A 243-year-old farmhouse in Belmont that flourished during the 1820s wool boom, when there were more sheep than people in town, has been listed to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Dudley Gilman Homestead, one of the oldest documented homes in Belmont, was built around 1785. The two-and-a-half story clapboarded home with its 1800s barn is a well-preserved example of a small-scale homestead farm from New Hampshire’s first century. It is now part of Hill Haven Farm, and has long been on the state Register of Historic Places.

Listing on the federal National Register does not impose any new restrictions on use, but is designed to identify historically significant properties and can serve as educational tools and increase heritage tourism opportunities. 

The house was built by Corp. Dudley Gilman, a Revolutionary War veteran whose regiment served at the Battle of Bennington with Gen. John Stark.  The main farmhouse is two rooms deep with a center chimney, a floor plan commonly found in New Hampshire from 1725-1825. The first floor has a central stair hall with heated parlors on either side in the front. The rear is a long kitchen with a large cooking hearth and built-in beehive oven, along with a “borning room” for the sick or pregnant. 

The gable-front bank barn is a rare early survivor for the area. Wood-framed and with few embellishments, it has some recycled older timbers that indicate it may be a second-generation agricultural building on site. 

The property was owned by three generations of the Gilman family until it was purchased by Henry and Dora LeBlanc in 1918; that family has owned it since. The LeBlancs’ only child, Irene, was born and died in the farmhouse’s borning room.  

Chartered on May 20, 1727, Gilmanton was granted to a group of men from Exeter, N.H., including 24 members of the Gilman family, after whom the town was named. What today is Belmont separated from Gilmanton in 1859 and was incorporated as “Upper Gilmanton.” Ten years later, when citizens complained that the name was too long “for those who had to write it often,” the Legislature approved their petition to rename it Belmont.

Administered by the National Park Service, the National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of historic resources worthy of preservation 

In New Hampshire, listing to the National Register makes applicable property owners eligible for grants such as the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (lchip.org) and the Conservation License Plate Program (nh.gov/nhdhr/grants/moose). For more information on the National Register program in New Hampshire, visit nh.gov/nhdhr or contact the Division of Historical Resources at 603-271-3583.

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