Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thank you for cleaning that up. Some people are making it out to be a very ugly place. I am happy to see that it might just be the town that is portrayed in the pictures.
I have visited Berlin some time ago and got the impression that it would be a neat place if it did not stink. As the stink is gone, how is it now? I guess I'll have to ride up there and see for myself.
Unless I had a job or a successful business I would not move there because there is no source of real prosperity. The mills have moved away and they ain't coming back. Follow the money and the money has left town. Too bad but at least the stink is gone.
Yup the stink is gone. So are all the mills. I can't say what if anything has gone up in the old mill yards.
There is a project in the works to use the old boilers of the wood mill to make a wood fired power plant. 50 Megawatts in size, which is huge in comparison to the other wood fired plants around the state.
NHF, That's cool. Have you ever been to Foster's Boiler Room in Plymouth NH? It's one of the Common Man chain, and a wicked good place to eat. Once it was a peg mill, and they also made wooden ice cream spoons that came in individual ice cream containers long ago.
There is a party /wine room inside a fire box there, which is cool as the old fire doors are still in place and up on the ceiling are 2 boiler tanks still. I love creative work like that. Near those doors are 2 metal bars leaning on the wall, and you should have no problem ID ing what the bars are for.
My husband and I are two young professionals (no children, yet) who very deliberately moved to Berlin two years ago from the Midwest. I would like to offer a perspective quite different from those so freely given by some previous posters (many of whom don't seem to actually live here). What drew us to Berlin first was the surrounding area. If you have a passion for hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing, cross-country or downhill skiing, then northern New Hampshire is a wonderful place to live (I should also mention snowmobiling and ATVing even though that's not our cup of tea). So why Berlin, specifically? If you visit, you will find that its location really is a lovely one, resting in a valley with the Androscoggin river running down the center of town and elephant-shaped Mount Forist looking on. You will notice that it's not been developed with strings of chain restaurants or big box retailers, but I kind of like that. It is not suburbia. It is a city of character, hilly streets, many well-kept neighborhoods in addition to the vacant buildings. Yes, there certainly are some streets in this city that are not very aesthetically or socially pleasing, but we have honest, hard-working, and welcoming neighbors and by no means is our neighborhood the exception. In the two short years we have lived here, there has been a lot of effort to clean things up: we've seen several abandoned buildings torn down or rehabilitated. Is main street booming? I would say definitely not, but it's not exactly a post-war zone, either. Berlin has a grocery store, a few hardware stores, a performing arts center (St. Kieran's, which brings in some very talented musicians), and a few boutiques and miscellaneous stores. We also have some decent restaurants. For those things that you cannot find locally, there is always Amazon.
There is no longer an odor here. We drink the Berlin water every single day. It tastes just fine, and we have not developed any new appendages or serious illnesses.
I would not hesitate to raise children here. In the classroom, they may sit next to children who come from families that don't share your values or your privilege. Granted we're not parents yet, but I'm not sure that a racial or socioeconomic monoculture is the best thing that can happen to a child, anyway. I work with several law-abiding, intelligent, well-adjusted, and successful graduates of the local school system. I suppose as a parent you do all you can to bring your child up well, to know good from evil, to have integrity and compassion, and I suppose there will always be obstacles to that, but I don't think that moving to the Berlin area has to be one of those obstacles.
P.S. To those of you with nothing at all positive to say about this city, residents or not, have you considered that a hopeless distaste for a community you may or may not know does not at all help the cause. You speak hastily against many who want something better for this place. I am sure that was not your intention, but there are consequences to muddying our reputation up here. It's not a fairytale kingdom, but calling it "hell" goes a little too far.
You will notice that it's not been developed with strings of chain restaurants or big box retailers, but I kind of like that.
Except for that Super Walmart right down the road. Technically not Berlin, but I'm sure that's where almost everyone in Berlin and Gorham go food and clothing shopping.
A few years ago we got lost driving to Santa's Village (Jefferson) and somehow ended up in Berlin. I'll never forget it. I had no idea that a town like that existed in the White Mountain area. Now, if I were in an area in Massachusetts that looked like that - I definitely would have locked my car doors and got the heck out of there. I totally felt safe driving through. Just a lot of boarded up storefronts and such. You can tell the town has been hit economically...sad it's such a pretty area with mountain views...
Just a quick update, we ended up in Tucson, AZ. Its where the employment came through. It isn't out of the question that we will end up in Berlin in a few years. It wasn't in the cards right now I guess. In this economy, we are just thankful for good work. It is hot as an iron here in the summer, but the other eight months of the year are nice, so I guess it could have been worse as far as locations go.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
No, it's not that scary
Technically not Berlin, but I'm sure that's where almost everyone in Berlin and Gorham go food and clothing shopping.
