The Coats Farm & Dairy 3825 S 4700W

The Robert & Mary Coates family home & dairy was located at 3825 W 4700 So.

The Coats family farm, located at 3825 West 4700 South, was rooted in both sacrifice and resilience. Robert Coats purchased the property in 1900, moving a white shiplap home onto the land—a house with special meaning, as it was the very home in which his wife Mary had been born near what later became Valley Fair Mall. Estimated to be close to a century old, the home stood as a quiet witness to the family’s labors and love.

Robert and Mary Coats were an exceptional couple, deeply devoted to their land and family. Tragically, Robert passed away from kidney disease, leaving Mary to raise their seven children alone—the youngest just four months old. With remarkable determination, Mary ensured that every child learned to work the farm, even mastering the operation of all the equipment needed to keep the family going. Together, the children and their mother carried forward the legacy Robert had begun, embodying the spirit of strength and unity that defined farm families of the west bench.

Later, Robert and Mary’s son, Raymond Coats, owned the property and rented out the original house while living in the first home to the west. Outbuildings, including a hay loft, were added in the 1960s, but the heart of the property remained the historic home that had sheltered generations of Coats family life.

When the Bangerter Highway expansion reached this part of the valley, the Coats home was torn down, erasing yet another piece of West Valley’s early history. Though gone, the story of Robert and Mary Coats—and Mary’s quiet heroism in the face of loss—remains a powerful reminder of the families who built their lives and legacies on this land.