NASHUA – While most communities in Greater Nashua have had at least one historical highway marker on display for some time, Nashua hasn’t been one of them – until now.

Appropriately, the city’s first marker has been installed in front of the Nashua Historical Society’s Abbot-Spalding House museum by the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, the agency that manages, in conjunction with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, the historic highway marker program.

Now, only the final step remains: The official unveiling and dedication, a ceremony that’s scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 on the front lawn of the Abbot-Spalding House. The public is invited to attend, with a reminder that face masks are required and physical distancing will be in effect. The society will have free masks on hand for those without one. Rain date for the ceremony is 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24.

The marker is prominently placed near the intersection of Amherst, Nashville and Abbott streets, just inside the fence surrounding the Abbot-Spalding House. “The Nashua Historical Society is proud to have our Abbot-Spalding House acknowledged with this marker, especially since this is the first historic marker installed in Nashua,” said Beth McCarthy, Historical Society curator. She said the marker highlights the house, which was built circa 1802-1804 by Daniel Abbot, a prominent 19th-century Nashua businessman known as “The Father of Nashua” for his leading role in reuniting the towns of Nashua and Nashville 11 years after the two split over political conflict. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places.

“The society feels this marker is also a wonderful gift to the City of Nashua,” McCarthy said, adding that the marker brings to 267 the number of markers installed statewide.

According to the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, any municipality, agency, organization or individual wishing to propose a historical highway marker to commemorate significant New Hampshire places, persons or events must submit to the agency a petition of support signed by at least 20 New Hampshire residents.

The applicant must also include a draft of the wording for the marker, and provide footnotes and copies of supporting documentation, as well as a suggested location for marker placement.

“New Hampshire’s historical highway markers illustrate the depth and complexity of our history and the people who made it, from the last Revolutionary War soldier to contemporary sports figures to poets and painters who used New Hampshire for inspiration; from 18th-century meeting houses to stone arch bridges to long-lost villages; from factories and cemeteries to sites where international history was made,” according to the agency.

Lists both by number and by city or town, along with an interactive map showing the markers’ locations, can be found at www.nh.gov/nhdhr.

Newsletter