Manchester

Sister cities

• Nashville
• Neustadt an der Weinstraße
• Hof HaCarmel Regional Council
• Pendik
• Gweru
• Taichung

History

The native Pennacook people called Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River—the area that became the heart of Manchester—Namaoskeag, meaning "good fishing place". In 1722, John Goffe III settled beside Cohas Brook, later building a dam and sawmill at what was dubbed "Old Harry's Town". It was granted by Massachusetts in 1727 as "Tyngstown" to veterans of Queen Anne's War who served in 1703 under Captain William Tyng. But at New Hampshire's 1741 separation from Massachusetts, the grant was ruled invalid and substituted with Wilton, Maine, resulting in a 1751 rechartering by Governor Benning Wentworth as "Derryfield"—a name that lives on in Derryfield Park, Derryfield Country Club, and the private Derryfield School. In 1809, Benjamin Prichard and others built a water-powered cotton spinning mill on the western bank of the Merrimack. Apparently following Blodgett's suggestion, Derryfield was renamed "Manchester" in 1810, the year the mill was incorporated as the Amoskeag Cotton & Woolen Manufacturing Company. It would be purchased in 1825 by entrepreneurs from Massachusetts, expanded to three mills in 1826, and then incorporated in 1831 as the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. Throughout the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the city began to expand outward, and many streetcar suburbs such as Mast Road were built. Manchester was formerly home to a streetcar network, the Manchester Street Railway. The streetcar network was replaced with a bus network in the 1940s. In 1922, 17,000 workers from two of the city's largest companies (Amoskeag and Stark Manufacturing Companies) went on strike for a period of nine months. After the strike, the textile industry began a slow decline, with the Great Depression hitting the city particularly hard. The Amoskeag Manufacturing…

Geography

Manchester is in south-central New Hampshire, south of Concord, the state capital, and the same distance north of Nashua, the second-largest city in the state. Manchester is north-northwest of Boston, the largest city in New England. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and are water, comprising 5.33% of the city. Manchester is drained by the Merrimack River and its tributaries the Piscataquog River and Cohas Brook. Massabesic Lake is on the eastern border. The highest point in Manchester is atop Wellington Hill, where the elevation reaches above sea level. The Manchester Planning Board, in its 2010 Master Plan, defines 25 neighborhoods within the city. LivableMHT has drawn maps of the neighborhoods and neighborhood village centers as defined by the city. Recognition of particular neighborhoods varies, with some having neighborhood associations, but none have any legal or political authority. The major neighborhoods, historically, include Amoskeag, Rimmon Heights, Notre Dame/McGregorville and Piscataquog/Granite Square, also known as "Piscat", on the West Side; the North End, Janeville/Corey Square, Hallsville and Bakersville on the East Side; and Youngsville and Goffes Falls on the periphery of the city. In 2007, the city began a Neighborhood Initiatives program to "insure that our neighborhoods are vibrant, livable areas since these are the portions of the city where most of the residents spend their time living, playing, shopping and going to school." The purpose of this initiative is to foster vibrancy and redevelopment in the neighborhoods, and to restore the sense of neighborhood communities that had been overlooked in the city for some time. The city began the program with street-scape and…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  10,336
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,059
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  8,731
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,473
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  7,630
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,445
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,421
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  7,060

Largest nearby schools

• Manchester Memorial High School
  High · Manchester · 1,405 students · 15.4:1 ratio
• Bedford High School
  High · Bedford · 1,391 students · 13.1:1 ratio
• Manchester Central High School
  High · Manchester · 1,168 students · 13.4:1 ratio
• Merrimack High School
  High · Merrimack · 1,113 students · 11.7:1 ratio
• Goffstown High School
  High · Goffstown · 1,033 students · 11.7:1 ratio
• Middle School At Parkside
  Middle · Manchester · 858 students · 10.6:1 ratio
• Mountain View Middle School
  Middle · Goffstown · 829 students · 11.5:1 ratio
• Manchester West High School
  High · Manchester · 772 students · 13.1:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3.8 — 2025-01-27
  9 km SE of York Harbor, Maine
• M 2.7 — 2023-12-23
  5 km SW of Chichester, New Hampshire
• M 2.9 — 2023-04-25
  4 km SW of Center Sandwich, New Hampshire
• M 2.7 — 2018-02-15
  0 km SE of East Kingston, New Hampshire
• M 2.8 — 2016-03-21
  4 km ESE of Warner, New Hampshire
• M 2.61 — 2013-10-11
  New Hampshire