File:Frederick Smyth House (IA manchesterbriefr00cla) (page 470 crop).jpg

Ex-Governor Smyth's house is finely situated on rising ground just east of Amoskeag Falls, on the spot where the Pennacooks lived when the Merrimack swarmed with fish and the Indians came to the Falls to catch them. The grounds contain about ten acres and include the site of a former Indian village, where many interesting relics of the aboriginal dwellers have been exhumed. On the eastern side runs Elm street and on the western the River road, while North street and Salmon street form, respectively, the northern and southern boundaries. The house, which is built of brick with granite trimmings, two stories high with a French roof surmounted by a tower, was begun in 1867 and finished in 1873. It was designed by Gov. Smyth and his wife and built from plans by Bryant & Rogers of Boston. It is a spacious and convenient dwelling, with walnut wainscotings and marble thresholds. The rooms in the second story are finished each with a different kind of native wood and the ceilings are frescoed to correspond. The windows command a view of the Merrimack for a mile up and down, the mills, the falls, the bridge and islands, and from them can be seen the whole city, the towns across the river, Joe English hill, the Uncanoonucs and the Francestown range of mountains.