In the early 1870s, a few members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints homesteaded in the Sandy area and at first attended wards outside the area, but in 1873 they organized their own group, first meeting in George Parker’s hall, then in a room at the Utah Southern Railway Depot, and later in the home of Andrew O. Gealta, where many baptisms were performed in the Gealta pond. In 1874, William Newell, William R. Scott, Isaac Harrison, and Gealta bought a small frame building near the depot, moved it across the street, and used it as a chapel for eight years. The Sandy group became a branch of the newly organized Union Ward on July 7, 1877, with John Sharp later presiding, and when it became a ward in September 1882, Ezekial Holman became its first bishop, assisted by Emil Hartvicksen and Gealta, with W.W. Wilson as clerk. By January 1883, members were worshipping in a larger frame chapel that served for 18 years, and after a delayed building effort begun in 1893, a large brick chapel was finally completed in 1900 in time for the first conference of the new Jordan Stake under President Orrin P. Miller; it remained in use for six decades until replaced after a new chapel was completed elsewhere in 1960. On this same property, Sandy’s first school building, a one-room structure, was built in 1881, though earlier classes had met in a log cabin at an unknown location. The first school enrolled 40 students of all ages under teacher Sadie Tripp, later joined by other teachers and led by principal James B. Jensen, and students supplied their own books, pencils, and slates while the schoolhouse also hosted debates, spelling bees, and town meetings. The school expanded over time, and in the early 1890s a two-story brick school replaced the frame building and served the area for more than 15 years. After a new 12-room school was built east of Main Street in 1907-08, the old school became in 1908 the first permanent home of Jordan High School, the first high school in the south end of the Salt Lake Valley, opening under principal Enoch Jorgensen with 90 students; when Jordan High moved to a new building on State Street in 1913, the old school later served as Sandy City offices, the fire department, an athletic clubhouse, a wedding reception and dance hall, a library, and a senior citizens’ center.