History of Lowell, Massachusetts
Encyclopedia
The History of Lowell
is closely tied to its location along the Pawtucket Falls
of the Merrimack River
, from being an important fishing ground for the Pennacook
tribe to providing water power for the factories that formed the basis of the city's economy for a century. The city of Lowell was started in the 1820s as a money-making venture and social project referred to as "The Lowell Experiment", and quickly became America's largest textile center. However, within approximately a century, the decline and collapse of that industry in New England
placed the city into a deep recession. Lowell's "rebirth", partially tied to Lowell National Historical Park
, has made it a model for other former industrial towns, although the city continues to struggle with de-industrialization and suburbanization.
Lowell is considered the "Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution
", as it was the first large-scale factory town
in America
.
Indians. The land above the Pawtucket Falls
on the northern bank of the Merrimack was inhabited by the Pawtucket group, while the land along both sides of the Concord River
was inhabited by the Wamesits. Passaconaway
, the great Pennacook sachem, had a longhouse at the top of the Pawtucket Falls. His son, Wannalancit, later lived on the opposite bank.
Although Europeans
had explored the area previously and had dealings with and laws regarding the natives, the first European structure in the Greater Lowell
area was a building used as a courthouse and chapel by the Reverend John Eliot
. Eliot had arrived in what is now Lowell in 1647, and set up his church the following year. In 1652, settlers moving inland arrived in the area prompting Eliot to petition the General Court of Massachusetts to set aside the Praying Indian
reservation at Wamesit. On May 29, 1655, the towns of Chelmsford
, near Wamesit, and Billerica
, on the eastern bank of the Concord, were chartered. These towns contained land that would become Lowell. By 1665, a ditch had been dug around Wamesit to separate it from Chelmsford.
However, whites continued to move into the Merrimack Valley
, and they soon were buying land from the natives in Pawtucket, and even in the Wamesit reservation. War with other tribes also decreased the number of Pennacook. Passaconaway left in 1660, and although the Pennacook did not take up arms, King Philip's War
weakened the natives further. In 1686, Wannalancit sold Wamesit, only retaining hunting and fishing rights for his people. In 1701, the land that was formerly Pawtucket officially became part of the town of Dracut
(and would later be added to Lowell). In 1726, the western part of Wamesit was forcibly annexed to Chelmsford, since it now contained mostly white settlers who were not paying tax to the town yet wanted representation. Western Wamesit then became known as East Chelmsford. Eastern Wamesit remained part of Billerica until December, 1734 when it became part of Tewksbury
.
Samuel Slater
had started his production at Pawtucket, Rhode Island
two years earlier when a group of Essex County
businessmen formed the Proprietors of Locks and Canals
on the Merrimack River in 1792. This organization was tasked with building a canal to bypass the Pawtucket Falls, so that lumber from New Hampshire
could more quickly be delivered to the shipyards at Newburyport
. Bypassing the falls was accomplished with a mile and a half long canal, with four sets of locks. Unfortunately, the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal had been formed in 1793, and in 1803, they opened the 27-mile, 20-lock Middlesex Canal
. Beginning in Middlesex Village (Chelmsford and later part of Lowell) immediately above the Pawtucket Falls, this canal provided a direct connection to Boston by connecting the Merrimack River
to the Charles River
at Charlestown, Massachusetts
. A direct, all-water route from Boston, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire
was then available - severely damaging the Pawtucket Canal's business.
Consequently, many small manufacturers were opening up milling and manufacturing operations in Chelmsford, Massachusetts
. Most were run by man-power and were quite small, although a few small water-powered operations did exist along the Concord River
. Meanwhile, Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy but sickly Newburyport merchant, was in Great Britain
in an attempt to improve his health. He toured the local textile factories during his stay. F.C. Lowell learned the key aspects of their operation and in 1811 he met with his colleague Nathan Appleton
in Edinburgh
, Scotland
. They saw great potential in textile manufacturing in New England, thanks to the availability of materials and labor, as well as abundant water power. They discussed establishing mills in the region. When F.C. Lowell's mercantile business suffered due to the War of 1812
, he moved back to Boston. His import business was ruined by the war, but the loss of quality British finished goods on the market presented a new opportunity. F.C. Lowell, his brother-in-law Patrick Tracy Jackson
, Appleton, and other investors founded the Boston Manufacturing Company
in 1813. Thanks to an historian in the 1940s, this loosely connected group of investors has become known as The Boston Associates
. Amesbury
mechanic Paul Moody, with the help of F.C. Lowell, recreated the machines Lowell had seen in Britain, in under a year. By offering a very early example of a public stock option, the investors raised $100,000, which they used to build a textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts
. Their textile mill used water power generated from the Charles River
, and primarily employed young Yankee
women. This was the beginning of what would come to be referred to as the Waltham System, later called the Lowell system. The young Yankee women, or "mill girls," lived in company boarding houses and attended churches supported by the companies. Life inside and outside the factory was closely scrutinized and carefully controlled. The Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham was the first mill to transform raw cotton into cloth in one mill. They met with great success. Due to the small size of the Charles River, however, it soon became evident that a new and larger source of water power would be needed to support continued expansion.
.jpg)
With the War of 1812 over, British goods again returned to the American markets. Wanting to protect the fledgling American textile industry, F.C. Lowell went to Washington, D.C.
to lobby for a protective tariff
on finished cloth. In spite of all his success, Lowell died the following year in 1817 at age 42. He left the very wealthy Boston Manufacturing Company to Patrick T. Jackson. By 1820, the Company was searching the Merrimack River for a suitable location for their new operation, but were struggling. Eventually, business associate Ezra Worthen reminded Paul Moody about the Pawtucket Canal, and in 1821 the Boston Manufacturing Company bought the properties of "Proprietors of Locks and Canals." The canal was deepened, the number of locks was decreased to three and a dam was built at the top of the falls to improve the flow into the canal. A sizable amount of farmland was bought in East Chelmsford, and in 1822 The Boston Manufacturing Company spun off the Merrimack Manufacturing Company
The company officers were Warren Dutton as President, Ezra Worthen as Superintendent, Kirk Boott
as Agent and Treasurer (since Jackson needed to remain in Waltham), Appleton, Jackson, Moody, and others.
