Category Archives: Interesting Bites on NH Towns

354 Nashua St Milford, NH aka Conant House c1782

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This remodeled antique home and offices are now on the market.  Character, mixed use, expansion potential in barn, public utilities and on over half an acre. Traffic count is 13,000 daily and two curb cuts on Route 101A with parking lot, as well as a private driveway on Vine Street.
Excellent street presence and curb appeal!

  • Keep it offices…
  • Medical? It is currently a Naturopathic Clinic
  • Prior owner ran a Veterinarian office (Classic Cat Clinic).
  • Make a 1-floor in-law suite: aka ADU- accessory dwelling unit.
  • Open an inn. It was Victoria Place at one point.
  • Daycare?
  • Need a workshop…most of the huge barn is still unfinished and one of the L’s was used as a work-shop.

    More details on the blog: history, zoning info, and more photos:  https://conanthouse.wordpress.com/

Residential: MLS Listing

Commercial: MLS Listing

-Just my thoughts. Jenn

 

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190 Baboosic Lake Rd in Merrimack, NH

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Slideshow Video of 190 Baboosic Lake Rd. in Merrimack NH

The Barron House c1771

190 Baboosic Lake RdPreserved antique Colonial with heavy timber framing, wide-plank pine floors and wainscoting, 5 fireplaces, period trim, Moses Eaton stencils, and perennial gardens make this a very special place!  The home has a rich history dating back to pre-revolutionary times documented in the “History of Merrimack, NH, Volume I.”

The formal living and dining rooms flank the front staircase.  The keeping room runs the length of the house, a grand fireplace with beehive oven. Heading towards the back you have the large kitchen, half bath, laundry, and then you enter the large mudroom/library to access the 2-car attached garage.

Over the barn there’s a finished living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bath with separate electrical and natural gas furnace. A two-car garage with generator hook-up, walk up attic with more wide plank flooring.  The fieldstone foundation has a concrete floor, 200 amp service, chestnut beams, and many secrets.

MLS 4477896: Click for an Interactive Listing Sheet
Don’t forget to like my Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/topnhhomes

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Townie Tuesday Milford NH Town Hall

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What can I say, I love Milford NH! I only lived there for 10 years but it’s a town that is forever in my heart.  Tons of open space, community events, parks, trails, and filled with friendly people. Heck, Centennial Park has engraved paver bricks with both my boys names on them.  So today’s townie Tuesday pic is of Milford’s town hall…the keystone of a wonderful town center known as the “Milford Oval”.

The Milford Town Hall - A Sentinel Watching Over The Oval

The Milford Town Hall – A Sentinel Watching Over The Oval

The town history is very significant to the area, and to the country.  An interesting piece of on the oval…have you heard about the year Milford “walked”?  Literally, many of the buildings around the oval where moved.  The Milford Do-It Commitee tells the history of  some of the top historical places in town: www.qrtoursmilfordnh.org/town-hall-milford-nh/

So many of my favorite places are in Milford…Monson Village, the Mile Slip, Centennial Park, the Souhegan river, the swinging bridge, and Emerson Park (one of my favorites when the music is playing).  Maybe I need to write more pieces about the special places in Milford.  Another time….
-Just my thoughts, Jenn

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Townie Tuesday Picture for Pelham NH

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Here’s another Townie Tuesday picture, featuring the Pelham First Congregational Church during Old Home Day in 2013.  Every Tuesday I post a New Hampshire photo on my Facebook Page.OldHomeDay1stCongregationalChurch2013

 

Every year since 1906 the First Congregational Church organizes and sponsors the Old Home Day.  This is a fantastic community event starting in the morning with the 5k Race and Walk and ending with a community supper in the evening.  The day is filled with activities, raffles, parade, the White Elephant Table, food, kids games, and much more.

Read more: http://www.pelhamoldhomeday.org/about.html

Just my thoughts. -Jenn

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Townie Tuesday Pictures in New Hampshire (NH)

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Every Tuesday I post a picture on my Facebook page depicting a New Hampshire scene.  This week goes to Benson Park in Hudson, NH.

 

Post by Jennifer Cote – Top New Hampshire Homes.

 

Just Hanging out at the Park with my little guy.  Benson’s has lots of trails, some are even paved, large pond, there are restored parts of the the original Benson’s Animal Park, 9-11 monument, and many areas have been transformed by local groups into interesting fun vignettes.  A true community effort to save a piece of history.

