Elias L. T. Harrison

Elias L. T. Harrison, known as E.L.T., was a writer and architect. He converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1840s, having witnessed the preaching of Orson Pratt. He became friends with Edward Tullidge who was the editor of the Millennial Star and, once in Utah Territory, became a co-editor with Tullidge of Peep O’Day, an early magazine of the Intermountain West. The two joined with William Godbe and William H. Shearman and started the precursor of The Salt Lake Tribune. He wrote the words to the hymn “Sons of Michael, He Approaches,” #51 of the 1985 Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At one point Harrison was considered an apostate and was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ. He was a leader in the apostate New Movement. He, along with William S. Godbe, later printed his revelations. The New Movement disintegrated in the 1870s.[1]

He was born on March 27, 1830, in Barking, United Kingdom, and died on May 22, 1900. Harrison had studied architecture in London. He designed his own home that is located in the historic district of Salt Lake City. His other designs include the Daft Block, Walker Bank, and the Salt Lake Theatre interior (using the Drury Lane Theatre as his model for a highly decorative interior). He designed the elaborate Gothic Revival style house for William S. Godbe. He designed the Grand Opera House, the Alta Block, and the Sarah Daft Block.

He also taught classes in architecture. He was one of the organizers and teachers in the short-lived Deseret Academy of Art.

In 1890, he took on a partner to keep up with the demand for his architecture, and they designed the Central Block, the Market Block, the Phipps Block, the Whittemore Hotel, the Tribune Block, and many others. The building boom ended in 1893.

Harrison died in 1900.