When the investors first visited East Chelmsford, the population within Lowell's current borders was approximately 250 and consisted mostly of farmers. Thousands of employees, mostly young women, were recruited from all over New England to work in new textile mills. These women were to be model citizens, unlike the working underclass in England. They lived in company owned boarding houses. They went to cultural events, attended classes, and read books. In 1840, some of the mill girls even began writing and publishing literary magazines, including the Lowell Offering
. In addition to the mill girls, Yankee workmen and Irishmen from Charlestown came to dig the canals. They widened the Pawtucket Canal and dug the Merrimack Canal
, Lowell's first power canal. The Merrimack Canal, which ran from the Pawtucket Canal just above Swamp Locks to the Merrimack River, delivered almost all of the 32 foot drop (head
) of the Pawtucket Falls to the level of the Merrimack Mills. The Irish settled outside the center of the planned town in what became known as the 'Paddy Camps' - today's Acre neighborhood. St. Patrick's Church
, one of the earliest Catholic churches north of Boston was established there a few years later in 1831. The Merrimack Manufacturing Company's first mill was operational on September 1, 1823 and a church and school were founded the following year. In 1825, "Proprietors of Locks and Canals" separated from the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, allowing it to lease water power back to the Merrimack Company, as well as other ventures. Kirk Boott was also the agent of this company. The Lowell Machine Shop opened that same year, led by Moody, who had moved from Waltham in 1823. On March 1, 1826, Lowell was incorporated as a town with a population of 2,500.
The selling of hydropower and land to other companies led to an explosion in manufacturing in Lowell :
. The population at the time was 17,633, and soon, a court, jail, hospital, cemetery, library, and two town commons were established. The first museums and theatres opened around 1840. Lowell also began annexing neighboring areas, including Belvidere from Tewksbury
in 1834, and Centralville from Dracut in 1851. Daniel Ayer started the satellite city of Ayer's City in South Lowell in 1847, and in 1874, Pawtucketville and Middlesex Village were annexed from Dracut and Chelmsford respectively, bringing the city close to its present borders.
By 1850, Lowell's population was 33,000, making it the second largest city in Massachusetts and America's largest industrial center. The 5.6 mile long canal system produced 10,000 horsepower, being provided to ten corporations with a total of forty mills. Ten thousand workers used an equal number of looms fed by 320,000 spindles. The mills were producing 50,000 miles of cloth annually. Other industries developed in Lowell as well: The Lowell Machine Shop became independent in 1845, patent medicine
factories like Hood's Sasparilla Laboratory and Father John's Medicine
opened. Tanneries, a bleachery, and service companies needed by the growing city were established. Moxie
, an early soft drink, was invented in Lowell in the 1870s. Around 1880, Lowell became the first city in America to have telephone numbers.
Lowell continued to be in the forefront of new industrial technology. In 1828, Paul Moody developed an early belt-driven power transfer system to supersede the unreliable gearwork that was utilized at the time. In 1830, Patrick Tracy Jackson commissioned work on the Boston and Lowell Railroad
, one of the Oldest railroads in North America
. It opened five years later, making the Middlesex Canal obsolete. Soon, lines up the Merrimack to Nashua
, downriver to Lawrence
, and inland to Groton Junction, today known as Ayer
(renamed after Lowell patent medicine tycoon Dr. James Cook Ayer), were constructed.
Uriah A. Boyden
installed his first turbine in the Appleton Mill in 1844, which was a major efficiency improvement over the old-fashioned waterwheel. The turbine was improved at Lowell again shortly thereafter by Englishman James B. Francis
, chief engineer of Proprietors of Locks and Canals. Francis had begun his career with Locks and Canals working under George Washington Whistler
, the father of painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and his improved turbine, known as the Francis Turbine
, is still used with few changes today.
Francis also designed the Francis Gate, a flood control mechanism that provides a means of sealing the canal system off from the Merrimack River, and completed the canal system by adding the Northern Canal and Moody Street Feeder, both designed to improve efficiency to the entire system. To further improve the amount of year-round, day and night water power Lowell needed, Francis, along with engineers from Lawrence, were involved with The Lake Company, a corporation involved in building dams in the Lakes Region
of Central New Hampshire. These dams, constructed and improved mid-century, allowed the cities on the Merrimack River to store and release water from the Merrimack's source, including Lake Winnipesaukee
.
. Ethnic tensions to the point of riots were not unheard of, and in the 1840s, the American Party
(often called the Know-Nothing Party) with its Anti-Slavery Plank won elections in Lowell. By the 1850s, the cheap labor provided by the immigrants, increased competition as more manufacturing centers were built elsewhere, and strikes caused the breakdown of the Lowell System. In its place, densely populated ethnic neighborhoods grew around the city, their residents bound to their churches and communities more than the factory corporations.
The American Civil War
shut down many of the mills temporarily when they sold off their cotton stockpiles, which had become more valuable than the finished cloth after imports from the South
had stopped. Many jobs were lost, but the effect was somewhat mitigated by the number of males serving in the military. Lowell had a small historical place in the war: Many wool Union uniforms were made in Lowell, General Benjamin Franklin Butler
was from the city, and members of the Lowell based Massachusetts Sixth—Ladd, Whitney, Taylor, and Needham—were the first four Union deaths, killed in a riot while passing through Baltimore on their way to Washington, DC. Ladd, Whitney, and later Taylor are buried in front of City Hall under a large obelisk
.
After the war, mills returned to life. Recruiters fanned out all over New England for help. New mill hands were often new widows, mothers in single parent families. By August 1865, this source dried up.
New immigrant groups moved into the city. In the 1870s and 1880s, French Canadians began moving into an area which became known as Little Canada
. Later French Canadian immigrants included the parents of famed Beat generation
writer Jack Kerouac
, a native of the city. At the end of the 19th century, Greeks
moved into the sections of the old Irish Acre. Other Europeans such as the Portuguese
, Polish
, Lithuanians
and Swedes as well as Jews
came to work in Lowell and settled their own neighborhoods in Back Central and Lower Highlands. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, approximately 35 percent of Lowell's 100,000 residents were foreign born.
In the late 19th century, new technologies changed Lowell. The electric streetcar allowed the city to expand creating new neighborhoods on the outskirts. Tyler Park and Lynde Hill in Belvidere were home to many of Lowell's wealthiest residents, who could now live away from the noisy and polluted downtown industrial area. The prosperous city built a massive new Romanesque
city hall made of granite with a clock tower that could be seen from the millyards. A new library with a hall dedicated to the Civil War, a post office, and ornate commercial buildings replaced the puritanical mid-century structures.
Steam power was first used to supplement the fully developed hydropower sources in Lowell in the 1860s, and by the mid-1870s, it was the dominant energy source. Electricity allowed the mills to run on hydroelectricity
, instead of direct-drive hydropower. These improvements allowed Lowell to continue increasing its industrial output with a lesser increase in the number of workers. However, the move away from pure hydropower was leading to Lowell being eclipsed by cities with better locations for the new power sources. For example, in the 50 years after the Civil War, Fall River, Massachusetts
and New Bedford, Massachusetts
both became larger factory towns than Lowell based on output. The reason was largely because their seaport locations made the importation and exportation of goods and materials, and particularly coal, more economical than the considerably inland, and therefore only accessible by train, Lowell. By 1920, it was being seriously suggested that the Merrimack be dredged from Newburyport to Lowell so that barges could access the city. However, the events of the 1920s ensured that would never happen.
