The New Hampshire Boat Museum (NHBM) is excited to announce its expansion to a new location at 130 Whittier Highway in Moultonborough, NH.
According to NHBM Executive Director Martha Cummings, the new location features an existing facility that offers significant benefits, including significantly more space for exhibitions and educational programming, greater visibility, and climate-controlled storage space for its collection. “This is not a departure from Wolfeboro, but an expansion,” she said. “We’re thrilled to be able to bring new programs and activities to a broader Lakes Region audience. Most exciting is that we will be able to open our new facility years ahead of the original capital campaign plan.”
The original plans for the capital campaign had been to design and construct a new facility at a previously purchased property on Bay Street in Wolfeboro. Part of a successful capital campaign led by NHBM’s Board of Trustees, the proposed new facility, however, presented challenges. These challenges included rising costs, supply issues, increasing labor costs, and an urgent need for a larger space to care for NHBM’s permanent collection, which includes a fleet of historic, wooden boats.
“The Board took a fresh look at ways to meet NHBM’s mission and ensure continued financial stability and concluded that purchasing and relocating to an existing facility offered immediate solutions and new opportunities,” explained Cummings. “We’re looking forward to joining the Moultonborough community in addition to Wolfeboro.”
The expansion will not, however, change NHBM’s commitment to retain a strong presence in Wolfeboro in the long term, as it will continue to offer many Wolfeboro-based activities and programs from its current Center Street location. These activities include Youth and Family Boatbuilding, Community Sailing, Back Bay Skippers model yachting, Millie B rides on the lake, the annual New England Vintage Boat & Car Auction, and biennial Vintage Race Boat Regatta.
“NHBM is grounded in Wolfeboro and the surrounding communities with a strong local volunteer base and membership that we will continue to serve and support,” said Cummings. “We are grateful for the overwhelming support we have received from our capital campaign donors, members, and the community.”
Regarding the 2022 season, Cummings said visitors can expect “an action-packed year” at the museum’s existing facility at 399 Center Street in Wolfeboro and other off-site locations around Lake Winnipesaukee. “We look forward to welcoming both new and returning visitors while also sharing our expanded vision of two campuses for the future,” she added.
About NHBM
Founded in 1992 by antique and classic boating enthusiasts, NHBM is committed to inspire people of all ages with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the boating heritage of New Hampshire’s fresh waterways. NHBM exhibits, events and programming covers everything from boat charters, boat trips and race boats to canoes, wooden boats, outboard motors, sculling, sailing sunfish, and Lyman and Johnson motors. Some of our hands-on programs take place on Lake Winnipesaukee. NHBM is sponsored in part by Goodhue Boat Company, Eastern Propane and Oil, Stark Creative, KW Lakes and Mountains, and FL Putnam.