For a lot of people, the words New England town conjure up an image of a village green anchored by a town hall and an impeccable white church with a soaring spire. Add a collection of shops, a post office, people chatting and strolling and the only thing left to do is call in the postcard company to snap a few pictures during peak foliage season so visitors can let their friends and families back home in the Midwest see what New England really looks like.

Except, that's not always the true picture. New Hampshire is the heart of New England, and most towns date back to the mid 18th century. The state should be lousy with traditional village-center charm, but that's not how communities evolved. Towns' lands were split up, borders redrawn and village greens, if they existed, may have been lost in that process.

Glen Greenwood, of the Rockingham Planning Commission, said timing was a big factor. “In the early 1800s, it was advantageous for everyone to be around a central location for protection,” said Greenwood. “But in some rural communities, that never happened. Newfields and Kensington never had that central area.”

And town greens and commons that did exist weren't static places frozen in time. They evolved and served needs.

In a report on Pelham's Town Common, written for the state Dept. of Transportation, preservation consultant Elizabeth Durfee Hengen and historian Sarah Dangelas Hofe wrote that it was a typical practice for New England towns to earmark public land for collecting resources such as wood, peat and stone. A handful of Granite State towns earmarked land for common use, but Durfee Hengen and Dangelas Hofe wrote it was more common to create a central green, usually next to a meeting house and cemetery.

Some of those central spaces were grassy fields, some were large patches of dirt, and most were used for a variety of purposes such as local fairs, militia training and town gatherings. Pelham's historical records mention wrestling matches and horse races on the town common.

With different roads running to and from and sometimes right through town greens, their typical use more likely was as parking lots for settlers who came from outlying areas to attend church services and town meetings. Gradually, shops, inns and taverns sprang up.