Following the designs of carpenter and self-trained architect Erastus Hamilton, with the collective guidance of the community and its founder Noyes, the first Mansion House was erected in the winter of 1848. The structure provided a larger space for the Oneida family after it quickly outgrew the small farm houses built by Burt and others, and two log cabins left behind by the Oneida Indians. The majority of this first work was done by the Community, which had a saw mill on-site and carpenters in the membership. A Community member recalled that "the building of a "home" was the first enterprise that enlisted the whole Community; and it was one in which all were equally interested. All labored; the women no less than the men."