Manchester, New Hampshire

Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which divides the city into eastern and western sections. Manchester is near the northern end of the Northeast megalopolis. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 109,565, the most of any New England city north of Boston, including other Massachusetts cities.

In 2009 CNNMoney.com rated Manchester 13th in a list of the 100 best cities to live and launch a business in the United States. In addition, Kiplinger voted Manchester the second most tax friendly city in the United States, second only to Anchorage, Alaska. Also in 2009, Forbes magazine ranked the Manchester region first on its list of "America's 100 Cheapest Places to Live."

History
Pennacook Indians called it Namoskeag, meaning "good fishing place"—a reference to the Amoskeag Falls in the Merrimack River. In 1722, John Goffe 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, so Governor Benning Wentworth rechartered the town in 1751 as Derryfield. Derryfield remains a neighborhood in contemporary Manchester, along its easternmost area adjacent to Massabesic Lake.

In 1807, Samuel Blodget opened a canal and lock system to allow vessels passage around the falls. He envisioned here a great industrial center, "the Manchester of America", like the Industrial Revolution's Manchester in England, the first industrialized city in the world. Sure enough, in 1809, Benjamin Prichard and others built a cotton spinning mill operated by water power on the western bank of the Merrimack. 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 3 mills in 1826, and then incorporated in 1831 as the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.

On the eastern bank, Amoskeag engineers and architects planned a model company town, founded in 1838 with Elm Street as its main thoroughfare. Incorporated as a city in 1846, Manchester would become home to the largest cotton mill in the world—Mill No. 11, stretching 900 ft long by 103 ft wide, and containing 4,000 looms. Other products made in the community included shoes, cigars, and paper. The Amoskeag foundry made rifles, sewing machines, textile machinery, fire engines, and locomotives in a division called the Amoskeag Locomotive Works (later, the Manchester Locomotive Works). The rapid growth of the mills demanded a large influx of workers, resulting in a flood of immigrants, particularly French Canadians. Many current residents descend from these workers. The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company went out of business in 1935, although its red brick mills have been renovated for other uses. Indeed, the mill town's 19th century affluence left behind some of the finest Victorian commercial, municipal, and residential architecture in the state.

Manchester is nicknamed the Queen City, as well as the more recently coined "Manch Vegas". In 1998, Manchester was named the "Number One Small City in the East" by Money magazine. The Mall of New Hampshire, on Manchester's southern fringe near the intersection of Interstates 93 and 293, is the city's main retail center. In 2001, the Verizon Wireless Arena, a venue seating more than 10,000, opened for major concerts and sporting events, enhancing the city's downtown revitalization efforts with a major hotel and convention center already in place directly across the street from the arena.

Geography and climate
Manchester is located at °N, °W (42.986284, -71.451560).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 34.9 sqmi, of which 33.0 sqmi is land and 1.9 sqmi is water, comprising 5.44% of the city. Manchester is drained by the Merrimack River, the Piscataquog River and Cohas Brook. Massabesic Lake is on the eastern border. The highest point in Manchester is its extreme northwest corner, where the elevation reaches 560 ft above sea level.

Manchester has a four-season humid continental climate (Koppen Dfb), with long, cold, snowy winters, and very warm and somewhat humid summers; spring and autumn in between are crisp and brief transitions. The following data are presented from Massabesic Lake, which is located at the eastern edge of the city. Precipitation is well-spread throughout the year, though summer is the wettest. Snowfall, delivered often through nor'easters, averages around 47 in per season, but varies widely each year.

Government
The mayor also serves as the chair of the board of school committee. Like the board of aldermen, the school board has twelve members elected by ward and two at-large members. The School Board is not a city department; rather, it is a school district coterminous with the city, which obtains financing from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Neighborhoods
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 infrastructure improvements in the Rimmon Heights neighborhood of the West Side, which has spurred growth and investment in and by the community. Since the initial investment, however, it is unclear how city government plans to implement similar programs throughout the city.

