Abenaki Tower Maintenance

Help Us Fund Maintenance Work on the Abenaki Tower!

 
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 encourages outdoor recreation and ensures the preservation of the forested land upon which it stands. 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.
 

Plans for Tower Maintenance in May: A Three-Part Project

In May of 2025, once the weather is warm enough, a women-owned painting firm in New Hampshire, Women in Motion, will be staining the Tower from top to bottom over two days. They’re going to use a lift and a high-powered sprayer to cover all the wood, extending the lifespan of the wood (and thus the Tower) and making it look great. While volunteers have stained the Tower on three occasions over the last year or two, they used paintbrushes, not a sprayer, and it didn’t cover 100% of the wood, so it looks a bit patchy right now. Women in Motion stained the Tower a decade ago, and it’ll be nice to have them back.
 
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.
 

Here’s How You Can Help

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. 
 

This campaign will run from April 11 to April 25, 2025, so please be sure to make your donation within this time period to secure the match. Click on the button below to make your donation to the Tower maintenance project.

 
About the Abenaki Tower and Trail Association: The Abenaki Tower and Trail Association is a 501c(3) non-profit established to fund the upkeep of the historic Abenaki Tower and its grounds. The Association (and the Tower) count on private donations to support its work. The Association was formed in 1924 by local people living along the Lake Winnipesaukee shore. More information about the history of the Tower and the Association can be found here.

View from the tower

Click Here to Donate to Abenaki Tower Maintenance

Click the button below to donation funds to Abenaki Tower Maintenance. You can provide funds via PayPal or a credit card.