History · Walpole

Walpole dates to 1736, and 33% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 95% of U.S. towns · #22 of 126 in New Hampshire. What drives it

4 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1915 on, and the census since 1790.

1736founded

4on the National Register

33%homes built before 1940

8old photos & papers

11famous people

Add an old photo Share a memory

From Walpole’s archive · credits on each photo

Quick answers

How Walpole began

When was Walpole founded?

1736

Walpole dates its founding to 1736 (Wikipedia’s history). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.

First census: 1,245 in 17902020 census: 3,633290 years

How historic is Walpole?

More historic than 95% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓

Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1794.The full story ↓

History grade

What drives Walpole’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Walpole is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns, #22 of 126 in New Hampshire. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.

HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Walpole’s overall grade.

Founding era1736, from Wikipedia: founded before 1776, an older era than 96% of U.S. townsA⁺Homes built before 194032.7% of homes (±9.2) · typical NH town 17.5% · U.S. 8.4%A National Register4 listings, 6 historic buildings, 16.3 per 10,000 residents · typical NH town 9.5 · U.S. 2.4B⁺

All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 95%

NewerOlder

New Hampshire towns of 2,500+ (126)Ahead of 83%

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 Walpole’s 16.3 sits near the middle of its state (59% of New Hampshire towns have fewer) while its 6 historic buildings outnumber those of 72% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.2 points). Two sources give 1736.

Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Walpole’s past

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

Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Walpole, and 5 old place names are still on the map.Older than the countryEstablished in 1736, 40 years before the Declaration of Independence.Landmarks on the Register4 places on the National Register.Famous sons and daughtersGlover Morrill Allen, Andrew J. Russell and 9 more were born here.

★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Walpole’s post office has been open since 1794. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Walpole

1794–today

Drewsville

1821–1986

North Walpole

1877–1884

17901910today

Hamlets and corners on the map

Christian HollowCold RiverDodge TavernDrewsvilleNorth Walpole

Gone or out of use

Alexander Watkins TavernbuildingWalpole Academyschool

3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Walpole

CrehoreSaint PetersWalpole Village

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

Timeline

Walpole, 1736 to 1986

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

18th century
1736
FoundingWalpole is established
1794Post officeThe Walpole post office opens
19th century
1803Born hereHenry Adams Bellows is born here
1821Post officeThe Drewsville post office opens
1829Born hereAndrew J. Russell is born here
1838Born hereAlfred Cornelius Howland is born here
1877Post officeThe North Walpole post office opens
1879Born hereGlover Morrill Allen is born here
1884Post officeThe North Walpole post office closes
20th century
1905In the archiveOld Unitarian Church
1915In the archiveStreet Scene
1927On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1986Post officeThe Drewsville post office closes

On the National Register

4 historic places in Walpole

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

places listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1975

Walpole Academy

Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Greek Revival3

Stick/Eastlake1

Federal1

Walpole AcademyGreek Revival

Drewsville MansionStick/Eastlake

Peck-Porter HouseGreek Revival

Stephen Rowe Bradley HouseFederal

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

The story

How Walpole came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Walpole.

Read it all →

The town was first granted in 1736 by colonial Governor Jonathan Belcher of Massachusetts as "Number 3", third in a line of Connecticut River fort towns. It was settled as early as 1736, and called "Great Falls" or "Lunenburg". Colonel Benjamin Bellows, for whom Bellows Falls, Vermont, is named, built a large fort here for defense against Native attack. After the border between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was fixed (with Number 3 on the New Hampshire side of the line), the town was regranted by Governor Benning Wentworth as "Bellowstown", after its founder. It was incorporated in 1756. The grant was renewed in 1761, when the town was renamed Walpole, in honor of Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford and first Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Walpole in 1888

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

Impr. I give to the town of Walpole one hundred acres of land in Walpole for the use of a Grammar School to be kept at the School house near where the meeting house now stands, provided the town will clear and put under improvement sixty acres of the land in six years, which improvement is to be le… — **Narratives, traditions and personal reminiscences connected with the early history of the Bellows family and of the village of Walpole, New Hampshire**1888 · page 373Read the page →
Read the text
Impr. I give to the town of Walpole one hundred acres of land in Walpole for the use of a Grammar School to be kept at the School house near where the meeting house now stands, provided the town will clear and put under improvement sixty acres of the land in six years, which improvement is to be let for the use of said school and no other use made thereof; said land to be laid out by a committee, where it is not heretofore disposed of.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Stearns, the sister of the first settled minister of Lunenburg. In 1754, he moved with his family to the valley of the Connecticut, and founded the town of Walpole, N.H. He seems to have been led to locate at Walpole under the following influences : his father had, in 1736, been one of a committee … — **Narratives, traditions and personal reminiscences connected with the early history of the Bellows family and of the village of Walpole, New Hampshire**1888Read the page →
Read the text
Stearns, the sister of the first settled minister of Lunenburg. In 1754, he moved with his family to the valley of the Connecticut, and founded the town of Walpole, N.H. He seems to have been led to locate at Walpole under the following influences : his father had, in 1736, been one of a committee appointed by the governor of Massachusetts to lay out towns on Connecti-
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.

By decade

Walpole, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s–1910s5 items

c. 1905Old Unitarian ChurchPostcard

c. 1905Westminster StreetPostcard

1906Public LibraryPostcard

1906Town HousePostcard

c. 1915Street ScenePostcard

1920s–1990snothing yet

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.

Add from your album

Date unknown3 to date

Date?View of Bridge, Walpole, N.H

Date?WalpoleNHlogo

Date?Walpole Academy, Main Street

On the map

Walpole on the map, 1927 to 1998

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

1927Bellows Falls 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 Walpole.

Every building

Walpole, building by building, 1915

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Walpole fire insurance map, 1915, sheet 1

1915Sheet 1 of 4

Sheets

+3 more at the Library of Congress

BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewOld Unitarian Church, c. 1905

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Walpole’s page.

Retake this view · +15

People over time

Walpole, census by census

Between 1,245 and 3,734 people in every census since 1790.

24 censuses, 1790–2020.

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

Famous people

11 famous people were born in Walpole

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →

Glover Morrill AllenU.S. zoologist · b. 1879

Andrew J. RussellAmerican photographer · b. 1829

Alfred Cornelius HowlandAmerican painter · b. 1838

Henry Adams BellowsAmerican lawyer, legislator, and jurist · b. 1803

Eliza Ann OtisAmerican poet, journalist, editor, publisher, p… · b. 1833

Davis CarpenterAmerican politician · b. 1799

Help out

Finish Walpole’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Date a photo3 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2 Retake an old viewOld Unitarian Church: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Westmoreland2 historic placesA Langdon3 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town Alstead3 historic placesB⁺

Questions about Walpole’s history

What year was Walpole founded?

In 1736, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Walpole’s post office opened in 1794, and the first U.S. census counted 1,245 people here in 1790.

How does Walpole rank for history?

Walpole is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns, #22 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 Walpole?

4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Walpole Academy (listed 1975, the first). 6 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Walpole?

33% of Walpole’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.2 points), against a typical 17% for a New Hampshire town; the median home was built in 1967.

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 (31), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.

Post to Walpole

Check your email