Kensington Town Center Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places

The N.H. Division of Historical Resources has announced that the United States Secretary of the Interior has listed the Kensington Town Center Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places for its long history serving as a town center as well as for the architectural significance of its properties.

Incorporated in 1761, the Town of Kensington was originally part of Hampton. Today, the half-mile-long Kensington Town Center Historic District remains an active town center and includes 27 well-preserved public and private properties that reflect the development of a rural southern New Hampshire town center over the course of nearly 250 years.

Most buildings in the district are wood-framed and were built in the late-18th through late-19th centuries. Their styles reflect the function and tastes of the time they were built, and include Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Classical Revival and Colonial Revival details.

The north end of the district - historically referred to has the Upper Village - has provided civic and religious functions from the time the town was incorporated. It features a trio of buildings architecturally typical of a New Hampshire village: the Union Meetinghouse/Universalist Church (1839-1840), Kensington Town House (1846) and First Congregational Church (1865-66).

The Lower Village has a greater mix of historically significant properties, ranging from residential to religious, commercial to cultural. Several were the sites of businesses, including a boot manufactory, housing for factory workers, and a general store and post office that is now a mix of open area, woods and a wetland that includes a small pond.

Each village has a public cemetery. The Upper Yard, also known as the "Old Cemetery," was established circa 1733 and was the primary burying ground until the Lower Yard was established in 1828. Almost two dozen Revolutionary War veterans are buried in the cemeteries, along with veterans of the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Civil War.

Six of the eight houses in the district were built between 1780 and 1860; they are two-and-a-half or one-and-a-half stories with architectural features reflecting the times when they were built. Most are located in the Lower Village.

A transitional ranch house (1962) and a Cape Cod house (1966), each located in the Upper Village, were built after a larger agricultural property was subdivided.

Several formerly agricultural properties retain some open land and outbuildings. Many houses still have their smaller, gable-front "village barns."

At the time Kensington Elementary School was built in 1951-52, it was the only public grade school in town. Designed with two classrooms for six grades, an assembly room, an activities room, modern restrooms and a kitchen that allowed for a hot lunch program, it has been expanded multiple times as the school population increased.

The nearby Kensington Fire and Rescue Station was built in 1952 and has also been expanded over time.

Kensington Social Library is the sole brick building in the district. Built in 1894-95 in the Queen Anne and Classical Revival styles, its details include terra cotta trim and several sandstone panels, one of which displays the name of Joseph Chase Hilliard, a Kensington native who made his fortune in insurance and who funded the building's construction. While Kensington has had various social or subscription libraries as far back as 1767, this is the first and only public library in town and continues to be used for this purpose.

The Lower Village also includes the one-and-a-half story Christian Meetinghouse, built in 1838 to replace an 1813 meetinghouse. It became the home of the Kensington Grange No. 173 Patrons of Husbandry in 1904.

Three buildings within the district were previously listed in the National Register of Historic Places: the Union Meeting House/Universalist Church (listed in 2013), Kensington Town House (2013) and Kensington Social Library (2020). A fourth, the First Congregational Church, was listed to the N.H. State Register of Historic Places in 2019.

In New Hampshire, listing to the National Register makes applicable property owners eligible for grants such as the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program or LCHIP (lchip.org) and the Conservation License Plate Program (nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov/grants-incentives/conservation-license-plate-grant-program).

For more information on the National Register program in New Hampshire, please visit nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov or contact the Division of Historical Resources at 603-271-3583.

New Hampshire's Division of Historical Resources, the State Historic Preservation Office, was established in 1974 and is part of the N.H. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. NHDHR's mission is to preserve and celebrate New Hampshire's irreplaceable historic resources through programs and services that provide education, stewardship, and protection. For more information, visit us online at nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov or by calling 603-271-3483.

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