Built in 1862-1863 from local ponderosa pine and rock, the Jacob Hamblin Home combined Classical symmetry in its upper level with asymmetry below, and its overhanging roof, upper balcony, and long rear slope reflected both adaptation to a hot, dry climate and the saltbox house type. Its interior used a pair-house plan with two equal front rooms that suited the Hamblin polygamist household, where Rachel and Priscilla, Jacob's plural wives, kept separate front bedrooms on either side of a common family and dining room, each with a fireplace and staircase, while the second story held children's sleeping quarters and a large weaving room that also served as a community room for meetings and entertaining church and other officials, and the rear of the main level contained storage rooms for food, cooking utensils, tools, candle-making supplies, and other necessities. Jacob Hamblin, born in Salem, Ohio, in 1819, crossed the Plains in 1847 as one of the first Mormon pioneers, settled first in Tooele, Utah, then went to southwestern Utah at the call of Brigham Young, learned Paiute and Ute, became known as a peacekeeper between Native Americans and pioneers, negotiated the Treaty of Fort Defiance, New Mexico, in November of 1870, and later aided Colonel John Wesley Powell in seeking what had happened to three men who left Powell's initial Colorado River voyage in the Grand Canyon.