The major neighborhoods, historically, include Amoskeag, Rimmon Heights, Notre Dame/McGregorville and Piscataquog/Granite Square on the West Side; and the North End, Janeville/Corey Square, Hallsville and Bakersville on the East Side; along with Youngsville and Goffes Falls on the periphery of the city.

The Manchester Planning Board in its 2010 Master Plan has begun to define 25 neighborhoods within the city. LivableMHT has drawn maps of the neighborhoods and neighborhood village centers as defined by the city. The 25 neighborhoods are:

West Side

 * Northwest - largely suburban neighborhood along Front Street, includes former Amoskeag neighborhood and Hackett Hill open space
 * Rimmon Heights - dense, formerly French Canadian neighborhood anchored along Kelley and Amory streets
 * Notre Dame - dense neighborhood below Rimmon Heights along Main and McGregor streets
 * Piscataquog - dense neighborhood centered around Granite Square and the Piscataquog River
 * Mast Road - mid-density, suburban neighborhood that developed along the original road to Goffstown and prewar streetcar line
 * Wolfe Park - largely suburban neighborhood with greater density around prewar "A Street" streetcar line

East Side

 * Downtown - center city including the city's major businesses and cultural institutions, Elm Street, the Millyard and The Nob/North of Bridge
 * North End - historically affluent neighborhood with density and businesses along Webster Street, more suburban in the north
 * Straw/Smyth - historically affluent, residential neighborhood home to the Currier Museum of Art
 * Corey Square - also known as Janeville, the dense, center city neighborhood along Bridge Street is unique in that it deviates from the city's grid
 * Kalivas Union - dense center city neighborhood includes Valley and Union streets
 * Bakersville - south of downtown, location of recent redevelopment along the River's Edge
 * Hanover Hill - mid-density neighborhood east of Corey Square, location of Derryfield Park
 * Hallsville - dense neighborhood anchored around the Hollow area, location of Elliot Hospital
 * Somerville - mid-density neighborhood south of Hallsvile anchored around Somerville and Wilson streets
 * Eaton Heights - largely suburban neighborhood that developed along the prewar streetcar line along Hanover Street
 * Green Acres - largely suburban neighborhood, also home to the original town center of Derryfield
 * South End - largely postwar suburban neighborhood home to much of the city's suburban-style commercial development
 * Highlands - largely suburban neighborhood that developed along the prewar streetcar line to Pine Island Park

Outside the I-93/293 belt

 * Wellington
 * Youngsville
 * Southeast
 * Crystal Lake
 * Lower South Willow/Airport - Location of the Mall of New Hampshire and many large stores
 * Goffes Falls

Surrounding communities
The urban core of Manchester extends beyond its city limits in several directions, particularly west and south of downtown, including:
 * Pinardville - In the town of Goffstown, a fairly dense, former streetcar suburb area along Mast Road to the west of Manchester. Pinardville is home to St. Anselm College.
 * River Corridor - In the town of Bedford, a mid-density, primarily shopping district along South River Road about two-and-a-half miles from downtown Manchester. The area has recently implemented Tax Increment Financing to improve and maintain infrastructure, and the Town of Bedford's most recent master plan has called for increasing mixed-use development and promoting walkability and transit use, though the Manchester Transit Authority bus service in the area was also recently curtailed.
 * Northeast Bedford - In the town of Bedford, mainly low to mid-density suburban residential area near the terminus of the of former St. Joseph's streetcar line along Donald Street and post-war development along Boynton Street, with some businesses scattered throughout.  The area does not have a formal name, but the section along Boynton Street has variously been called the Plains and the Pines.  The northern area is more rural with large portions owned by St. Anselm College.
 * South Hooksett - In the town of Hooksett, a sprawling, suburban shopping area north of Manchester.

Demographics
Manchester's population at the 2010 census was 109,565. The city is the center of the Manchester, NH, New England City and Town Metropolitan Area (NECTA MA), which had a population of 176,663 as of the 2000 census.

