Sixty-eight rooms in the fifth Glen House on a Pinkham Notch site that has held a Glen House since 1852, with geothermal-heated Shaker-vernacular guest rooms, the Notch Grille farm-to-table dining room, and the bar Architectural Digest named the most beautiful in New Hampshire.
"The fifth Glen House on a site that has held one since 1852, sitting at the base of the Mount Washington Auto Road, Shaker-design rooms, the bar Architectural Digest called the most beautiful in New Hampshire, and a geothermal-heated building."
The Glen House occupies a 1,400-acre property at the base of the Mount Washington Auto Road in Pinkham Notch, the eight-mile mountain pass that separates the Carter-Moriah Range to the east from the Presidential Range to the west. The current building, the fifth Glen House on the site, opened in October 2018 on the footprint of the original 1852 Glen House, a Greek Revival summer resort that operated through the mid-nineteenth-century White Mountains hotel era as the Mount Washington Auto Road's primary lodging.
The previous four Glen Houses all burned: 1884 (the original 1852 building), 1893 (the second), 1924 (the third), and 1967 (the fourth). The site sat fallow for fifty-one years until the Mount Washington Auto Road Company (the family-owned operator of the Auto Road since 1936, the Libby family of Gorham) commissioned the current building from architects Tennant/Wallace of Manchester, New Hampshire. The 2018 hotel is the first new-construction grand-vernacular hotel built in the White Mountains in over a century; the design reads as a contemporary Shaker barn with the clapboards and the signature chimneys of the previous four buildings.
The building is geothermal-heated (a 280-well closed-loop system runs under the parking lot), photovoltaic for thirty percent of summer electrical load, and runs the LEED-Silver certification standard on the construction; the property is the most environmentally credible large-format hotel in the White Mountains. Sixty-eight individually-furnished rooms run across four storeys; the Shaker-vernacular design programme runs throughout, built-in dressers, panelled doors, the simple ladder-back chair as the room's signature furniture piece, with the bathroom programme fully tiled, the bedding on Tempur-Pedic mattresses, and the upper-floor Premium and Mountain View rooms running the panoramic Mount Washington aspect.
The Notch Grille on the ground floor runs three meals daily, the menu rotates to the season and the local-farm-and-distillery network (the menu cites the producers), and the bar, described by Architectural Digest as 'the most beautiful bar in New Hampshire' for the panelled bar back, the floor-to-ceiling Mount Washington view through the dining-room windows, and the regional-bourbon programme on the back bar, runs the property's signature evening programme. The Mount Washington Auto Road (open mid-May through mid-October, the eight-mile drive to the 6,288-foot summit) is at the front door; the Wildcat Mountain ski area is one minute up Route 16; the Glen Ellis Falls and the Tuckerman Ravine trailhead are within five minutes by car. The hotel runs a complimentary shuttle to the Auto Road base station for guests booked on the daily Auto Road excursions.
The Glen House is the Mount-Washington-and-Auto-Road family booking. The Two-Queen Premium room category absorbs the parents-and-two-children family, the dining-room programme runs the children's menu, the Auto Road excursion is the day-trip every Glen House family takes (the guide-driven van runs hourly in season), the Wildcat Mountain alpine ski area is one minute north, and the Tuckerman Ravine trailhead is the older-children-and-teenager day-hike (3.1 miles to the bowl, an option for the strong day-hiker fourteen-and-up). The hotel does not run a kids' club but the location does the work.
The Glen House Standard King is the solo-retreat pick at the foot of the Auto Road. The Shaker-design room programme is quiet and uncluttered, the property's Pinkham Notch position means the hiking, the Auto Road, the Wildcat ski area, and the Mount Washington summit are all at the door, and the Notch Grille at the bar handles the solo dinner well. For the writer or the hiker who wants a four-night Mount Washington base with the morning light on the Carter-Moriah ridge and the evening light on the Presidentials, the Glen House Mountain View room is the booking.
For the Mount-Washington-anniversary booking on a Glen-House-Hotel budget (the Glen House prices roughly half of the Omni Bretton Woods), the Mountain View King with the Presidentials aspect, the dinner at the Notch Grille with the panelled bar back, and the Auto Road excursion to the summit at sunrise (the Auto Road runs a sunrise programme for hotel guests in season) is the smart anniversary-weekend programme. The 2018 build, the geothermal credentials, and the Shaker-design programme give the property a contemporary edge over the historic-hotel competition in the valley.
979 NH Route 16
Gorham, NH 03581
United States
Pinkham Notch · Green's Grant; Mount Washington Valley; Portland International Jetport 125 minutes; Manchester-Boston Regional 110 minutes; Boston Logan 175 minutes
68 rooms across four storeys
Standard King or Two-Queen Room from $199/night
Premium Room from $249/night
Mountain View Room (Presidentials aspect) from $299/night
Two-Bedroom Family Suite from $429/night
Check-in: 4:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
The fifth Glen House on the site; the previous four buildings (1852, 1884, 1893, 1924) all burned; current building opened October 2018; geothermal heated and LEED-Silver standard; Libby family / Mount Washington Auto Road Company ownership
Geothermal heating (280-well closed-loop system)
Photovoltaic array (30% summer electrical load)
Notch Grille farm-to-table dining (three meals daily)
The Bar (Architectural Digest 'most beautiful bar in New Hampshire')
Complimentary shuttle to Mount Washington Auto Road base
Tuckerman Ravine and Wildcat ski area within 5 minutes
Free Wi-Fi (property-wide)
Pet-friendly select rooms ($75 nightly fee)
From $199 / night. The Mountain View King category and the Two-Bedroom Family Suite book three to four months ahead for the Auto Road season (mid-May through mid-October) and the Wildcat ski season (December through early April). The Auto Road Plus package (room, breakfast at the Notch Grille, and the daily Auto Road excursion for two) prices well below the equivalent room-and-excursion rate.
Book This Hotel →The 1902 grand resort on 6,500 acres beneath Mount Washington; 269 rooms, the Spanish-Renaissance ballroom that hosted the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference.
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The 1869 grand inn in the centre of Jackson Village, opposite the covered bridge, with the eighteen-hole golf course out the front door.