Joseph Don Carlos Young (May 6, 1855 – October 19, 1938) was an American architect and the Church Architect for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1887 until 1893. In 1893, the office of Church Architect was dissolved (to be reinstated for a time in the mid 20th century), Young thereafter practiced privately with the LDS Church as a frequent client. Young practiced as an architect, landscape architect and designer from 1879 to circa 1935. A preponderance of his work centered on church commissions, or commissions offered him by extended Young family members, or higher echelon church friends.

Early life

Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory

Utah Territory

The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....

, the son of Brigham Young

Brigham Young

Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 and Emily Dow Partridge (a daughter of Edward Partridge

Edward Partridge

Edward Partridge was the grandson of Massachusetts Congressman Oliver Partridge, Esq., and a member of a family noted for commercial, social, political, and military leadership in Western Massachusetts. One of the first converts to the Latter Day Saint movement, he was baptized in or near Seneca...

). He studied at the Deseret University

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

 and then the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...

 at Troy, New York

Troy, New York

Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...

. At Rensselaer he studied civil engineering and architecture.

Early career

After graduating in 1879, Young returned to Salt Lake City and practiced as a railroad engineer; gradually his first love of architecture, landscape architecture and design took precedence over engineering. Young is considered Utah's first academically trained architect and landscape architect. He married Alice Naomi Dowden on 22 September 1881. They had ten children.

As his father Brigham Young had hoped of him, Young taught in Utah's schools, first as an instructor and later as a professor of "architecture and mechanical drawing" at the University of Deseret (Salt Lake City) from 1883 to 1888; and later as a teacher of mathematics at Brigham Young Academy (Provo, Utah) from 1897 to 1900. Young also served on the Brigham Young Academy's Board of Trustees from 1886 to 1901. Young also served two terms in Utah's Territorial Legislature (1883–1887).

Young's early landscape design commissions include the Utah Territorial Insane Asylum (1881, with architect John H. Burton as the asylum architect) and Salt Lake City's Liberty Park

Liberty Park

Liberty Park is a popular public urban park in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the city's second-largest public park, at , being surpassed only by Sugarhouse Park which has...

 (1881–83, via a public design competition). These commissions represent Utah's earliest academically informed landscape design projects. Young's noteworthy early architecture commissions include a dormitory for Brigham Young College (1882–1885; Logan, Utah Territory), the Bear Lake Tabernacle (1883–1888; Paris, Idaho

Paris, Idaho

Paris is a rural city located on the western side of the Bear Lake Valley in Bear Lake County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 576 at the 2000 census. The county seat of Bear Lake County, it was settled on September 26, 1863 by pioneer settlers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day...

), the Brigham Young Academy (designed in 1884, completed 1892; Provo, Utah Territory) and the Templeton (Zion's Bank) Building (designed in 1883, completed 1890; Salt Lake City). The Bear Lake Tabernacle and the Brigham Young Academy buildings are extant examples of Young's early design work, and are considered two of the LDS Church's most beloved last 19th century architectural landmarks.

Appointment as LDS Church Architect

In 1887 after the death of Truman O. Angell

Truman O. Angell

Truman Osborn Angell served many years as Church Architect for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was a member of the vanguard company of Mormon pioneers, entering the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. He designed the Salt Lake Temple, the Lion House, the Beehive House, the...

, Young was appointed Church Architect, and the architect for the Salt Lake Temple, by LDS Church president Wilford Woodruff

Wilford Woodruff

Wilford Woodruff, Sr. was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death...

. After designing the towers and finials, and the final appearance of the windows, Young focused his energies on designing the temple's lavish late Victorian/Neo-baroque interior. Besides the construction of interior supports, none of the interior designs drawn by Angell (or Wm. Ward, Wm. H. Folsom, and Angell's son T.O. Angell, Jr.) had been executed. Thus as Angell is considered the primary architect of the temple's exterior, Young is considered the primary architect for its interior. He also designed the Temple's original Annex, the Temple Square

Temple Square

Temple Square is a ten acre complex located in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In recent years, the usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities immediately adjacent to Temple Square...

 electrical system, heating plant and greenhouse, and the general landscape design for Temple Square. With the completion of the Salt Lake Temple

Salt Lake Temple

The Salt Lake Temple is the largest and best-known of more than 130 temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the sixth temple built by the church, requiring 40 years to complete, and the fourth operating temple built since the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo,...

 in 1893, Young was released as Church Architect.

Mid to late career

At mid career Young practiced with his oldest son Don Carlos Young as Young & Son, Architects; and was responsible for the design of the 2nd Eagle Gate

Eagle Gate

The Eagle Gate monument is a historical monument—more in the form of an arch than a gate—seventy-six feet across, situated at the intersection of State Street at South Temple, adjacent to Temple Square, in Salt Lake City, Utah.-History:...

 (ca. 1892, an over arching symbolic gateway to Brigham Young's Salt Lake farm), Latter-day Saint University (later LDS College and LDS Business College

LDS Business College

LDS Business College is a two-year college in Salt Lake City, Utah, focused on training students in business and industry. The college is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and operates under the Church Educational System and is associated with the Brigham Young University...

, located on the corner of North Temple & Main Street); the LDS Church's Bishop's Building (50 North Main St.), and the Church Administration Building

Church Administration Building

The Church Administration Building is an administrative office building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States...

 (47 East South Temple).

Between circa 1920 and 1935, he practiced as an institutional architect, designing (or supervising the designs) of hundreds of different yet mildly standard plan-like buildings for the LDS Church. Young worked for his step brother Willard Young

Willard Young

Willard Young was a prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who served for many years in the United States military, and later held high positions within the LDS Church's administration...

, who served as head of the church's building department. Thus, even though he was no longer sustained in the Church's General Conference

General Conference

In the United Nations system of specialized agencies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency or UNESCO, General Conferences are the recurring meetings of Member States. General Conference sessions are usually held yearly or biennially at the headquarters of the Agency...

 as church architect, Young was essentially described as such from 1887 to this death.

Influence on other architects

Young acted as mentor to dozens of younger architects and engineers, including many of his own children. This familial list includes Don Carlos (Don) Young, Jr., who assisted his father in a failed circa 1911-1917 bid to design the Utah State Capital building. Young & Son took second place behind Salt Lake City architect Richard K. A. Kletting. D. C. Young, Jr., was also responsible for designing with Danish emigrant Ramm Hansen (as Young & Hansen, architects) the LDS Church's flagship meetinghouse in Washington, D.C., known as the "Washington Chapel," located on 2810 Sixteenth Street, N.W., sheathed no less in railroad shipped Utah granite. Finally, J. D. C. Young's youngest son George Cannon Young, was also a successful mid 20th century Utah architect. With his son Richard Young, G. C. Young designed the LDS Church's twenty-eight story Church Office Building (completed 1972; Salt Lake City) which was the tallest building in Salt Lake City until 1998.

Young died in 1938 in Salt Lake City as the oldest remaining son of Brigham Young.