A former Rush Valley meetinghouse is being prepared for a new public role as a museum. Built in 1907 by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the single-story brick building at 630 S. West Shambip Road in Tooele County later served as a children’s basketball venue and fire-truck storage. During its years as a garage, a rolling door replaced the front entrance and a dip was cut into the floor to drain water from the truck.
The effort to restore the building began in 2021, KSL reported, after Rush Valley’s mayor told John Cluff the town was considering selling it. Cluff and his wife, Carol, took on the restoration; John became project manager and Carol executive assistant project manager.
Digging Through Church Archives for Proof
The meetinghouse’s history also required archival research. KSL reported that John Cluff spent five years looking for documentation. In July 2026, he and Carol visited the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, where he received a scan of a handwritten dedication program. It confirmed his long-held belief that Elder Heber J. Grant personally dedicated the Clover Ward meetinghouse in 1907.
The Clover Ward merged with the St. John Ward in the 1950s and moved into the St. John building, leaving the Rush Valley meetinghouse vacant. As KSL reported, the building was later used for children’s basketball before the town adapted it for fire-truck storage. That work included lowering the ceiling to help keep the space warm in winter and removing the original floorboards. A new fire station eventually freed the old chapel from that use.
Thousands of Volunteer Hours, Hundreds of Thousands in Donations
Restoring the building meant undoing some of those changes. KSL reported that local and Tooele residents, youth groups and LDS missionaries contributed more than 4,000 volunteer hours, while community members and the Tooele County Tourism Board provided restoration funds. Volunteers raised the ceiling to its original height and reused the removed beams to rebuild a stage. A Grantsville High School shop class made a replacement for the building’s old Clover sign.
The project cost $90,000 out of pocket, with companies and contractors donating services valued at more than $200,000, according to KSL. On Sept. 11, Carol Cluff cut the ribbon at a community celebration marking the completion of major interior renovations. Exterior work and collecting artifacts for the museum remained to be done.
Looking Ahead to a Dedication 120 Years in the Making
Looking Ahead to a Dedication 120 Years in the Making A public dedication of the building as a museum is scheduled for April 28, 2027, timed to fall 120 years after the original 1907 dedication. KSL reported that John Cluff said he was glad the building had been saved and looked forward to residents using it again, while thanking those who helped. Carol Cluff said she was looking forward to the official dedication and described feeling motivated throughout the work by what she called a divine energy and her father’s inspiration.
Other Utah projects illustrate different ways to reuse historic Latter-day Saint meetinghouses. In Parowan, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers restored the Old Rock Church as a museum and meeting space, according to Intermountain Histories. In Salt Lake City, a historic Fifth Ward meetinghouse is being converted into mixed-use property with 18 recovery housing units, according to a separate KSL report. Another 5th Ward Meetinghouse in the city became home to a religious organization in 2004 after volunteers completed major restoration work, per Preservation Utah. Rush Valley’s stated aim is to preserve the 1907 building and return it to community use.
What is known about local museum plans
According to Tooele City’s Tooele Valley Museum and Historical Park, the museum presents Tooele County’s local, industrial and military history across more than three acres at the Tooele Valley Railroad Complex. For Rush Valley, the reported plan is to reopen the restored meetinghouse as a museum, but the available account does not specify visitor hours, admission or an operating schedule.
