mostly positive, Nashua murals

Posted on September 28, 2026 by Mary C

below: This is West Pearl Street, Nashua NH in 1909. Tremont House located at the corner of West Pearl & Main streets dominates the picture. West Pearl was the economic hub of the city at that time with many coffee shops, pool rooms, stores, and other business establishments. In 1923 the Tremont Houses was demolished and a bank built in its place.

mural, a view of West Pearl Street, Nashua NH in 1909 with Tremont House which was a hotel, in the foreground — The mural was painted by Barbara Andrews

below: This painting is on the back of a building in a downtown parking lot.

mural in a Nashua New Hampsire parking lot

below: In the same parking lot as the above painting, is this mural. “Martha’s Muse was painted by Manuel Ramirez in 2019. It is on the back of Martha’s Exchange Restaurant, Brewey, and Sweet Shoppe on Main Street. Ramirez is part of a group, Positive Street Art that is responsible for many of the murals in Nashua.

Martha's Muse, was painted by Manuel Ramirez from Positive Street art. shows woman sitting at a table drinking beer

below: Another mural from Positive Street Art is this “We are Grateful For” with the sun in the center. The rays of the sun are filled with words including family, outdoors, and second chances. In addition, there are four trees, each representing a season. There are green leaves on the summer tree but red and brown leaves on the autumn one, as seen here.

mural from Positive Street Art, What we are grateful for, kindness, family, nature,pets, outdoors, faith, second chances, words are written on rays of the sun that are shining through 4 trees, one for each season,

below: The spring tree is full of white blossoms with words like, “blessings”, “kindness”, “honesty”, and “generosity” on the suns rays that shine on the tree.

mural, spring tree is full of white blossoms with words like, honesty, shelter, blessings, freedom, alive, sharing, happiness, music, animals,

below: At the winter end of the mural snow covers the branches of the otherwise bare tree. But the sun keeps shining.

tree in winter, snow on the branches, in a mural, sun's rays with words on them, resources, acceptance, siblings, sunsets, care givers, every day, rainbows, dancing, art,

below: She is blowing lots of bubbles here, in the third Positive Street Art mural of this post.

young girl blowing lots of bubbles in a mural for 50th anniversary of Rotary Club of Nashua West

below: The full mural. It was painted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Nashua West.

mural for 50th anniversary of Rotary Club of Nashua West

hand holding a glass globe full of water, street art mural

below: There is a lot of text – it’s a list of questions called “The Four-Way Test of the things we think, say, or do”. This list was created in 1932 by Herbert J. Taylor as he tried to save the Club Aluminum Company from bankruptcy. Taylor was a Rotarian; in 1943 the Rotary Club adopted these tests as part of their philosophy.

part of a mural, a list of questions called

below: “Take courage when the road is long don’t ever forget, you are never alone.” Although the grammar isn’t stellar, the message is a good one. This is the fourth (and last for this post) Positive Street Art mural. It is a tribute dedicated to community members lost to the opioid epidemic. Painted by Manuel Ramirez, Jason Marc DeBow, and Tom Lopez.

Mural, couple with a dog, with many people around them, with text, Take courage when the road is long don't ever forget, you are never alone. by Positive Street Art members

part of Take Courage mural, young people dancing while some others watch

If you are interested in the murals in Nashua, there are a couple of other posts on this site as well – Nashua murals.

Photos taken July 2024

Nostalgia

Posted on September 18, 2024 by Mary C

… is a mural on Main Street in Nashua that takes a look back at three of the highlights in the history of American movies – The Three Stooges, Cary Grant and Vivian Leigh in ‘Gone With the Wind’, as well as James Stewart and Donna Reed in ‘A Wonderful Life’. It was painted on the side of on the Chase Building on its 100th anniversary. Once upon a time this building was home to a movie theater with a few different names – the Tremont (1917-1927), State (1927-1973), and Star (1973-1980) Theaters.

Phelany23 painted the mural, with the support of Positive Street Art.

below: A Wonderful Life, Christmas 1946 with James Stewart and Donna Reed

below: Gone with the Wind – Cary Grant and Vivian Leigh

below: The Three Stooges in The Blob – Larry, Moe, and Curly

Nashua Heritage Rail Trail

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Mary C

Similar to other cities in the United States, Nashua New Hampshire has made a bicycle/pedestrian path out of land once used by the railway. The trail itself is short, only just over a mile starting at City Hall and running parallel to Hollis Street although there may be plans to extend it. Once it was part of the Great Northern Railway that ran from Boston to Lake Erie.

Some of the buildings along the trail have been painted with murals.

street art mural on trail in Nashua New Hampshire,

The Nashua Dodgers were a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team that played out of Holman Stadium in Nashua from 1946 to 1949 (four seasons). Two African American players, catcher Roy Campanella and pitcher Don Newcombe, were on the team in those years – this was shortly after the signing of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945, and the beginning of the integration of major league baseball.

below: Horse drawn public transit on the streets of Nashua, the Manchester Horse Railroad, “Main Street 1908”

street art mural on trail in Nashua New Hampshire,Horse drawn public transit the Manchester Horse Railroad, scene from 1908

below: Fuzzy in pink and red with wisps of green.

One of the projects of the Positive Street Art organization is the maintenance of two Legal Graffiti Walls. They happen to be on this rail path and this is what was on one of them when I passed by in mid August 2024…. It is a tribute to Joey Tombs by Jay Mac (aka The Backstah) on the 10th anniversary of Tombs’s passing.

And last, there is one more train themed mural. A caboose and an engine with three railroad cars in between. These cars contain scenes painted by local artists. The mural was created as part of the 2005 Mayor’s Task Force on Youth along with the support of local businesses. It covers the entire block between Walnut Street and Chestnut Street.