Manchester, New Hampshire, United States

🇺🇸 Manchester is a city in southern New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in northern New England.

Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hampshire's most populous county, Hillsborough County. Manchester lies near the northern end of the Northeast megalopolis and straddles the banks of the Merrimack River. It was first named by the merchant and inventor Samuel Blodgett, namesake of Samuel Blodget Park and Blodget Street in the city's North End. His vision was to create a great industrial centre similar to that of the original Manchester in England, which was the world's first industrialised city.

Manchester often appears favorably in lists ranking the affordability and livability of U.S. cities, placing particularly high in small business climate, affordability, upward mobility, and education level.

Economy Manchester is northern New England's largest city. Its economy has changed greatly, as Manchester was primarily a textile mill town throughout much of its history. In March 2009, Kiplinger voted Manchester the second most tax friendly city in the U.S., after Anchorage, Alaska. Earlier in the year, CNN rated Manchester 13th in its top 100 best places in the U.S. to live and launch a business. 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 centre already in place across the street from the arena. The building was renamed the SNHU Arena in 2016, after Manchester's Southern New Hampshire University.

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

As of 2017, the following organisations and companies were the largest employers in Manchester: • Elliot Hospital, 3,682 employees • Catholic Medical Center, 2,600 employees • Southern New Hampshire University, 2,093 employees • Eversource Energy, 1,400 employees • FairPoint Communications, 1,050 employees • TD Bank, 900 employees • Citizens Bank, 700 employees • Saint Anselm College, 689 employees • Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, 500 employees.

Downtown Downtown Manchester's One City Hall Plaza stands 22 stories high, quickly followed by the all-black, 20-story Brady Sullivan Plaza, formerly known as the Hampshire Plaza. They are the tallest New England buildings north of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Sullivan Plaza is shorter than City Hall Plaza by a mere 16 feet (4.9 m). Other major buildings include the 18-story Wall Street Apartments tower; the 14-story, recently renamed Brady Sullivan Tower, which was the former New Hampshire Insurance building; the 12-story DoubleTree Hotel and Convention Center Manchester (which serves the SNHU Arena across the street), the Carpenter Center (a former hotel), and the Hampshire Towers condominium building; the 10-story Citizens Bank Building, which was, for much of the early- and mid 20th century, Manchester's iconic Amoskeag Bank "skyscraper"; and several high-rises of or exceeding 10 stories on the city's West Side. This partial list only includes residential and commercial buildings and does not include hospitals, spires and domes, etc.

The SNHU Arena has become the centerpiece of downtown Manchester. The venue can seat slightly less than 12,000 patrons for concerts, and at least 10,000-seat configurations for sporting and other forms of entertainment. It has also hosted major recording artists and comedians, national touring theatrical productions, family-oriented shows, and fairs since it opened in 2001. The Northeast Delta Dental Stadium (formerly MerchantsAuto.com Stadium) is a baseball park 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.

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, including the University of New Hampshire at Manchester, have been uniquely retro-fitted into properties along Commercial and Canal Street.

Retail Manchester has three main retail areas: downtown Manchester, South Willow Street (NH Route 28), and Second Street (NH Route 3A) on the West Side. The Mall of New Hampshire is on South Willow Street, and, with more than 125 stores, is one of the largest shopping centres in southern New Hampshire and central New England.