Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1833.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Alexandria’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Alexandria is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Alexandria’s overall grade.
New Hampshire towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New Hampshire town has 9.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Alexandria’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (8% of New Hampshire towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1782.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.1 points).
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Alexandria’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Granted in 1753 by the Masonian Proprietors, the town was named for Alexandria, Virginia, location of a 1755 conference of governors early in the French and Indian War. Alexandria was granted to Joseph Butterfield and others, March 13, 1757. First settled in 1769 by John Moore Corliss and his brother Jonathan, it was incorporated by the New Hampshire General Court on November 23, 1782. Danbury was set off and incorporated in 1795.
Although farmers found parts of the terrain mountainous, other parts were level intervales suited for cultivation. By 1859, when the population was 1,273, agriculture was a chief occupation. The town also had a carriage maker, nine sawmills and three gristmills.
Passages that mention Alexandria, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of the town of Bristol, Grafton County, New Hampshire1904 · page 378Read the page →
Read the text
(2) Widow Morrill, of Bridgewater. She d. Apr. 30, 1866, and hem. (3) Dee. 14, 1868, Rubie Hayward. He was a carpenter and farmer in Alexandria, and, for many years before his death, on the west side of the lake in Bristol, where he d., Mar. 20, 1883, as the result of having one leg nearly severed from his body three days before. He walked on a revolving saw in a saw-mill while snow blind. His age was 66-1 1-15.
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.
In 1782, according to Wikidata. Alexandria’s post office opened in 1833, and the first U.S. census counted 298 people here in 1790.
How does Alexandria rank for history?
Alexandria is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Alexandria?
11% of Alexandria’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.1 points), against a typical 17% for a New Hampshire town; the median home was built in 1985.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via 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.
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