This two-story, gable-front, clapboarded Greek Revival house with wing and side entrance was built to satisfy the classical taste of its first owners, Henry Smith (1798–1847) and his wife, Elvira. Smith was a U.S. Army engineer, who came to Monroe from New York to oversee the construction of the harbor of La Plaisance Bay and other government harbors on Lake Erie. In 1874, nearly thirty years after arriving in Monroe and establishing the nursery business that earned the city the title of the “Flower City,” Strasburg-born Israel Epley Ilgenfritz (b. 1824) acquired the house. He and his wife enlarged it to accommodate their twelve children and planted many decorative trees and plants on its grounds.