The first stop we come to in our tour of the house is the exterior. The house was built in 1833 by Moses Whitcomb, and consisted of only one or two rooms. Silas Wright bought the house a year later, and within the next year started expanding the house by adding a kitchen, entryway, parlors, and second story bedrooms.
Inside the house, we start with the kitchen. At one point, it contained a pantry and an exterior door leading to the garden. These have since been taken out, with all the moving about during the last century and a half. Now, one will see an accurately furnished kitchen including a wood stove, hand-carved wooden bowls and spoons, and a spinning wheel, pictured here.
Next, the tour moves into the dining room. This room was part of the original structure, and was used as the kitchen and living quarters until the addition of the kitchen and woodshed. Mrs. Wright would have used the fireplace and "beehive" oven during the couple's first year in the house. The woodwork is original, while the wallpaper suggests an oriental influence popular at the time.
The study seems to have been the heart of the house in the 1840s, as it was here that Wright spent much of his time writing letters and conducting political business when at home. The mahogany and birch desk (ca 1825-30), law books and Assembly records shown here belonged to Wright. Other furnishings in the room once included a bed, case clock, a neo-Gothic bookcase, a mahogany chest of drawers, and an Empire style center table.
The spacious double parlors constituted the formal lifestyle expected of a Senator and Governor. However, Wright makes no reference in his letters to entertaining. This center table belonged to the Wrights, as did the sofa and the stenciled rocker.
The piano was manufactured by the Badlam Piano Works of Ogdensburg about 1850. The music sitting on it was composed especially for Silas for one of his campaign parades.