Best Web Design in Manchester, NH (2026)

Web Design for Manchester, New Hampshire

Manchester is the largest city in New Hampshire and in all of northern New England, built along the Merrimack River around the once-mighty Amoskeag Millyard. In the 19th century Amoskeag was the largest cotton textile plant on Earth, and today its restored red-brick mills house engineering firms, colleges, restaurants, and museums. Every four years the city sits at the center of the political universe, hosting candidates chasing the nation's first presidential primary, poutine at Chez Vachon included.

AppWT works with Manchester, NH businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Manchester

Also known as. Queen City. ManchVegas.

History. The Pennacook people fished the Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack; the name Amoskeag comes from an Abenaki word meaning 'place of many fish.' Scots-Irish immigrants settled the area in the 1720s, and it was chartered as the town of Derryfield in 1751. Investors reorganized local mills into the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in the 1820s, and the settlement was incorporated as the city of Manchester in 1846, planned as a model factory city modeled on Lowell, Massachusetts. At its peak Amoskeag employed about 17,000 people across roughly 30 buildings and was the largest cotton textile plant in the world, stretching more than a mile along both banks of the Merrimack. The New England textile industry shifted south in the early 20th century and Amoskeag went bankrupt in 1935; the mills were later refurbished into offices, colleges, restaurants, and museums.

Local economy. Manchester is northern New England's largest city, with a population around 115,000, and functions as the commercial hub of the Granite State. Health care is a leading sector, led by Elliot Health System (the largest provider in southern New Hampshire, with over 4,000 staff) and Catholic Medical Center. Southern New Hampshire University is a major institution, with its name on the downtown SNHU Arena. Dean Kamen's engineering firm DEKA, employing hundreds of engineers, operates out of the old Amoskeag mill buildings. The old textile economy has been replaced by health care, higher education, technology, engineering, and finance.

Culture and community. The Currier Museum of Art holds works by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, O'Keeffe, Sargent, and Andrew Wyeth, and operates two Frank Lloyd Wright house museums. The west side, near the mills, remains a French-Canadian cultural center; Chez Vachon on Kelley Street is a poutine institution known for its five-pound poutine challenge. The Palace Theatre and the SNHU Arena (seating roughly 10,000-12,000) anchor the downtown performing-arts and concert scene. The Manchester Brewfest, held at Arms Park along the Merrimack, is billed as the largest craft beer festival in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, play at Delta Dental Stadium downtown.

What makes Manchester distinct. New Hampshire has held the nation's first presidential primary since 1920, and Manchester, as the state's largest city, becomes a national media magnet every four years. The nickname 'ManchVegas' arose from illegal video-poker machines that paid out cash in local bars and pizza shops in the late 1980s and early 1990s. By 1900 about 60 percent of New Hampshire's textile workers were French-Canadian, a legacy that still shapes the city's West Side food and culture. Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and the iBOT wheelchair and founder of the FIRST robotics competition, runs DEKA Research out of the same mills that once made cotton cloth.

Manchester Landmarks and Local Life

• The Amoskeag Millyard - the mile-long complex of red-brick mills built between roughly 1838 and 1915, now home to the Millyard Museum
• The Currier Museum of Art and its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Zimmerman and Kalil houses.
• SNHU Arena - the downtown centerpiece for concerts and sports since 2001
• Delta Dental Stadium - home of the Fisher Cats
• The Amoskeag Fishways Learning and Visitors Center at Amoskeag Falls - and the historic Palace Theatre