Nashua, NH Summary

With its jumble of malls and absence of a state sales tax, New Hampshire’s second-largest city (population 82,285), the seat of Hillsborough County, attracts many interstate bargain hunters. In addition to commuters who travel the highways northwest of Boston each day, Bay State shoppers also constantly stream up Hwy 3 to Nashua’s malls and shops.

Sited where the Nashua River flows into the Merrimack, Nashua entered the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century by building water-powered cotton textile mills. Mill production ended after World War II, but the city has since diversified its economy. Now the textiles most visitors focus on are in the retail stores. \”Money\” magazine has twice selected southern New Hampshire’s “gate city,” one of the fastest-growing in New England, as the best place to live in America.

The city is a center for medicine, and its light industries produce computer and paper products, chemicals, electronics, and beer. It is also the location of two educational institutions: Rivier College and Daniel Webster College. Access to Nashua is easy by car (Hwy 3) or bus.