The Knott House

A few days ago we went to the Knott House. Despite the name, it is in fact a house. It’s a nineteenth century house and is the location of the official reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to Tallahassee after the end of the War Between the States. Seems the Union military governor took a shine to it and set up his headquarters there. Thus it is the front porch of the house from which the news of freedom was first heard. The Proclamation is re-read from the porch each year on the 20 May anniversary. The name of the house comes from the people who lived in it most recently before it becoming a state museum. It’s currently set up as the Knotts had it in the 1930s. He was a high-level government worker in Florida’s finance department. She was a social climber and aspiring poet. Since the house is about a five minute walk from the capital building they rented out one of the rooms to other people who were in town on government business. For one dollar a night you got the guest room and the use of the bathroom. Interesting features of the Knott house include a “privacy porch” that can only be reached from inside of the house (apparently it was poor form for passersby to initiate conversation with people on such a porch), a $200 (remember this is the 1930s) radio/record player, and many poems attached to the various pieces of furniture telling the piece’s story from its own point of view (the 150 year old china cabinet asks “will you look as good when you are as old?”).

Maya’s got an amazing 6 days in a row coming up so we are off on another adventure. We are headed to Maya’s favorite vacation spot – Dog Island. Asher's coming too. It should be a lot of fun! See you when we get back…