Amherst is one of New Hampshire's oldest towns, settled in the early 1700s along the Souhegan River (west of the Merrimack) as a farming community. What is believed to be the state's oldest public burial ground lies behind the Town Hall. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Amherst was the most prosperous town in southern New Hampshire, serving as a major transportation hub and shire town. But unlike nearby towns along the Merrimack, Amherst never became industrialized, and as a result has retained its Georgian, Federal and Greek Revival buildings surrounding its central village green.

In 2007, Martha Lyon Landscape Architecture was hired with Community Preservation Associates and Earth Tech, Inc. to prepare a comprehensive master plan for Amherst. The town, now a bedroom community for Manchester, Concord, Nashua, and Boston, is under tremendous pressure to grow. To help plan for that growth, MLLA inventoried, assessed and made recommendations for preserving the town's historic and cultural resources.