When Stefanie Eskander was driving on North Main Street in Springville, she noticed an old, white house.
As a professional artist who has an affinity for old homes, she pulled over to the side of the road and snapped a photo, which she then took home to use as an inspiration for a painting. Days later, she noticed on a community Facebook page that the home she had just immortalized in ink was torn down.
“The timing was so interesting,” she said. “I had no idea that the home was going to be demolished, or that it was demolished until the Facebook post. I had to drive past it myself just to make sure it was the same house.”
To pay homage to the old house, Eskander posted a photo of her drawing on the community Facebook page. People started commenting on it, and she said that she was surprised to learn that it was once owned by the late Bryce and Deanna Thorn who also owned a popular burger joint called Brand X, right next door.
In fact, Brand X was so popular in the 1980s and 90s, that it was featured in many news articles including one in the Deseret News. In a feature published in July 1999, Deanna Thorn spoke about the little, white house. She told Deseret News that she had walked between her home and her restaurant so many times that she had “beat(en) a path in that asphalt.”
Also according to that article, Brand X was originally a food truck in the early 1980s before opening an official restaurant in 1995. Deanna Thorne said that due to community support and her husband’s secret seasoning salt, it was able to survive many larger food chains being built nearby.
And while the restaurant and home are now a thing of the past, Eskander says that she’s glad that she was able to take a picture of the home before it was demolished. She said that she has a special place in her heart for historic homes.
“Springville is filled with historic homes, and I’m one of those people who thinks houses have souls,” she said. “It’s sad when something part of the community is gone. I know I was inspired to draw that house.”
Eskander, who is a professional children’s book illustrator and toy designer, said that she would love to connect with the Thorn family to learn more about the home, adding that she has a goal of creating more art inspired by this little, white house.
“I was planning on doing a more detailed drawing down the road, but when I saw it in the snow a few weeks ago, I snapped a photo,” she wrote in her Facebook post. “I do like to work en plein air (painting outdoors), but it was just too cold. So two days ago, I just pulled out my sketchbook, and did a pen and ink drawing, then laid some colored pencil on it. No ruler or tools, just freehand lines. Not even all that accurate. But today I discovered the house was torn down. So I went to the site to see for myself… It’s true. Just a pile of rubble with a backhoe working. I think I’d like to go back and do a nicer drawing to honor that old home.”
While to date, Serve Daily doesn’t know why the home on Main Street was demolished, we’re glad that people like Eskander are able to use their talents to memorialize history.
