MANCHESTER, the largest city of New Hampshire, U.S.A., and one of the county seats of Hillsboro county; on the Merri mack river at the mouth of the Piscataquog, 55 m. N.N.W. of Boston. It is on Federal highway 3, has a municipal airport of 8o ac., and is served by the Boston and Maine railroad, inter urban trolleys and motor-bus lines. Pop. (1920), 78,384 (35Vo foreign-born white, of whom nearly half were French-Canadians) ; 193o, Federal census, 76,834. The city occupies 33.96 sq.m., on a plain 90 ft. above the river. Within its limits is Lake Massabesic (2,530 ac.), a beautiful resort and the source of the city's water supply. The public parks, covering 226 ac., provide facilities for both summer and winter sports. Just above the city great ledges across the path of the Merrimack cause a fall of 55 ft., from which power is developed for the large manufacturing plants lining both banks of the river. The mills of the Amoskeag Manu facturing Company (incorporated 1831) are the largest textile plant in the world, operating 662,000 cotton spindles and 24,000 looms, using annually 55,000,00o lb. of cotton, and making 237,000,000 yd. of cotton and worsted fabrics in a year. Near by are the pleasing blocks of red-brick houses, built for the operatives by the company in the early days. Other important manufactures are shoes (valued at $22,000,000 annually), cigars (especially a widely known "two-for-a-quarter" grade) and brushes. The i6o plants in the city make over zoo different products, and had a total output in 1925 valued at The public-school system provides special opportunities for the industrial workers.
Manchester is the seat of a Roman Catholic cathedral, four con vents, St. Anselm's college (Roman Catholic; 1893), the State industrial school and several charitable institutions under religious auspices. The assessed valuation in 1928 was $113,440,314. A zoning and planning board was created in 1927.
Amoskeag falls (or Namoskeag, "a place of much fish") was a favourite resort of the Penacook Indians, and tradition says that John Eliot preached to them here in the summer of 1851. The first white settlers (Scotch-Irish) came in 1722-23. Through its early years the settlement was known chiefly for its fisheries. Towards the end of the 18th century Judge Samuel Blodget saw the industrial possibilities in the falls and dreamed of duplicat ing here the great English textile centre. He planned and carried through the construction (1794-1807) of the first canal around the falls, which, together with the Middlesex canal in Massachu setts, gave a navigable waterway all the way to Boston; and he saw the establishment of the first cotton mills in 1805. In 1810 the name of Manchester was adopted to honour his memory, and the first mills bearing the name of Amoskeag were opened. In 1840 the population of the town was 3,235; in 1846 it was incor porated as a city, and by 186o it had a population of 20,107. Manchester was the home of Gen. John Stark, and the house in which he lived from 1758 to 1765 still stands.