LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
JOSEPH SMITH LOG HOME
Joseph Smith Junior, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lived in this small log home as a young boy. His father, Joseph Smith Senior, and mother Lucy Mack Smith, moved him and the rest of his family, consisting of eight children, to Palmyra, New York in 1815. After a few years in Palmyra, Joseph's father bought 100 acres of wooded land. He cleared the land, built a cabin, prepared the soil for cultivation, and planted crops with the help of his family.
In this small house 14 year old Joseph Smith Jr., third son of Lucy and Joseph's, learned from the bible. His family studied the bible at the kitchen table. Here Joseph Smith Jr. read the verses in James stating "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Joseph, confused of what church to join, decided to do as James said and ask of God. In the early spring of 1820, he prayed to God in a heavily wooded grove of trees about such and such a distance from his house, in his back yard practically, to ask Him which of the churches he should join. God the Father and his son Jesus Christ appeared to the young boy and told him to join none of the churches.
On the 21st of September 1823, three years later, Joseph Smith Jr. now 17 years old received a revelation in answer to another prayer, this time concerning his question of what God wanted him to do with his life. Joseph received this revelation in his own bedroom, but this time God sent an angel, Moroni, to answer Joseph's question. Moroni told him about an ancient record buried in a hill such and such a distance from his home. He told Joseph to retrieve the record and translate it by the power of God. He appeared to Joseph two more times during the night, repeating his message.
A replica of the Joseph Smith Log Home they built sits located on the original foundation in Palmyra.
Guides give tours daily of the Joseph Smith Log Home.
Joseph Smith Log Home
843 Stafford Road
Palmyra, New York 14522
Call 1-315-597-5851 for more information
JOSEPH SMITH FRAME HOME
After working the farm for a few years, Joseph Smith Senior's family accumulated enough resources to build a more comfortable home. Alvin, the Smith's eldest child, started the house in 1823 but died of illness soon afterward. The family continued to build the house and finished and moved in the year 1825.
Joseph Smith brought the golden plates, which he found in the Hill Cumorah, to this house after retrieving it on 22 of September 1827. He hid the ancient record in several different spots around and outside the house including under the bricks of the fireplace, and in between his younger sisters, as they slept in their bed. The mobs that would raid the house and farm to try and find the record never discovered it in Joseph's different hiding locations.
In 1829, the Smith's lost the farm and house due to unfortunate circumstances, and had to move back to the small log home they lived in previously. They eventually moved with the rest of the members of the newly organized church to Kirtland, Ohio.
The original Joseph Smith Frame Home still resides on the location of the Smith's original farmland. Visitors are welcome.
Joseph Smith Log Home
843 Stafford Road
Palmyra, New York 14522
Call 1-315-597-5851 for more information
