Lawrence, Massachusetts
Encyclopedia
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 the county seat
s of Essex County. Lawrence is also part of the Merrimack Valley
.
Manufacturing products of the city include electronic equipment, textiles, footwear, paper products, computers, and foodstuffs. Lawrence was the residence of Robert Frost
for his early school years; his first essays and poems were published in the Lawrence High School Bulletin.
Europe
ans first settled the area in 1640. The site of the city – formerly parts of Andover
and Methuen
– was purchased in 1845 by a group of Boston industrialists headed by the wealthy merchant and congressman Abbott Lawrence
, the community's namesake. The city was incorporated in 1853.
The industrialists, most prominently Lawrence, established textile mills near sources of abundant waterpower. Lawrence's location on the Merrimack River
, just downriver of Lowell
and a short train ride from Boston was an ideal location to set up an industrial center. The Merrimack River
was dammed right above the city, and a canal was dug on both the north and the south banks to provide power to the factories that would soon be built on its banks.
collapsed, killing 145 workers. As immigrants flooded into the United States in the mid to late 19th century, the population of Lawrence abounded with skilled and unskilled workers from almost every nation in Europe: Ireland
, France, Italy
, Germany, Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania; French-Canadians from the provinces of Quebec
, New Brunswick
, and Prince Edward Island
; and farm girls from all over New England. Lawrence became known as Immigrant City very early in its existence, and can reasonably boast that for its small geographic size (less than 6 square miles) it has had more immigrants from a greater variety of countries in the world per capita, than any other City of its size on Earth.
Lawrence was the scene of the Bread and Roses strike
, also known as the Lawrence textile strike
, one of more important labor actions in American history. In 1912, Massachusetts law reduced the work week from 56 hours to 54 hours and subsequently lowered wages for thousands of women and child workers. The average worker at the time earned a $7 a week and paid an equal amount for their monthly rent. On January 11, mill workers discovered their pay had been reduced and went on strike. Fewer than 1,000 of the 25,000 workers who went on strike were members of a union. The Industrial Workers of the World
(I.W.W.) provided most of the leadership for the strike and also provided food and clothing for the strikers. The Massachusetts National Guard, private, and city police countered strikers for two months. Although there were many skirmishes between the police, militia, and the strikers, only 2 people died and relatively few were injured on either side. Immigrant groups normally mistrustful of one another banded together in the common cause of higher wages. When police and National Guard assaulted a group of women and children, public outcry forced mill owners to capitulate. The striking workers won wage increases for themselves and thousands of workers across New England. One of the major companies involved in the strike was the American Woolen Company
, led by the son of a Portuguese immigrant, William Madison Wood
who had risen through the ranks in the textile industry.
, once the largest mills in the world, was knocked down in the 1950s . More significantly, under the guise of "urban renewal
", large tracts of downtown Lawrence were razed in the mid-1970s and replaced with parking lots and a three-story parking garage connected to a new Intown Mall intended to compete with newly constructed suburban malls. The historic Theater Row along Broadway was also razed, destroying ornate movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s that entertained mill workers through the Great Depression
and the Second World War. Additionally, the city's main post office, an ornate federalist style building at the corner of Broadway and Essex Street, was razed. Most of the structures were replaced with one-story, steel-frame structures with large parking lots, housing such establishments as fast food restaurants and chain drug stores, fundamentally changing the character of the center of Lawrence.
Lawrence also attempted to increase its employment base by attracting industries unwanted in other communities, such as waste treatment facilities and incinerators. From 1980 until 1998, private corporations operated two trash incinerators in Lawrence. Activist residents successfully blocked the approval of a waste treatment center on the banks of the Merrimack River near the current site of Salvatore's Pizza on Merrimack Street.
Recently the focus of Lawrence's urban renewal has shifted to preservation rather than sprawl.
and Puerto Rico
began arriving in Lawrence in significant numbers in the late 1960s, attracted by cheap housing and a history of tolerance toward immigrants. In 1984, tensions between remaining working class whites and increasing numbers of Hispanic youth flared into a riot, centered at the intersection of Haverhill Street and Railroad Street where a number of buildings were destroyed by Molotov cocktail
s and over 300 people were arrested.
