Knudson Brothers' Buildings

Charles William Knudson, the oldest son of Wilhelm and Laura Amalie Knudsen, was born in 1855 in the Old Fort and then lived for 9 years in the log cabin currently at the Brigham Young Park.

Following in their father’s profession, Charles and his brothers worked in the fruit and produce trade and sold to the people in Corinne. They eventually expanded their business to Montana, first through freighting and then via the railroad. According to family history, the brothers initially found difficulty selling to the Swede and Norwegian miners in Montana but were able to overcome this hurdle by changing the spelling of their last name from the Danish “Knudsen” to “Knudson,” the more common spelling in Sweden and Norway. (Some of their family maintained the Danish spelling, some maintained the other spelling.)

With the success of this business, and other contract work, Charles returned to Brigham City and built his home on the corner of First East and First South (photo in previous post). In addition to being a fruit and produce dealer, Charles also was a financial financier. Robert Knox Wilson owned a saloon on Main Street and Charles owned the land south of it. They decided to partner together to tear down the saloon and build a brick building that they would share. This building was built in 1892 and is known as the Union Block. It still stands at 57 South Main (currently Consignology). Mr. Wilson ran the saloon in the northern portion of the store and the Knudson’s ran their produce business in the southern portion. Sometime prior to 1907, the Knudsons moved their business to the building on west Forest by the railroad tracks. Mr. Knox sold his portion back to the Knudsons in 1912 but the saloon continued until prohibition, according to Charles' nephews. In 1929, JC Penney’s occupied the building and was there until 1986.

In 1914, Charles and his youngest brother Jonathan Chester, built the building to the south of the Union Block that was known as the “Knudson Brothers Building.” The brothers had built a garage in the spot where Fowler’s Printing currently stands and then built this building between them. They ran a hardware and farming implement business in the lower portion of the building and the upper portion was built specifically to be used by the Brigham City Commercial Club (later known as the Chamber of Commerce). In 1929, the Knudsons moved their business out of this building and it has housed numerous businesses since that time, including a “Five and Dime” and Deseret Industries.

Charles’ death was front page news in the Box Elder News on March 9, 1926.

All information and photographs are used for nonprofit educational and noncommercial purposes. This information is primarily taken from a 1910 article from the Box Elder News, an interview with Perc, Floyd, Chester Knudson by John Stewart on February 8, 1973, and the excellent research of Larry Douglass and Kathleen Bradford in their efforts to get these buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photos are from the Compton Collection at the USU Merrill-Cazier Library or unknown.

Charles William Knudson

Early Union Block with R.K Wilson's Saloon

Union Block with Wilson Cafe

Compton Photo of JC Penney circa 1937

Compton photo circa 1932

Compton photo of Knudson Brothers Building circa 1937

More recent photo. If you look closely, above the Capitol Theater on the top of the north side of the Union Block building, you can still see paint evidence of "Saloon."