Nauvoo House - Nauvoo, Illinois
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 40° 32.406 W 091° 23.491
15T E 636214 N 4488948
Marker for historic boarding house started by Joseph Smith, Jr, the founder of the Latter Day Saints movement, in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Waymark Code: WMF9GF
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 09/14/2012
Views: 2
Text of marker:
Nauvoo House
In 1841 church members were commanded to build two "houses," a house for the Lord (the Nauvoo Temple) and a house for man to be known as the Nauvoo House. It was to be "a delightful habitation for man, and a resting-place for the weary traveler." Joseph Smith donatedthe property and a "Nauvoo House Association" was incorporated to sell stock and oversee construction. The $100,000 building was to be "L form, presenting a front on two streets 120 feet each, 40 feet deep, and three stories high, exclusive of basement story." Only the foundation and part of th first floor were completed during Smith's lifetime.
Around 1865 Lewis Bidamon, second husband of Smith's widow Emma, began tearing down the original structure. the stone was used to build the Bidamon Stable to the north and the brick to complete the Nauvoo House as it appears today. Lewis and Emma eventually moved in and operated it as a hotel called the "Riverside Mansion" unitl Emma's death on April 30, 1879. Still known as the "Nauvoo House," the building today serves as a hotel for family reunions and youth groups.
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