Lawrence saw further setbacks during the recession of the early 1990s as a wave of arson plagued the city. Over 200 buildings were set alight in an eighteen month period in 1991–92, many of them abandoned residences and industrial sites.
– to be converted into commercial, residential and education uses – have lent encouragement to boosters of the city. One of the final remaining mills in the city is Malden Mills. Additionally, Lawrence's downtown has seen a resurgence of business activity as Hispanic-owned businesses have opened along Essex Street, the historic shopping street of Lawrence that remained largely shuttered since the 1970s. In June 2007, the City approved the sale of the Intown Mall, largely abandoned since the early 1990s recession, to Northern Essex Community College for the development of a medical sciences center. A large multi-structure fire in January 2008 destroyed many wooden structures just south of downtown. A poor financial situation that has worsened with the recent global recession and has led to multiple municipal layoffs has Lawrence contemplating receivership.
, when foreign born immigration to Lawrence virtually ceased for over 40 years.
In 1890, the foreign-born population of 28,577 was divided as follows, with the significant remainder of the population being children of foreign born residents: 7,058 Irish; 6,999 French Canadians; 5,131 English; 2,465 German; 1,683 English Canadian. In 1920, toward the end of the first wave of immigration, most ethnic groups had numerous social clubs in the city. The Portuguese had 2; the English had 2; the Jews had 3; the Armenians, 5; the Lebanese and Syrians, 6; the Irish, 8; the Polish, 9; the French Canadians and Belgian-French, 14; the Lithuanians, 18; the Italians, 32; and the Germans, 47. However, the center of social life, even more than clubs or fraternal organizations, was churches. Lawrence is dotted with churches, many now closed, torn down or converted into other uses. These churches signify, more than any other artifacts, the immigrant communities that once lived within walking distance of each church.
) and from the Sicilian province of Catania
maintained a particular devotion to three Catholic martyrs, Saint Alfio, Saint Filadelfo and Saint Cirino, and in 1923 began celebrating a procession on their feast day. Although most of the participants live in neighboring towns, the Feast of Three Saints festival continues in Lawrence today. Many of the Italians who lived in the Newbury Street area had immigrated from [Trescastagni,Viagrande, Aci Reale, Nicolosi], Italy.
immigrants organized St. Anthony
’s Maronite Church
in 1903, as well as St. George’s Orthodox Church, the oldest Greek Orthodox-rite Church in the United States.
were the second Protestant denomination to begin worship in Lawrence after the Episcopals, with the formation of the Lawrence Street Congregational Church in 1847, and the first in South Lawrence, with the erection in 1852 of the first South Congregational Church on South Broadway, near the corner of Andover Street.
Indicative of immigration trends, several Catholic churches now conduct masses in two or more languages. St. Patrick’s Church, a Catholic church in Lawrence and once an Irish bastion, has celebrated Spanish masses on Sundays since 1999. A mass in Vietnamese is also offered every other week. St. Mary's of the Assumption Parish is the largest Catholic parish in Lawrence by Mass attendance and number of registered parishioners and has the largest multi-lingual congregation in the city and has been offering Spanish masses since the early 1990s.
Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of former Catholic churches, closed since the 1980s when their Irish or Italian congregations died out, have been bought by Hispanic evangelical churches.
The 2000 Census revealed the following population breakdown, illustrating the shift toward newer immigrant groups:
Dominican Republic, 22%; Puerto Rican, 22%; other Hispanic or Latino, 12%; Irish, 7%; Italian, 7%, French (except Basque), 5%; Black or African American, 5%; French Canadian, 5%; English, 3%; Arab, 2%; German, 2%; Lebanese, 2%; Central American, 1%; Polish, 1%; Portuguese, 1%; Guatemalan, 1%; Vietnamese, 1%; South American, 1%; Spanish, 1%; Cambodian, 1%; Scottish, 1%; Cuban, 1%; Scotch-Irish, 1%; Ecuadoran, 1%.
,_lawrence,_massachusetts.jpg)
Lawrence is located at 42°42′13"N 71°9′47"W (42.703741, -71.162979).
