A Community Treasure
The Clayton House, a historic house museum, welcomes guests as well as event holders to this grand Victorian home. The museum provides individual and group tours, educational 
programs for youth, and community events geared toward the appreciation for and advocacy of our local history and historic preservation. Its elegant design and furnishings make it a lovely choice for weddings, receptions, reunions and other private gatherings.
In 1969, a group of citizens formed the Fort Smith Heritage Foundation and saved the Clayton home from demolition. A total technical restoration made possible its listing on the National Register of Historic Places and its opening as a museum in 1977. The Fort Smith Heritage 
Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Its board of directors has worked over the years -- and continues today --to garner the community's interest in the home and obtain the community's support, through memberships and donations, in order to maintain and offer the Clayton House as a treasured community resource.
At right, Fort Smith Heritage Foundation Board Member PollyAnna Core addresses Clayton House supporters at the June 2011 Annual Membership Meeting.
What You Find at the Clayton House
As you walk through the doors of this magnificent home, you step back in time to an era of elegance. This wood frame antebellum home served from 1882-1897 as the family home of William Henry Harrison Clayton, the federal prosecutor in the court of celebrated frontier judge Isaac C. Parker.
Mr. Clayton purchased the home, originally built in the 1850s, and enlarged and renovated it, moving his family into the home in 1882. The home has eight main rooms, each containing an ornate coal-burning firplace. The detached servants' quarters and kitchen have been reconstructed on the original foundation.
Today, you can view the intricate original design of the formal parlor fresco; beautiful woodwork throughout the home; the large, airy spaces in which the family of six daughters and one son once lived, played and worked; and several Clayton family belongings.
At right: The charming angles and views in the Clayton House for wedding photography are infinite. Here a bride poses at the foot of the original black walnut staircase.
In addition to housing Clayton family artifacts such as the family Bible, W.H.H. Clayton's walking stick, Mrs. Clayton's writing desk and tea table, and many photos, the home is complete with ornate, period furniture for every room. This is in thanks to Agnes Oglesby (1874-1979) who donated her estate of Victorian furniture to the museum after the home was restored. Other local citizens have also have gifted magnificent pieces to the home.