The Frame Home

The Smiths’ oldest son, Alvin, planned a handsome New England-style farmhouse for his future family and for the care of his parents in their old age. After apprenticing as a builder, he directed the initial construction himself, and by the fall of 1823 the heavy timber frame had been raised. Alvin died suddenly that November, and work stopped for months. The family finally moved into the house in late 1825 although much finishing work remained undone. Two months later, the last payment on the farm was unexpectedly called due, and because the Smiths could not make it they lost title to the property. They remained there temporarily as renters, but in the spring of 1829 they had to return to the log home. In giving up the house, Lucy Mack Smith wrote of the comfort their children had tried to provide in old age and declared that she would surrender it for the sake of Christ and salvation without murmuring or casting a longing look behind her.

Manchester, New York · United States