History of Farmington in Utah

Beginning in the 1880s, the LDS Church-managed economy gave way to private businesses and government employment. Farmers formally incorporated to oversee irrigation. Businessmen launched Davis County Bank, new grocery stores, a drug store, and Miller Floral, famous for its greenhouse roses. Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University) established an experimental farm in Farmington. A Victorian brick court house supplanted the original building in 1890, and was expanded and remodeled in 1932 and again in 1958. The county jail, library, fairgrounds, and school district are also established in Farmington. Despite the construction influenced by the county government, Farmington's downtown business district remained compact. Residents resisted commercial growth there, but in the late 1980s a suburban commercial center blossomed along Highway 89 in the north part of town.It was during the first commercial boom that Farmington was incorporated, on 15 December 1892, with 1,180 residents. City government promoted the construction of better streets, replaced private wells with a culinary water system, encouraged electrification, and eventually installed a city-wide sewer system. With support from civic clubs, Farmington developed a city park in the mid-1950s and added others later. In July 1978 the Farmington Area Pressurized Irrigation District began serving homeowners and the few remaining farmers.