RiverWoods Retirement Community

Our Story

 Retirement, Reinvented

RiverWoods started as a dream in the early 1980s, around the kitchen tables of Maryanna Hatch and Rosemary Coffin. They gathered a grassroots group of Seacoast residents who were interested in fostering a new way to live while growing older. Their goal was to develop an active community of interested adults who cared about each other and the world around them. Ten years after that first conversation, the small group realized their dream in 1994 as RiverWoods’ first campus opened with the credo: to be a leader in providing a superior option for a growing number of seniors seeking community and peace of mind.

The RiverWoods Group

Today, 25 years later, we have a long history of financial strength within the Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) industry. RiverWoods operates as a “Three-Legged Stool,” involving residents, board, and staff in all key decisions. Our founding Mission continues to guide us daily.

In 2012, we formed The RiverWoods Group for the purpose of continuing to further our founders’ mission by bringing this way of life to more people. Since that time we have grown a small family of communities that include RiverWoods Manchester, a Continuing Care Retirement Community which became an affiliate in 2016, and RiverWoods Durham, the newest in our family of communities opened in 2019.

Today, we are the largest independent charitable not-for-profit family of CCRCs in Northern New England.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

~Margaret Mead

The RiverWoods Way

Our passion as employees is to pursue purposeful work and to make a difference in our residents’ lives. Our jobs may be to cook, clean, mow lawns, fix appliances, paint, build, check medications, and serve a meal, but every employee’s primary responsibility is to care for our residents and ensure they live their best possible life — this is The RiverWoods Way.

The RiverWoods Core Values

  • Be Yourself
  • Respect
  • Not for Self
  • Sustainability
  • Curiosity
  • Community

Living our core values creates our culture.

Our employees embody our core values in every interaction, because they believe and understand that every person matters, every job is meaningful, and every moment counts.

Our Inclusivity Philosophy

“Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.”

~Vernã Myers

We define inclusivity as welcoming people. All people. We are thoughtful and intentional in developing our community to welcome the broadest spectrum of people, and we seek to consistently cast the widest possible net to expand the pool of potential residents, employees, and trustees. We are stronger for our differences. We are stronger, together.