New Boston, New Hampshire | ||
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Town | ||
Town Hall
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Nickname(s): Gravity Center of the World | ||
Location in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire |
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Coordinates: 42°58′33″N 71°41′30″W / 42.97583°N 71.69167°WCoordinates: 42°58′33″N 71°41′30″W / 42.97583°N 71.69167°W | ||
Country | United States | |
State | New Hampshire | |
County | Hillsborough | |
Incorporated | 1763 | |
Government | ||
• Board of Selectmen | Christine Quirk, Chair Joe Constance Rodney Towne |
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• Town Administrator | Peter Flynn | |
Area | ||
• Total | 43.2 sq mi (111.9 km2) | |
• Land | 42.8 sq mi (111.0 km2) | |
• Water | 0.4 sq mi (1.0 km2) 0.66% | |
Elevation | 420 ft (128 m) | |
Population (2010) | ||
• Total | 5,321 | |
• Density | 120/sq mi (48/km2) | |
Time zone | Eastern (UTC-5) | |
• Summer (DST) | Eastern (UTC-4) | |
ZIP code | 03070 | |
Area code(s) | 603 | |
FIPS code | 33-50740 | |
GNIS feature ID | 0873674 | |
Website | www |
New Boston is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,321 at the 2010 census. New Boston is home to the annual Hillsborough County Agricultural Fair and the Molly Stark Cannon.
The town was first granted in 1736 by colonial governor Jonathan Belcher of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. At the time, lands to the west of the Merrimack River, disputed between the two provinces, were treated by Belcher as part of Massachusetts, and he granted the town to several Boston families. It was to have been called Lanestown or Piscataquog Township, but by 1751 they called it New Boston after their hometown. Not all the grantees took up their claims, and the land was regranted 10 years later to settlers from Londonderry. When the town was incorporated in 1763, Governor Benning Wentworth formally recognized the long-used name of New Boston.
In 1820, the town had 25 sawmills, six grain mills, two clothing mills, two carding mills, two tanneries and a bark mill. It also had 14 schoolhouses and a tavern. The Great Village Fire of 1887, which started when a spark from a cooper's shop set a barn on fire, destroyed nearly 40 buildings in the lower village. In 1893, the railroad came to New Boston, and farm produce was sent by rail to city markets.The train line was abandoned in the mid-1970s, and the former rail bed is today a walking path.
The town is home to the 2,800-acre (1,100 ha) New Boston Air Force Station, which started as an Army Air Corps bombing range in 1942. By 1960, it had become a U.S. Air Force base for tracking military satellites. New Boston was also home to the Gravity Research Foundation from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. Founder Roger Babson placed it in New Boston because he believed it safe from nuclear fallout should New York or Boston be attacked.