By the 1920s, the New England textile industry began to shift South and many of Lowell's textile mills began to move or close. Although the South did not have rivers capable of providing the waterpower needed to run the early mills, the advent of steam-powered factories allowed companies to take advantage of the cheaper labor and transportation costs available there. Labor strikes in the North
became more frequent, and severe ones like the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in neighboring Lawrence were driving up costs for investors. Many textile companies changed to a policy of disinvestment, running the mills with no capital improvements until they were no longer capable of producing profit that could be used to build or improve new factories elsewhere. In 1916, the Bigelow Carpet Company, which had previously purchased the Lowell Manufacturing Company, left Lowell. This was the first of the major corporations to move operations to the South or go bankrupt. World War I briefly improved the situation, but from 1926 to 1929, most of the rest of the companies, including the Lowell Machine Shop (which had become the Saco-Lowell Shops) left the city: The Great Depression
had come to Lowell early. In 1930, Lowell's population was slightly over 100,000, down from a high of 112,000 a decade earlier. The textile industry employed 8,000 in 1936, it had been 17,000 in 1900. By the onset of World War II, 40% of the city's population was on relief. World War II
again briefly helped the economy, since not only did demand for clothing go up, but Lowell was involved in munitions manufacturing. After the war, things cooled again. In 1956, the Boott Mills closed, and after over 130 years, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company closed in 1958.
By the mid-1970s, Lowell's population had fallen to 91,000, and 12% of residents were unemployed. The industrial economy of the city had been reduced to many smaller scale, marginal businesses. The city's infrastructure and buildings were largely over one hundred years old, obsolete and decaying, often abandoned and in foreclosure. Urban renewal
demolished many historic structures in a desperate attempt to improve the overall situation in Lowell. In 1939, the Greek Acre was the first district in the nation to face "slum clearance" with Federal Urban Renewal money. In the late 1950s, Little Canada was bulldozed. In 1960, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company's millyard and boardinghouses were demolished to make way for warehouses and public housing projects. Other neighborhoods like Hale-Howard between Thorndike and Chelmsford Streets, and an area between Gorham and South Streets, were cleared as well. Arson became a serious issue, and crime in general rose. Lowell's reputation suffered tremendously.
As the car took over American life after World War II, the downtown, which already was facing problems due to a drop in expendable income, was largely vacated as business moved to suburban shopping malls. The theatres and department stores left, and much smaller enterprises moved in if anything. Many buildings were torn down for parking lots, and many others burned down, and were not replaced. Others had their top floors removed to reduce tax bills and many facade
s were "modernized" destroying the Victorian character of the downtown. Road widening and other improvements destroyed a row of business next to city hall, as well as the area that has become the Lord Overpass. The construction of the Lowell Connector
around 1960 was surprisingly unintrusive for an urban interstate, but that was only because plans to extend it to East Merrimack Street by way of Back Central and the Concord Riverfront were cancelled. Talk began on filling in the canals to make more real estate.
Officials described the city as looking like Europe after World War II. However, the demolition and decay of much of what had made Lowell a vibrant city led some residents to begin thinking about saving the historical structures.
,_lowell,_massachusetts.jpg)
Lowell, even as far back as the 1860s, was described as a city with little civic pride - probably due to a large percentage of the population being foreign born and therefore having no real roots there. Post its industrial collapse, that sentiment intensified. Many residents of Lowell viewed the city's industrial history poorly - the factories had abandoned their workers, and now sat empty and in disrepair. However, some city residents, such as educator Patrick J Mogan, viewed the city's history as something that should be preserved and capitalized on. In 1974, Lowell Heritage State Park
was founded, and in 1978, Lowell National Historical Park
was created as an urban national park, through legislation filed by Lowell native, congressman, and later senator Paul Tsongas
. The canal system, many mills, and some commercial structures downtown were saved by the creation of the park and the visitors it brought.
The Massachusetts Miracle
brought new jobs and money to the city in the 1980s. Wang Laboratories
became a major employer, and built their world headquarters on the edge of the city. After the Vietnam War
and the Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia, many Southeast Asians, and particularly Cambodians moved into the city. Lowell became the largest Cambodian community on the east coast, and second nationally to Long Beach, California
. Combined with other immigrant groups like Puerto Ricans, these newcomers brought the city's population back up to six figures. However, this prosperity was short-lived. By 1990, the Massachusetts Miracle was over, Wang had virtually disappeared, and even more of Lowell's long-established businesses failed. Around this time, the last large department store left downtown Lowell, largely blamed on suburban factors, including a large mall built a short drive away in tax-free New Hampshire in the mid 1980s. Additionally, gang violence and the drug trade had become severe. The HBO special, High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell
was filmed in 1995 which tended to emphasize the reputation of the city as a dangerous and depressed place to be.
.
Lowell has been cited as one of the safest cities of its size in the nation.
A project that will redevelop land once held by the Saco-Lowell Shops and the Hamilton and Appleton Mills was underway in 2009. Numerous projects are being undertaken around the city, to beautify and redevelop decaying areas.
and LeLacheur Park were constructed in 1998. Lowell Devils
hockey and Lowell Spinners
baseball farm teams came to the city. National circuit entertainment is performed at the arena and at the old Lowell Memorial Auditorium
. The Lowell Folk Festival
, the largest free folk festival in the country, is an annual event.
The National Park has continued to expand; many buildings are still being rehabilitated.
After Massachusetts started offering a tax credit to those who film in the Commonwealth, a few movies have been made in Lowell. The Invention of Lying
was released in September 2009, and shortly before, filming on The Fighter, about Lowell boxing legend Micky Ward
and his older brother Dicky Eklund, was completed.
and Middlesex Community College are playing increasingly larger roles in the city. In 2009, UMass Lowell bought up the underutilized Doubletree hotel for use as a dormitory, increasing their presence in the city's downtown.
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 106,519. It is the fourth largest city in the state. Lowell and Cambridge are the county seats of Middlesex County...
is closely tied to its location along the Pawtucket Falls
Pawtucket Falls (Massachusetts)
Pawtucket Falls is the name of a waterfall on the Merrimack River at Lowell, Massachusetts. The waterfall and rapids below it drop a total of 32 feet in a little under a mile., and was an important fishing ground for the Pennacook Indians in pre-colonial times.This location was used as a benchmark...
of the Merrimack River
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...
