Primary architects represented in this collection are Raymond Ashton, B.E. “Bud” Brazier, and Raymond Evans.

Raymond Joy Ashton was born in Salt Lake City in the Utah Territory in 1887. He graduated in Engineering from the University of Utah, and soon thereafter left on a Latter-day Saint mission to the Netherlands. He was released in April 1912 and married Winnie Richards the next year in Salt Lake City where he completed several well-regarded residential works.

In 1916 Raymond and Winnie moved to Chicago where Ashton attended night school at Atelier Puckey (a member of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects) and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and worked as a draftsman for several Chicago firms. He returned to Salt Lake City in 1918 working with Francis D. Rutherford and independently through 1922 at which time he and Raymond Evans began the Ashton & Evans partnership.

Ashton served his profession and the community in many positions during his 50+ year career: American Institute of Architects (National President, 1943–1945); American Architectural Foundation (Board President); Chamber of Commerce (Salt Lake Board of Governors) and many more.

Ashton continued to serve as Senior Managing Principal at the firm through its changing leadership and names until full retirement – and a move to Prescott, AZ – in 1970. He passed away in Prescott AZ in 1973.

Bernis Eugene (Bud) Brazier, Sr. was born in 1908 in Salt Lake City. He graduated from the University of Utah in engineering and served a mission for the Latter-day Saint church in France from 1929–1932 and was then assigned to the Chicago World’s Fair (Central States Mission) in 1933. He then lived briefly in San Francisco.

Brazier served as a junior partner with T.H. Buell & Co (Denver, 1939 – 1942) during which time he married Mildred Gartrell in Memphis (1940). They were parents of three sons and three daughters. During World War II he served as an architect and superintendent on the Manhattan Project (Los Alamos, NM), then headed the construction department for the War Manpower Commission (Washington DC).

He joined Ashton & Evans architects in 1946 and became a partner in 1946 at which time the firm was renamed Ashton, Evans & Brazier. Although the firm worked in a collaborative model, he is known as the primary architect of two mega-projects: the Salt Lake City Veterans Hospital (1948 – 1949) and the University of Utah Medical Center (1959–1965). At his death (1970) he was president of the firm then named Brazier, Montmorency, Hayes and Talbot.

Brazier was active in his profession and community: American Institute of Architects (Utah chapter president); Utah Building and Construction Congress (President); Utah Construction Industry Council (President); and member of the Rotary Club, Ambassador Club, and University Club among many others.

Raymond Leslie Evans was born in Salt Lake City in 1895 into a family of craftsmen. He began working as a draftsman at seventeen (1912) and graduated from Salt Lake (West) High School the next year.

He continued drafting work with top-tier Utah firms (Ware & Treganza, Cannon & Fetzer, Woolley & Evans) until World War I intervened in 1917. Evans registered for the draft was inducted in mid-1918. After training in the building trades, he immediately for Europe serving in the 313th Engineers in France. When he returned, he and Raymond Evans began the Ashton & Evans partnership.

In 1923, Evans married Emily Marie Lewis and his daughters reported that he “loved his work and work was his life. Saturdays he worked, Sundays he worked, and the weekdays he worked.”

Evans was active in service clubs, in community affairs, in societies; and worked very hard in them, but always in the background. He was an active member of: American Institute of Architects (Utah Chapter, president); Utah State Architects’ Examining board (1939–1950).

In January 1963, Evans was selected as the second recipient of the Gold Medal Award by the Utah Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for his notable and meritorious service to the profession. He worked until the end and passed away in Salt Lake City in October 1963.