"Located in Amenia, New York, Troutbeck is a historic property with over two hundred and fifty years of history. It began as a private estate built in 1765 by the Bentons, a prominent New York family. The estate has hosted figures like Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the early 1900s, Colonel Joel Spingarn and his wife Amy maintained it as a gathering place for intellectuals, including Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and President Theodore Roosevelt. It was also the site for the Amenia Conferences, leading to the formation of the NAACP. Although it faced decline, the current owner Anthony Champalimaud has revitalized it." - Todd Plummer