, from being an important fishing ground for the Pennacook
Pennacook
The Pennacook, also known by the names Merrimack and Pawtucket, were a North American people that primarily inhabited the Merrimack River valley of present-day New Hampshire and Massachusetts, as well as portions of southern Maine...
tribe to providing water power for the factories that formed the basis of the city's economy for a century. The city of Lowell was started in the 1820s as a money-making venture and social project referred to as "The Lowell Experiment", and quickly became America's largest textile center. However, within approximately a century, the decline and collapse of that industry in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
placed the city into a deep recession. Lowell's "rebirth", partially tied to Lowell National Historical Park
Lowell National Historical Park
Lowell National Historical Park is a National Historical Park of the United States located in Lowell, Massachusetts. Established in 1978 a few years after Lowell Heritage State Park, it is operated by the National Park Service and comprises a group of different sites in and around the city of...
, has made it a model for other former industrial towns, although the city continues to struggle with de-industrialization and suburbanization.
Lowell is considered the "Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
", as it was the first large-scale factory town
Mill town
A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories .- United Kingdom:...
in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Pre-Columbian and Colonial
The site of present-day Lowell was a rendezvous point and an important fishing ground for the PennacookPennacook
The Pennacook, also known by the names Merrimack and Pawtucket, were a North American people that primarily inhabited the Merrimack River valley of present-day New Hampshire and Massachusetts, as well as portions of southern Maine...
Indians. The land above the Pawtucket Falls
Pawtucket Falls (Massachusetts)
Pawtucket Falls is the name of a waterfall on the Merrimack River at Lowell, Massachusetts. The waterfall and rapids below it drop a total of 32 feet in a little under a mile., and was an important fishing ground for the Pennacook Indians in pre-colonial times.This location was used as a benchmark...
on the northern bank of the Merrimack was inhabited by the Pawtucket group, while the land along both sides of the Concord River
Concord River
The Concord River is a tributary of the Merrimack River in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. The river drains a small rural and suburban region northwest of Boston. One of the most famous small rivers in U.S...
was inhabited by the Wamesits. Passaconaway
Passaconaway
Passaconaway, a name which translates to "Child of the Bear", was a chieftain in the Pennacook tribe.-Life:One of the key native figures in the colonial history of New Hampshire, Passaconaway was believed to have been born between 1550 and 1570, and is said to have died in 1679...
, the great Pennacook sachem, had a longhouse at the top of the Pawtucket Falls. His son, Wannalancit, later lived on the opposite bank.
Although Europeans
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
had explored the area previously and had dealings with and laws regarding the natives, the first European structure in the Greater Lowell
Greater Lowell
Greater Lowell is the name given to the city of Lowell, Massachusetts and its suburbs, mostly in Northern Middlesex County, Massachusetts and the Merrimack Valley....
area was a building used as a courthouse and chapel by the Reverend John Eliot
John Eliot (missionary)
John Eliot was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians. His efforts earned him the designation “the Indian apostle.”-English education and Massachusetts ministry:...
. Eliot had arrived in what is now Lowell in 1647, and set up his church the following year. In 1652, settlers moving inland arrived in the area prompting Eliot to petition the General Court of Massachusetts to set aside the Praying Indian
Praying Indian
Praying Indian is a 17th century term referring to Native Americans of New England who converted to Christianity. While many groups are referred to by this term, it is more commonly used for tribes that were organized into villages, known as praying towns by Puritan leader John Eliot.In 1646, the...
reservation at Wamesit. On May 29, 1655, the towns of Chelmsford
Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Chelmsford is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 33,802. The Census Bureau's 2008 population estimate for the town was 34,409, ranking it 14th in population among the 54 municipalities in...
, near Wamesit, and Billerica
Billerica, Massachusetts
Billerica is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,243 at the 2010 census. It is the only town named Billerica in the United States and borrows its name from the town of Billericay in Essex, England.- History :...
, on the eastern bank of the Concord, were chartered. These towns contained land that would become Lowell. By 1665, a ditch had been dug around Wamesit to separate it from Chelmsford.
However, whites continued to move into the Merrimack Valley
Merrimack Valley
The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River in the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, United States. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in the New England region and has helped define the livelihood and culture of those living along it since native...
, and they soon were buying land from the natives in Pawtucket, and even in the Wamesit reservation. War with other tribes also decreased the number of Pennacook. Passaconaway left in 1660, and although the Pennacook did not take up arms, King Philip's War
King Philip's War
King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...
weakened the natives further. In 1686, Wannalancit sold Wamesit, only retaining hunting and fishing rights for his people. In 1701, the land that was formerly Pawtucket officially became part of the town of Dracut
Dracut, Massachusetts
Dracut is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 29,457. Dracut is primarily a suburban community, belonging to Greater Lowell and bordering southern New Hampshire...
(and would later be added to Lowell). In 1726, the western part of Wamesit was forcibly annexed to Chelmsford, since it now contained mostly white settlers who were not paying tax to the town yet wanted representation. Western Wamesit then became known as East Chelmsford. Eastern Wamesit remained part of Billerica until December, 1734 when it became part of Tewksbury
Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Tewksbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 28,961 at the 2010 census.- History :Tewksbury was first settled in 1637 and was officially incorporated in 1734 from Billerica. Like Tewksbury Township, New Jersey, it is named after the town of Tewkesbury,...
.
Early industrialization and the Waltham System
Samuel Slater
Samuel Slater was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution", or the "Father of the American Factory System" because he brought British textile technology to America. He learned textile machinery as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British...
had started his production at Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 71,148 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth largest city in the state.-History:...
two years earlier when a group of Essex County
Essex County, Massachusetts
-National protected areas:* Parker River National Wildlife Refuge* Salem Maritime National Historic Site* Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site* Thacher Island National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:...
businessmen formed the Proprietors of Locks and Canals
Proprietors of Locks and Canals
The Proprietors of Locks and Canals on the Merrimack River is a limited liability corporation founded on June 27, 1792, making it one of the oldest corporations in the United States....
on the Merrimack River in 1792. This organization was tasked with building a canal to bypass the Pawtucket Falls, so that lumber from New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
could more quickly be delivered to the shipyards at Newburyport
Newburyport, Massachusetts
Newburyport is a small coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, 35 miles northeast of Boston. The population was 21,189 at the 2000 census. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island...
. Bypassing the falls was accomplished with a mile and a half long canal, with four sets of locks. Unfortunately, the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal had been formed in 1793, and in 1803, they opened the 27-mile, 20-lock Middlesex Canal
Middlesex Canal
The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet long and between 10 and 11 feet wide...
. Beginning in Middlesex Village (Chelmsford and later part of Lowell) immediately above the Pawtucket Falls, this canal provided a direct connection to Boston by connecting the Merrimack River
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...
to the Charles River
Charles River
The Charles River is an long river that flows in an overall northeasterly direction in eastern Massachusetts, USA. From its source in Hopkinton, the river travels through 22 cities and towns until reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston...
at Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located on a peninsula north of downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1847 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874...
