Bellis-Bennett Family

Owners and Innkeepers, Cranmore Inn, Board Members White Mountains Pride, Directors and Volunteers at M&D Playhouse

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We all want to live like a local when we visit an area we love. This is a snapshot into how a local spends their day, and how they invest in the Mt. Washington Valley community. Support their businesses and the non-profits they donate to. The more you, as a visitor, invest and integrate in the valley, the more local you’ll become!

Christopher Bellis and Eddie Bennett have owned the Cranmore Inn for ten years.

As innkeepers who spend their days showing guests the best way to spend their days in the Mt. Washington Valley...

How do they spend theirs? As a family! And the Bellis-Bennett's are all about the arts.


  • They’ll make a whole night of dinner and a show. Starting with dinner at Abenaki Trail Restaurant. They just love the staff at this restaurant, and their go-to order is the steak tips or chicken finger dinner.
  • It’s the perfect start to what a movie or a live performance will finish. Chris, Eddie, David and Sherie are huge supporters of M&D Playhouse. Not only as theater-goers, but as directors and actors as well.
  • M&D Playhouse is a local community theater that works to produce and share plays that inspire, nurture, challenge, amaze, educate, and empower artists and audiences. Both Chris and Eddie have directed plays for M&D Playhouse, and David and Sherie have acted in them, and volunteered for M&D Playhouse.

    Productions are put on regularly by M&D Playhouse and include heavy-hitters such as Steel Magnolias and Xanadu.

Chris, Eddie, David, and Sherie are regulars at M&D Playhouse as patrons, volunteers, and even directors!

The Bellis-Bennett’s are also heavily involved with White Mountains Pride, a non-profit that works to bring empowerment, and inclusion to all LGBTQ people, and their friends and families. It’s flagship event is a month-long celebration throughout June, that features art, theater, hiking, and more

Christopher Bellis and Eddie Bennett have owned the Cranmore Inn for ten years, along with their two teenage children, David and Sherie. After working in fast-paced jobs in many of the East Coast’s metropolises, they decided to reevaluate what they were looking for as a family. With both children under the age of ten at the time, they decided that there was no better time to make a move, and make a change.


Both Christopher and Eddie have such a welcoming nature and a love of hosting guests. Combined with their love of skiing, and the potential they saw in the multi-season destination that is Mt. Washington Valley they decided to go all in and buy Cranmore Inn, and become innkeepers.

Being innkeepers allows them to put in practice their belief that Leave No Trace reaches further than just preserving and protecting the natural environment; they believe it stretches out to encompass every aspect of life. They support sustainability through paying fair wages to their employees, supporting affordable housing initiatives through MWV Housing Coalition, championing equality for all through their work with White Mountains Pride, and backing the arts, in addition to working toward preservation efforts for the valley’s natural resources through the MWV Trails Association.

For complete trip planning resources and information, explore this site, visitmwv.com, or call 800-367-3364 (800-DO-SEE-NH) to talk to a Mt Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce rep.  To learn more about New Hampshire vacations, go to www.VisitNH.gov.

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