The Keene post office opened in 1830, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1844. Another post office, North Liberty (1830), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
2020 census: 99196 years
Founding year: the first Keene post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1844.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 community grew up around a stone mill erected in 1794 and was originally laid out as North Liberty in 1813. In 1830, however, the first postmaster, Ephraim Carter, named his new post office after Keene, New Hampshire, the hometown he shared with local store owner Harvey Huggins. The city was formally incorporated by the state assembly in 1844.
Keene was home to the Keene Industrial Institute, an industrial school for African Americans for a couple of years at the beginning of the 20th century.
Passages that mention Keene, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Jessamine County, Kentucky, from its earliest settlement to 18981898 · page 188Read the page →
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rises up in the valley, and runs down into a large cave, which was a habitation for the Indians before the advent of the white man in this section of Kentuck}-. This spring reappears some distance from Keene, and this and the water that flowed from other small streams in the neighborhood, supplied the power for the operation of the mill at Keene.
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A history of Jessamine County, Kentucky, from its earliest settlement to 18981898 · page 187Read the page →
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This village is about six miles northwest from Xicholasville, on the A'ersailles turnpike. It was laid out in 1813 and called North Pil)ert\, l)ut its name was changed to "Keene." in 1848, throug"h tlie influence n\ Tlmmas Jones, a hatter, who came and settled in the xillage about the vear T845. His native town in New Jlam])shire was Keene, and through his influence X\)rth Liberty was ])lotted ont, and Keene was established. About the time of the change of the name, in boring for a well a fine stream
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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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 the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