. A direct, all-water route from Boston, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire
Concord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....
was then available - severely damaging the Pawtucket Canal's business.
Consequently, many small manufacturers were opening up milling and manufacturing operations in Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Chelmsford is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 33,802. The Census Bureau's 2008 population estimate for the town was 34,409, ranking it 14th in population among the 54 municipalities in...
. Most were run by man-power and were quite small, although a few small water-powered operations did exist along the Concord River
Concord River
The Concord River is a tributary of the Merrimack River in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. The river drains a small rural and suburban region northwest of Boston. One of the most famous small rivers in U.S...
. Meanwhile, Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy but sickly Newburyport merchant, was in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in an attempt to improve his health. He toured the local textile factories during his stay. F.C. Lowell learned the key aspects of their operation and in 1811 he met with his colleague Nathan Appleton
Nathan Appleton
Nathan Appleton was an American merchant and politician.- Biography :Appleton was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, the son of Isaac Appleton and his wife Mary Adams. Appleton's father was a church deacon, and Nathan was brought up in "strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism." He was...
in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. They saw great potential in textile manufacturing in New England, thanks to the availability of materials and labor, as well as abundant water power. They discussed establishing mills in the region. When F.C. Lowell's mercantile business suffered due to the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, he moved back to Boston. His import business was ruined by the war, but the loss of quality British finished goods on the market presented a new opportunity. F.C. Lowell, his brother-in-law Patrick Tracy Jackson
Patrick Tracy Jackson
Patrick Tracy Jackson was a United States manufacturer, one of the founders of the Boston Manufacturing Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, and later a founder of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company whose developments formed the nucleus of Lowell, Massachusetts.-Biography:He was born in...
, Appleton, and other investors founded the Boston Manufacturing Company
Boston Manufacturing Company
The Boston Manufacturing Company was organized in 1813 by Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy Boston merchant, in partnership a group of investors known as The Boston Associates, for the manufacture of cotton textiles. Boston Manufacturing Company gathered many of their trade secrets from the earlier...
in 1813. Thanks to an historian in the 1940s, this loosely connected group of investors has become known as The Boston Associates
The Boston Associates
The Boston Associates was a term created by historian Vera Shlakmen in Economic History of a Factory Town, A Study of Chicopee, Massachusetts to describe a loosely linked group of investors. They included Nathan Appleton, Patrick Tracy Jackson, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos Lawrence, often related...
. Amesbury
Amesbury, Massachusetts
Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Though it officially became a city in 1996, its formal name remains "The Town of Amesbury." In 1890, 9798 people lived in Amesbury; in 1900, 9473; in 1910, 9894; in 1920, 10,036; and in 1940, 10,862. The population was 16,283 at...
mechanic Paul Moody, with the help of F.C. Lowell, recreated the machines Lowell had seen in Britain, in under a year. By offering a very early example of a public stock option, the investors raised $100,000, which they used to build a textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
. Their textile mill used water power generated from the Charles River
Charles River
The Charles River is an long river that flows in an overall northeasterly direction in eastern Massachusetts, USA. From its source in Hopkinton, the river travels through 22 cities and towns until reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston...
, and primarily employed young Yankee
Yankee
The term Yankee has several interrelated and often pejorative meanings, usually referring to people originating in the northeastern United States, or still more narrowly New England, where application of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English settlers of the region.The...
women. This was the beginning of what would come to be referred to as the Waltham System, later called the Lowell system. The young Yankee women, or "mill girls," lived in company boarding houses and attended churches supported by the companies. Life inside and outside the factory was closely scrutinized and carefully controlled. The Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham was the first mill to transform raw cotton into cloth in one mill. They met with great success. Due to the small size of the Charles River, however, it soon became evident that a new and larger source of water power would be needed to support continued expansion.
Beginnings of Lowell
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to lobby for a protective tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
on finished cloth. In spite of all his success, Lowell died the following year in 1817 at age 42. He left the very wealthy Boston Manufacturing Company to Patrick T. Jackson. By 1820, the Company was searching the Merrimack River for a suitable location for their new operation, but were struggling. Eventually, business associate Ezra Worthen reminded Paul Moody about the Pawtucket Canal, and in 1821 the Boston Manufacturing Company bought the properties of "Proprietors of Locks and Canals." The canal was deepened, the number of locks was decreased to three and a dam was built at the top of the falls to improve the flow into the canal. A sizable amount of farmland was bought in East Chelmsford, and in 1822 The Boston Manufacturing Company spun off the Merrimack Manufacturing Company
Merrimack Manufacturing Company
The Merrimack Manufacturing Company was the first of the major textile manufacturing concerns to open in Lowell, Massachusetts, beginning operations in 1823.- History :...
The company officers were Warren Dutton as President, Ezra Worthen as Superintendent, Kirk Boott
Kirk Boott
Kirk Boott was an American Industrialist instrumental in the early history of Lowell, Massachusetts.-Biography:...
as Agent and Treasurer (since Jackson needed to remain in Waltham), Appleton, Jackson, Moody, and others.
When the investors first visited East Chelmsford, the population within Lowell's current borders was approximately 250 and consisted mostly of farmers. Thousands of employees, mostly young women, were recruited from all over New England to work in new textile mills. These women were to be model citizens, unlike the working underclass in England. They lived in company owned boarding houses. They went to cultural events, attended classes, and read books. In 1840, some of the mill girls even began writing and publishing literary magazines, including the Lowell Offering
Lowell Offering
The Lowell Offering was a monthly periodical collected contributed works of poetry and fiction by the female textile workers of the Lowell, Massachusetts textile mills of the early American industrial revolution. It began in 1840 and lasted until 1845...
. In addition to the mill girls, Yankee workmen and Irishmen from Charlestown came to dig the canals. They widened the Pawtucket Canal and dug the Merrimack Canal
Merrimack Canal
The Merrimack Canal is a power canal in Lowell, Massachusetts. The canal, dug in the 1820s, begins at the Pawtucket Canal just above Swamp Locks, and empties into the Merrimack River near the Boott Cotton Mills...
, Lowell's first power canal. The Merrimack Canal, which ran from the Pawtucket Canal just above Swamp Locks to the Merrimack River, delivered almost all of the 32 foot drop (head
Hydraulic head
Hydraulic head or piezometric head is a specific measurement of water pressure above a geodetic datum. It is usually measured as a water surface elevation, expressed in units of length, at the entrance of a piezometer...
