Nashua sits astride the border with Massachusetts, and often seems more like an exurb of Boston than the second-largest city in its titular state. In fact, it is probably best known to Bay Staters as a shopping mecca where they can avoid paying sales tax. The endless procession of malls and strip malls that line the highways are not the best introduction to the state.

There’s more to Nashua than initially meets the eye, however. Like surrounding cities, Nashua hit a boom in the 19th century when the Nashua Manufacturing Company built three cotton mills in town that together produced nearly 10 million yards of cloth a year. Unlike some of its neighbors, however, Nashua came alive again in the late 20th century, when its mix of low taxes and proximity to Boston made it an attractive location for high-tech companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation.

The bustling economy led to a revitalization of the city’s Victorian downtown, which is populated with thriving mom-and-pop stores patronized by locals, in contrast to the commercial congestion on the highways. The mix of good jobs and quality of life has made Nashua the only city named twice as the number-one best place to live in America by Money magazine (though on first glance, you might scratch your head to figure out how it was named once!). Around Nashua, the smaller cities of Merrimack and Derry are primarily bedroom communities for the larger cities in the area.