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A−History
History · Danville

Danville dates to 1760, and 4 of its places are on the National Register

More historic than 77% of U.S. towns · #70 of 126 in New Hampshire. What drives it

Most of Danville was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Below: maps from 1935 on and the census since 1790.

1760founded
4on the National Register
7%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Danville began

When was Danville founded?

1760

Danville dates its founding to 1760 (Wikidata). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.

First census: 420 in 17902020 census: 4,408266 years

How historic is Danville?

A−

More historic than 77% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1825.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Danville’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Danville is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns, #70 of 126 in New Hampshire. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Danville’s overall grade.
Founding era1760, from Wikidata: founded before 1776, an older era than 96% of U.S. townsA+Homes built before 19406.9% of homes (±3.8) · typical NH town 17.5% · U.S. 8.4%C+National Register4 listings, 7 historic buildings, 15.4 per 10,000 residents · typical NH town 9.5 · U.S. 2.4B+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 77%
NewerOlder
New Hampshire towns of 2,500+ (126)Ahead of 45%

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 Danville’s 15.4 sits near the middle of its state (58% of New Hampshire towns have fewer) while its 7 historic buildings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.

NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1760.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.8 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 Danville’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Danville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1890 and 1930, then grew more than tenfold.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Danville, and 2 old place names are still on the map.Older than the countryEstablished in 1760, 16 years before the Declaration of Independence.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Danville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Danville’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Danville, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,50018001850190019502000666 in 1890Low: 406

Lost a third of its people between 1890 and 1930, then grew more than tenfold.

20 censuses, 1790–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Danville’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Danville had its own post office from 1836 to 1987. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hawke
1825–1836
Danville
1836–1987
South Danville
1841–1980
North Danville
1882–1923
18201920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
North DanvilleSouth Danville
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Danville
CenterDanvilleYe Old

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Danville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Danville.

Read it all →

In 1694 the parish of Kingstown (now Kingston) was incorporated, and it included the area known as "Hawke" as the westerly part of the parish. There were some families that lived in this region as early as the mid-1600s, but the first recorded settlements were about 1735. The meeting house in Kingstown was quite a distance for the residents of the westerly part of the parish to travel. Travel through this part of town was on roads which were little more than footpaths or bridleways that led from farm to farm. The residents of this westerly part of town built their own meeting house (the Old Meeting House) in 1755 and petitioned the Governor on January 2, 1760, to be set apart and to form their own parish. The petition was granted on February 22, 1760, and Hawke was incorporated. They sold pews in the Old Meeting House on June 23, 1760.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Danville in 1915

Passages that mention Danville, cut from the printed page as they were published.

southern neighbors. In 1739 Ea-st Kingston became a separate parish, and in T756 Sandown was incorporated. On Februarv 22. ij(K). another section of the northwest part of Kingston was cut off and incorporated with the name Hawke (now Danville).
History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire1915 · page 488Read the page →
Read the text

southern neighbors. In 1739 Ea-st Kingston became a separate parish, and in T756 Sandown was incorporated. On Februarv 22. ij(K). another section of the northwest part of Kingston was cut off and incorporated with the name Hawke (now Danville).

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

Danville, 1760 to 2020

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 18th century
  2. 1760
    FoundingDanville is established
  3. 19th century
  4. 1825Post officeThe Hawke post office opens
  5. 1836Post officeThe Hawke post office closes
  6. 1836Post officeThe Danville post office opens
  7. 1841Post officeThe South Danville post office opens
  8. 20th century
  9. 1935On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  10. 1980Post officeThe South Danville post office closes
  11. 1987Post officeThe Danville post office closes
  12. 21st century
  13. 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 4,408
By decade

Danville, decade by decade

Today6 recent
DanvilleNH TownHallAndFireStation2013DanvilleNH TownHallAndFireStationDanvilleNH JohnElkinsFarmstead2013DanvilleNH JohnElkinsFarmsteadDanvilleNH ElmFarm2013DanvilleNH ElmFarmDanville Town Hall 12012Danville Town Hall 1Danville Meeting House2012Danville Meeting HouseInterior Danville meeting house2008Interior Danville meeting house
On the map

Danville on the map, 1935 to 1956

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Danville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Danville on the 1935 USGS mapDanville on the 1956 USGS map1935Hampstead sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Danville.

On the National Register

4 historic places in Danville

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
4
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
7
each building in a district counts
first listed
1982
Danville Meetinghouse
Danville MeetinghouseElm FarmJohn Elkins FarmsteadDanville Town House
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Greek Revival1
Gothic Revival1
Federal1
Late Victorian1
Gothic1
Danville MeetinghouseBuilding
Elm FarmGreek Revival
John Elkins FarmsteadFederal
Danville Town HouseLate Victorian

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Kingston5 historic placesA−Sandown2 historic placesB+Hampstead1 historic placeBFremont1 historic placeB−

Questions about Danville’s history

What year was Danville founded?

In 1760, according to Wikidata. Danville’s post office opened in 1825, and the first U.S. census counted 420 people here in 1790.

How does Danville rank for history?

Danville is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns, #70 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.

What is on the National Register in Danville?

4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Danville Meetinghouse (listed 1982, the first). 7 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Danville?

7% of Danville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.8 points), against a typical 17% for a New Hampshire town; the median home was built in 1993.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, 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.