Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1815.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Brentwood’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brentwood is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns, #97 of 126 in New Hampshire. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Brentwood’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 Brentwood’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 1742.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.0 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 Brentwood’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
An Abenaki tribe called the Pennacook farmed, fished and hunted in what is now Brentwood. Two main foot trails ran through the town, one along the Exeter River, where arrowheads and other stone and wooden artifacts have been found. At Pickpocket Dam, this pathway joined with the Pentucket Trail leading south to Pentucket (now Haverhill, Massachusetts) and north further into Pennacook territory.
The first non-native settlers came in 1652 to start a sawmill powered by a waterfall on the Exeter River.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1742, according to Wikidata. Brentwood’s post office opened in 1815, and the first U.S. census counted 976 people here in 1790.
How does Brentwood rank for history?
Brentwood is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns, #97 of 126 in New Hampshire. 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 Brentwood?
14% of Brentwood’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 17% for a New Hampshire town; the median home was built in 1995.
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 (6), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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