Where Dover comes to learn, live and play. Corner of Locust and St Thomas Streets in the heart of Dover.
What is the McConnell Center Community Campus?
Our Center
The McConnell Center Community Campus project is a multi-million dollar rehabilitation of a former school facility into a multi-generational community center.
Along with the 1895 Carnegie Library, Dover City Hall, the Dover District Court and the St Thomas church, the McConnell Center Community Campus helps to define the cultural and governmental heart of Dover.
Great care has been taken to retain much of the character and history of the original 1904 building and its subsequent additions.
The Center has been updated to provide modern, accessible, climate controlled, energy efficient office and program space in a collaborative environment that seeks to enhance the lives of all the residents of the City.
Our Mission
The McConnell Center Community Campus connects health, education, recreation and cultural opportunities to improve the well being of people in our community.
Our Vision
The multi-faceted McConnell Center Community Campus will encourage a diversity of people to grow, connect, recreate and build lives of purpose and meaning by:
Creating a collaborative environment for community-based nonprofit organizations, government, schools and volunteers to support each other’s activities.
Balancing opportunities and services to meet the interests and needs of area residents.
Fostering creative partnerships between the McConnell Center Community Campus, businesses, and health-related community services
Our Audience
McConnell Center Community Campus is uniquely positioned to benefit all citizens in the City from children to older adults. The Center is envisioned as a gathering place where multiple resources can be accessed for a variety of reasons.
The location in the City’s urban core allows for easy access to transportation, the library, local restaurants, and a variety of city services.
Here are examples of what this means for our citizens:
An elderly person can read to children in the child-care programs, take a computer course from the adult learning center, do yoga with the recreation department and have a relaxed card game with peers.
A 35 year old can join a parenting group, leave preschoolers off for childcare while exercising or volunteering as an adult basic education tutor, or volunteer time to for any of the other services provided.
A teenager can build computer skills in the “Tech for Teens” program in the computer lab, participate in Dover Police Youth-to-Youth programs, play recreational basketball and serve as a volunteer tutor for adults in the computer lab.
A toddler will enjoy quality childcare, meet other children from all sectors of the community, participate in expanded story hours and play with an adopted grandparent from the senior center.
Floors: 4
Total Square footage: 130,000
Occupiable Square footage: 59,000
Average room size: 800 sf
Year Constructed: 1904
First Addition: 1928
Second Addition: 1980
Approximate cost of construction: $6,500,000
Estimate occupancy: Fall 2006
McConnell Center Oversight Committee:
Otis E. Perry, Chairman
Don Andolina
Jack Buckley
Robert Carrier
Doug DeDe
Gary Gilmore
Paul Mauceri
The Providers:
Ageless Dreamer Foundation
Compass Care
Dover Adult Learning Center of Strafford County
Dover Children’s Center
Dover Human Services
Dover Police Outreach
Dover Recreation Department
Dover Senior Programming
Easter Seals
The HUB
Seacoast Hospice
UNH Social Work
Wentworth Douglas Hospital – Pete’s Place
Sponsored By the City of Dover, City Council, McConnell Center Oversight Committee
Department of Planning and Community Development
Attn Christopher Parker
288 Central Avenue
Dover, NH 03820
Phone: 603-516-6008
Fax: 603-516-6007
E-mail:
Web: http://www.ci.dover.nh.us/McConnell/
Brochures 
Where Dover comes to learn, live and play. Corner of Locust and St Thomas Streets in the heart of Dover.
