Keene’s post office opened in 1879, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
Most of Keene was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them the Nuestra Senora Reina de la Paz, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 23 buildings. Below: old-book passages.
The Keene post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Rowen (1906), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 469147 years
Founding year: the first Keene post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Keene’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The Keene post office opened in 1879, closed in 1881, and re-opened in 1885. Keene was founded in 1876 with the name Wells as a railroad town. The name Wells honored Madison P. Wells, a local rancher. The town was renamed Keene in honor of James P. Keene, a financier.
The UFW moved its national headquarters to Keene from Delano, California. César Chávez spent his last years in Keene. The walls of his United Farm Workers office in Keene were lined with hundreds of books ranging in subject from philosophy, economics, cooperatives, and unions, to biographies of Gandhi, the Kennedys, and Che Guevara. He is buried at 29700 Woodford Tehachapi Rd, Keene, CA 93531, on the campus of the UFW headquarters.
Passages that mention Keene, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Annals of the town of Keene, from its first settlement, in 1734, to the year 17901851 · page 90Read the page →
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building the bridge over the Branch between Judge Newcomb's and Sandy Hill ; and instructing them, if they could not agree, to build the bridge in behalf of the town. This vote shows that the Turnpike from Keene to Fitzwilliam was then in process of construction. At the session of the State Legislature holden near the close of this year, a charter was granted for a Bank at Keene to be
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Annals of the town of Keene, from its first settlement, in 1734, to the year 17901851 · page 93Read the page →
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At the term of the Superior Court, held in Keene in October, came on the trial of a prosecution instituted by the inhabitants of Walpole against certain citizens of Keene " for taking and carrying away, in the night time, a piece of ordnance of the value of two hundred dollars, the property of said town of Walpole."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Keene, 1879 to 2012
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
★ Landmark
2011