Nashua, New Hampshire in the 1960s

Work

Mills become electronics plants

The telling change is Sanders Associates in an empty Canal Street mill⁶, replacing textile employment with defense electronics. Nashua’s redevelopment leaders also drew plastics, paper, steel, greeting-card, and electrical firms¹ into former mill space.

Who lived here

A city suddenly grows

Nashua grows from 39,069 people in 1960 to 55,820 in 1970². The increase comes largely from in-migration tied to jobs, land, housing, rentals, and tax advantages².

Home & table

New houses at the edges

The number of households rises from 11,807 in 1960 to 16,997 in 1970³. Builders are busy: the wider housing-market area authorizes 590 single-family units in 1968 and 688 in 1969³.

Faith

Old parishes, new mergers

Older immigrant communities are visible in Irish, French Canadian, and Greek Catholic churches¹. Liberal Protestant life changes too, as Unitarians and Universalists consolidate locally and nationally⁵.

Roads & news

Paper, turnpike, and border

Local news comes through the Telegraph, listed in 1962 with circulation of 12,378^8,9. Travel changes because the Everett Turnpike gains Nashua exits in 1960 and reaches Massachusetts in 1966⁷.

Money

Tax advantage sells Nashua

City planners later named New Hampshire’s tax advantages and lower costs² among the forces attracting employers and residents. That mattered especially with Massachusetts just south of the city.

In the air

Growth versus old form

The decade’s argument is visible in the land itself: Daniel Webster Highway South and Amherst Street are still country roads late in the 1960s¹, just before mall retail and auto-oriented growth reshape them.

What people feared

War reaches households

No local casualty list was found in this quick search, but Nashua men were subject to the Vietnam-era draft like young men across the country.

Year by year

1. 1960Nashua entered the decade with 39,069 residents. here²
2. 1960West Hollis Street and Broad Street exits were added to the F. E. Everett Turnpike through Nashua. here⁷
3. 1960The national Unitarian and Universalist merger reinforced the identity of Nashua’s already consolidated Unitarian Universalist church. the country⁵
4. 1964L’Impartial, the French-language weekly serving Nashua’s Quebec immigrant community, ceased publication. here⁴
5. 1964The Civil Rights Act became federal law and would have been read and argued about in New Hampshire newspapers. the country
6. 1966The Everett Turnpike was extended south to the Massachusetts border. here⁷
7. 1968The Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and the presidential election made the war and protest politics unavoidable national news. the country
8. 1970Nashua reached 55,820 residents after a decade of very rapid growth. here²

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Nashua’s population rose from 39,069 in 1960 to 55,820 in 1970, a gain of 16,751 people or 42.9 percent. from the sources²
• Nashua had been a textile and machine-shop city, but the collapse of New England textiles left large mill buildings empty before local redevelopment efforts filled them with new industries. from the sources¹
• The Nashua New Hampshire Foundation bought millions of square feet of empty textile-mill buildings and recruited firms including Nashua Plastics, Bagshaw, Sprague Electric, Doehla Greeting Cards, Edgecomb Steel, and Sanders. from the sources¹
• City planners later attributed the 1960s population boom to in-migration, growing employment, available land, housing variety, rental units, and New Hampshire’s tax advantages compared with neighboring states. from the sources²
• The F. E. Everett Turnpike opened between South Nashua and Manchester in 1955, gained Nashua exits at West Hollis Street and Broad Street in 1960, and was extended south to the Massachusetts line in 1966. from the sources⁷
• Sanders Associates, a defense-electronics contractor spun out of Raytheon, moved from Waltham, Massachusetts, into an empty Canal Street mill building in 1952 and helped revive Nashua’s former textile district. from the sources⁶
• Daniel Webster Highway South and Amherst Street, later major retail corridors, were still country roads in the late 1960s; Nashua Mall did not open until 1970. from the sources¹
• The 1972 federal housing-market report counted Nashua households rising from 11,807 in 1960 to 16,997 in 1970. from the sources³
• The same housing report estimated Nashua’s population at about 62,000 by April 1972, showing that the 1960s growth continued immediately after the decade. from the sources³
• Building permits in the Nashua housing-market area authorized hundreds of new single-family homes each year during the 1960s, including 590 single-family units in 1968 and 688 in 1969. from the sources³
• Nashua’s Catholic landscape included the Irish-built Church of the Immaculate Conception on Temple Street, the French Canadian St. Louis de Gonzague on West Hollis Street, and the Greek Church of the Assumption on Ash Street. from the sources¹
• The Nashua Daily Telegraph and Nashua Telegraph archives cover the 1960s, and a 1962 newspaper directory listed Nashua’s Telegraph with circulation of 12,378. from the sources^8,9
• The French-language weekly L’Impartial served the Quebec immigrant community in Nashua from 1898 until 1964. from the sources⁴
• Nashua’s Unitarian and Universalist congregations consolidated locally in 1957, and the national Unitarian-Universalist merger in 1960 strengthened the local church’s identity. inferred⁵
• The Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua dedicated a two-story contemporary church-school building after buying the Canal and Grove Streets armory property, where the armory had burned in 1957. inferred⁵
• Nashua’s public memory of the 1960s included a shift from mill dependence toward electronics, plastics, paper products, steel, greeting cards, and other diversified industries. from the sources¹
• As a New Hampshire city in the 1960s, Nashua voters lived in a state with no broad-based state income tax or general sales tax, a contrast that helped draw people and businesses from Massachusetts. inferred
• Young men in Nashua were subject to the national draft during the Vietnam War, as were young men elsewhere in the United States. inferred
• No detailed online source found in this quick search gives a street-by-street description of ordinary Nashua houses, rents, and groceries in the 1960s. not known

Sources

1. History of Nashua. City of Nashua
2. Nashua Master Plan 2000. City of Nashua, 2000
3. Analysis of the Nashua, New Hampshire Housing Market as of April 1, 1972. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Housing Administration, 1972
4. Digital Archives of the Nashua Public Library. Nashua Public Library
5. History 1926–1976: UU Church of Nashua. Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua, 1976
6. BAE Systems Canal Street. The Center for Land Use Interpretation
7. F.E. Everett Turnpike. AARoads
8. Research Databases. Nashua Public Library
9. N. W. Ayer & Son’s Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals, 1962. N. W. Ayer & Son, 1962

Nashua in other decades