November 22, 2025
Salt Lake Metropolis historical past advocates have been pushing to make sure the Paul Cephus Howell Home is culturally preserved.
A landmark tied to one in every of Utah’s most influential Black residents has formally been assured long-term safety. This week, the Paul Cephus Howell Home grew to become the primary property within the state with vital African American historical past to obtain a everlasting preservation easement — a transfer that ensures the house will stand for generations to come back.
As reported by Fox 13, Tiffany Taylor, who owns the Central Metropolis house, stated she has all the time been drawn to outdated areas and the tales they maintain. However she didn’t understand the magnitude of the historical past inside her personal partitions till after she bought the property.
“A buddy of mine, he was a realtor, stated, ‘You’ve acquired to see this home.’ I got here in to have a look at it, and I fell in love with it,” she recalled. “I all the time puzzled in regards to the historical past, and Rachel Quist… did a weblog on my home. So, I acquired in contact together with her, and that’s how I discovered about Paul Cephus Howell.”
Howell, whose household made an enduring impression on the town, lived within the house for roughly 15 years. In response to Robert Burch — founding father of the Sema Hadithi African American Heritage & Tradition Basis — Howell earned a groundbreaking place in native historical past.
“He lived on this home for about 15 years. He was the primary African-American detective on the Salt Lake Metropolis Police Division,” Burch defined.
Burch famous that Howell’s story hardly ever receives the popularity it deserves, regardless that he performed a central position in Salt Lake Metropolis’s Black group. Preserving houses like this, he stated, is important to creating forgotten tales seen once more.
“What occurs lots of the time is that the previous is forgotten,” he stated. “We bear in mind the previous lots of the time by the buildings that we sit in. And that’s why this constructing is important to this group. As a result of we will bear in mind what Central Metropolis regarded like.”
The newly signed preservation easement — a binding settlement between the house owner and a historic group — ensures that the construction can’t be demolished or considerably altered, even when possession modifications palms.
“I simply signed a pair days in the past for the easement, so this home won’t ever be torn down,” Taylor stated. “And even when I promote it, no matter, once I’m gone, it nonetheless can’t be torn down as a result of it’s a tremendous piece of Black historical past. And Utah has lots of Black historical past that needs to be introduced out.”
For Taylor and preservation advocates, the Howell Home is greater than an architectural gem. It’s a bodily reminder of a wealthy legacy lengthy missed — and now, completely secured.
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