) of the Pawtucket Falls to the level of the Merrimack Mills. The Irish settled outside the center of the planned town in what became known as the 'Paddy Camps' - today's Acre neighborhood. St. Patrick's Church
St. Patrick's Church (Lowell, Massachusetts)
St. Patrick's Church in Lowell, Massachusetts is an historic Roman Catholic church, traditionally associated with the city's Irish American population...
, one of the earliest Catholic churches north of Boston was established there a few years later in 1831. The Merrimack Manufacturing Company's first mill was operational on September 1, 1823 and a church and school were founded the following year. In 1825, "Proprietors of Locks and Canals" separated from the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, allowing it to lease water power back to the Merrimack Company, as well as other ventures. Kirk Boott was also the agent of this company. The Lowell Machine Shop opened that same year, led by Moody, who had moved from Waltham in 1823. On March 1, 1826, Lowell was incorporated as a town with a population of 2,500.
The selling of hydropower and land to other companies led to an explosion in manufacturing in Lowell :
- 1825: Hamilton Manufacturing Company, Hamilton Canal
- 1828: Appleton Company, Lowell Company, Lowell Canal
- 1830: Middlesex Company
- 1831: Suffolk Company, Tremont Company, Lawrence Company, Lawrence Canal, Western Canal
- 1835: Boott MillsBoott MillsThe Boott Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts are an early American cotton mill, parts of which date to 1835. Their namesake is Kirk Boott, one of the early mill leaders in Lowell. Today, the Boott Mills complex is the most intact in Lowell....
, Eastern Canal - 1839: Massachusetts Mills
- 1844: Prescott Mills were founded, and bought by the Massachusetts Mills in 1845.
- 1847: On Thanksgiving Day, the Northern CanalLowell Power Canal System and Pawtucket GatehouseMain Article History of Lowell, MassachusettsThe Lowell Power Canal System is the largest power canal system in the United States, at 5.6 miles in length. The system's estimated output is 10,000 horsepower, operating six major canals on two levels, controlled by numerous gates...
and Moody Street Feeder opened, increasing water power available to the corporations.
City of Lowell
Meanwhile, the town was rapidly growing around the new jobs, becoming a city on April 1, 1836 with Dr. Elisha Bartlett as the first mayor. Lowell was only the third Massachusetts community to be granted city government, after Boston and SalemSalem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
. The population at the time was 17,633, and soon, a court, jail, hospital, cemetery, library, and two town commons were established. The first museums and theatres opened around 1840. Lowell also began annexing neighboring areas, including Belvidere from Tewksbury
Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Tewksbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 28,961 at the 2010 census.- History :Tewksbury was first settled in 1637 and was officially incorporated in 1734 from Billerica. Like Tewksbury Township, New Jersey, it is named after the town of Tewkesbury,...
in 1834, and Centralville from Dracut in 1851. Daniel Ayer started the satellite city of Ayer's City in South Lowell in 1847, and in 1874, Pawtucketville and Middlesex Village were annexed from Dracut and Chelmsford respectively, bringing the city close to its present borders.
Patent medicine
Patent medicine refers to medical compounds of questionable effectiveness sold under a variety of names and labels. The term "patent medicine" is somewhat of a misnomer because, in most cases, although many of the products were trademarked, they were never patented...
factories like Hood's Sasparilla Laboratory and Father John's Medicine
Father John's Medicine
Father John's Medicine is a cough medicine that was first formulated in the United States in a Lowell, Massachusetts pharmacy in 1855 by Charleton and Hovey to give relief to ailing Father John O'Brien. The tonic was a non-alcoholic mix made of cod liver oil and had a licorice taste.Mr. Charleton...
opened. Tanneries, a bleachery, and service companies needed by the growing city were established. Moxie
Moxie
Moxie is a carbonated beverage that was one of the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It continues to be regionally popular today....
, an early soft drink, was invented in Lowell in the 1870s. Around 1880, Lowell became the first city in America to have telephone numbers.
Lowell continued to be in the forefront of new industrial technology. In 1828, Paul Moody developed an early belt-driven power transfer system to supersede the unreliable gearwork that was utilized at the time. In 1830, Patrick Tracy Jackson commissioned work on the Boston and Lowell Railroad
Boston and Lowell Railroad
The Boston and Lowell Railroad is a historic railroad that operated in Massachusetts. It was one of the first railroads in North America and the first major one in the state...
, one of the Oldest railroads in North America
Oldest railroads in North America
- Early experimental railroads :*1720: A railroad is reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia.*1764: Between 1762 and 1764 a gravity railroad is built by British military engineers at the Niagara Portage in Lewiston, New York.*1795: A wooden railway on...
. It opened five years later, making the Middlesex Canal obsolete. Soon, lines up the Merrimack to Nashua
Nashua, New Hampshire
-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 86,494 people, 35,044 households, and 21,876 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,719.9 people per square mile . There were 37,168 housing units at an average density of 1,202.8 per square mile...
, downriver to Lawrence
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States on the Merrimack River. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 76,377. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the southeast. It and Salem are...
, and inland to Groton Junction, today known as Ayer
Ayer, Massachusetts
Ayer is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Originally part of Groton, it was incorporated February 14, 1871 and became a major commercial railroad junction. The town was home to Camp Stevens, a training camp for Massachusetts volunteers during the American Civil War...
(renamed after Lowell patent medicine tycoon Dr. James Cook Ayer), were constructed.
Uriah A. Boyden
Uriah A. Boyden
Uriah Atherton Boyden was a Boston inventor and mechanical engineer. He was the brother of Seth Boyden....
installed his first turbine in the Appleton Mill in 1844, which was a major efficiency improvement over the old-fashioned waterwheel. The turbine was improved at Lowell again shortly thereafter by Englishman James B. Francis
James B. Francis
James Bicheno Francis was a British-American engineer, who invented the Francis turbine.-Early years:James Francis was born in South Leigh, near Witney, Oxfordshire in England, United Kingdom...
, chief engineer of Proprietors of Locks and Canals. Francis had begun his career with Locks and Canals working under George Washington Whistler
George Washington Whistler
George Washington Whistler was a prominent American railroad engineer in the first half of the 19th century....
, the father of painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and his improved turbine, known as the Francis Turbine
Francis turbine
The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts....
, is still used with few changes today.
Francis also designed the Francis Gate, a flood control mechanism that provides a means of sealing the canal system off from the Merrimack River, and completed the canal system by adding the Northern Canal and Moody Street Feeder, both designed to improve efficiency to the entire system. To further improve the amount of year-round, day and night water power Lowell needed, Francis, along with engineers from Lawrence, were involved with The Lake Company, a corporation involved in building dams in the Lakes Region
Lakes Region (New Hampshire)
The Lakes Region of New Hampshire is the mid-state region surrounding Lake Winnipesaukee, Winnisquam Lake, Squam Lake, and Newfound Lake.The area is a popular tourist destination in the summer time, with the activity peaking during the annual Motorcycle Week and races at Loudon's New Hampshire...
of Central New Hampshire. These dams, constructed and improved mid-century, allowed the cities on the Merrimack River to store and release water from the Merrimack's source, including Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. It is approximately long and from wide , covering — when Paugus Bay is included—with a maximum depth of ....
