Portraits of the past: Moroni's visit

President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the rebuilt Palmyra log home in 1998. At that time, President Hinckley said, "This will do away with the legend that has somewhat grown up among us that the other (frame) house was the place where Moroni visited the Prophet. It was in this place and in the upstairs room that that event occurred."

The upstairs in the Smith log home is called a garret. The interior view in the photo gallery, left, looks from the stairs on the south end toward the north. Traditionally, the boys would be closest to the stairs, where most of the foot traffic was. The girls would then have more privacy, being somewhat isolated. Thus, the Prophet Joseph would likely have been in the space seen in the forepart of this view when Moroni first appeared to him in 1823.