
Benjamin Dean House on Hamblet Avenue C 1942
Continuing to revisit Hudson Center we stop at the Benjamin Dean House. This 270 plus year old house is among the oldest, if not the oldest house in Hudson. But I can state for certain that it is the ‘best traveled’ house in town. For the first 91 years this house was located on Bush Hill Road as part of the Haselton Farm. In 1838 the home was moved to Hamblet Avenue and remodeled by the owner, Rev. Benjamin Dean. Here it remained for another 126 years until moving a second time about 1964 to it’s location on Windham Road.
This house was built by Abraham Page about 1747 on Bush Hill Road on part of the old Haselton Farm. Between 1747 and about 1838 this house was likely occupied by Abraham Page, Jr and early members of the Haselton family whom he helped to raise. In 1838 the owner, Rev. Benjamin Dean, moved and remodeled the house to a location on Hamblet Avenue just north of the Eli Hamblet house and facing the east side of the Hudson Center Common. The second floor contained a large room with an arched ceiling, referred to as “Dean’s Hall”. This room was used as a school and a place for public gatherings. Rev. Dean occupied the home until about 1850. The home had various owners until being purchased by the family of Claudia and Richard Boucher. In the early 1960’s when the State of New Hampshire planned out the new route 111 through Hudson Center, this house was simply ‘in the way’. The Boucher family sold the property to the state and later re-purchased the house and had it moved to its present (and third) location on Windham Road. This 1942 photo from the Historical Society Collection shows the house at its second location on Hamblet Avenue.