.
Immigration
Being a booming city with many low-skilled jobs, waves of immigrants came into Lowell to work the mills. The original Irish that came to help build the canals were followed by a new group after the Irish Potato Famine, and later Catholic GermansGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
. Ethnic tensions to the point of riots were not unheard of, and in the 1840s, the American Party
Know Nothing
The Know Nothing was a movement by the nativist American political faction of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon Protestant values and controlled by...
(often called the Know-Nothing Party) with its Anti-Slavery Plank won elections in Lowell. By the 1850s, the cheap labor provided by the immigrants, increased competition as more manufacturing centers were built elsewhere, and strikes caused the breakdown of the Lowell System. In its place, densely populated ethnic neighborhoods grew around the city, their residents bound to their churches and communities more than the factory corporations.
The American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
shut down many of the mills temporarily when they sold off their cotton stockpiles, which had become more valuable than the finished cloth after imports from the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
had stopped. Many jobs were lost, but the effect was somewhat mitigated by the number of males serving in the military. Lowell had a small historical place in the war: Many wool Union uniforms were made in Lowell, General Benjamin Franklin Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
was from the city, and members of the Lowell based Massachusetts Sixth—Ladd, Whitney, Taylor, and Needham—were the first four Union deaths, killed in a riot while passing through Baltimore on their way to Washington, DC. Ladd, Whitney, and later Taylor are buried in front of City Hall under a large obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
.
After the war, mills returned to life. Recruiters fanned out all over New England for help. New mill hands were often new widows, mothers in single parent families. By August 1865, this source dried up.
New immigrant groups moved into the city. In the 1870s and 1880s, French Canadians began moving into an area which became known as Little Canada
Little Canada
Little Canada is a name for any of the various communities where French Canadians congregated upon emigrating to the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries....
. Later French Canadian immigrants included the parents of famed Beat generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
writer Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, a native of the city. At the end of the 19th century, Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
moved into the sections of the old Irish Acre. Other Europeans such as the Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
, Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, Lithuanians
Lithuanians
Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
and Swedes as well as Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
came to work in Lowell and settled their own neighborhoods in Back Central and Lower Highlands. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, approximately 35 percent of Lowell's 100,000 residents were foreign born.
In the late 19th century, new technologies changed Lowell. The electric streetcar allowed the city to expand creating new neighborhoods on the outskirts. Tyler Park and Lynde Hill in Belvidere were home to many of Lowell's wealthiest residents, who could now live away from the noisy and polluted downtown industrial area. The prosperous city built a massive new Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
city hall made of granite with a clock tower that could be seen from the millyards. A new library with a hall dedicated to the Civil War, a post office, and ornate commercial buildings replaced the puritanical mid-century structures.
Steam power was first used to supplement the fully developed hydropower sources in Lowell in the 1860s, and by the mid-1870s, it was the dominant energy source. Electricity allowed the mills to run on hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
, instead of direct-drive hydropower. These improvements allowed Lowell to continue increasing its industrial output with a lesser increase in the number of workers. However, the move away from pure hydropower was leading to Lowell being eclipsed by cities with better locations for the new power sources. For example, in the 50 years after the Civil War, Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located about south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and west of New Bedford and south of Taunton. The city's population was 88,857 during the 2010 census, making it the tenth largest city in...
and New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
both became larger factory towns than Lowell based on output. The reason was largely because their seaport locations made the importation and exportation of goods and materials, and particularly coal, more economical than the considerably inland, and therefore only accessible by train, Lowell. By 1920, it was being seriously suggested that the Merrimack be dredged from Newburyport to Lowell so that barges could access the city. However, the events of the 1920s ensured that would never happen.
Decline
Northern United States
Northern United States, also sometimes the North, may refer to:* A particular grouping of states or regions of the United States of America. The United States Census Bureau divides some of the northernmost United States into the Midwest Region and the Northeast Region...
became more frequent, and severe ones like the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in neighboring Lawrence were driving up costs for investors. Many textile companies changed to a policy of disinvestment, running the mills with no capital improvements until they were no longer capable of producing profit that could be used to build or improve new factories elsewhere. In 1916, the Bigelow Carpet Company, which had previously purchased the Lowell Manufacturing Company, left Lowell. This was the first of the major corporations to move operations to the South or go bankrupt. World War I briefly improved the situation, but from 1926 to 1929, most of the rest of the companies, including the Lowell Machine Shop (which had become the Saco-Lowell Shops) left the city: The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
had come to Lowell early. In 1930, Lowell's population was slightly over 100,000, down from a high of 112,000 a decade earlier. The textile industry employed 8,000 in 1936, it had been 17,000 in 1900. By the onset of World War II, 40% of the city's population was on relief. World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
again briefly helped the economy, since not only did demand for clothing go up, but Lowell was involved in munitions manufacturing. After the war, things cooled again. In 1956, the Boott Mills closed, and after over 130 years, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company closed in 1958.
Bottoming out
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
demolished many historic structures in a desperate attempt to improve the overall situation in Lowell. In 1939, the Greek Acre was the first district in the nation to face "slum clearance" with Federal Urban Renewal money. In the late 1950s, Little Canada was bulldozed. In 1960, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company's millyard and boardinghouses were demolished to make way for warehouses and public housing projects. Other neighborhoods like Hale-Howard between Thorndike and Chelmsford Streets, and an area between Gorham and South Streets, were cleared as well. Arson became a serious issue, and crime in general rose. Lowell's reputation suffered tremendously.
As the car took over American life after World War II, the downtown, which already was facing problems due to a drop in expendable income, was largely vacated as business moved to suburban shopping malls. The theatres and department stores left, and much smaller enterprises moved in if anything. Many buildings were torn down for parking lots, and many others burned down, and were not replaced. Others had their top floors removed to reduce tax bills and many facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
s were "modernized" destroying the Victorian character of the downtown. Road widening and other improvements destroyed a row of business next to city hall, as well as the area that has become the Lord Overpass. The construction of the Lowell Connector
Lowell Connector
The Lowell Connector, officially the American Legion Connector Highway, is a small freeway connector in the Massachusetts state highway system that links nearby U.S. Highway 3 and Interstate 495 to downtown Lowell, Massachusetts...
around 1960 was surprisingly unintrusive for an urban interstate, but that was only because plans to extend it to East Merrimack Street by way of Back Central and the Concord Riverfront were cancelled. Talk began on filling in the canals to make more real estate.
