Goffstown is a town located in the Southern part of New Hampshire in the Merrimack Valley region of the state. It is situated in the Northern portion of Hillsborough County and encompasses a total area of 37.5 square miles, .6 of which is water. As of the 2010 United States Census, Goffstown was home to 17,651 people.
Goffstown was originally a part of Massachusetts, known by a number of different names over the years, including Narragansett Number 4, Piscataquog Village and Shovestown. The land was first granted in 1748 to a group of settlers, which included a man named John Goffe. Goffe was a former soldier in the French and Indian Wars and a surveyor under Governor Benning Wentworth; it is in his honor that Goffstown was named when it was incorporated as a town in 1761.
Less than 2 percent of Goffstown’s total area is comprised of water. The town includes the Piscataquag River and the Uncanoonuc Mountains, where elevation reaches 1,324 feet above sea level, and lies completely within the Merrimack River watershed. Goffstown’s main thoroughfares include New Hampshire Route 13 and New Hampshire Route 114.
Goffstown is governed by an elected Board of Selectmen. The town boasts a full-time police department, a full-time fire department and municipal emergency medical services. Top employers in the area include Saint Anselm College, Town of Goffstown, Shaw?s Supermarket, Hannaford Brothers, McClellan Automation, Hillsborough County, Northeast Sheet Metal, New Hampshire Steel Fabricators and Happy House Amusement.
Children in the area attend schools in the School Administrative Unit #19, which also serves the nearby towns of Dunbarton and New Boston. For entertainment, Goffstown residents can take advantage of the town’s municipal parks, YMCA, golf courses, swimming pools, tennis courts, bowling facilities, museums, movie theatres, performing arts venues, youth organizations, sports leagues, campgrounds, fishing and hunting areas, boating marinas, snowmobile and bicycle trails, cross country skiing and local beaches and waterfront areas.