Curious about Nashua Main St./Canal St. area

I was eating up at Margarita's in downtown Nashua recently off Canal St, when something suddenly clicked, but I don't know anything about the history of the area, so maybe someone can tell me if I'm off base.

The parking lot area seems to have a shape that looks like it may have been a multi-track train yard. There are two tracks alongside, although one is overgrown and not connected on at least one end. Is the other track even in use? I think there was a chain fence/gate that crossed the track.

And the building Margarita's is in, which I thought was simply a mill, has the remnants of a 12(?)-ton crane in the upper section, which could have been used to transfer containers from the canal to the rails.

Anyone know the history of this area?

Hey there caduceus,

Margarita's isn't an old mill building, but its past I believe has something to do with the falls on the Nashua River. Perhaps its an old power generating station? Anyways, onto the topic I'm more familiar with.

The parking lot is the site of the maintenance facilities for the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, later the Boston & Maine Railroad. At one time there was a roundhouse and a half a dozen rail shops located in that area. I have a photo of the facilities in my collection somewhere.

The Peddler's Daughter on Main Street was once the old car shop, and before its use with the railroad, that building used to have an elevator in the building to transfer goods from the river up to street level.

The curved brick building on Canal Street is the old freight station. It used to have one track entering the building (east end of the building).

The second track you saw would have been a passing track, as there was a passenger station located at the corner of Main and Canal, the old Nashua Depot (not to be confused with Union Station).

You might be interested in my website:
Nashua City Station Railroad History

Matt

Thanks...glad to know I was right at least about the parking area.

I was just looking at Nashua on Google Earth. What is the canal running through town?

CGRLCDR wrote:I was just looking at Nashua on Google Earth. What is the canal running through town?

That's the Nashua Canal. It was used by the Nashua Manufacturing Company for all the mills located on the south side of the river west of Main Street. The Jackson Mills, which are located on the north side of the river east of Main Street, also had its own canal, much smaller in size, but that canal actually followed alongside Canal Street, starting east of the Nashua Depot freight station and went east through the mills towards the Nashua River. So basically, all those shops that were located where the parking lot is today would have been on their own island.

Matt