Adapted from the Christopher Morley Knothole Association website

The “Knothole” is a tiny one-room wooden cabin formerly used as a studio by prominent 20th-century Long Island editor and writer Christopher Morley (1890-1957).

A great deal of Morley's work was done in a functional one-room studio called the “Knothole” located on his Green Escape property in Roslyn Estates and constructed in 1934. “I built myself a pine-wood cabin, as aloofly as a Long Island suburb would permit, to consort with the shade of John Bartlett,” wrote Morley.

In 1966, nine years after Morley’s death, the Christopher Morley Knothole Association, the writer’s friends and neighbors had the Knothole transferred to one of Nassau County’s parks in Roslyn-North Hills, subsequently named Christopher Morley Park. It was dedicated on May 21, 1967.

The Knothole, renovated in 2006, includes built-in bookshelves, a fireplace and a bunkbed. But the public has been most intrigued over the years by the Knothole’s “dymaxion” bathroom, which was designed in 1936 by Morley’s friend, Buckminster Fuller, the renowned scientist and inventor. It was made in four sections which were bolted together. It was installed in May 1938.

Knothole is located by the dog run on the northern section of the park and is open occasionally for public programs.

“Morley embraced the language and had an incredible vocabulary, even by the standards of the 1920s, when people who went to college received broad educations,” says Harrison Hunt, former Supervisor of Historic Sites for the Nassau County Department of Parks. “I actually need a dictionary out for virtually every page when I read his essays because on each page there will be some great word which has fallen into disuse.”

The Latin motto above the door is a quote from the philosopher Erasmus:

"How busy you are in your library, which is your paradise."