Nashua area Information

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Real estate

Generally speaking, real estate in the Nashua / Hudson area is fairly expensive.  We spent some time looking at both land and homes in Nashua and Hudson, focusing our efforts on newer construction.  Here is a sampling of what we found:

Land:

Hudson -  $110,000, .79 ac. on Bush Hill Rd. This lot that is down the street from house below on Bush Hill Rd.  According to MLS, it has city water and sewer but required hookup fees and some site work totaling $9500 or thereabouts.  Bush Hill Road exits near a convenience store and Burger King and is in what appears to me to be a nice part of Hudson.

Nashua -   $130,000 each, .92 ac. each on Colonial Ave.  These are two building lots in a convenient location about 5 minutes from the turnpike off (if I recall correctly) Exit 5.  The neighborhood itself is a mix of older homes (a few split levels, some ranches, some colonials) and brand new homes.  The house between the two available lots looks nice and fairly new (I'd guess in the 3-8 year old range, maybe even less).  The lots are at the end of a street on a culdisac. 

Homes:

Hudson -  $399,900, 4 bed / 2 1/2 bath / 8 room / 2800 sq. ft., on Bush Hill Rd. - This brand new home is in an area of Hudson that is recently developed.  I would guess that the oldest homes in the area (with few exceptions) are just a few years old.  It has 2 car garage and I do not know the lot size.

Hudson -  $379,900, 3 bed / 2 1/2 bath on Flying Rock Road - This home is on a side street from Bush Hill road.  It is a colonial with a third floor loft and 2 car garage.  It is still under construction and I do not know the square footage.

Nashua -  $330,000, 3 bed / 2 1/2 bath / 2000-2200 sq. ft, unknown address near lots at Colonial Ave.  There is a colonial style home under construction for sale in the same neighborhood, but on a different street, as the lots above on Colonial Ave..  It is on a smaller lot (I think it may have been 1/4 acre or so) and the houses immediately surrounding it are not quite as nice as the Colonial at the end of Colonial Ave (pun coincidental).  It had a 2 car garage and the specs are the best of my recollection based on talking to the realtor.

We also visited Value Homes of New England which is a modular manufactured home builder located in Nashua.  More information about Value Homes and modular housing in general can be found on the statewide page.

Commerce and Restaurants

Nashua features the best of New Hampshire when it comes to shopping, living, restaurants, etc.  There is just about every type of chain store imaginable, including several grocery store chains, a Super Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, CompUSA, Home Depot, etc. etc.  There were also many specialty stores which I won't list off, though the Christmas store sticks out in my mind.

Nashua also offers more variety in restaurants than we saw anyplace else.  In addition to the standard fast food chains (including a McDonalds with a 24-hour drive through), there were several less common chains and single-location restaurants.  We ate at Ruby Tuesday's one night which is in the same general area as the Ground Round, Applebees, and what appeared to be an upscale Pizza restaurant (not sure if it was a chain or a one-off place).  Nashua also has a Denny's for those of you who can't get enough Grand Slams.

I think it would be pointless to try and go into further detail about shopping and eating in Nashua since it has pretty much everything.  Any general purpose shopping need could be met there and for specific or highly specialized needs you can probably find out what's available from other resources.

An additional comment I'll make is regarding the hotel we stayed at (some of this is repeated on the main index page).  Nashua has the only low-cost extended stay type chain hotel we could find in the entire state of New Hampshire.  It is an Extended Stay America and is located off Exit 8.  Other extended stay and/or all suite hotels in New Hampshire seemed to be prohibitively expensive for our purposes (more than $10 per night additional over what we paid at ESA).  Contrary to what their website indicates, they do have rooms with king size beds which are larger than the standard rooms.  I believe you'd have to call to reserve one.  Their staff was friendly and the location was good for our purposes.  One exit south is a major shopping and eating street (101A, which ultimately goes to Keene).  There is a K-mart, Target, Wal-Mart, at least two grocery stores, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, Papa Gino's Pizza, Applebees, and lots and lots more all within about a 5 minute drive.  Though the location is good, the accommodations are not full service.  Maids don't come daily, they don't stock some basic items such as paper towels, and the room isn't really suite sized - there's no couch. 

Churches

Trinity Baptist: I stopped in to Trinity Church to collect some information.  Some of their materials say Trinity Church and some say Trinity Baptist Church, which would lead me to believe they are attempting to establish their own identity, though they are, in fact, a Baptist Church.  They have two services, a 9:00 a.m. service billed "Worship with a Blend" and a 10:45 a.m. service billed "The River" which is a more contemporary styled service.  A note on their Sunday bulletin indicates parents with children worshiping with them can take them to class at 9:25 or 11:10 which suggests about 25 minutes of music in each service.  The have a monthly newsletter which I obtained a copy of (the November issue) which has a calendar of events in it.  Between the information in the newsletter (with calendar) and the bulletin, it appears they have a reasonable amount of 'stuff' going on given the size of the church (if I recall correctly, about 300 on an average weekend).  They also have a school but I did not get details about it.