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 7.4 square miles (19.2 km²), of which 7 square miles (18.1 km²) is land and 0.4 square miles (1 km²) (6.07%) is water. Lawrence is located on both sides of the Merrimack River, approximately 26 miles (41.8 km) upstream from the Atlantic Ocean
. On the north side of the river, it is surrounded by Methuen
. On the south side of the river, the town is bordered by North Andover
to the east, and Andover
to the south and southwest. Lawrence is located approximately 30 miles (48.3 km) north-northwest of Boston, and 27 miles (43.5 km) southeast of Manchester, New Hampshire
.
Aside from the Merrimack River
, other water features include the Spicket River
, which flows into the Merrimack from Methuen, and the Shawsheen River
, which forms the southeastern border of the city. Lawrence has two power canals that were formerly used to provide hydropower
to the mills - one on the north bank of the river, the other on the south. Channeling water into these canals is the Great Stone Dam
, which lies across the entire Merrimack and was, at the time of its construction in the 1840s, the largest dam in the world. The highest point in Lawrence is the top of Tower Hill in the northwest corner of the city, rising approximately 240 feet (73.2 m) above sea level. Other prominent hills include Prospect Hill, in the northeast corner of the city, and Mount Vernon, along the southern edge of the city. Most industrial activity was concentrated in the flatlands along the rivers. Den Rock Park, a wooded conservation district on the southern edge of Lawrence that spans the Lawrence-Andover town line, provides recreation for nature lovers and rock-climbers alike. There are also several small parks throughout town.
, which passes through the eastern portion of the city. There are three exits entirely within the city, though two more provide access from just outside the city limits. The town is also served by Route 28 passing from south to north through the city, and Route 110, which passes from east to west through the northern half of the city. Route 114 also has its western terminus at Route 28 at the Merrimack River. Lawrence is the site of four road crossings and a railroad crossing over the Merrimack, including the O'Leary Bridge (Route 28), a railroad bridge, the Casey Bridge (bringing Parker Street and access to Route 114 and the Lawrence MBTA station to the north shore), the Duck Bridge (which brings Union Street across the river), and the double-decked O'Reilly Bridge, bringing I-495 across the river.
Lawrence is the western hub of the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority's bus service. It is also home to the Senator Patricia McGovern Transportation Center, home to regional bus service and the Lawrence stop
along the Haverhill/Reading Line
of the MBTA Commuter Rail
system, providing service from Haverhill to Boston's North Station. Lawrence Municipal Airport
provides small plane service, though it is actually located in neighboring North Andover. Lawrence is located approximately equidistant from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport
and Logan International Airport
.
(Köppen climate classification Dfa), which is typical for the southern Merrimack valley
region in eastern Massachusetts.
As of the census
of 2000, there were 72,043 people, 24,463 households, and 16,903 families residing in the city. The population density
was 10,351.4 people per square mile (3,996.5/km²). There were 25,601 housing units at an average density of 3,678.4 per square mile (1,420.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 48.64% White (U.S. Average: 72.4%), 4.88% African American (U.S. Average: 12.3%), 2.65% Asian (U.S. Average: 3.6%), 0.81% Native American (U.S. Average: 0.1%), 0.10% Pacific Islander (U.S. Average: 0.1%), 36.67% from other races
(U.S. Average: 5.5%), 6.25% from two or more races (U.S. Average: 2.4%).
There were 24,463 households where the average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.46.
In the city the population had a median age was 30.0 years (U.S. Average: 35.3):
For every 100 females there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $25,983 (U.S. Average: $41,994), and the median income for a family was $29,809 (U.S. Average: $50,046) . Males had a median income of $27,772 versus $23,137 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $11,360. About 21.2% of families (U.S. Average: 9.2%) and 34.3% (U.S. Average: 12.4%) of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.7% of those under age 18 and 20.1% of those age 65 or over.
Form of government:
Plan B - "Strong mayor" - Mayor and city council, the councilors being elected partly at large and partly from districts or wards of the city. Party primaries prohibited.
Lawrence has an established City Charter and with a Mayor-council government
. There are nine city councilors and six school committee members; most are elected by district; three city council members are elected at large. There are six districts in Lawrence and all elections are non-partisan. The Mayor serves as the seventh member and chair of the school committee. The city council chooses one of its number as president who serves as chair of the council. The city of Lawrence also elects three members to the Greater Lawrence Technical School Committee these members are elected at-large. City Council and Mayoral terms of office begin in the month of January.
