Profile House

The Profile House was a grand hotel in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, in the United States. Originally built in 1852 and opening for its first season in 1853, it was operated by several owners and partners until its final season under the ownership of Karl P. Abbott, when the hotel, at its seasonal peak, burned to the ground, leaving only the train depot standing in the fire's aftermath. Area attractions included Franconia Notch, the Great Boulder flume (Flume Gorge), Artist's Bluff, Mount Cannon, Profile Lake, Echo Lake, and Eagle Cliff. The Profile House boasted amenities such as running water, electricity and all of the comforts to which the affluent guests had become accustomed. The hotel was named for the iconic rock structure discovered by surveyors in 1805, that came to be known as Old Man of the Mountain.

The Profile House, in Franconia Notch, existed for 70 years. The first Profile House opened in 1853, and the "New" Profile burned in 1923. At the time of its destruction, it could accommodate 600 guests and was the most luxurious hotel on the west side of the mountains. The parking lot for the Cannon Mountain Ski Area and Tramway is located just north of the site where the hotel once stood.

In 1852, when Richard Taft and his company, the Flume and Franconia Hotel Company, bought the Lafayette House at the north end of the Notch, construction began on the first Profile House. It opened in 1853, a simple three and a half story building. It was expanded several times, by the addition of first one wing and then another. A large dining room was added, outbuildings were added, and starting in 1868, a number of "cottages" were constructed. There would eventually be twenty of these cottages, which were connected to one another and the main hotel by covered walkways. Cottages were initially rented but were later owned by well-to-do guests who would spend the entire summer at the hotel but wanted more privacy than the hotel itself offered. A stable accommodated 350 horses, and carriage sheds housed the wide variety of wagons and coaches needed.

In 1872, the owners of the hotel built a narrow-gauge railroad from Bethlehem Junction to eliminate the stagecoach ride for guests arriving from the north. The 9.5-mile (15.3 km) railroad had two engines, the Profile and the Echo, as well as freight houses and service facilities. (Rail service from the south never reached the hotel. In 1883, service was opened from Plymouth to , and guests completed their journey by stage.) Part of the railroad bed is now utilized as a bicycle/pedestrian recreational trail in the summer and a groomed snowmobile trail in the winter, while a large portion of it is now used by U.S. Route 3.

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