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Valentine's Day here in Nauvoo and it was not a nice day.  We had a couple of inches of snow and it was cold, for here.  Mid-teens most of the day.  We started out by heading to Burlington for our ward meetings in a driving snow storm on slippery, unplowed roads till we got out on the highways where it was not much better.  It was sort of plowed there but slightly better.  1st time I have ever had to have my rear wiper on, ever, in my life, to keep the rear window clear so I could see out of it!  It just kept being covered over with snow!  Weird....  I taught the High Priest that day.  It was received well then we all headed back to Nauvoo, roads were much better and the snow had nearly stopped.  We were invited over to the Chapman's for dinner that afternoon and to look at their home they have been renovating.  It is the old Anthon-Kelly home that dates back to Daniel Wells in 1844.  It is about a block away from the Nauvoo temple.  It is pretty historic and very interesting.  I love old homes.

The doorways are very uniquely finished.  Original framing.

Original flooring.   Note the difference size of the boards.  This was typical of the way they did them in early 1800s.

At one time this was an outside wall that they have converted to an interior kitchen wall.  That center block is, yes, an actual block from the original temple.  In 1846 the temple was abandoned by the Latter-Day Saints as they moved West.  In 1848 the locals set the temple ablaze fearing the "Mormons" would return and try to rebuild it.  In 1850 a tornado finished off the structure and destroyed the outside walls.  The locals just helped themselves to the stones as they needed them for a long time for building projects for housing.  The "temple stones" can be seen throughout Nauvoo in a lot of different houses and buildings.  This structure is no different.

This is typical for the way they built the basement walls of homes.  Layers of small rocks with mortar in between.  I have seen several finished and unfinished homes that are just foundations and they look about the same.  The coal chute above was added later.

Another temple stone that is part of a basement wall that is now in the middle of the house after a couple of different additions over 150 years or so.  When the last occupant passed away, the house was scheduled for demolition but the Chapman's purchased the home and have spent a lot of time fixing it up.  It's very nice now. 

Upstairs flooring and a hallway.  The room at the end of the hallway was the last, Victorian age addition.  About 1912-1915 per the newspapers they found in the walls that they had used as insulation from Nauvoo, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

The Chapman's, Dane and Barbara.  They have beautiful furniture also in various rooms of the house that they have collected over the years.  We were in the same ward in Camino in the early 1990s when we all had little kids.  

I did not get a picture of the house but will add that later.

Downtown Nauvoo on a snowy Sunday afternoon.

A wintry view of the temple from the South West corner of the temple lot.

More activities to report on for tomorrow.  So, look for the next blogspot report....