Officials described the city as looking like Europe after World War II. However, the demolition and decay of much of what had made Lowell a vibrant city led some residents to begin thinking about saving the historical structures.
National Park
Lowell Heritage State Park
Lowell Heritage State Park is located in Lowell, Massachusetts. The State Park was established in the mid-1970s as a precursor to Lowell National Historical Park with the purpose of preserving the city's seminal role in the American Industrial Revolution...
was founded, and in 1978, Lowell National Historical Park
Lowell National Historical Park
Lowell National Historical Park is a National Historical Park of the United States located in Lowell, Massachusetts. Established in 1978 a few years after Lowell Heritage State Park, it is operated by the National Park Service and comprises a group of different sites in and around the city of...
was created as an urban national park, through legislation filed by Lowell native, congressman, and later senator Paul Tsongas
Paul Tsongas
Paul Efthemios Tsongas was a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1979 to 1985. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1992 presidential election. He previously served as a U.S...
. The canal system, many mills, and some commercial structures downtown were saved by the creation of the park and the visitors it brought.
The Massachusetts Miracle
Massachusetts Miracle
The term "Massachusetts Miracle" refers to a period of economic growth in the state of Massachusetts during most of the 1980s. Previous to this, the state had been hit hard by deindustrialization and resulting unemployment. The growth was heavily centered in high-tech industry and financial...
brought new jobs and money to the city in the 1980s. Wang Laboratories
Wang Laboratories
Wang Laboratories was a computer company founded in 1951 by Dr. An Wang and Dr. G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge , Tewksbury , and finally in Lowell, Massachusetts . At its peak in the 1980s, Wang Laboratories had annual revenues of $3 billion and employed over...
became a major employer, and built their world headquarters on the edge of the city. After the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and the Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia, many Southeast Asians, and particularly Cambodians moved into the city. Lowell became the largest Cambodian community on the east coast, and second nationally to Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. Combined with other immigrant groups like Puerto Ricans, these newcomers brought the city's population back up to six figures. However, this prosperity was short-lived. By 1990, the Massachusetts Miracle was over, Wang had virtually disappeared, and even more of Lowell's long-established businesses failed. Around this time, the last large department store left downtown Lowell, largely blamed on suburban factors, including a large mall built a short drive away in tax-free New Hampshire in the mid 1980s. Additionally, gang violence and the drug trade had become severe. The HBO special, High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell
High on Crack Street
High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell is a 1995 American documentary film directed by Richard Farrell, Maryann DeLeo and Jon Alpert. It was a co-production of HBO and DCTV, produced by Farrell, DeLeo, and Alpert...
was filmed in 1995 which tended to emphasize the reputation of the city as a dangerous and depressed place to be.
Modern era
Aside from the National Historical Park, Lowell is a functioning modern city of over 100,000 residents. Numerous initiatives have taken place over the last fifteen years to re-focus the city away from manufacturing, and towards a post-industrial economy.Community Development
New groups have moved into Lowell's neighborhoods, including Brazilians and Africans, continuing Lowell's traditional role as a melting potMelting pot
The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
.
Lowell has been cited as one of the safest cities of its size in the nation.
A project that will redevelop land once held by the Saco-Lowell Shops and the Hamilton and Appleton Mills was underway in 2009. Numerous projects are being undertaken around the city, to beautify and redevelop decaying areas.
Tourism and Entertainment
The Tsongas ArenaTsongas Arena
Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell is a multi-purpose facility, on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Arena was opened and dedicated to the memory of prominent local and national politician Paul Tsongas on January 27, 1998...
and LeLacheur Park were constructed in 1998. Lowell Devils
Lowell Devils
The Lowell Devils, formerly known as the Lowell Lock Monsters from 1998 to 2006, were an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League playing in Lowell, Massachusetts at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell. In 2006, they were purchased by the New Jersey Devils franchise and renamed to the Lowell...
hockey and Lowell Spinners
Lowell Spinners
The Lowell Spinners are a Short-Season A minor league baseball affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.-History:Founded in 1996 after Clyde Smoll moved the Elmira Pioneers to Lowell, Massachusetts, the Spinners play in the New York - Penn League, which has a Short-Season A classification with 76 games a...
baseball farm teams came to the city. National circuit entertainment is performed at the arena and at the old Lowell Memorial Auditorium
Lowell Memorial Auditorium
The Lowell Memorial Auditorium is an indoor facility located in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. It is dedicated to local veterans of war.The 2,800 seat venue was constructed in 1922 by the architectural firm of Blackall, Clapp & Whittemore...
. The Lowell Folk Festival
Lowell Folk Festival
The Lowell Folk Festival is the second largest free folk festival in the United States. Only Seattle's Northwest Folklife is larger, both in attendance and number of performance stages. It is made up of three days of traditional music, dance, craft demonstrations, street parades, dance parties, and...
, the largest free folk festival in the country, is an annual event.
The National Park has continued to expand; many buildings are still being rehabilitated.
After Massachusetts started offering a tax credit to those who film in the Commonwealth, a few movies have been made in Lowell. The Invention of Lying
The Invention of Lying
The Invention of Lying is a 2009 fantasy romantic comedy film that is written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson. This film is the directorial debut of Gervais. The film stars Ricky Gervais as the first human with the ability to lie...
was released in September 2009, and shortly before, filming on The Fighter, about Lowell boxing legend Micky Ward
Micky Ward
Micky Ward , nicknamed Irish, is a retired American junior welterweight professional boxer and a former WBU champion from Lowell, Massachusetts...
and his older brother Dicky Eklund, was completed.
Education
The University of Massachusetts LowellUniversity of Massachusetts Lowell
The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public university in Lowell, Massachusetts, and part of the University of Massachusetts system...
and Middlesex Community College are playing increasingly larger roles in the city. In 2009, UMass Lowell bought up the underutilized Doubletree hotel for use as a dormitory, increasing their presence in the city's downtown.
External references
- National Park Handbook, retrieved 3/24/07
- Suffolk Turbine Exhibit brochure, retrieved 3/24/07
- Lowell Historical Society Timeline, retrieved 3/24/07
External links
- City of Lowell
- Lowell National Historical Park
- University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Lowell History
- "Restore, Reflect, Renew: following the creation of Currents", ArtsEditor.com, 2011
- Map of Lowell in 1924
- Wall & Gray. 1871 Atlas of Massachusetts. Map of Massachusetts. Middlesex County Lowell
- History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 1 (A-H), Volume 2 (L-W) compiled by Samuel Adams Drake, published 1879 and 1880. 572 and 505 pages. Lowell section by Alfred Gilman in volume 2 pages 53–112.
