The Coolidge Center for the Arts Gallery is open June 1 through October 15, 2013. Admission to the Coolidge Gallery is free. The Gallery is open Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10:00am-4:00pm, Sundays 1:00-5:00pm, or by appointment with the Gallery Director, Ali Goodwin.
General Information:
This architecturally eccentric landmark overlooks Little Harbor. It was home to New Hampshire's first royal governor, Benning Wentworth, from 1752 to 1770. The Coolidge family bought the property in 1886 and in 1954 donated it to the state of New Hampshire. Highlights of the 22-room tour include original flocked wallpaper, a French sauce kitchen, and some of the oldest lilacs in North America in a romantic setting. The Visitor's Center hosts changing art exhibitions through the summer months.
Directions:
FROM MARKET SQUARE:
FROM INTERSTATE 95:
FROM NH ROUTE 4 OR SPAULDING PIKE:
Follow either of these to their merger in Dover, and continue south into Portsmouth circle. From circle follow directions as described from Interstate 95.
This architecturally eccentric landmark overlooks Little Harbor. It was home to New Hampshire's first royal governor, Benning Wentworth, from 1752 to 1770. The Coolidge family bought the property in 1886 and in 1954 donated it to the state of New Hampshire. Highlights of the 22-room tour include original flocked wallpaper, a French sauce kitchen, and some of the oldest lilacs in North America in a romantic setting. The Visitor's Center hosts changing art exhibitions through the summer months.
Directions:
FROM MARKET SQUARE:
- Drive out of the square on Congress Street and at the second traffic light and turn left on Middle Street.
- Follow Middle Street to its second traffic light and turn left on Miller Avenue (Route 1-A south).
- Go through a residential neighborhood (through a blinker then through a traffic light), and at far end of a large cemetery turn left into Little Harbor Road.
- The entrance to the mansion grounds is one mile down the forested road on the left.
FROM INTERSTATE 95:
- Exit 5 for Portsmouth Circle. Leave the circle on Route 1-Bypass South.
- At the third light turn left. Up a short street to a stop sign where you turn left again onto Lafayette Road.
- Follow Lafayette a short distance to a traffic light.
- Turn right onto South Street.
- Follow South to a traffic light, where you turn right onto Route 1-A south. This turn will put a cemetery on your left. At the end of the cemetery turn left into Little Harbor Road.
- The entrance to the mansion grounds is one mile down the forested road on the left.
FROM NH ROUTE 4 OR SPAULDING PIKE:
Follow either of these to their merger in Dover, and continue south into Portsmouth circle. From circle follow directions as described from Interstate 95.