{"nrhp_refnum":"77001131","name":"Smith, William, House","other_names":["Brooks"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Mud and Penns Park Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wrightstown","county":"Bucks County","state":"PA","lat":40.26573985500005,"lon":-74.98526458599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A walnut log cabin house in Wrightstown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, built in 1686 with a fieldstone addition in 1690 and wings added in 1965 and 1968. The building is clapboarded on the exterior and occupies a 2.7-acre site.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is significant because the 1686 walnut log cabin is very well preserved and is the oldest structure in Wrightstown and one of the oldest in the nation. It is also associated with William Smith, a Quaker who became the second white inhabitant of the area, and with his descendants, who included landowners and state political figures. Its later additions and modifications are described as not having changed the original sections in any basic way.","narrative":"Built in 1686 as a two-story walnut log cabin in Wrightstown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, this house is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the country. William Smith, a Quaker from Yorkshire, England, who had come to the colony as a servant to the governor in 1682, built the original cabin. Its logs vary in size and shape, reflecting a builder who was not concerned with fine craftsmanship, and pegs hold the joinery together. In 1690, when Smith married, he added a small fieldstone room with a door connecting it to the cabin. Wings were added in 1965 and 1968, and the 1686 exterior wall and window were kept as interior features. The house is valued for the unusually intact condition of its earliest log sections and for its link to Smith's descendants, who included a state senator, a physician and legislator, and other members of the state legislature.","period_of_significance":"1600-1699","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.080284-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/77001131.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001131/04a8ce4352-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001131/04a8ce4352-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Shuvaev","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Smith_House,_Wrightstown_PA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Shuvaev</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Smith_House,_Wrightstown_PA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998796","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Smith_House_(Wrightstown,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8018565"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/bucks-county/smith-william-house-77001131/"}