The entry of the mansion owes its lightness to the clerestory which allows daylight to penetrate the interior of the house. Knox's use of this feature certainly provided light, but it also allowed a lot of heat to escape the house.

The Reverend Paul Coffin, after visiting the house in 1796, complained, "I was almost frozen for three hours before we took dinner and plenty of wine." Before Knox's death, the family installed two Franklin stoves in the main hallway to help alleviate the problem.