[2] The town's central village, where 573 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Walpole census-designated place (CDP) and is east of New Hampshire Route 12.

[3] The first bridge across the Connecticut River, an engineering feat in its day, was built at Walpole in 1785, and is regarded as one of the most famous early spans in the United States.

The town contains many architecturally significant old houses, including several associated with Colonel Bellows and members of his family.

Walpole Academy, built in 1831 and attributed to master-builder Aaron Prentiss Howland, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Her father Amos Bronson Alcott was initially happy with his hardworking neighbors there and wrote, "'Tis refreshing to yoke one's idealism with this team of tug-along-the-rut of realism, and so get practical wisdom out of it, and sanity."

Louisa eventually moved to Boston for the summer, and her sister Anna took a teaching job in Syracuse, New York.

With his family split, Bronson came to dislike his experience in Walpole and found it difficult, as he wrote, "to make the most of myself and them in this little river town and its quiet population."

In the fall of 1857, the family moved to Concord, Massachusetts, to live in the home they named Orchard House.