About Us

Center Harbor is located in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The Town was incorporated in 1797 and was originally part of Meredith and also New Hampton. Centered between Meredith and Moultonborough the Town gets its name from both its location and also from the Senter family, who were holders of the original land grant and the original settlers. Originally a small farming community, in the 1800’s the town became a central port for lake steamers and a stopping place for stagecoaches.  Situated with shoreline on Lake Winnipesaukee, Squam Lake and Lake Waukewan, Center Harbor was a favorite spot of John Greenleaf Whittier and the home of Dudley Leavitt, author of the first Farmer’s Almanac in 1797. Center Harbor also hosted the first intercollegiate sporting event in the United States, as Harvard defeated Yale by two lengths in the first Harvard-Yale rowing regatta on August 3, 1852 in Center harbor Bay on Lake Winnipesaukee.

More recently it was the home town of NASCAR driver Brad Leighton, and Center Harbor is now the winter home of the paddle steamer MS Mount Washington, the largest boat on Lake Winnipesaukee.

Today Center Harbor continues as a residential village with small working farms and a robust seasonal population during the summer. Many families have been summering in Center Harbor for 3 or more generations.