Spry, 96-years-young Provo native Ethel Tregeagle has more black-and-white photos to share than a newspaper and more stories to tell than a book shop -- and she'll even provide homemade sugar cookies to munch on while you look and listen.

Ethel's snug condo is set in a quiet private neighborhood off Canyon Road, made even quieter now that the kids gone back to school. Inside her living room you can look out a pair of French doors and see finches flitting to and from a birdfeeder in her small front yard.

Surrounded by a collection of knick knacks, books of personal history, her own paintings covering the walls, and Canadian crooner Anne Murray (keeping her company on the stereo), Ethel Tregeagle is a picture of well-preserved youth and life well-lived. Her hair is set (she still cares that her lipstick is on for the photo), and a keen light livens her eyes. And though she may be small in stature (about 5 feet) and 96 (and three-quarters) years in age, there's no mistaking: Ethel still has a memory like a steel trap, can skip up and down her stairs with a load of photo albums, work a digital camera better than most and demonstrate a few nimble dance steps.

Having spent her entire life living in Provo and watching it grow, Ethel has a claim to this town of which few can boast. She likes to joke that she stands as a local marker in her own right, owing to her longtime history with the area.

"I call myself an old Provo landmark," Tregeagle said.

Local historian and author D. Robert Carter is one of many who have gained from Ethel's personal memories and insight into Provo's past. He gleaned information from her while compiling several of his books on local history.

"Ethel is probably one of Provo's perkiest grande dames with a fantastic memory tempered by kindness and consideration for others," Carter said. "She's also just a wealth of information and a gold mine of Provo trivia."

Ethel has a good reason for knowing a lot about local trivia, as she put her roots down in Provo soil on first entering this world and has never pulled them up. She was born and raised here, and after she met and married her husband, Linden "Treg" Tregeagle, she had raised her four children (one of whom died as an infant) in Provo. She has lived in just a handful of houses, all located in Provo, and had a hand in building (literally) the face of the town during the years that she and her husband ran the Provo Brick & Tile Company, which was passed down from her father.

Ethel Belmont Tregeagle, born in 1912 to middle-aged parents and one older brother, first lived in what she calls the "Big House" located near 200 West and 100 South. Her family later moved to a stone bungalow beside the home, which was built by her father from scrap stone taken from the Maeser Memorial building on Brigham Young University campus. Though the area is now a parking lot, Ethel has fond memories of when the "Big House" filled the space and was maintained by her parents as Provo's first apartment building.

"It became a beautiful estate," Tregeagle said of her first home. "First they built a brick barn with a stall for the horse, Old Dan, and a cow named Daisy. Time went on and they added an iron picket fence to the front of the yard. There were roses that grew along the fence as well as willow and poplar trees, and there was a millrace that ran along 2nd West. It was walled up with rock and cement, which connected to a fine cement bridge to enter the property."

Ethel's father, Sidney Belmont, was an English stone cutter and contractor by trade, and later owned and managed the Provo Brick & Tile Company that sprawled along Freedom Boulevard between 1200 North and University Parkway. Sidney Belmont first came to Utah to help put an addition on the Territorial Insane Asylum (what is now the Utah State Hospital) on Center Street and would go on to put in all the first sidewalks in Provo. He later provided the brick and stone for many local structures including the Maeser School, which was recently renovated to accommodate low-income senior apartments, the old Union Pacific Railway station in Provo, and the Utah State Capitol building. Ethel's mother, Mary Blumenthal Belmont, was an ambitious woman who worked as a cook for prominent local businessman Charles Loose and family, and later started a boarding house out of her own home.

Life in Provo at the beginning of the '20s sounds idyllic as Ethel describes it growing up, and much different than today, with horse and buggy driving alongside brand-new autos and a mom-and-pop shop on every corner offering local goods and a smile.

"We used to sing the meadowlark song about, 'Provo is a pretty little place,' " Tregeagle said. "Now I'd say it's a pretty big place."

