Joseph Smith Mansion House - Nauvoo, Illinois
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 40° 32.460 W 091° 23.488
15T E 636217 N 4489048
Historic last home of Joseph Smith, Jr. the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement located in the Nauvoo Historic District in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Waymark Code: WMF99F
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 09/13/2012
Views: 2
"The Joseph Smith Mansion House in Nauvoo, Illinois is a building constructed by Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Smith used the house as a personal home, a public boarding house, a hotel, and as a site for the performance of temple ordinances.
In January 1841, Smith declared in a revelation that Latter Day Saint Robert D. Foster should fulfill the contract he had entered into to build a house for Smith to live in. The house was constructed by Foster, and the Joseph Smith family moved into the Mansion House on 31 August 1843. The house was a two-storey building built of white pine in the Greek Revival style.
Initially, Smith used the house to entertain guests in Nauvoo, giving visitors free room and board. However, because he was unable to cover the expenses that this free lodging entailed, Smith began charging guests in September 1843 and running the Mansion House as a hotel. At one point Smith had installed a bar, but quickly reversed his action at the request of his wife, Emma. In January 1844, Smith leased the hotel to Ebenezer Robinson, who continued to operate it. Prior to the completion of the Nauvoo Temple, Smith performed some temple ordinances in the Mansion House.
After Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed in Carthage Jail in June 1844, their bodies were displayed in the Mansion House, where approximately ten thousand people viewed the bodies on 29 June. George Q. Cannon constructed the Smiths' death masks in the house. Emma Smith and her children continued to live in the Mansion House. After Emma Smith married Lewis C. Bidamon in 1847, they lived in the house until 1869, when the moved to the Nauvoo House. In the 1890s, the hotel wing of the home was removed.
In 1918, Frederick A. Smith, Joseph Smith's grandson, deeded the Mansion house to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). The Mansion House is still owned by the RLDS Church, which is now called the Community of Christ, and it operates the house as a historical site and a tourist museum. The Mansion House is part of the Nauvoo Historic District, a National Historic Landmark." - Wikipedia
The house is open for tours starting at the Joseph Smith Historic Site visitors center. The cost of the tour is $3 for adults which includes other historic homes and properties. The site is open on the following schedule:
May – October
Monday through Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
November – December
Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
January – February
Groups by Appointment
March – April
Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.