As of the census of 2000, there were 107,219 people, 44,247 households, and 26,105 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,241.4 people per square mile (1,251.6/km²). There were 45,892 housing units at an average density of 1,390.2 per square mile (536.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 91.75% White, 2.10% African American, 0.30% Native American, 2.32% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.76% from other races, and 1.73% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.62% of the population.

As of the 2005-2007 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, White Americans made up 90.0% of Manchester's population; of which 85.3% were non-Hispanic whites. Blacks or African Americans made up 3.8% of Manchester's population; of which 3.7% were non-Hispanic blacks. American Indians made up 0.3% of the city's population. Asian Americans made up 2.4% of the city's population. Pacific Islander Americans made up less than 0.1% of the city's population. Individuals from some other race made up 2.3% of the city's population; of which less than 0.1% were non-Hispanic. Individuals from two or more races made up 1.2% of the city's population; of which 1.0% were non-Hispanic. In addition, Hispanics and Latinos made up 7.3% of Manchester's population.

The largest ancestry groups within the city's population are: French (22.1%), Irish (20.2%), English (10.3%), Italian (7.9%) and German (7.4%).

There were 44,247 households out of which 29.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.6% were married couples living together, 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.0% were non-families. 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.7% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 33.4% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $40,774, and the median income for a family was $50,039. Males had a median income of $34,287 versus $26,584 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,244. 10.6% of the population and 7.7% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 14.6% are under the age of 18 and 11.7% are 65 or older.

Media
The city is served by four newspapers: the New Hampshire Union Leader (formerly the Manchester Union Leader) (a daily); the Manchester Express (a weekly newspaper published by Hippo Press); The Hippo (weekly); and the Manchester Mirror (a weekly produced by the New Hampshire Union Leader).

In addition to several commercial AM and FM radio stations, Manchester is also served by local cable television and hosts one commercial television station:


 * WMUR-TV Channel 9, the Manchester ABC television affiliate
 * Manchester Public Television Service Inc, a Public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable television facility.

Manchester is on the northern fringe of the Boston television market.

Public schools
Manchester's public school system is run by the Manchester School District.

Manchester School District has four public high schools:
 * High schools
 * Manchester High School West (West High School)
 * Manchester Central High School (Central High School)
 * Manchester Memorial High School (Memorial High School)
 * Manchester School of Technology (MST)

Manchester School District has four public middle schools:
 * Middle schools
 * Hillside Middle School
 * Henry J. McLaughlin Middle School
 * Middle School at Parkside
 * Southside Middle School

Manchester School District has fourteen elementary schools:
 * Elementary schools
 * Bakersville Elementary School
 * Beech Street School
 * Gossler Park School
 * Green Acres Elementary School
 * Hallsville Elementary School
 * Highland-Goffes Falls Elementary School
 * Jewett Street School
 * McDonough Elementary School
 * Northwest Elementary School
 * Parker-Varney School
 * Smyth Road School
 * Webster School
 * Weston School
 * Henry Wilson School

Private schools
Manchester is served by three private high schools:
 * Trinity High School, a private, Roman Catholic high school
 * The Derryfield School, a private school serving sixth through twelfth grades
 * Holy Family Academy, a small Roman Catholic private school serving seventh through twelfth grades

Other Roman Catholic schools include:
 * St. Joseph Regional Junior High School
 * St. Catherine School, an elementary school
 * St. Anthony School, an elementary school
 * St. Casimir, elementary and junior high school
 * St. Benedict Academy, an elementary school
 * Mount Saint Mary Academy, an elementary school

In addition:
 * Mount Zion Christian Schools, a nondenominational, evangelical Christian school serving kindergarten through twelfth grade; recently relocated from neighboring Bedford to Manchester
 * Easter Seals Robert B. Jolicoeur School, a private special education school

