He’s the “Al” in Alvirne and the “Hills” in Hills Memorial Library, Hills House and Hills Garrison school.

He may be the “Kimball” in Kimball Hill Road.

Indeed, almost every day for more than a century, at least part of Dr. Alfred Kimball Hills’ name has been spoken or written somewhere in his long-ago hometown of Hudson.

The good doctor was a household name not so much be­cause he was a doc­tor, but be­cause first, he was a descendant of the original sett­lers of territory that eventually would become the town of Hudson, and second, he became one of the town’s most prominent 19th-century residents and civic-minded benefactors.

Hills’ Hudson roots are said to date back to 1610, when his ancestors secured one of the original land grants in the then-virgin territory.

Hills was born in town in 1840, just 10 years after the name was changed to Hudson from Nottingham West.

(Like much of this area, Hudson originally was part of Dunstable, Mass. In 1741, it became Nottingham, Mass.; in 1746, Nottingham West, N.H.; and finally, in 1830, Hudson.)

Hills grew up in Hudson, became a surgeon and established his practice in New York. He was married to his first wife, Martha Simmons, for 20 years before her death in 1885.

Two years later, he married Ida Virginia Creutz­borg and purchased land in Hudson from his father for a summer home.

The impressive Victorian house completed in 1890 along a rural wagon trail on the way to Derry was christened “The Alvirne,” a clever blend of “Alfred” and “Virginia.”

The proud mansion still stands, set back on a knoll opposite Alvirne High School – which also was built courtesy of Hills’ legacy – along no-longer-rural Der­ry Road.

In 1908, Ida Virginia Hills died unexpectedly, leading Hills and his mother-in-law, Mary Creutzborg, to have a town library designed and built in her memory.

A year later, the Hills Memorial Library, sitting right where it does today at Library and Ferry streets, was dedicated.

A year later, the Hills Memorial Library, sitting right where it does today at Library and Ferry streets, was dedicated.

Hills also bought the next-door lot and made it a public park.

When Hills died in 1920, he was survived by his third wife, Jesse Norwell, whom he married in 1910.

In his will, Hills made provisions to benefit his community yet again, this time in the form of what he called “an industrial school,” or agricultural school.

It took nearly three decades, but townsfolk honored the doctor’s wishes by constructing what would be the second building to be dubbed “Alvirne” – an agricultural high school across Derry Road from his summer home.

Alvirne High’s first graduating class was 1951.

Today, Hills’ original Alvirne is called the Hills House, the center of many civic and social events and a showcase for historical artifacts and town history volumes.

But 40 years ago, the mansion came within a whisker of being “the former Hills House.”

After Jesse Hills died in 1963, the old place fell into disrepair, targeted by vandals and thrill-seekers who believed it was haunted. It appeared headed for demolition until, luckily, a group of concerned residents formed a committee in 1966 to save and restore the once-proud structure.

They’d become known as the Hudson Historical Society and, appropriately enough, they’d make their headquarters at the Hills House.

Just down the road from the mansion and school Hills built stands a little storybook chapel, another legacy of the great benefactor and his family. The granite mausoleum, alternately called Alvirne Chapel and Hills Memorial Chapel, was consecrated just months after Hills dedicated the town library to his wife.

The idyllic chapel has hosted weddings for decades.

Author Laurie Jasper wrote in her 1999 “Images of America” Hudson history: “The beauty of the structure and the devotion of Dr. Hills to his wife certainly lend romance to nuptials.”

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6523 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.