The Ladybug at the Benson's Playground

The Ladybug at the Benson’s Playground

Read all about Bensons Wild Animal Farm:
   www.nhmagazine.com/October-2011/Bensons-Wild-Animal-Farm-Revisited/
   http://www.bensonsanimalfarm.com/
http://www.hudsonnh.gov/boards/bensons

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Under Utilized Infrastructure in Nashua – My Top 5

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Areas I would like to see rehabbed, reused, and functional in Nashua.  These are all downtown or close to it…not in any order of preference.  Your thoughts?

The Franklin Mills

The Franklin Street Mill

1. This area of Nashua is one of my favorites.  It’s for sale too.

1870 Fire Station - AKA Arts and Science Center

1870 Fire Station – AKA Arts and Science Center

2. Many a memory of the Arts and Science Center.  Great location close to the library. http://jennifercote.info/nashuas-past-central-fire-station/

Mohawk Tannery(before the fire)

Mohawk Tannery(before the fire)

3. Ah, Little Florida…a hidden neighborhood.  Let’s do something with this piece of land!

http://jennifercote.info/negative-environmental-influences-in-real-estate/

Behind the Picker Building

Behind the Picker Building

4. Again, mill building.  The potential is fantastic!

GreeleyhouseMillNashua2

The Greeley House

5. Yes, I have a fascination with Mill Buildings. This is the back of the Franklin Mills and that beautiful Greeley House.  This one is for sale too.

It’s best to walk around to really appreciate these areas…get out of the car!  I’ve blogged about a couple of them and had the pictures already.  The mill building area west of Main St (the area the Broad St Parkway will be heading into) has so much potential, so much history.

Don’t just look at the rubble, the skeletons of old buildings, the weeds and overgrowth…imagine the potential of what this area could be…please.

One more post: The End of the Hometown

-Just my thoughts. -Jenn

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Land Use, Development Potential, and How Important it is in Real Estate

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Region-wide Buildout Impact Analysis from the Nashua Regional Planning Commission.  Thank you Jen Czysz for helping me find this study.

There are areas in southern NH that are ripe for development.  I happen to be working on a group of properties in Litchfield and was doing an analysis on vacant land.  It got me thinking of what the development potential is in the surrounding towns.  Read the conclusion…you’ll like it too if you don’t fall asleep.

According to the town of Litchfield, NH’s Master Plan (Table V111-2 p.9) there are: 5,620 acres of land in-use(built upon), 1,541 acres constrained(cannot develop), and 2,622 acres are unconstrained (able to develop).  This data is from 1999, yeah it’s old.

LitchfieldPieChart

Build-out analysis is one step in the land use planning process to help municipalities plan for growth.   “Buildout is a theoretical condition and exists when all available land suitable for residential and nonresidential construction has been developed.”*  http://www.nashuarpc.org/files/5713/9463/5247/Regionwide_buildout_final.pdf

The charts below give you a better perspective of what may be available to develop.  Many towns have a proactive zoning ordinance that tracks the growth and can restrict building permits if/when the infrastructure cannot meet the needs.

The top, Nashua, has the least availability…the 2nd largest city in NH by population, no surprise.  I was completely taken back by Pelham…I double checked: 50%?  Read the NRPC PDF which explains the process of what factors they used.  Note: the data is from 2005, this would change if the town zoning requirements where modified otherwise it should keep fairly consistent being a percentage.

BuildoutGraph5towns

BuildOutTotals

Data from NRPC Regional Build-out Study- link above

So all of these towns/city are in southern NH…easy commute to Boston.  Why do Pelham, Litchfield, and Hudson have so much potential?  Look at a map…highway access!! 

SO REMEMBER…widen a highway, and you will have a lot of new development in these towns.

-Just my thoughts.  –Jenn

 

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Development Projects Gone Bad

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This is a follow up from: http://jennifercote.info/nashuas-mill-revival/

Jackson Falls and the Nashua Riverwalk trail.

Jackson Falls and the Nashua Riverwalk trail.

So the title was to get your attention, while the design of this development may have had some flaws (downtown with limited public parking can have a negative impact), somebody was thinking outside the box and I’ve always been fond of this development.

The development I want to discuss is not a rehab of a mill, but new construction that tries to blend in with the architecture of downtown Nashua, NH. Jackson Falls Condominiums were built back in the mid-2,000’s.  Beautiful inside and out with high-end finishes…but the limited parking, narrow entrance, high initial offering price, and then the real estate crash caused the project to go into foreclosure.