Lawrence has its own police and fire departments, as well as emergency medical service (EMS). The city also has its own public works and trash pickup departments.
, which serves much of the western Merrimack Valley and several towns just south of Andover.
Charter schools
High schools
High schools
Private
(a bilingual English/Spanish paper) and Siglo 21 (a bilingual English/Spanish paper). Other newspapers closely covering Lawrence news are The Valley Patriot (a monthly paper published in North Andover Massachusetts), and The Eagle-Tribune, one of the major newspapers for the Merrimack Valley which was founded in Lawrence in 1890 and later moved its facilities to the Town of North Andover on route 114. The city has one FM station, WEEI-FM
93.7, and four AM stations, WNNW
800, WCAP 980, WCCM
1110 and WLLH
1400. Lawrence Community Access Television is the only television station operating out of the city, and the city is considered part of the Boston television market.
What's Good in the Hood (est.2010), a local blog produced by youth, covers stories about Lawrence.
Lawrence is served by Area codes 978 and 351
. Originally a part of area code 617, it became part of area code 508 in 1988 before that, too, was split, with 978 covering the northern half of the old area code. Area code 351 is considered an overlay
code.
has a shoe manufacturing plant in Lawrence, one of five plants operating in the US.
}}
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:...
, United States on 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...
. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 76,377. Surrounding communities include Methuen
Methuen, Massachusetts
Methuen is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 43,789 at the 2000 census.-History:Methuen was first settled in 1642 and was officially incorporated in 1726; it is named for the British diplomat Sir Paul Methuen. Methuen was originally part of Haverhill,...
to the north, Andover
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
to the southwest, and North Andover
North Andover, Massachusetts
North Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. North Andover is the home of Merrimack College, a private, Catholic four-year institution ....
to the southeast. It and Salem
Salem, 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...
are the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
s of Essex County. Lawrence is also part of 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...
.
Manufacturing products of the city include electronic equipment, textiles, footwear, paper products, computers, and foodstuffs. Lawrence was the residence of Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
for his early school years; his first essays and poems were published in the Lawrence High School Bulletin.
Founding and rise as a textile center
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans first settled the area in 1640. The site of the city – formerly parts of Andover
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
and Methuen
Methuen, Massachusetts
Methuen is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 43,789 at the 2000 census.-History:Methuen was first settled in 1642 and was officially incorporated in 1726; it is named for the British diplomat Sir Paul Methuen. Methuen was originally part of Haverhill,...
– was purchased in 1845 by a group of Boston industrialists headed by the wealthy merchant and congressman Abbott Lawrence
Abbott Lawrence
Abbott Lawrence was a prominent American businessman, politician, and philanthropist...
, the community's namesake. The city was incorporated in 1853.
The industrialists, most prominently Lawrence, established textile mills near sources of abundant waterpower. Lawrence's location on 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...
, just downriver of Lowell
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...
and a short train ride from Boston was an ideal location to set up an industrial center. 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...
was dammed right above the city, and a canal was dug on both the north and the south banks to provide power to the factories that would soon be built on its banks.
The Bread and Roses strike of 1912
Working conditions in the mills were unsafe and in 1860 the Pemberton MillPemberton Mill
The Pemberton Mill was a large factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts, which collapsed without warning on January 10, 1860 in what is likely "the worst industrial accident in Massachusetts history" and "one of the worst industrial calamities in American history"...
collapsed, killing 145 workers. As immigrants flooded into the United States in the mid to late 19th century, the population of Lawrence abounded with skilled and unskilled workers from almost every nation in Europe: Ireland
Irish diaspora
thumb|Night Train with Reaper by London Irish artist [[Brian Whelan]] from the book Myth of Return, 2007The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa,...
, France, Italy
Italian diaspora
The term Italian diaspora refers to the large-scale migration of Italians away from Italy in the period roughly beginning with the unification of Italy in 1861 and ending with the Italian economic miracle in the 1960s...
, Germany, Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania; French-Canadians from the provinces of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
, and Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
; and farm girls from all over New England. Lawrence became known as Immigrant City very early in its existence, and can reasonably boast that for its small geographic size (less than 6 square miles) it has had more immigrants from a greater variety of countries in the world per capita, than any other City of its size on Earth.
