Almost everything about Knollwood is big. At 19,000 square feet, it may be the largest home in New Hampshire and one of the largest anywhere. The main dining room seats 26 people, and the ballroom, which has hosted countless balls, charity events, weddings, and receptions, easily seats 120. The view, worthy of billionaires, is 40 miles.

Its most famous visitor, President William Howard Taft, was literally big, weighing close to 350 pounds.  A special elevator was installed to take him to his second-floor bedroom, and when you see the elevator, you’ll get a sense of just how big Taft was. You’ll be seeing history from a unique vantage point. By the way, he used to refer to Knollwood as his “Summer White House.”

When Taft was at Knollwood, there were galas and receptions, one of them for 500 people.  As you’ll see in the photo below, in honor of the occasion, Knollwood’s butler, recruited 11 “gentlemen’s gentlemen” to ensure one particular Taft gala was up to standards!

Another larger-than-life visitor to Knollwood was Mark Twain. He lived at Knollwood for six weeks when the summer rental that he used wasn’t ready at the time of his arrival in Dublin. Twain regularly gave readings in the Knollwood ballroom, and during one of these sessions, he complained about a woman who was knitting. It was something of a schtick for him, having done it many times with audiences all over the country, and it was guaranteed to produce laughter.    On noticing that a woman at the back of the Knollwood ballroom was knitting, he stopped his reading and inquired in a voice loud enough for the whole audience to hear, “Is my reading interfering with your knitting?”

The expected good-natured laughter followed.

However, the guest was prepared for this schtick. “Oh, were you saying something?” she answered with mock seriousness. “I hadn’t noticed!”  According to family lore, the audience roared over this repartee and Twain, ever-the-humorist, took it with the humor that was intended.

Something else big about Knollwood, the Co-Founder and President of the Sheraton Hotel Chain, pioneered some of the practices that are often copied in the hotel industry. Early in the 1950s, Ernest Henderson (my father) figured out that if he bought top-of-the-line modern furniture for the hundreds of presidential suites in his hotels, that ten years later, the furniture would look dated and no longer up to the standards needed for a presidential suite.

However, if he bought antiques for the same amount of money he would have spent on top-of-the-line antiques, in ten years they’d be worth more. In the 1950s, he became the largest buyer of antique furniture in the world. Many of his favorites ended up in Knollwood. I’m told this insight is studied in hotel schools today.

Knollwood is a 37-minute flight from NYC to Keene, NH, and from there, a 17-minute drive to Knollwood in the estate’s Stealth Limo.