Post-secondary schools
Area institutions of higher education, together enrolling more than 8,000 students, include:
 * Hesser College - Manchester
 * Manchester Community College
 * Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences -Manchester, NH Secondary Campus
 * New Hampshire Institute of Art (formerly called The Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences)
 * North Eastern Institute of Whole Health - School of Massage Therapy
 * Saint Anselm College, located within the adjacent town of Goffstown, but with a Manchester mailing address
 * Southern New Hampshire University, located on the boundary between Manchester and Hooksett
 * Springfield College School of Human Services
 * University of New Hampshire at Manchester

Culture
Cultural landmarks include the historic Palace Theatre; the Currier Museum of Art; the New Hampshire Institute of Art; the Franco-American Center; the Manchester Historic Association Millyard Museum; the Massabesic Audubon Center; the Amoskeag Fishways Learning and Visitors Center; the Lawrence L. Lee Scouting Museum and Max I. Silber Library; and the SEE Science Center. Valley Cemetery, since 1841 the resting place of numerous prominent citizens, is an early example of a garden-style burial ground.

The Verizon Wireless Arena is a civic center that hosts a variety of events, from professional minor-league sports such as hockey and arena football to concerts with major recording artists and comedians, national touring theatrical productions, family-oriented shows, and fairs. It opened in November 2001 and seats more than 10,000 patrons. The John F. Kennedy Memorial Coliseum is another, smaller venue located in downtown Manchester with a capacity of approximately 3,000 seats. It was completed in 1963, serves as home ice for the Manchester Central and Memorial High School hockey teams, and is home to the Southern New Hampshire Skating Club.

The nickname "ManchVegas" was derived from illegal gambling in local businesses during the late 1980s or early '90s. Many pizza shops and local bars had video poker machines that would pay out real money. The nickname was coined following a city-wide bust of these machines. It was then adopted as a lampoon of the city's limited entertainment opportunities. Recently the term has become a source of pride as the city's entertainment scene has grown. By 2003 it was well enough known that a note on Virtualtourist.com said, "Residents reflect the regional dry humor by referring to sedate Manchester as 'ManchVegas'." By 2005, an article in Manchester's Hippo Press (a local alternative weekly) said that then-Mayor Robert A. Baines "is pushing to replace the nickname ManchVegas with Manchhattan" (meaning Manchester+Manhattan).

Transportation
The city is served by Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, the fourth largest airport in New England. It is the secondary airport serving Boston, Massachusetts, and is used by most of the nation's major airlines, with the largest market share held by Southwest Airlines. The airport has international service to Toronto, Ontario, via Air Canada; customs are handled in Toronto. Alternative airports include Boston's Logan International Airport and Portland International Jetport in Maine.

Interstates 93 and 293 and the F.E. Everett Turnpike are multi-lane highways that connect the metropolitan area to Concord and the White Mountains to the north and Nashua and Boston to the south. NH 101 is a four-lane highway eastbound from Manchester to Hampton Beach, connecting the city with the southeastern part of the state and the seacoast, as well as Maine and the Massachusetts North Shore via Interstate 95. West of Manchester, NH 101 is a two-lane highway serving as the main artery to Keene, the Monadnock region, and other points in southwestern New Hampshire, eventually connecting to NH 9 and the state's border with Vermont.

Construction is underway to connect the Everett Turnpike just south of the city with the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport via a Merrimack River-crossing connector road, the first direct highway access with the airport to date. Currently most airport patrons must exit I-293 and then drive on Brown Avenue, a four-lane city street, to access the airport.

Public transportation is provided by the Manchester Transit Authority, which runs several bus routes throughout the city and surrounding areas. Concord Trailways and Boston Express run commuter services to Boston and other parts of the state. Vermont Transit Lines (affiliated with Greyhound Lines) has lines to Montreal. In 2008, Boston Express moved to suburb Londonderry, New Hampshire, and now provides only limited service to downtown Manchester.

Manchester would be served by the Capital Corridor, an extension of the MBTA commuter rail from its current terminus in Lowell, Massachusetts to Concord, which would also include a stop at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. The route is being studied by the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority and New Hampshire Department of Transportation, which have received federal funding for studying and planning the route. The Capital Corridor route is also being studied as a possible future high-speed rail line connecting Montreal and Boston. Currently, Manchester is one of the largest cities and metropolitan areas in the United States without Amtrak service. With the expansion of Interstate 93 to eight lanes from Salem to Manchester under construction, space is being reserved in the median for potential future commuter or light rail service along this corridor.