Grace Fellowship:  On November 2, we attended Grace Fellowship Church in downtown Nashua.  I don't know if there are any larger churches (measured by attendance) in New Hampshire, but I suspect none significantly larger.  Grace averages 800-900 people per Sunday in three services: 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30.  Their downtown building is not new but the inside has obviously been renovated for their purposes.  The main sanctuary is actually on the second floor. 

The style of worship at Grace is contemporary.  Their music featured a 'praise band' made up of drums, percussion, keyboards, electric guitar, bass, and a worship leader who plays acoustic guitar as well as an additional vocalist.  I don't recall them doing any 'older' worship music and/or hymns.  They did some songs we were familiar with and their renditions were pleasant.  They started the set with Open the Eyes of my Heart, then Rock of Ages (the contemporary one, not the Hymn) and continued on with a total of about 45 minutes of music.  I don't know if they do communion every Sunday but they did on that Sunday which may have extended the worship time somewhat.  After the first 'set' they did several songs we weren't familiar with, however we really enjoyed them both in style and 'content' (i.e. lyrics).  Some charismatic churchs offer extremely wordy songs which are difficult to sing.  Generally, that wasn't the case here.

I happened to observe that the church is remarkably balanced, both generationally and racially.  There was a strong representation of all ages as well as many races present and the environment seemed perfectly suited to that balance.  It's difficult to know, but I suspect that is intentional.  The nursery takes children through 36 months, however they will not take your children to the potty and/or change diapers.  Instead, they page you to do that.  I only say that here because that is different than what we are accustomed to.  They do have a 'family church' room downstairs which is suitable for families with young children to attend together.  They broadcast the service as it's happening down there so they can participate in the same service without the children disrupting it.

Based on the bulletin and promotional material, it appears they have more things going on than a person could possibly participate in.  On their first time visitor form they list several programs they offer including Growing Kids God's Way, Crown Ministries (financial guidance), Divorce Care, and several others.  The weekly calendar lists several Bible studies as well as Northeast Bible Institute which is apparently a seminary type class they offer (for credit if I recall correctly) which is somehow associated with the church (I think the pastor teaches it).  They had a Thanksgiving food drive coming up as well as a mens retreat.

The sermon for the morning was a part of a series from the book of Acts and was about bitterness.  Generally, I was satisfied with the sermon.  As with anything, some elements impressed me, some didn't, and some were just different.  For starters, his sermon was very closely scripted and utilized outline material projected on the screen.  I've seen that type of arrangement before (in fact, it's common these days) but not quite at such a detailed level (I had to look around to see if there was a teleprompter somewhere ;).  I also had one little red flag about his outlook on prayer and how prayer works (his view of prayer and mine are different).  However, there were several things I was impressed with.  In particular, he does know his geography, which I appreciate, and he spent a little time communicating that to us.  Most pastors don't do that and the congregation is geographically lost with respect to the correlation between Biblical places and our world today.  Also, he regularly referred to the Bible (as he should) but also used other quotes and references where applicable for his sermon.  Overall (aside from his prayer theology) I enjoyed the sermon and didn't have any real problems with his style.  The church was generally casually dressed but the pastor did wear a tie. 

Overall, it seems as though that church is generally Biblically based, active, diverse, and large by New Hampshire standards.  Based on our experience there, I would recommend visiting if you're in the area.

Events

We wound up with an unexpected event which led to a hospital visit.  Edison got his finger caught in the front door of our van and hurt it very badly.  The details of the injury are found on the main index page.  He was treated at the Emergency Room at St. Joseph hospital in Nashua.   The staff there was helpful and friendly.  There were at least a couple of people there who identified themselves as students.  They, too, were friendly and helpful.  The ER seemed busy for that time of night (we didn't get out until close to midnight) but I don't recall seeing any severe trauma (i.e. serious car accidents, gun shot, etc.) arriving while we were there.  We haven't been billed yet so I don't know what the cost of that visit was or what the insurance consequences are.

Other

Drive times are on the statewide page.  Nashua is the biggest city in New Hampshire and appears to me to be a very nice place to live.  I think we could enjoy it there, however, it's very expensive.  As a result of the real estate prices there, we're having to look elsewhere for our housing needs.  On the bright side, both Nashua and Hudson have relatively low property tax rates, partly due to the high assessed values of the property there. 



Copyright 2003  Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.