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We visited the Joseph Smith site today.  It is maintained and owned by the Community of Christ (the old Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or RLDS Church that spun off from the LDS church when the LDS church went West in 1846 from Nauvoo).  It is pretty odd to listen to them talk about the Prophet Joseph Smith and totally ignore what happened after he was martyred in 1844.  But, they own a few of the historical sites here in Nauvoo so, in order to see them, we need to visit their facilities, pay their fees, and listen to their version of history as it happened in Nauvoo after the Prophet's death.  They follow the father to son succession from Joseph Smith, Jr to Joseph Smith III, his surviving son that stayed behind with his mother, Emma Smith, when Brigham Young took the LDS Church out West to escape any further persecution.

All of the sites have a sign with some info on them.  The homestead is where Joseph/Emma lived most of the time.  Note that you need to go to the CoC visitor's Center to meet with a tour guide to enter the buildings and pay a $3 "preservation" fee.  The guide was nice but she threw in zingers every once in a while indicating the differences between her church and ours.  It was kind of unnecessary.  We need to be in our missionary attire when we are out anywhere so it was kind of obvious.  We did not take the bait.  It's their house and we wanted to see what they had to offer "tourist".

Homestead and cabin.  they've been added onto a couple of times.  Joseph/Emma lived in the cabin and then moved to the house when it replaced the cabin.  Eventually their son, JS III occupied the house and added on more rooms for his family.

Joseph and Hyrum were laid to rest next to each other, eventually.  Emma was laid to rest next to Joseph eventually when she passed many years later.  This is next to the homestead.  The average age for death was 40 for women and 36 for men.  Emma lived to be 75.  Quite old for people of the late 1800s.

Othere are buried here.  Joseph Smith, III, his family members, Joseph Smith, Jr, Lucy Mack Smith (Joseph Smith's mother and father).  These are the only headstones here.  The Mississippi is in the background.

A listing of others buried here.  However, no headstones are evident.  I asked the guide if they could still be buried here and she said no.  All of the new burials are done in Independence, Missouri.  This list is of Smith family and friends buried here.

Sign for cemetery

View of Joseph/Emma/Hyrum headstones from other side of cemetery

The Mansion House.  Joseph/Emma only lived here for a very short few months before he was martyred.  His body laid in state here till he was buried.  The house was much larger at the time as it was used as a hotel during the time for so many people visiting Nauvoo.   Oddly enough, we were not allowed to take any pictures inside the buildings so there are no pictures inside.  Sorry.  They did have some interesting stuff to look at, though.

The Mansion House info sign.

The Nauvoo House was supposed to be a Hotel near the river for people to stay at when they first got to the city.  It was supposed to be much larger it is now, up to 5 stories.  The base you see is very wide and the building was rebuilt to give an idea of what it was supposed to be like.

The cornerstone behind shows how big the original Nauvoo House was supposed to be.  Really large!

Info sign for the Nauvoo House.  You can't enter the Nauvoo House to look at it.  The church rents it out at $15 per person per night.  They made that very clear.   Parties of 20 or larger only.  This is a money maker for the Community of Christ to cover the cost of maintaining the site but the emphasis was not on Joseph Smith, it seemed to be elsewhere in their ministries.  It was just a beginning for them.  I didn't get a good grasp on what their focus is today and there were comments made about the temple ceremony but got the distinct idea they had no idea what it was for, obviously.  That would have come after the Nauvoo time period.