- Historic Buildings -

Lucy Mack
Smith Home
LOCATION: Hyde and Kimball Streets

Lucy Mack Smith (1775-1856) was raised in New England and married Joseph Smith Sr. in 1796. Their lives were marked by hardship, but they were devoted to their children and their faith in God. They supported their son, Joseph, in his ministry, moving with the Saints each time they were driven from their homes. Joseph Sr. died in Nauvoo in 1840. Mother Smith, as she was known, remained active in the community but was not well enough to travel with the Saints to Utah in 1846. She wrote a history of her family that is considered a primary source of information about Joseph Smith and his role in restoring the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Lucy Mack Smith Home
Mary and J. Bates Noble built this house in 1843 for their growing family. As the Latter-day Saints were departing for the Rocky Mountains in 1846, Church leaders purchased it for Mother Smith. She was 70 when she moved in but stayed less than a year.
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Kitchen
Mother Smith spent her time on the first floor, since severe arthritis limited her ability to climb stairs. She stayed less than a year in this home. She lived with her daughter, Lucy, for six years and then with Emma Smith Bidamon for four.
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Kitchen
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Built-in bed
This home included a bed alcove in the kitchen, often used for guests or napping children. Mother Smith likely placed her bed in this space, where she could stay by the warm fireplace and not need to move about too much. She would receive guests in the adjoining parlor, where she kept Egyptian artifacts (mummies and papyri) entrusted to her by her son, Joseph.
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Period Dress
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Upstairs Sitting Room
This room was likely used as a bedroom by the families who lived in the home before and after Mother Smith.
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Upstairs Sitting Room
While Mother Smith didn’t use this room, she did receive frequent visitors in a small parlor off the kitchen. She would lecture on the Egyptian relics and testify of Joseph’s prophetic calling. The relics were sold after she died, and many were destroyed by the 1871 Chicago fire. Small fragments of papyri were later returned to the Church in 1967.
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Upstairs Sitting Room
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Bedroom One
The railing around the stairs in this bedroom is not original to the home. Instead, a door closed flat over the stairs for an additional bed to be set up at night. After Lucy left the home, it passed through six owners before it was purchased in 1962 and restored by Nauvoo Restoration Incorporated.
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Bedroom Two
This small bedroom was probably for a child. Of the four children the Noble’s had in this home, two died before 1845. After helping the first company of Saints leave Nauvoo in February 1846, Bates Noble returned to Nauvoo to sell his property and prepare for his family’s journey west. They settled in the Salt Lake Valley.
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Bedroom Two
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