Religion Keene has more than 20 churches, mostly Protestant, and one synagogue, Congregation Ahavas Achim. A significant landmark in downtown Keene is the
United Church of Christ at Central Square, colloquially known in town as the "White Church" or the "Church at the Head of the Square". A second church on the square was
Grace United Methodist Church, also known as the "Brick Church", but it is now privately owned and operated for secular purposes. The Grace United Methodist congregation moved to another site. Keene is the seat of the
Roman Catholic Parish of the Holy Spirit, whose pastor is the
Dean of the Monadnock Deanery, a division under the see of the
Diocese of Manchester. The parish has two churches in the City of Keene, Saint Bernard and Saint Margaret Mary. Keene has one
Episcopal church, Saint James, which is within the
Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Keene also has one
Greek Orthodox church, Saint George, which is under the see of the
Metropolis of Boston. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building is home to the Keene Ward and is part of the Nashua, New Hampshire Stake.
Festivals Pumpkin Every October from 1991 to 2014, Keene hosted an annual pumpkin festival called the Keene Pumpkin Festival, locally known as Pumpkin Fest. The event set world records several times for the largest simultaneous number of
jack-o'-lanterns on display. The first time was in 1993, when Keene set the record with nearly 5,000 carved and lit pumpkins. The tally from the 2003 festival stood as the record until Boston took the lead in 2006, but Keene reclaimed the world record in 2013, with a total of 30,581 pumpkins, according to
Guinness World Records. Besides the pumpkins stacked on massive towers set in the streets, thousands of additional pumpkins were installed along the streets of the city.
Face painting,
fireworks, music, and other entertainments were also provided. After riots from college students nearby the event in 2014, the Keene Pumpkin Festival was moved to
Laconia the following year and renamed the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival. From 2017 onward (except for 2020 and 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic), the organizers of the 2011 through 2014 Keene Pumpkin Festivals, along with the 2015 New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival in Laconia, have run a new smaller, child-focused Keene Pumpkin Festival with a number of restrictions in place, promoting it as the "official" continuation of the Keene Pumpkin Festival.
Music In late August or early September the city hosts the Keene Music Festival. Several stages are located throughout the downtown area during the day's events, which are free to the public and sponsored by locally owned businesses. Visitors, mostly from the local community, roam the city's sidewalks listening to the dozens of bands.
Pride Keene Pride Week and festival takes place during the second week of September every year in Downtown Keene. Central Square and parts of Main Street are shut down with over 5,000 people in attendance. It is one of the largest pride festivals in New England and features local, national, and international performers.
In popular culture • The 1949 movie
Lost Boundaries, starring
Mel Ferrer, tells the true story of a
black Keene physician who passed as white for many years. The film won the 1949
Cannes Film Festival award for best screenplay. • Much of the 1995 movie
Jumanji, starring
Robin Williams, was filmed in Keene in November 1994, as the movie's fictional town of Brantford. Frank's Barber Shop is a featured setting as well as the Parrish Shoe sign, which was painted for the film. The sign served as a focal point for a temporary Robin Williams memorial in the days following the actor's death on August 11, 2014.
Music and theatre In 1979, First Lady
Rosalynn Carter dedicated the bandstand in Central Square as the
E. E. Bagley Bandstand, after the noted composer of the
National Emblem March, who made Keene his home until his death in 1922. Many community groups perform on a regular basis, including the Keene Chamber Orchestra, the Keene Chamber Singers, the Keene Chorale, the Greater Keene Pops Choir, and the Keene Jazz Orchestra. The Cheshiremen Chorus, a local chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, meets every Tuesday at 6:30 pm at the United Church of Christ, Central Square. The Monadnock Pathway Singers are an all-volunteer
hospice group based in Keene whose members come from many different towns within Cheshire County. They sing in nursing homes, hospitals, assisted-living centers and in private homes throughout Cheshire County. Every year, the Keene branch of the
Lions Clubs International performs a Broadway musical at the Colonial Theatre (a restored theatre dating back to 1924), to raise money for the community. Other theatres and auditoriums include the new
Keene High School Auditorium and the county's largest auditorium, the Larracey Auditorium at
Keene Middle School, and The Putnam Arts Lecture Hall on the campus of Keene State. Keene Cinemas is the local movie theater located off of Key Road.
Sports Keene is home to the
Keene Swamp Bats baseball team of the
New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). The Swamp Bats play at
Alumni Field in Keene during June and July of each summer. The Swamp Bats are five-time league champions (
2000,
2003,
2011,
2013, and
2019). They are consistently at the top of the NECBL in attendance, having led the league in
2002,
2004, and
2005. The Elm City Derby Damez roller derby league, members of
USA Roller Sports (USARS), call Keene home while playing their officially sanctioned bouts in nearby
Brattleboro, Vermont. They compete against many other women's flat track leagues around the northeastern United States. The Monadnock Wolfpack Rugby Football Club now calls Keene its home. They play in NERFU (New England Rugby Football Union) division IV at Carpenter Field, on Carpenter Street. They will defend their undefeated championship 2018 season in the Fall of 2019.
Images File:Two Arch Stone Bridge, Keene, NH.jpg|Stone Arch Bridge File:Griffin Estate, Keene, NH.jpg|Griffin Estate File:The Square, Keene, NH.jpg|Central Square in 1907 File:West Street in Winter, Keene, NH.jpg|West Street in 1910 Central Square from Above.jpg|Central Square looking south down Main Street towards Swanzey, NH
Free Keene activism The city has become home to an active
voluntaryist protest group known as Free Keene, which is associated with the
Free State Project. Some Free Keene activists have been arrested for video recording in courtrooms as an act of
civil disobedience, in violation of the state's wiretapping law. In 2009, Keene's Central Square Park had become the center of daily 4:20 pm smoke-ins which advocated the legalization of marijuana. Free Keene has encountered opposition from other Keene residents. While some of the activists' techniques can be relatively confrontational, and the WMUR report mentioned a tongue-in-cheek drinking party at a government building to protest open-container laws, others are significantly less so. For example, a common act by some Free Keene activists involves paying money into expired parking meters to help other citizens avoid parking tickets, which has created conflict between the meter pluggers and the parking enforcement officers. The close encounters with the "Robin Hooders" resulted in one PEO resigning his position and a lawsuit filed by the City of Keene citing harassment of their employees. In December 2013, the judge overseeing the case dismissed the city's arguments against the "Robin Hooders" on first amendment grounds, citing the public sidewalks' role as a traditional public forum.
International outreach Einbeck, in Germany, is a partner city.
Sites of interest •
Dillant–Hopkins Airport Listed on the
National Register of Historic Places: •
Dr. Daniel Adams House •
Beaver Mills •
Cheshire County Courthouse •
Colony House •
Colony's Block •
Noah Cooke House •
Dinsmoor–Hale House •
Elliot Mansion •
Faulkner & Colony Woolen Mill •
Catherine Fiske Seminary For Young Ladies •
Grace United Methodist Church •
Keene Unitarian Universalist Church •
Sawyer Tavern •
Stone Arch Bridge •
United Church of Christ in Keene •
Wyman Tavern ==Notable people==