Lawrence was the scene of the Bread and Roses strike
Bread and Roses
The slogan "Bread and Roses" originated in a poem of that name by James Oppenheim, published in The American Magazine in December 1911, which attributed it to "the women in the West." It is commonly associated with a textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January-March 1912, now often...
, also known as the Lawrence textile strike
Lawrence textile strike
The Lawrence Textile Strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World. Prompted by one mill owner's decision to lower wages when a new law shortening the workweek went into effect in January, the strike spread rapidly through the...
, one of more important labor actions in American history. In 1912, Massachusetts law reduced the work week from 56 hours to 54 hours and subsequently lowered wages for thousands of women and child workers. The average worker at the time earned a $7 a week and paid an equal amount for their monthly rent. On January 11, mill workers discovered their pay had been reduced and went on strike. Fewer than 1,000 of the 25,000 workers who went on strike were members of a union. The Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
(I.W.W.) provided most of the leadership for the strike and also provided food and clothing for the strikers. The Massachusetts National Guard, private, and city police countered strikers for two months. Although there were many skirmishes between the police, militia, and the strikers, only 2 people died and relatively few were injured on either side. Immigrant groups normally mistrustful of one another banded together in the common cause of higher wages. When police and National Guard assaulted a group of women and children, public outcry forced mill owners to capitulate. The striking workers won wage increases for themselves and thousands of workers across New England. One of the major companies involved in the strike was the American Woolen Company
American Woolen Company
The American Woolen Company was established in 1899 under the leadership of William M. Wood and his father-in-law Frederick Ayer through the consolidation of eight financially troubled New England woolen mills. At the company's height in the 1920s, it owned and operated 60 woolen mills across New...
, led by the son of a Portuguese immigrant, William Madison Wood
William Madison Wood
William M. Wood was a textile mill owner of Lawrence, Massachusetts who was considered to be an expert in efficiency. He made a good deal of his fortune through being hired by mill owners to turn around failing mills and was disliked by organized labor.- Early life :William Wood was born in 1858...
who had risen through the ranks in the textile industry.
Post-War history
Lawrence was a great wool-processing center until that industry declined in the 1950s. The decline left Lawrence a struggling city. The population of Lawrence declined from over 80,000 residents in 1950 (and a high of 94,270 in 1920) to approximately 64,000 residents in 1980, the low point of Lawrence's population.Urban renewal
Like other northeastern cities suffering from the effects of Post-World War II industrial decline, Lawrence has often made efforts at revitalization, some of them controversial. For example, half of the enormous water-powered Wood MillAmerican Woolen Company
The American Woolen Company was established in 1899 under the leadership of William M. Wood and his father-in-law Frederick Ayer through the consolidation of eight financially troubled New England woolen mills. At the company's height in the 1920s, it owned and operated 60 woolen mills across New...
, once the largest mills in the world, was knocked down in the 1950s . More significantly, under the guise of "urban renewal
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...
", large tracts of downtown Lawrence were razed in the mid-1970s and replaced with parking lots and a three-story parking garage connected to a new Intown Mall intended to compete with newly constructed suburban malls. The historic Theater Row along Broadway was also razed, destroying ornate movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s that entertained mill workers through 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...
and the Second World War. Additionally, the city's main post office, an ornate federalist style building at the corner of Broadway and Essex Street, was razed. Most of the structures were replaced with one-story, steel-frame structures with large parking lots, housing such establishments as fast food restaurants and chain drug stores, fundamentally changing the character of the center of Lawrence.
Lawrence also attempted to increase its employment base by attracting industries unwanted in other communities, such as waste treatment facilities and incinerators. From 1980 until 1998, private corporations operated two trash incinerators in Lawrence. Activist residents successfully blocked the approval of a waste treatment center on the banks of the Merrimack River near the current site of Salvatore's Pizza on Merrimack Street.
Recently the focus of Lawrence's urban renewal has shifted to preservation rather than sprawl.
Events of the 1980s and 1990s
Immigrants from the Dominican RepublicDominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
began arriving in Lawrence in significant numbers in the late 1960s, attracted by cheap housing and a history of tolerance toward immigrants. In 1984, tensions between remaining working class whites and increasing numbers of Hispanic youth flared into a riot, centered at the intersection of Haverhill Street and Railroad Street where a number of buildings were destroyed by Molotov cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
s and over 300 people were arrested.
