8 Prettiest Downtown Strips In New Hampshire
New Hampshire's prettiest downtown strips play to the region's scenic strengths and dynamic history, along the Piscataqua at the coast and the Ammonoosuc up in the White Mountains. Portsmouth's Market Square features a north side rebuilt in brick after an 1802 fire, with the North Church steeple over the eastern end. Littleton's Main Street stands above a riverwalk that crosses the Ammonoosuc on a suspension bridge and returns on a covered one. Hanover's central green belongs to Dartmouth College, and the Appalachian Trail is blazed right down Main Street. Each with its own distinct character, these are 8 of the prettiest downtown strips in New Hampshire.
Portsmouth
Market Square, Portsmouth's open plaza, is home to not one but three streets. Here, Market, Pleasant, and Congress Streets converge, having served as Portsmouth's commercial center since the mid 1700s. After a fire in 1802, the plaza's buildings were reconstructed in brick, which is why the northern side remains one of America's best examples of early 19th-century commercial blocks. North Church, built in 1854 to replace a 1713 meeting house, sits in the eastern portion of the square, with a steeple visible across much of the city. Down by the water, Prescott Park spans ten acres, and Strawbery Banke Museum stands across the street with about 30 preserved houses on the old Puddle Dock waterfront, the oldest dating to roughly 1695.
Dover
Twelve miles northwest of Portsmouth on NH 16, the Cochecho River drops through the middle of Dover. The city's renovated brick mills still stand along the water and now hold businesses and artists. The Woodman Museum occupies four buildings: the 1818 Woodman House, the 1813 Hale House, the 1825 Keefe House, and the Damm Garrison House of about 1675. The garrison is the only one of Dover's still standing, and the Keefe House holds a rotating art gallery on its first floor. The Children's Museum of New Hampshire on Washington Street is also worth a visit, no matter your age. Garrison Hill Park sits on 8.5 acres around a 300-foot summit with some of the best views in the city, and it's also home to a 76-foot tower that's open free of charge year-round.
Exeter
Exeter sits about 15 miles southwest of Dover. The Exeter River becomes the Squamscott just south of String Bridge. Along the bank on lower Water Street runs Swasey Parkway, a riverfront park that Ambrose Swasey gave to the town in November 1931. Trees, benches, and a pavilion completed in 2007 line the water. The Great Dam came out in 2016, so the channel now runs over a rebuilt riffle crest and cobble bed.
Exeter's bandstand came from Swasey as well. The Swasey Pavilion has stood at Water and Front Streets since 1916, replacing a wooden bandstand built in 1895. The Exeter Brass Band has played there on Monday evenings in July since its founding in 1847. The American Independence Center at 1 Governors Lane has a home from 1721 and the 1775 Folsom Tavern. At the early-1700s Gilman Garrison House, guided tours are offered during the warm months.
Peterborough
About fifty miles west of Exeter, downtown Peterborough sits at the confluence of the Contoocook River and Nubanusit Brook. Depot Square Park sits on that confluence behind the Toadstool Bookshop. Its pavilion garden replicates the original train depot, with yew hedges clipped in a wave pattern around it. Putnam Park covers just over two acres along the Nubanusit off Grove Street. Paved paths and oversized Adirondack chairs face the water there. Catherine Putnam gave the land to the town in 1962 with the provision that no buildings would ever be built on it. Peterborough Town Library stands at 2 Concord Street. A town vote in April 1833 made it the nation's first free, tax-supported public library, and its 1893 building reopened in September 2021 after a full restoration. Grand Monadnock rises southwest of all of it.
Hanover
Hanover sits 86 miles northwest of Peterborough, just under two hours by car on I-91. The Dartmouth Green, the college common that doubles as the town's central park, marks the middle of downtown. South Main Street shops face it across one street, and Baker Library faces the Green as well, completed in 1928 and modeled on Independence Hall. Its central tower has become the symbol of the college, and a set of fifteen bells custom-built in 1928 hangs inside. On the lower level, Orozco's mural cycle The Epic of American Civilization covers nearly 3,200 square feet across 24 panels. The Appalachian Trail runs down Main Street here, one of only ten towns where the trail and the main street coincide. Ledyard Bridge crosses the Connecticut River into Norwich, Vermont, and the Ledyard Canoe Club rents canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards beside it in warm weather.
Plymouth
East of Hanover, the Common sits at the center of Plymouth, a semi-elliptical plot of about a quarter acre. Notable landmarks include a 1903 bandstand designed by Francis V. Bulfinch and a 1933 Boy Scout fountain by sculptor George H. Borst. Five buildings frame the green. Among them is the 1890 Town Hall and Courthouse, a Romanesque brick structure with granite detailing under a prominent central tower. Behind the Town Hall stands the Old Grafton County Courthouse of 1774, one of the few 18th-century public buildings to survive in New Hampshire. It now holds the Plymouth Historical Museum at One Court Street. On Main Street, the Flying Monkey is home to an operational 1920s theater. It opened as the New Plymouth Theater for vaudeville and silent film, then reopened in 2010 as a movie house and performance hall.
North Conway
Schouler Park covers the open ground at the center of North Conway village on White Mountain Highway. Dr. James Schouler's 1924 bequest bought the field from the Boston and Maine Railroad, with the stipulation that it serve only as a public park. The town renamed it for him in 1961. A bandstand, ball fields, and a winter skating rink now share the space. The train station from 1874 stands next to the park, a restored Victorian depot where Conway Scenic Railroad loads its Valley Train and Mountaineer excursions. West of the village, Cathedral Ledge State Park towers at 700 feet. A mile-long road climbs to a summit that looks across the Saco River Valley to the White Mountains. Echo Lake State Park sits directly below the ledges with a trail around the water.
Littleton
The Ammonoosuc River runs below Littleton's Main Street. The Littleton Riverwalk is nearly a mile of gravel, pavement, and bog bridging along the south bank. The Curran Suspension Bridge crosses to the north side, and a covered footbridge crosses back to close the trail loop. The Town Building, built in 1894, stands at the corner of Main and Cottage Streets. It still holds the police department, the historical society museum, and the Opera House. The Pollyanna statue sits on the lawn in front of the public library, cast in bronze by New Hampshire sculptor Emile Birch and unveiled in 2002. Chutters, on Main Street, boasts 112 feet of glass jars, the longest candy counter in the world.
The Rivers And Ridges Behind New Hampshire's Downtowns
Nearly every good downtown in New Hampshire takes its shape from a river or a ridge, whether that is the Connecticut on the Vermont line or the Saco River Valley under the White Mountains. Exeter's Swasey Parkway follows the Squamscott below Water Street, where the Great Dam failed in 2016, leaving a cobble bed behind. Peterborough's Depot Square Park sits on the meeting of the Contoocook and Nubanusit Brook, and North Conway's Schouler Park holds an open field in the middle of the village with Cathedral Ledge 700 feet above the valley to the west. Those settings are what separate a pretty New Hampshire downtown from an ordinary one.
