Virtual Tour - Middle Bedroom

Both the middle bedroom and the southeast bedroom were at one time or another the rooms of hired girls. They would come to Pipe Spring to work off their Perpetual Immigration Fund debts to the LDS Church; this fund paid their passage from Europe to America, or from the east coast to Utah.		The rooms also saw a good many visitors, for the wagon road between St. George, Utah, and Kanab, Utah, passed by Pipe Spring. It was never known in advance how many people might be staying the night at Pipe Spring. Polygamist wives also used these rooms when hiding from federal marshals in the late 1880s.
When unexpected guests arrived, the "Mormon couch" might be pressed into service (see photo above). Winsor Castle has several examples of this precursor to today's "hide-a-bed." During the day, this piece of furniture masqueraded as a couch. But at night, it could slide apart on a system of slats and become a double bed.		In the middle and southeast bedrooms are also fine examples of an art called faux wood graining that Mormon craftsmen brought from Europe. Having little access to hard woods, they would paint the grain of oak, ash, maple, and other woods onto pine furniture. The grain on the backboard of the Mormon couch above is painted, as is the grain on the bed in the southeast bedroom.
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