From high art to downhill skiing to the most beautiful park in Manchester, Ward 2 residents have a plethora of entertainment and recreation options just a short walk or bike ride away from our homes.
Cultural Attractions
The Currier Museum of Art is an internationally-renowned art museum featuring European and American paintings from the Renaissance to the current day, including works from the likes of Picasso, Monet, O’Keeffe, Wyeth, and LeWitt. The museum also boasts an impressive collection of decorative arts, photographs, and sculptures, with exhibitions, tours, and programs year-round.
Manchester Community Theatre Players
Providing theatrical performance and instructional opportunities in acting, vocal performance, dance, orchestra, and technical theatre, Manchester Community Theatre Players performs shows year-round at the North End Montessori School building. The theatre is best known for its outdoor Theatre Under the Stars productions each summer
A stone’s throw from the heart of Derryfield Park, but effectively hidden out of sight in a clearing in the middle of a wooded area on nearby Oak Hill, Weston Observatory is an observation tower standing 66 feet tall flanked by two antebellum U.S. Navy cannons. Built with funds bequeathed by James Watson, a four-term mayor of Manchester and two-term governor of New Hampshire, the tower was built in 1896 for “the enjoyment and benefit of the people of Manchester.” In its heydey it was a popular lookout area and picnic site for locals and was used as a spotting post by air raid wardens during World War II. The observatory fell into disrepair in the post-war years and, while repaired in the 1970s, is currently closed to the public save for a couple of weekends each fall. Those interested can still hike to the base of the tower, however.
Parks
Situated on some 76 acres, Derryfield Park is one of the largest parks in Manchester and is a popular spot for everything from picnics under the park’s gazebos to kite-flying assisted by the park’s open fields and sloping topography. Derryfield Park is also home to ball fields, tennis courts, walking trails, and a popular playground. The parks also plays hosts to one of the more challenging cross country courses in the area.
Who wants to drive hours north to White Mountains, anyway? Skiing, snowboarding, and tubing can all be had McIntyre Ski Area, Manchester’s municipally-owned winter playground featuring 200 feet of vertical feet of terrain, nine trails varying in difficulty, a terrain park, an eight-lane snow tubing park, and chair lifts and wonder carpets. McIntyre boasts offers a Snowsports School that provides skiing and snowboarding lessons for kids and adults. The ski area also offers a retail/rental shop where one can buy or rent skis, snowboards, boots, and winter essentials.
With recent grant-funded investments, including a covered ramada and permanent picnic bench in the middle of the park, new lighting and bench upgrades, and the installation of a new walking path and cute exercise/play equipment for kids, Oak Park is on the cusp of transitioning from a “passive” park to an “active” park.
Known to locals as “Pretty Park,” Wagner Memorial Park is the most beautifully manicured park in the city. That’s because, unlike other city parks, Wagner Park has its own endowment. This urban oasis — an entire city block filled with ornamental shrubs, colorful flora, manicured lawns and even decorative benches and trash receptacles — was created with land and money bequeathed to the city in 1944 by Ottile Wagner Hosser in memory of her parents. Because she felt the city had too many parks that glorified war, she wanted to create a park of “peace and love” modeled on a small park in Paris of which she was fond. In the northeast corner of the park is a Greek-style monument that serves as a backdrop for weddings and high school prom photos. The park is a peaceful location for a picnic, a stroll, or reading a book.