The Little Boar's Head Historic District encompasses an area of summer resort and beachfront properties in

North Hampton, New Hampshire North Hampton is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,538 at the 2020 census. While the majority of the town is inland, North Hampton includes a part of New Hampshire's limited Atlantic seacoast. History ...

. Located on New Hampshire's seacoast roughly between

North Hampton State Beach North Hampton State Beach is a one-acre state park located on the Atlantic Ocean in the town of North Hampton, New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by ...

and Bass Beach, the district is almost entirely residential, consisting mainly of houses built as summer vacation spots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with associated beachfront amenities. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1999.

Description and history

Little Boar's Head is a glacial

drumlin A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...

(low steep hill) on New Hampshire's coast overlooking the

Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast ...

. The historic district extends along Ocean Boulevard (

New Hampshire Route 1A New Hampshire Route 1A is an long state highway located in southeast New Hampshire. The route runs along the Atlantic coastline from the Massachusetts border north to Rye, then turns toward downtown Portsmouth. The southern terminus is at the Mas ...

), which runs along the beach, and includes properties on Sea Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Willow Avenue, and Chapel Road. Its southern end is a cluster of bathhouses just south of

, northward to the southern end of Bass Beach. There are a few older houses, and the district includes the bathhouses along the beach as well as a series of fish houses located just north of the state beach. Until the mid-19th century, the Little Boar's Head area was a sleepy fishing and agricultural community. In 1845 New Hampshire Senator James Bell purchased coastal land from a local farmer, and in 1862 built Bell's Cottage for his daughter as a summer house; now much enlarged, it stands at 4 Atlantic Avenue, and is the first of the summer properties to be built. Former President

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

bought land in the 1860s, which was minimally developed before his death. In 1868 Bachelder's Hotel opened, and became a mainstay of the summer scene until its destruction by fire in 1929. Summer house development continued into the early 20th century, and the area's high-profile visitors included Presidents

Chester A. Arthur Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James ...

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

, and

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

. Massachusetts Governor

Alvan T. Fuller Alvan Tufts Fuller (February 27, 1878 – April 30, 1958) was an American businessman, politician, art collector, and philanthropist from Massachusetts. He opened one of the first automobile dealerships in Massachusetts, which in 1920 was recogniz ...

had a significant estate here, its house now demolished, in which he created

Fuller Gardens Fuller Gardens is a seaside public botanical garden located at 10 Willow Avenue in the town of North Hampton, New Hampshire, United States, in a historic area known as "Little Boars Head". Developed in the early 20th century, the gardens are set ...

, now a public garden managed by a nonprofit. Historic_Fish_House_-_Little_Boar's_Head_Historic_District

References

{{NRHP in Rockingham County, New Hampshire Shingle Style architecture in New Hampshire Colonial Revival architecture in New Hampshire Historic districts in Rockingham County, New Hampshire Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Rockingham County, New Hampshire North Hampton, New Hampshire

Description and history

See also

References