Second Floor

The Second Floor of McDowell House is focused on the more intimate side of life and features two large bedrooms and a hall study for Sarah.

Ephraim and Sarah had a large and lively family. Sarah had the couple’s first child, Susannah, in 1803, and their last, Alfred, 22 years later. There were nine recorded children in all, but only five of them: Susannah, Mary, William, Adeline, and Katherine lived past their teen years. A small mourning brooch that belonged to Sarah is on display with other family pieces, such as a miniature of Dr. McDowell. The McDowell Family knew great pain, as well as great happiness in their private lives.

A portrait of the couple’s third daughter Adeline hangs in the children’s room. Naturally cheerful and energetic, she was close to her father and had a happy childhood growing up at McDowell House. In her memoirs she describes herself as her father’s “idol” and his death when she was 15 as “almost the first sorrow I knew”. She went on to live to the almost unheard of age of 90 and has descendants living today.