Crown Hill Facts/ Nashua NH

Nashua's Changing Neighborhoods

BRIEF HISTORY: Crown Hill is believed to be named for its geographic location, a long, gently sloping hill that grows southward from Crown Street, a roller-coaster of a road that crests on one side of the Holy Infant Jesus compound.

A couple of sawmills first operated along Salmon Brook in the 1840s, a section near today's Burke Street that was once called Edgeville. Tool manufacturer George Underhill, who owned most of Crown Hill at that time, operated his Underhill Edge Tool Company near the present-day street bearing his name.

BORDERS: East Hollis Street to the north; the Merrimack River to the east; Salmon Brook and Allds Street to the south; and Harbor Avenue to the west.

HISTORIC LANDMARKS: The stone showing the spot where famed early settler Hannah Dustin spent the night at the Lovewell House after escaping from Indians near Haverhill, Mass., sits on the edge of Crown Hill at Allds and Fifield streets. The building currently housing Baez Grocery & Deli, at the corner of Arlington and Gillis streets, was built by Samuel Gaskill in 1893, where he opened the neighborhood's first store and later opened his second floor to church services for the future Arlington Street Methodist Church.

CURRENT LANDMARKS: Nashua Fire Rescue Station 4, corner Arlington and Bowers streets (soon to be replaced by a new building elsewhere in the area); Crown Hill Commons condominium complex, Allds Street; Crown Street railroad yard, end of Crown Street; Nashua Housing Authority complex (O.E. Maynard Housing), Burke Street; Independence Rowing Club, Crown Street at the Merrimack River; Girls, Inc., Burke Street.

SCHOOLS: Dr. Crisp Elementary School, Adult Learning Center, Clearway Alternative, all on Arlington Street; Northern Ballet Dance Center, Arlington Street; Holy Infant Jesus School, Crown Street.

PARKS: Lyons Field, Marshall Street; Sullivan Park, Marshall Street; Roussell Memorial Field, Haines Street; Gardner Memorial Park, Bowers Street; Joyce Park, Ingalls Street.

HOUSES OF WORSHIP: Holy Infant Jesus Church, Harvard Street; Arlington Street United Methodist Church, Arlington Street; Tebernaculo Delafeibdea, 49 Harbor Avenue.

UNIQUE FACTS: Allds Street was first known as Acre Street, in the mid-1800s, and later Alld's Road, before the apostrophe was dropped and "street" added.

As if a huge fire, a devastating flood, and a category 3 hurricane within one decade weren't enough, Crown Hill also survived a chilling cockroach invasion, when the critters multiplied in an old dump off Haines Street in the mid-1930s and threatened the neighborhood. Dousing the dump in kerosene and lighting it up ended the threat.

- Compiled by Dean Shalhoup