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Community Information

Population Tax Rate Ave. Home Price Median Income Per-Pupil Cost

87,321 $17.40 $268,800 $57,056 $5,082

Introduction

Calling itself the "Gateway City," Nashua is the first glimpse of New Hampshire to motorists trekking up Route 3 North. Since a commercial development boom in the 1980s, the city - New Hampshire’s second largest - has served as a shopping Mecca for those fleeing Massachusetts sales taxes.

In addition to a massive retail center, the city also hosts several major high-tech companies such as Oracle, Fidelity, Compaq, Benchmark Electronice, and Sanders, a Lockheed-Martin company, to name a few.

Like everywhere else where malls have spread like wildfire, the city is making an aggressive effort to prevent the downtown from becoming a ghost town. Officials have bold plans to construct a scenic river walkway, and ethnic restaurants and posh specialty gift shops have begun to see some success. Taking a page from the winter holidays decoration book, downtown merchants have solicited community donations to keep trees illuminated all year.

History

Long before malls and fast food restaurants made sluggish traffic a permanent Nashua trait, the city was a fur trading post in the mid-1600s – better known by its Native American name of "Watanic."

The City of Nashua was chartered in 1852. It had grown out of the Village of Nashua, centered near Railroad Square and the Main Street Bridge, and the Village of Nashville, across the Nashua River. The city is in the approximate center of the original 1673 grant of Dunstable, which included all or parts of the surrounding towns.

The Dunstable grant was part of Massachusetts until the boundary line was revised in 1741. The New Hampshire portion was incorporated by that state in 1746 and was gradually broken into smaller pieces as outlying areas developed. Just south of Nashua, the tiny Massachusetts town of Dunstable keeps the name alive.

Nashua was an early textile center. By 1836, Nashua Corporation had built three cotton mills and was producing 9.3 million yards of cotton cloth annually on 710 looms. Six railroad lines crossed the city with 56 trains entering and departing daily before the Civil War.

The Nashua Telegraph was founded in 1832, a few months after its competitor, the Gazette, which no longer exists.

After World War II, the textile mills moved south and the city gradually developed a diversified industry, particularly high technology and retail.

Today, Nashua is the state’s second largest city.

Landmarks

Nashua City Hall features a bronze sculpture of John F. Kennedy, marking the spot where candidate Kennedy gave his first official campaign speech in 1960.

Holman Stadium off of Amherst Street was where future Brooklyn Dodger stars Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe played in 1946 on the first integrated baseball team in the U.S. (Jackie Robinson was playing in Montreal the same year). The Nashua Pride professional ball team currently plays at Holman Stadium, and have invested well over one million dollars in the park and grounds.

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General Information

County: Hillsborough

Zip codes: 03060, 03061, 03062, 03063, 03064

Area: 32 square miles

Population

87,321

Income (2000 census)

Average Weekly Wage: $702

Housing (2000 census)

Single-Family Units: 16,004
Multi-Family Units: 18, 506
Mobile Homes: 877
Median Gross Rent: $774
Median Housing Costs: $268,800

Highway access

Route 3 North (the Everett Turnpike) is the main North-South throughway. Interstate 93 is a 20-minute drive via Route 111 East. State Route 101, accessible via Route 3, leads to Keene in the West and the Seacoast to the east. Keene, Concord and the Seacoast each take about an hour by car. It’s a little less than an hour to Boston with normal traffic; during commuting hours, it’s well over an hour.