Nashua

Sister cities

• Mysore

History

The area was part of a tract of land in Massachusetts called "Dunstable", named after Edward Tyng of Dunstable in England. Located at the confluence of the Nashua and Merrimack rivers, Dunstable was first settled about 1654 as a fur trading town. Nashua lies approximately in the center of the original 1673 grant. In 1836, the New Hampshire half of Dunstable was renamed "Nashua", after the Nashua River; the Dunstable name lives on across the Massachusetts border. The Nashua River was named by the Nashaway people, and in the Penacook language it means "beautiful stream with a pebbly bottom", with an alternative meaning of "land between two rivers". In 1842, the town split into two towns. Like the rival Amoskeag Manufacturing Company upriver in Manchester, the Nashua mills prospered until about World War I, after which a slow decline set in. Water power was replaced with newer forms of energy to run factories, such as coal, and cotton could be manufactured into fabric where it grew, saving transportation costs. In 1922, it was affected by the 1922 New England Textile Strike, shutting down the mills in the city over an attempted wage cut and hours increase. The textile business started moving to the South during the Great Depression, with the last mill near Nashua closing in 1949. But then Sanders Associates, a newly created defense firm that is now part of BAE Systems, moved into one of the closed mills and helped restart the city's economy. Sanders Associates also played a key role in the development of the home video game console market. Ralph H. Baer, an employee of Sanders, developed what would become the Magnavox Odyssey, the first commercial home video game system. The arrival of Digital Equipment Corporation, now part of Hewlett-Packard, in the 1970s made the…

Geography

Nashua is in southeastern Hillsborough County. It is bordered to the south by Middlesex County, Massachusetts. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and are water, comprising 2.84% of the city. The eastern boundary of Nashua is formed by the Merrimack River, and the city is drained by the Nashua River and Salmon Brook, tributaries of the Merrimack. The Nashua River roughly bisects the city. Pennichuck Brook forms the city's northern boundary. The highest point in Nashua is Gilboa Hill in the southern part of the city, at above sea level. Nashua has a four-season humid continental climate with a hot summer subtype, (Köppen Dfa) with short spring and autumn transitions, long humid (often oppressive) and very warm to hot summers, and cold winters. One of New England's hotspots, Nashua experiences an average of 26-30 days of 90-degree heat per year. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in January to in July. On average, there are 8.7 days of sub- lows. Precipitation is well-spread throughout the year, though winter is the driest. Snowfall, the heaviest of which typically comes from nor'easters, averages around per season, but can vary widely from year to year. Nashua recorded the New Hampshire state record high temperature of during the deadly 1911 heat wave.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Nashua High School South
  High · Nashua · 1,743 students · 13:1 ratio
• Nashua High School North
  High · Nashua · 1,594 students · 12.4:1 ratio
• Merrimack High School
  High · Merrimack · 1,113 students · 11.7:1 ratio
• Alvirne High School
  High · Hudson · 1,038 students · 13.1:1 ratio
• Elm Street Middle School
  Middle · Nashua · 874 students · 9.9:1 ratio
• Hollis-Brookline High School
  High · Hollis · 757 students · 11.8:1 ratio
• Pelham Elementary School
  Elementary · Pelham · 756 students · 14.5:1 ratio
• Souhegan Coop High School
  High · Amherst · 698 students · 10.3:1 ratio