Partner Carline Monson
Queer Places:
615 E 900 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84105
Mount Olivet Cemetery, 1342 E 500 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84102, United States
The history surrounding Sarah Ann Briggs Chapman (July 4, 1851 – April 14, 1923), her daughter Edith Mary Chapman, and
Caroline "Carline" Monson offers a remarkable glimpse into early 20th-century LGBTQ+ community building in Salt Lake City,
Utah.
Sarah Ann Briggs had a harrowing early life in pioneer Utah. As a young child in 1856, she survived the tragic Martin Handcart Company trek, losing her father and multiple siblings along the trail, and her mother shortly after arriving in Utah.
At age 14, Sarah was married in a polygamous union to 42-year-old George Handley. By age 23, she was a widowed mother of four.
Embittered by her experiences, Sarah left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and joined the Episcopal Church. Her children were subsequently taken by Handley relatives to be raised in the LDS faith.
Sarah later married Dr. Arvis Scott Chapman, a pioneer dentist. Together they had a daughter, Edith Mary Chapman.
Located at 615 South 900 East in Salt Lake City (across from Liberty Park), the Chapman family home became an unexpected sanctuary for queer women in the 1920s.
Caroline "Carline" Monson was the great-aunt of former LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson. Carline moved into the Chapman home and was listed as a domestic servant in the 1920 census while Sarah was alive. She did not publicly update her address in city directories until after Sarah’s death in 1923, later referring to herself as "Mrs. Monson" despite never marrying.
Edith Mary Chapman was an educator at the University of Utah. Following her parents' deaths in 1923, Edith turned the home into a sanctuary and boarding house specifically for lesbian women, many with Mormon backgrounds.
Mildred “Barrie” Berryman was a pioneering researcher who lived with Edith at the boarding house from 1924 to 1929. During this time, Berryman conducted groundbreaking sociological research for her study, The Psychological Phenomena of the Homosexual, documenting the lives of 23 lesbians and 9 gay men in Salt Lake City.
Dorothy Graham was a boarder who managed the local Coon Chicken Inn restaurant and joined the household in the late 1920s.
Dubbed "Casa Lesbiana" by its residents and friends, the boarding house served as one of the few safe social hubs for queer women in Salt Lake City during an era when local public spaces (such as bars on upper State Street) were predominantly frequented by gay men.
By 1931, seeking greater social freedom and a larger queer community beyond Utah, Edith Chapman began making frequent trips to San Francisco.
Edith transferred ownership of the Salt Lake City home to Carline Monson, who continued to live there and manage the property until her death in 1941.
Edith permanently relocated to the East Bay area in California, where she continued her career in education. She lived with her lifelong partner, Dorothy “Dollie” Wobbss, until Edith's death in 1967.
Today, the house at 615 South 900 East stands within Salt Lake City's East Side Historic District, preserved as an important site in Utah’s early LGBTQ+ history.
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