Millard Fillmore began life in a remote log cabin on the New York frontier. As a young man, he became an itinerant preacher in order to pay his way while studying the law. After becoming an attorney, he built a simple frame residence in East Aurora where he and his family lived for four years. The next 15 years brought a succession of political offices. He was chosen Vice President to Zachary Taylor, which led to his presidency after Taylor 's death.

In his post-presidency and after his first wife died, Fillmore remarried a wealthy widow. They resided in baronial splendor in Buffalo, New York, where they hosted magnificent parties in their Gothic mansion while maintaining a strict lifestyle that forbade the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and use of foul language in their home. The palatial structure was later transformed into a hotel before it was razed in the early 1900s.