New Family for an Old House
THE KNOTT HOUSE
The house changed hands twice more after Dr. George Betton’s ownership before William and Luella Knott acquired it in 1927. The Knott family would be the last to live there. The house was located near the bustle of downtown life. From its windows and porches, the home’s residents and visitors could witness the activity taking place. Automobiles and pedestrians passed by, and guests could be heard coming and going from the nearby Cherokee Hotel. In the 1930s, construction work on Calhoun Street that runs along the side of the house added to the noise. Calhoun had been lined with oak trees, but the city cut down the trees to widen the street, much to Luella Knott’s disapproval. She did not enjoy being in the thick of things but Mr. Knott seems to have liked the downtown life.
Knott House, 1958
Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida
THE FAMILY
The Knott family occupied the house for nearly sixty years, until son Charlie Knott’s death in 1985, longer than any other previous inhabitants. The family had first moved to Tallahassee in 1898 and built a house on Thomasville Road. Mrs. Knott had a love of antiques and filled the house with Victorian furnishings, some of which later helped furnish the house on Park Avenue. Luella Knott made the house well-known in Tallahassee. It earned the moniker the House that Rhymes due to the poems she wrote to various furnishings in the house. She typed them up on note cards and hung each card with a satin ribbon on the object the poem described.
First floor hall
Note the poems on cards hanging from the pier mirror and the hall tree.
Collection of the Knott House Museum
Page from Trail of Homes booklet, 1951
The Knott House was a stop on the Tallahassee Trail of Homes that the Tallahassee Woman’s Club sponsored for several years in the early 1950s. The Trail included a number of prominent historic buildings in the city. The photograph shows the dining room much as it is today. However, the information about the home is inaccurate. It was not built in 1826, and Thomas Hagner never served as Minister to Great Britain.
Collection of the Knott House Museum
The Knotts had an impact on local and state 20th century history. William Knott was a long-serving public figure who served at various times as State Treasurer, Comptroller, and Auditor. Luella Knott was active in Tallahassee’s temperance movement. Charlie Knott carried out his mother’s wish that the house become a museum. Another son, James Knott became a Palm Beach County judge and led the Florida Historical Society as president. Daughter Mary Frank Knott Bazemore was among the state’s earliest women physicians.
The Knott family, ca. 1950s
William and Luella Knott sit on the couch. Standing behind them are (L-R) James Knott, Mary Frank Knott Bazemore, and Charlie Knott.
Collection of the Knott House Museum
The Knott House has stood since the early 1840s, when Florida was still a US territory. Its first owner, Thomas Hagner, arrived in Tallahassee in the 1830s, even before statehood. The last family to occupy the house, the Knotts, lived there through much of the 20th century. The residents, the house, and the city have all seen and experienced much change. The Knott House now stands as a museum, spanning nearly 200 years of the capital city’s history.
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