Economy
Manchester is northern New England's largest city, and its metropolitan area is one of the fastest growing in New England. Its economy has changed greatly, as Manchester was a textile mill town about 20 years ago. In March 2009 Kiplinger voted Manchester the second most tax friendly city in America, after Anchorage, Alaska. Earlier in the year, CNN rated Manchester 13th in its 100 best places to live and launch a business in America.

Manchester is the home of Segway, Inc., manufacturers of a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle invented by Dean Kamen.

Downtown
City Hall Plaza, the tallest New England building north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is located in downtown Manchester. Other notable downtown buildings include the all-black Hampshire Plaza (shorter than City Hall Plaza by only a few feet and, like its counterpart, towers above the rest of Northern New England at 20 stories high); the New Hampshire Tower; the New Hampshire headquarters of Citizens Bank, in the renovated and heightened former Amoskeag Bank building (at the original 10 stories, once Manchester's "skyscraper" for many decades); and Bank of America.

The Verizon Wireless Arena has become the centerpiece of downtown Manchester. The venue can seat more than 10,000 for concerts and sporting events. The Verizon is also home to the Manchester Monarchs, the local AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings. The Northeast Delta Dental Stadium (formerly Merchantsauto.com Stadium) is a baseball park located on the Merrimack River in downtown Manchester and is home to the local AA baseball affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Historic Gill Stadium supported professional minor-league baseball into the early 21st century and continues to be a viable and popular downtown venue for many sporting and entertainment events, seating nearly 4,000 patrons, depending on the event format.

The Red Arrow, rated in 1998 as one of the top 10 diners in the United States, is located downtown.

In recent years there has been continual redevelopment of the Amoskeag Millyard and its residential Historic District. The increasing popularity of downtown living has caused many properties originally built as tenement housing for mill workers in the 19th century to be converted to stylish, eclectic residential condominiums. Many new retail stores and higher education institutions have been uniquely retro-fitted into properties along Commercial and Canal Street.

Shopping
Manchester has two main retail areas: downtown Manchester and South Willow Street (NH Route 28). The Mall of New Hampshire is located on South Willow Street, and, with more than 125 stores, is one of the largest shopping centers in southern New Hampshire and central New England.

Notable inhabitants

 * See List of people from Manchester, New Hampshire, for a more complete list.


 * Joseph Carter Abbott, Union general and a Senator from North Carolina
 * Jane Badler, Miss N.H. 1973; evil Diana in 1983-85 original and guest-star reprise in 2011 season of remake of sci-fi TV series V
 * Steve Balboni, Major League baseball player
 * Matt Czuchry, actor (currently on CBS series The Good Wife)
 * Charlie Davies, soccer player
 * Mike Flanagan, Major League pitcher and winner of the 1979 Cy Young Award
 * Rene Gagnon, a US Marine who helped raise the flag over Iwo Jima and one of the servicemen in the iconic photograph associated with it
 * Chip Kelly, head coach of the University of Oregon Ducks football team
 * William Loeb, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader newspaper, 1946–81
 * Dick and Mac McDonald, founders of McDonald's
 * Grace Metalious, author of Peyton Place
 * Seth Meyers, anchor of 'Weekend Update' segment and current head writer of NBC's Saturday Night Live (from neighboring Bedford; attended school in Manchester)
 * Bob Montana, cartoonist and creator of the characters of Archie Comics; graduate of Manchester Central High School
 * Lee Morin, astronaut
 * Charles Revson, businessman, founder of the cosmetics company Revlon
 * Adam Sandler, comic actor
 * Sarah Silverman, comic actress (from Bedford; attended school in Manchester)
 * John Stark, Revolutionary War general and commander

Sister cities

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