The Abenaki Tower in Melvin Village, New Hampshire, is a special place. From the top of the Tower, visitors can see a panoramic view of Lake Winnipesaukee, Melvin Bay, and the Ossipee and Belknap Mountains. The Tower has encouraged outdoor recreation for many generations of local people and summer visitors. Visitor logs show that people come from around the world, as far away as Alaska, Italy, and South Africa (in just one month last summer!). The Tower sits at the top of a five-acre forested property, owned and protected by the nonprofit Abenaki Tower and Trail Association. The Tower is thought to have been built on the junction of several old native American trails and was named for the Abenaki tribe.

 

The first Tower was originally constructed in the 1920’s with the objective of enabling people to see the expansive views. In the following decades, many thousands of people enjoyed the view from the Tower. However, by the 1970’s, the Tower had become rickety, so it was rebuilt in 1977. The current Tower was dedicated on July 22, 1978.

 

The Tower has served the public well for nearly five decades but is in need of maintenance to extend its life. In the longer term, the Abenaki Tower and Trail Association, which is the nonprofit association that operates the Tower, will be raising funds for a new structure.

 

 

At the same time, a contractor is going to tackle a grab-bag of maintenance projects which will also extend the life of the Tower. The Abenaki Tower and Trail Association hired an engineering firm to complete an assessment of the Tower a year ago, and the engineers identified a handful of improvements to do:  installing a lightning rod; fixing a chipped concrete footing; tightening and replacing bolts; fixing the roof; and a couple other things.

 

Third, a local tree company is going to trim the trees around the Tower to open up the view of Lake Winnipesaukee. The tree work will be done at no cost as a service to the community.

 

The Healthier, Greener, Kinder Foundation provides support for outdoor recreation and environmental projects, and this project came to our attention during a visit to New Hampshire in 2024. This project fits our programmatic objectives, and we are therefore willing to help raise funds for the Tower’s maintenance. We believe that the project’s feasibility relies upon support of the local community, and we expect that our provision of matching funds will encourage the local support which will make the project successful.

 

The cost of the staining and contractor work will be $7,200. The Healthier, Greener, Kinder Foundation will match, dollar for dollar, the first $1,500 in donations. An anonymous donor will match the next $1,500. So that means we can match up to $3,000 in donations for the Tower maintenance project, dollar for dollar. Therefore, meeting the fundraiser’s goal means that the Abenaki Tower and Trail Association will receive $6,000 toward the implementation of the project.