Nashua Railroad History Mural - Murals on Waymarking.com

Nashua City Station was built in 1848 by the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, New Hampshire's first steam railroad, at the corner of Main and Canal Streets at Railroad Square. The station was home to the N.H. Banking Co. (later the Indian Head Bank) on the ground floor and the Franklin Opera House on the upper floor. Another building at City Station was the freight station, which was built in 1860. An interesting feature of the freight station is that the track that served it actually entered the building through the east side. City Station acted as the terminal of the Nashua & Lowell for about ten years until the line was extended to Wilton, Greenfield, and Keene. Once under the control of the Boston & Maine railroad, the line became known as the Keene Branch on the Worcester, Nashua & Portland Division. After the floods in the 1930, the line became severed out in Hancock, and along with abandonments of area lines, the line out of Nashua became known as the Hillsboro Branch. On April 19, 1931 tragedy struck when City Station was gutted by fire. However, trains continued to stop at Main Street on their way to Wilton or Nashua Union Station. Before the fire in the 1920s, the Boston & Maine Transportation Co. began serving Nashua from City Station. The B&MTCo. sometimes replaced passenger trains to Wilton if the number of passengers did not warrant the need for a train. After the station burned, the lot was used by the transportation company as its bus yard, and had its office in the old car shop which was located on the opposite site of the tracks. The freight station at City Station still stands and multiple small businesses have made it home. The freight station can be easily identified today as it has a large railroad mural painted on the wall facing Main Street. The rail line that was once served by City Station is still active, now the Hillsboro Branch, and is operated by Guilford Rail System. The Nashua local serves industies in Nashua and Milford, and runs on the line about once a week. A plaque indicates it was painted by Elizabeth Johansson in 1988.

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Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and description of your visit. One original photo of the mural must also be submitted. GPSr photo NOT required.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/04/2006 Mountain_Wanderer visited it

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