Knott House Museum, Tallahassee

No: the Museum of Florida History says the Knott House Museum at 301 East Park Avenue is currently closed while it preserves the historic interior, improves the visitor experience and creates new exhibits (Museum of Florida History, Knott House Museum).

The museum's page gives no reopening date, and it asks people with comments or questions to write to the museum by email (Museum of Florida History). The Florida Department of State's page for the house lists 850-922-2459 for information about school and scout group programs (Florida Department of State, The Knott House).

While the house is closed, the Museum of Florida History keeps an online exhibit, "A Historic House in a Capital City," with sections on the Knotts, the rooms and the house before the Knotts (Museum of Florida History). The Knott House sits on Park Avenue, inside a National Register district along Park Avenue and Call Street (NPS National Register record).

Built in 1843, the Knott House was probably the work of George Proctor, a free Black builder, and its first residents, attorney Thomas Hagner and his bride Catherine Gamble, arrived the following year (About the Knott House; Department of State).

The museum says George Proctor was a successful builder and carpenter who lived in Tallahassee at a time when most Black people in the city were enslaved (The House over Time). The museum's pages tell the post-1985 transfer two ways: one says the Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board became the beneficiary on the death of the Knotts' son Charlie in 1985, and another says Charlie Knott left the house to the State of Florida, with the board, then a state agency, deciding in 1987 to restore it to its 1928 appearance (About the Knott House; The House over Time).

On May 20, 1865, the Union general headquartered in the Knott House declared the Emancipation Proclamation in effect, announcing freedom for all enslaved people in the greater Tallahassee region (Museum of Florida History; Florida Department of State).

The museum names him as Union Brigadier General Edward M. McCook, who had taken the house immediately after the Civil War ended, when he occupied Tallahassee (About the Knott House). The Museum of Florida History marks the date with a 20th of May Commemoration presented by the Knott House Museum and the John G. Riley Museum, with pages on the history of the 20th of May, freedom drumming and emancipation celebrations across the state (20th of May Commemoration).

The Department of State describes the observance as an annual event marking the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Tallahassee on May 20, 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln first issued it (Department of State media advisory, May 19, 2022). Its 2022 edition was scheduled at the house for Friday, May 20, 2022, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., as a joint effort with the John G. Riley Center and Museum, and the advisory said it would feature musical performances, speakers and a dramatic reading of the proclamation (Department of State). The commemoration page also carries an Events section (Museum of Florida History).

William Valentine Knott served the State of Florida for more than forty years as tax auditor, comptroller and state treasurer, and Luella Pugh Knott was a musician, poet and advocate for social causes, according to the museum (About the Knott House; Meet the Knotts).

William Knott was born in Terrell County, Georgia, on November 24, 1863, and the couple made their home in Tallahassee in 1897 when he became Florida's first state financial agent (Meet the Knotts). He was appointed state treasurer in 1903, became comptroller in 1912 and, after a spell out of office, was appointed to his original post as auditor in 1927, when, by that page, the Knotts returned to Tallahassee and moved into the house (Meet the Knotts). The About page and the Department of State instead give 1928 as the year the Knott family acquired the house (About; Department of State). In September 1928 he was appointed treasurer a second time and held the post until his retirement, ending the longest term in that office in 1941 (Meet the Knotts).

Luella Knott was born in Graham, North Carolina, on May 31, 1871, graduated from Greensboro Methodist College in 1891 and married William in 1895 (Meet the Knotts). William died on April 3, 1965, at 101, and Luella died eight days later, on April 11, 1965 (Meet the Knotts).

The museum gives two years for his run for governor. The About page says he ran in 1916 and lost a disputed election, while Meet the Knotts says the Prohibition candidate, Sidney Catts, was elected governor in 1917 in a close and confusing election (About; Meet the Knotts).

The Knott House became known as "The House That Rhymes" because Luella Knott attached her own poems to its Victorian-era furnishings, blending history and moral lessons with wit (Museum of Florida History, About the Knott House; Department of State).

She tied the poems to her furniture with satin ribbons, and she often shopped at estate sales for vintage pieces, since she had little of her parents' belongings (Meet the Knotts). Most of the furniture on display is original to the house, and historic photos guided how the rooms were arranged (About the Knott House). The museum's visit page says the house features original furnishings used by the Knott family during their 1928 to 1941 period of residence, while the About page says the family lived in the house until 1985 (Knott House Museum; About).

The Knott House began as a two-story side hall house, which the Hagners doubled into a central hall plan; the rafters of the original cypress shake roof can still be seen in the attic, according to the museum (The House over Time).

Dr. Betton added a front porch and a rear annex that is now furnished as the kitchen, and between 1903 and 1909 a wraparound porch was added across the front (The House over Time). Luella Knott added the grand columns that give the front the look of an antebellum plantation home, removed pocket doors to make one large living room and, in the early 1930s, had the east porch enclosed (The House over Time). In 1987 the Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board decided to restore the house to its 1928 appearance, and the additions made after 1928 were removed; the same page says that after his parents died, Charlie Knott built onto the back porch and enclosed it, creating the "party room" (The House over Time).

Yes, the Knott House is listed as part of the Park Avenue Historic District, which the National Park Service record shows as published on October 24, 1979 (Museum of Florida History; NPS National Register record).

The district's National Register Information System ID is 79000681, and NPS gives its location as Park Avenue and Call Street in Tallahassee, Leon County (NPS record).

The NPS record names Colonial Revival, Renaissance and Queen Anne among the district's architectural styles, under the criteria of event and architecture and engineering, with periods of significance from 1825 to 1924 (NPS record). The Florida Department of State lists the house among its historical museums and repeats the 1992 opening and the 1997 transfer to the Museum of Florida History (Florida Department of State).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Museum of Florida History's Knott House closure notice and history pages, the Department of State museum listing and the NPS record for the Park Avenue Historic District.