In 1767 the Buell family built the Georgian Colonial house at 5 Schoolhouse Road in Newport, New Hampshire.  It was licensed as a New Hampshire Tavern in 1793, and in the 1860’s the barn, which is now the Lodge, was constructed to house a herd of forty dairy cows.

The 420 acre dairy farm prospered for one hundred years under the ownership of two families. In the 1960‘s, when all but one of the farmer’s children had gone off to college, the property began to deteriorate. The last son married and moved next door, but the farm of 40 cows was too large for the two men to run. By 1963, the cows were sold off, the house remained the family residence, and the barn was unused except for storage of farm equipment. 

The Scales family bought the buildings and five acres of the property in 1993, with the intention of renovating the barn into a lodge for guests. Son Christopher Scales, AIA, sensitively designed the renovation so that the building continues to this day to look like an old dairy barn on the outside.

The Renovation Begins

 The barn as it was purchased  The original sunroom location      The cow stanchions          The original Posts 

After a two year renovation, the Lodge opened on September 15th, 1995. It is rented to one group of up to twenty guests who know each other beforehand.  The design encourages cooking and dining together, has large areas for workshops, and has smaller areas for quiet conversations.

Guests use the entire property for sledding or snowshoeing in winter, or playing volleyball in summer, and the back yard, with it’s wonderful view of Mount Sunapee, is the spot for many a summertime or fall wedding.

The original concept of housing a single group of guests at a time was unique to the Sunapee area when the Lodge was opened, and it has been working well for the Scales Family for 19 years so far.

Soo Nipi Lodge
P. O. Box 652
5 Schoolhouse Road
Newport, New Hampshire 03773
Phone 603-863-7509603-863-7509 , Toll Free 800-760-8477800-760-8477