NH Boat Museum fund drive reaches halfway mark

WOLFEBORO — The New Hampshire Boat Museum has already reached the halfway point of its $5.5 million fund drive to build a new museum and trustees are looking at breaking ground next spring on a four-acre property on Back Bay that will serve as the site of its new museum.

Martha Cummings, the new executive director of the museum, says that the museum has outgrown its current site in the former Allen A resort dance and entertainment hall next to Rte. 28, which is “bursting at the seams” and is too small to display more than a fraction of its extensive collection of vintage boats.

She said the Back Bay location provides affordable, waterfront property that is commercially zoned and includes town water and sewer. The property is also within walking distance of downtown. The site will allow the museum to expand its on-water programming for adults and children and provide dock space for visitors coming via vintage boat or the Millie B classic wooden boat that provides summer boat rides from the town docks.

Cummings comes to the museum from Bridgton, Maine, where she was the director of the Rufus Porter Museum and executed a capital campaign that allowed the museum to relocate to a new, highly visible location.

Her background also includes a master of arts degree in historic preservation from Plymouth State University.

At the annual opening reception in early June, Cummings and Joe DeChiaro, chairman of the board of trustees, announced the good news about the fund drive.

“We are getting very close to meeting our goal and we are 100 percent confident that we will be breaking ground soon. It is a very exciting time to part of this museum,” DeChiaro said.

Architect Elizabeth Venus, of Christopher P. Williams Architects of Meredith, designed the new museum.

The interior will include a large exhibit gallery suitable for rotating and permanent exhibits, a children’s discovery center, lecture hall, small-object and archival storage, museum store, caterer’s kitchen and offices. The building’s exterior takes full advantage of the water view. Plans call for outdoor interpretive trails and — in a future phase — docks, a boathouse and family play area.

The museum has been quietly raising money for the past two years. Kristin Isley, campaign chair, said: “While the New Hampshire Boat Museum’s founding was based on the preservation, restoration and love of vintage wood boats, the reality is we have become much, much more. Our leadership donors understand what the museum offers today and have invested in our potential for tomorrow. The New Hampshire Boat Museum offers more than 30 programs, events and activities for all ages. We do most of this during a 10-week summer period. Imagine what we could do with 52 weeks.”

This year’s exhibit, “New Chapters: Rare Boats that Mark Transitions in Our Economy and Culture 1900-1940,” features boats that were innovative in their day and tells stories of American ingenuity in response to a changing culture and economy. These are rare and rarely seen boats from the collection of the museum, including a Gesswein, a Fay & Bowen, a Dee-Wite, and even a very rare Laconia Car Company boat.

The New Hampshire Boat Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. through October 8, and Sundays from noon - 4 p.m. The museum is a not-for-profit institution focusing on New Hampshire’s boating and freshwater heritage.

For more information, call 569-4554 or go online at NHBM.org.