Amherst Humphrey's c.1797 house, though of a type common for well over a century in his native Massachusetts, was ahead of its time in the Genesee Country. His ten-roomed "framed" house would remain conspicuous among the log houses of other pioneers then settling the area.

Houses such as Humphrey's, organized around a central chimney system, were basic and logical. There were no hallways — the rooms all interconnected. A large fireplace was a necessity for cooking and an oven was needed alongside it for baking. An iron crane swung from one side of the fire chamber, supporting the kettle; on the wide hearth was room for food that needed heat for preparation or serving.

Two other fireplaces heated the two front rooms. These were smaller, nestled back into the mass of masonry needed to contain the kitchen fireplace and oven, and they used the same central flue. The central chimney accommodated a fireplace on the second floor as well, furnishing welcome heat to the largest of Humphrey's five second-floor chambers.

The great pile of masonry in the central chimney type house served as a solid anchor for the structure's heavy timber frame, portions of which might rest against the chimney. While Humphrey's fireplace, oven, and chimney are of brick, the base beneath the full cellar is of stone, and contains its own fireplace opening — probably used for the messier business of lye-making and lard-rendering. The basement floor is of cobblestone. There is a cistern beneath the summer kitchen (added in the 1830s) and an inside privy at the far end of the attached woodshed.

The Amherst Humphrey House, like thousands of story-and-a-half New England precedents from which it derives, is almost totally lacking in exterior ornamentation. However the interior features include not only paneled and molded doors, door and window surrounds, and chair rails, but also mantelpieces and cupboards carried out in moldings hand-planed by a craftsman with a light touch and an eye for proportion. Remarkably, the work of the unknown craftsman survived a century and three-quarters of continuous occupation as a working farmhouse in Lima, N.Y.

Daily throughout the season, visitors can see a weaver creating finely woven pieces on the loom at Amherst Humphrey House.