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Newington is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 811 at the 2020 census. It is bounded to the west by Great Bay, northwest by Little Bay and northeast by the Piscataqua River. It is home to Portsmouth International Airport at Pease (formerly Pease Air Force Base) and to the New Hampshire Air National Guard. The Old Town Center Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [edit] History
Originally a part of Dover, boundary disputes among early river settlers caused this area to be called "Bloody Point". By 1640, Trickey's Ferry operated between Bloody Point and Hilton's Point in Dover. In 1712, the meetinghouse was erected and the parish set off, named "Newington" for an English village, whose residents sent the bell for the meetinghouse. Behind the meetinghouse is a row of horse sheds, once commonplace but now rare. About 1725 the parsonage was built near the Town Forest, considered one of the oldest in the United States. The town was incorporated in 1764 by colonial governor Benning Wentworth. In 1794, a bridge was completed across Little Bay from Fox Point in Newington to the south bank of the Bellamy River in Dover, by way of Goat Island—a major engineering feat in its day. In 1952, the House Armed Services Committee authorized acquiring by eminent domain large tracts to create Pease Air Force Base, which opened on June 30, 1956. Approximately 60% of the installation lay in Newington, including land in the town's center, and 40% was in neighboring Portsmouth. It would be, however, the first base recommended to be closed by the 1988 Commission on Base Realignment and Closure. Military personnel in 1990 began leaving the base, which officially closed on March 31, 1991. Although the Air National Guard retained some property, the old base has been intensely redeveloped, primarily in the Portsmouth section, as the Pease International Tradeport, a business park. In the 1970s and 1980s, commercial development from Portsmouth spread into Newington. The Newington Mall opened in the 1970s (replaced by the Crossings at Fox Run in the 2000s), followed by the Fox Run Mall. [edit] Recent history
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