Reputed to be the oldest house in Pennsylvania's Northern Tier, the small one-and-one-half-story clapboarded frame house is built on grade, yielding another full story on the river side. A one-story shed-roof addition was built later, probably before 1850, and the south porch was added in 1990. The off-center chimney, asymmetrical three-bay facade, and four-room plan suggest Germanic origins. Some Dutch families lived in the vicinity and Germans were a few miles down the river at this time, but local lore names Elihu Hall as its carpenter. English-speaking settlers moved into this area in growing numbers in the mid-1790s. When the settlement got its own post office in 1841, the community was named for Henry Lacey, a local resident, but it grew slowly, not becoming a borough until 1903. The Smith House has also served as a general store, ferry stop, and post office. It is now a house museum.