Lawrence saw further setbacks during the recession of the early 1990s as a wave of arson plagued the city. Over 200 buildings were set alight in an eighteen month period in 1991–92, many of them abandoned residences and industrial sites.
Recent trends
Recently, a sharp reduction in violent crime starting in 2004 and massive private investment in former mill buildings along the Merrimack River, including the remaining section of the historic Wood MillAmerican Woolen Company
The American Woolen Company was established in 1899 under the leadership of William M. Wood and his father-in-law Frederick Ayer through the consolidation of eight financially troubled New England woolen mills. At the company's height in the 1920s, it owned and operated 60 woolen mills across New...
– to be converted into commercial, residential and education uses – have lent encouragement to boosters of the city. One of the final remaining mills in the city is Malden Mills. Additionally, Lawrence's downtown has seen a resurgence of business activity as Hispanic-owned businesses have opened along Essex Street, the historic shopping street of Lawrence that remained largely shuttered since the 1970s. In June 2007, the City approved the sale of the Intown Mall, largely abandoned since the early 1990s recession, to Northern Essex Community College for the development of a medical sciences center. A large multi-structure fire in January 2008 destroyed many wooden structures just south of downtown. A poor financial situation that has worsened with the recent global recession and has led to multiple municipal layoffs has Lawrence contemplating receivership.
History of Lawrence immigrant communities
Lawrence has been aptly nicknamed the "Immigrant City." Starting with the Irish in the 1840s, it has been home to numerous different immigrant communities, most of whom arrived during the great wave of European immigration to America that ended in the 1920s. Since early 1970s, Lawrence has become home to a sizable Hispanic population, reaching over 68% of the population of Lawrence by 2006.Immigrant communities, 1845–1920
Lawrence became home to large groups of immigrants from Europe, beginning with the Irish in 1845, Germans after the social upheaval in Germany in 1848, and French Canadians seeking to escape hard northern farm life from the 1850s onward. A second wave began arriving after 1900, as part of the great mass of Italian and Eastern European immigrants, including Jews from Russia, Poland, Lithuania and neighboring regions. Immigration to the United States was severely curtailed in the 1920s with the Immigration Act of 1924Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
, when foreign born immigration to Lawrence virtually ceased for over 40 years.
In 1890, the foreign-born population of 28,577 was divided as follows, with the significant remainder of the population being children of foreign born residents: 7,058 Irish; 6,999 French Canadians; 5,131 English; 2,465 German; 1,683 English Canadian. In 1920, toward the end of the first wave of immigration, most ethnic groups had numerous social clubs in the city. The Portuguese had 2; the English had 2; the Jews had 3; the Armenians, 5; the Lebanese and Syrians, 6; the Irish, 8; the Polish, 9; the French Canadians and Belgian-French, 14; the Lithuanians, 18; the Italians, 32; and the Germans, 47. However, the center of social life, even more than clubs or fraternal organizations, was churches. Lawrence is dotted with churches, many now closed, torn down or converted into other uses. These churches signify, more than any other artifacts, the immigrant communities that once lived within walking distance of each church.
The Irish
Irish immigrants arrived in Lawrence at its birth, which nearly coincided with the Great Potato Famine of the 1840s, the event that drove great numbers of Irish out of Ireland. The Great Stone Dam, constructed in from 1845–1848 to power the nascent textile mills, was largely built by Irish laborers. The first Irish immigrants settled in the area south of the Merrimack River near the intersection of Kingston Street and South Broadway. Their shantytown settlement put them close to the dam being constructed, but away from the Essex Corporation row houses built north of the river to attract New England farm girls as millworkers. The religious needs of the Irish were initially met by the Immaculate Conception church, originally erected near the corner of Chestnut and White Street in 1846, the first Roman Catholic church in Lawrence. In December, 1848, the Reverend James O'Donnell erected "old" St. Mary's Church. By 1847, observers counted over ninety shanties in the Irish shantytown. In 1869, the Irish were able to collect sufficient funds form their own church, St. Patrick’s, on South Broadway.The Germans
The first sizable German community arrived following the revolutions of 1848. However, a larger German community was formed after 1871, when industrial workers from Saxony were displaced by economic competition from new industrial areas like the Ruhr. The German community was characterized by numerous school clubs, shooting clubs, national and regional clubs, as well as men’s choirs and mutual aid societies, many of which were clustered around the Turn Verein, a major social club on Park Street.The Italians
Some Italian immigrants celebrated Mass in the basement chapel of the largely Irish St. Laurence O’Toole Church, at the intersection of East Haverhill Street and Newbury Street, until they had collected sufficient funds to erect the Holy Rosary Church in 1909 nearby at the intersection of Union Street and Essex Street. Immigrants from Lentini (a Sicilian province of SyracuseProvince of Syracuse
The Province of Syracuse is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital is the city of Syracuse.It has an area of 2,109 km², and a total population of 396,167 ....