The main driveway into the development from Main St, Nashua, NH

The main, single lane, driveway into the development from Main St, Nashua, NH

 

Below is the plan, each unit has one parking spot in the garage on the main level, and the guest parking is only around 10 spaces. The Nashua River is on one side, and fenced railroad tracks on the other, it would be nice if there was a pedestrian crosswalk for the residents to walk over to Canal Street from the parking lot.

 

Jackson Falls Plan - click to enlarge

Jackson Falls Plan – click to enlarge to see additional comments

With the continued redevelopment of this area, additional parking is sorely needed.  We have the very popular Portland Pie that opened on the other side of the tracks :), and parking is a problem there too.  We have Railroad Square which has a decent parking lot, but it’s usually pretty full with some great pickings like Fody’s Tavern, and the Riverwalk Coffee Roasters, and then there is parking along either Main or Canal Streets.

Upscale downtown living.

Upscale downtown living.

After a new builder/developer took over the units at Jackson Falls Condominiums, they sold for far less, but still with high-end finishes.  Even with what I consider development flaws I still love the idea behind it, and it is a beautiful building.  Fantastic downtown location, the concept of living near your work and not needing a car…or maybe having just one car, and being adjacent to the Nashua Riverwalk are reasons alone to want to live here.

 

Another post I did on new construction gone bad: www.jennifercote.info/subdivisions-builders-and-appraisers/

I would love to see more developments like this downtown, this one was a little ahead of it’s time, and as the city improves the parking situation, the marketability should improve.

-Just my thoughts.  -Jenn

*The units shown in this blog are all vacant or of the model unit.  The photos are taken from my cheap camera I use for appraising….so they are not that great, but you get the idea.

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Nashua’s Mill Revival

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NashuaMillyard

The Mill-yard Smoke Stack – the green at the bottom of this picture is all the crumbled bricks from one of the buildings being razed.

It’s finally happening.  I grew up in Nashua and have always loved the downtown area.  Back in high school (when there was 1), I would take the city bus to the downtown station and walk up Main Street to my part-time job at an eye doctors office on Concord Street.  My stops included the soda counter at Woolworth’s, Espresso Pizza, Alex’s Shoe store (when it was located on East Pearl), and lots of window shopping.

This is the first post on the Nashua mills.  I’ve been taking photos of the mills for a number of years and this will be my outlet for those photos.

-Just my thoughts. -Jenn

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Nashua’s Central Fire Station Repurposed?

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Banner Nashua Central Fire Station

How about we do something with this downtown building?

I enjoy taking pictures of interesting buildings. This one was once the Nashua Arts and Science Center. Look at the corbels, the arched window headers, the brick detail on the gable, and what’s with that window air-conditioner? Yikes

I liked the picture so much I used it on my Facebook Page for a while, and started to look into the significance of the 1870 date.

Well, I learned quite a bit of Nashua history in my search, but I’ll focus on this picture. It’s the original Central Fire Station, which is on what’s now known as Church St. I wish it had a better use, looking a bit run down now.

Central Station in Nashua, NH back in time.

The Nashua NH Central Fire Station

Going by the Central Station countless times in the previous 3 decades,  I never noticed the tower on the back left of the building until I saw this picture.  Old fire houses had a bell tower…that was the fire alarm for the neighborhoods around it. Most bell towers have been removed due to structural deterioration. Look at the bell tower in this old postcard photo of Central Station.

 

Lowell Central Repurposed
Lowell Central Re-purposed

 

Here’s a good example of a re-purposed fire station in Lowell, MA.  It’s now a restaurant and offices.  Beautiful building from the street.  Notice the bell tower is still there.

You can find a great history of Lowell firefighting:  Lowell Fire Fighting by: J.T.Strunk.  My uncle Gerry was a Captain at this station before it (and he)retired.   I would love to see Nashua do something with the old fire house.

Hmmm, Visualize Nashua?

If you’d like to know when I post another article on this topic “like” my Facebook page: Facebook.com/TopNHhomes

Just my thoughts. -Jenn

Resources:

www.nashuahistory.com

“Nashua’s Central Station to Close” -11/12/1970 Nashua Telegraph-

http://www.firenews.org/nh/n/nashuanh.html

http://www.nh.searchroots.com/documents/Hillsborough/History_Nashua_NH_7.txt

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19701112&id=0JgrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=p_UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5756,1378818

http://www.TopNHhomes.com

http://www.JACoteAppraisals.com

Homes of Character in Nashua, Hudson, Hollis, Milford, Merrimack, Pelham, NH Real Estate, Land and Homes, Windham property.

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