and first governor of the Utah Territory, lived in the St. George home during the winter months from 1870 through 1877, according to the church's website. His home and offices were constructed out of adobe brick, modeled in an architectural style popular in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1840s, according to the National Register of Historic Places.
The home and adjacent office have quite an interesting history beyond Young's time there near the end of his life. Soon after his death, the Young family sold the property to Dr. Judd Gates, the city's first dentist, who turned the upstairs into his offices. It later became a rental property and then vacant in the 1940s before the family repurchased the home and restored it, according to the register.
The family deeded it to the Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation in 1959; the Utah Heritage Foundation — now Preservation Utah — then helped get it added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, as the second Washington County building to end up on the register.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acquired the property after it was listed on the register and turned it into a museum. The home and adjacent office were restored and furnished again in 2003 to reflect their 1870s appearance, according to the Washington County Historical Society.
Contributing: Carter Williams