) and from the Sicilian province of Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
maintained a particular devotion to three Catholic martyrs, Saint Alfio, Saint Filadelfo and Saint Cirino, and in 1923 began celebrating a procession on their feast day. Although most of the participants live in neighboring towns, the Feast of Three Saints festival continues in Lawrence today. Many of the Italians who lived in the Newbury Street area had immigrated from [Trescastagni,Viagrande, Aci Reale, Nicolosi], Italy.
The French Canadians
French Canadians were the second major immigrant group to settle in Lawrence. In 1872, they erected their first church, St. Anne’s, at the corner of Haverhill and Franklin Streets. Within decades, St. Anne’s established a “missionary church”, Sacred Heart on South Broadway, to serve the burgeoning Québécois community in South Lawrence. Later it would also establish the "missionary" parishes in Methuen: Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Theresa's (Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel et St-Thérèse). The French-Canadians arrived from various farming areas of Quebec where the soil had been depleted for lack of knowledge that crops needed to be rotated after a time. Others who integrated themselves into these French-Canadian communities were actually Acadians who had left the Canadian Maritimes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia also in search of work.The Lebanese
Lawrence residents frequently referred to their Arabic-speaking Middle Eastern community as "Syrian". In fact, most so-called Syrians in Lawrence were from present-day Lebanon, and were largely Maronite Christian. LebaneseLebanese people
The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
immigrants organized St. Anthony
Anthony the Great
Anthony the Great or Antony the Great , , also known as Saint Anthony, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Abba Antonius , and Father of All Monks, was a Christian saint from Egypt, a prominent leader among the Desert Fathers...
’s Maronite Church
Maronite Church
The Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See of Rome . It traces its heritage back to the community founded by Maron, a 4th-century Syriac monk venerated as a saint. The first Maronite Patriarch, John Maron, was elected in the late 7th...
in 1903, as well as St. George’s Orthodox Church, the oldest Greek Orthodox-rite Church in the United States.
The Jews
Jewish merchants became increasingly numerous in Lawrence and specialized in dry goods and retail shops. The fanciest men's clothing store in Lawrence, Kap's, established in 1902 and closed in the early 1990s, was founded by Elias Kapelson, born in Lithuania. Jacob Sandler and two brothers also immigrated from Lithuania in approximately 1900 and established Sandlers Department Store, which continued in business until 1978. In the 1880s, the first Jewish arrivals established a community around Common, Valley, Concord and Lowell Streets. In the 1920s, the Jews of Lawrence began congregating further up Tower Hill, where they erected two synagogues on Lowell Street above Milton Street, as well as a Jewish Community Center on nearby Haverhill Street. All three institutions had closed their doors by 1990 as the remaining elderly members of the community died out or moved away.The Polish
The Polish community of Lawrence was estimated to be only 600–800 persons in 1900. However by 1905, the community had expanded sufficiently to fund the construction of the Holy Trinity Church at the corner of Avon and Trinity Streets. Their numbers grew to 2,100 Poles in 1910. Like many of their immigrant brethren from other nations, most of the Poles were employed in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing.The English
A sizable English community, composed mainly of unskilled laborers that arrived after 1880, sought work in the textile mills where they were given choice jobs by the Yankee overseers on account of their shared linguistic heritage and close cultural links.Yankee farmers
Not all immigrants to Lawrence were foreign-born or their children. Yankee farmers, unable to compete against the cheaper farmlands of the Midwest that had been linked to the East coast by rail, settled in corners of Lawrence. CongregationalistsCongregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
were the second Protestant denomination to begin worship in Lawrence after the Episcopals, with the formation of the Lawrence Street Congregational Church in 1847, and the first in South Lawrence, with the erection in 1852 of the first South Congregational Church on South Broadway, near the corner of Andover Street.
