Joseph Brown, Antoinette’s father, built a stone farmhouse on their farm at 1099 Pinnacle Road and moved his family there from the original log cabin. This fieldstone house was completed in 1831 and became the family residence. It still stands today, under private ownership, and has been named to the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places.

After serving in the war of 1812, Joseph Brown sold his family farm in Connecticut and moved to Henrietta, New York with his growing family, which then consisted of his mother, his wife Abbey Morse Brown, his sister Eliza Brown, and four children .

Joseph originally purchased approximately one hundred acres of land with a double log house of six rooms. Antoinette was born in the log house on May 20, 1825.

At age six, Antoinette, one of ten children, moved with her family into a new fieldstone house on Pinnacle Road just a short distance from the log house, on the same side of the road. The house was heated by the kitchen fire and a stove in the other large room on the ground floor. The heating pipe went up through the ceiling to provide heat to the upper story. Antoinette, her Aunt Eliza, and several other siblings slept in the pleasant large open attic.  It is a vernacular architecture, Federal-style masonry residence. constructed of random fieldstone with brick infill.

The home had a partially enclosed wood house on one side, with an open attic running the length of it. The cellars at the back of the house were nearly on a level with the first floor. They ran into the hill behind, and a flat roof of boards extended down, with a gentle slope, nearly to the ground. Near the low roof was a large old tree trunk that had been hollowed out. Fed by a pipe from the roof, it was used as a watering trough for horses.

The farm’s main crop was wheat, but there were also cornfields, a grove of sugar maples, two large apple orchards, and many other fruit trees. The fences around the farm were all old Virginia rail with zigzag corners. Later, Joseph added four or five more farms to his property, each with its own house, and on one was built a creamery. In addition to farming, Joseph served as a justice of the peace, holding court nearly every week at the house.

In 1831 at age 36, Antoinette Brown was married to Samuel Blackwell in her farm home at 1099 Pinnacle Road. Her father, Squire Joseph Brown, performed the ceremony.

The present owners, Dr. Elmar & Catherine Frangenberg, restored the home of Antoinette Brown Blackwell in a manner consistent with its era (mid-19th century) including the installation of a new kitchen fireplace identical to one featured at the Genesee Country Museum in Mumford. In 1988, they were the recipients of the Henrietta Architectural Heritage Award.

.From A Country Childhood by Antoinette Brown Blackwell as printed in Henrietta Heritage, 1977, by Eleanor C. Kalsbeck.