Though that may be true, Ethel remembers when the north side of Center Street and the few surrounding streets were the heart and hub of town. There was John T. Taylor's Grocery store and Hedquist Drug at the corner of Center and 100 West (which is now owned by Nu Skin). The Startup Candy Company was a local favorite (still in opera- tion) as was the Bonita Theater, where the ushers wore sombreros and toreador pants. There was Smith's Pool Hall, and the Utahna Gardens dance hall (the post office has taken up that space) where Ethel remembers, "We danced under the crystal ball, and there was a big tin stove that sat in the corner of the room."

Ethel also remembers when the Heber Railroad came through town and the day her mother purchased the first Jacob Doll piano from Taylor Brother's Company, a dry goods and general mercantile store.

Ethel attended public school at Maeser School elementary, Central School and the old Provo High, which used to be located at 300 West between Center Street and 100 South. In the 11th grade, Ethel met her husband, "Treg," who was lucky enough in 1929 to have a car to drive.

"We dated in that old Overland," Ethel said. "There were only two kids in high school that had a car and so that's how we got around. And I did have another fellow that I went with -- but he didn't have a car." (Relationships have been decided on less.)

Ethel and Treg were married in 1931 during the beginning of the Great Depression.

"My husband worked for 37 cents an hour at the service station and I worked for a dollar a day at the brickyard," said Tregeagle. "Hamburger was 15 cents a pound, eggs were 10 cents a dozen, and we were happy. We didn't know any different. It was tough during the Depression, but we got along."

Four children, three boys and a girl, were born to the couple through the Depression and near the end of World War II. Ethel and her husband also took over the Provo Brick & Tile Company from her father during that time and successfully ran the business until the yard closed in the 1960s.

Thom Tregeagle, Ethel's youngest son, now lives in Orange, Calif., but has fond memories of the brickyard where he used to hang out, of his younger years attending school in Provo, and of his mother.

"We lived across the street from the Wasatch School, and she used to shoo me off when the bell rang," Thom recalled of Ethel. "My mother was and is probably one of the most loving persons I've ever known. And especially now for her age, she's probably one of the brightest people I know."

During the later years after her children had grown and the brickyard closed its doors (and was later demolished to make way for progress), Ethel found new interests and ways to stay involved with the community. She became a "pink lady" (so tagged because of their pink uniforms) at the hospital, helping to care for elderly patients. Ethel was also active with the Elks club through her husband and joined the Women's Council of Provo in 1966 (of which she is still an active member). She served twice as the chairman of the arts section, once as the president of the council, and also served on the Provo Arts Board. At the age of 90, Ethel volunteered at the Maeser School helping Spanish-speaking children learn English, and has also been an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since she was baptized at the age of 18.

Ethel's husband, Treg, suffered a massive heart attack in 1953, and following that, Ethel remembers many days of being "tied to the bedpost" caring for her husband. Three years following his heart attack, Treg retired and, with the help of medicine, lived a fairly normal, active life for another 32 years until his death in 1986.

Since then, Ethel has lived alone but leads a full life surrounded by many friends and "second family," as she calls them, a son and daughter who live nearby, and an armful of grandchildren. She continues to be of service to church and community, and is always up to date on current goings-on in the area. Her active lifestyle, her son Thom noted, is what has kept her so youthful.

"She's always kept busy, she's always doing something," Thom Tregeagle said. "She doesn't sit around and mope, she just does it. She's so outgoing, and she does so much for everybody."

As proof of her industrious nature, Ethel has also developed many talents over her long life including hand work of all kinds, gardening, genealogy, photography and the "joy of her life," painting, for which she has won several awards.

Ethel Tregeagle has more memories and more experiences than can be told in one short article, or in several books, for that matter. One thing is certain, though, Provo will have lost a treasure when she's gone. There aren't many left who remember Provo as it was when it was still a "pretty little place."

Perhaps Ethel sums it up best, however, when looking back at her life and her memories living here in Provo.

"I've had a good life," Ethel said.

And that's about as much as anyone can hope for.