Founded in 1983, The Children's Museum of New Hampshire offers hands-on exhibits in the arts and sciences for children of all ages as one of America’s greatest children’s museums. Serving over 97,000 visitors a year with daily art and science activities, family programs and workshops, this is New Hampshire’s Children’s Museum – and it is currently moving from Portsmouth to the Butterfield Building at 6 Washington Street Dover New Hampshire.

The museum has 27 funded members, including A Safe Place, AIDS Response Seacoast, Cross Roads House, DARE, Families First, Richie McFarland Children’s Center, and the Seacoast Mental Health Center. The Board of Directors, including Daniel Mulkern, Chairman, Denise Doleac, Executive Director, have welcomed a VIP list to the new museum location on July 31st, 2007 including Scott Myers, Mayor of Dover, Dr. Susan Lynch, First Lady of New Hampshire, George Bald, Commissioner of the New Hampshire Division of Resources and Economic Development, Mary Heath, Deputy Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education, and Peter Hamblett, Chairman of the Children’s Museum Capital Campaign. The museum is in Phase II of raising $3.3 Million dollars required for renovations, currently having over $2 Million dollars of the funding secured.

In 1623, Captain John Mason sent a Scotsman, David Thomson, and two fish-mongers from The Company of Laconia in London, William and Edward Hilton, under the authority of an English land grant to settle what is now known as New Hampshire. They landed near the confluence of the Cochecho, Bellamy, and Piscataqua rivers to establish their fishing industry. This was the first settlement in New Hampshire originally called Hilton’s Point; now the City of Dover.

Tuttle’s Red Barn in Dover New Hampshire is the site of the oldest continually operating family farm in the United States. The farm has been passed down from father to son through 12 generations of the Tuttle Family.

John Tuttle of the first generation was born in Bristol, England in 1616, and later arrived in America in 1632 after a 2-month journey by ship. After the ship dropped anchor at Pemaquid of Maine, it was destroyed in a hurricane. Several crew members died while trying to save the vessel and the worldly goods aboard.

The three-story brick residence that people have called the Woodman Institute Museum for nearly a century was built in 1818. It had been the home of Annie and Charles Woodman, and at one time was shared with a famous Lawyer, Daniel Christie. Annie E. Woodman left $100,000 and the house to create a Dover Institution in her will when she passed away on January 7th, 1915. Her will allowed three trustees to manage the trust.

The trustees opened the original three-building complex on July 26th, 1916 that included the Woodman Home, the Hale Home, and the 1675 Damm Garrison home, all located on Central Ave in Dover, New Hampshire. The Keefe House, located behind the Woodman Home, was recently acquired. The Woodman Institute Museum studies and lectures on local area history, natural history, and art.