New immigrants, 1970 to present
Immigration of foreign born workers to Lawrence largely ceased in 1921 with the passage of strict quotas against immigrants from the countries that had supplied the cheap, unskilled workers. Although many quotas were lifted after the Second World War, foreign immigration to Lawrence only picked up again in the late 1960s with Hispanic immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico as well as other Latin American countries. Immigrants from southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, have also settled in Lawrence.Indicative of immigration trends, several Catholic churches now conduct masses in two or more languages. St. Patrick’s Church, a Catholic church in Lawrence and once an Irish bastion, has celebrated Spanish masses on Sundays since 1999. A mass in Vietnamese is also offered every other week. St. Mary's of the Assumption Parish is the largest Catholic parish in Lawrence by Mass attendance and number of registered parishioners and has the largest multi-lingual congregation in the city and has been offering Spanish masses since the early 1990s.
Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of former Catholic churches, closed since the 1980s when their Irish or Italian congregations died out, have been bought by Hispanic evangelical churches.
The 2000 Census revealed the following population breakdown, illustrating the shift toward newer immigrant groups:
Dominican Republic, 22%; Puerto Rican, 22%; other Hispanic or Latino, 12%; Irish, 7%; Italian, 7%, French (except Basque), 5%; Black or African American, 5%; French Canadian, 5%; English, 3%; Arab, 2%; German, 2%; Lebanese, 2%; Central American, 1%; Polish, 1%; Portuguese, 1%; Guatemalan, 1%; Vietnamese, 1%; South American, 1%; Spanish, 1%; Cambodian, 1%; Scottish, 1%; Cuban, 1%; Scotch-Irish, 1%; Ecuadoran, 1%.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 7.4 square miles (19.2 km²), of which 7 square miles (18.1 km²) is land and 0.4 square miles (1 km²) (6.07%) is water. Lawrence is located on both sides of the Merrimack River, approximately 26 miles (41.8 km) upstream from the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. On the north side of the river, it is surrounded by Methuen
Methuen, Massachusetts
Methuen is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 43,789 at the 2000 census.-History:Methuen was first settled in 1642 and was officially incorporated in 1726; it is named for the British diplomat Sir Paul Methuen. Methuen was originally part of Haverhill,...
. On the south side of the river, the town is bordered by North Andover
North Andover, Massachusetts
North Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. North Andover is the home of Merrimack College, a private, Catholic four-year institution ....
to the east, and Andover
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
to the south and southwest. Lawrence is located approximately 30 miles (48.3 km) north-northwest of Boston, and 27 miles (43.5 km) southeast of Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
.
Aside from 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...
, other water features include the Spicket River
Spicket River
The Spicket River is a river located in New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the United States. It is a tributary of the Merrimack River, part of the Gulf of Maine watershed. It is sometimes spelled "Spickett"....
, which flows into the Merrimack from Methuen, and the Shawsheen River
Shawsheen River
The Shawsheen River is a tributary of the Merrimack River in northeast Massachusetts. The name has had various spellings. According to Bailey's history of Andover, the spelling Shawshin was the most common in the old records, although Shawshine, Shashin, Shashine, Shashene, Shawshene, and later,...
, which forms the southeastern border of the city. Lawrence has two power canals that were formerly used to provide hydropower
Hydropower
Hydropower, hydraulic power, hydrokinetic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of falling water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Since ancient times, hydropower has been used for irrigation and the operation of various mechanical devices, such as...
to the mills - one on the north bank of the river, the other on the south. Channeling water into these canals is the Great Stone Dam
Great Stone Dam
Great Stone Dam, built in 1845, is a historic dam on the Merrimack River & MA 28 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.It was built in 1845 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977....
, which lies across the entire Merrimack and was, at the time of its construction in the 1840s, the largest dam in the world. The highest point in Lawrence is the top of Tower Hill in the northwest corner of the city, rising approximately 240 feet (73.2 m) above sea level. Other prominent hills include Prospect Hill, in the northeast corner of the city, and Mount Vernon, along the southern edge of the city. Most industrial activity was concentrated in the flatlands along the rivers. Den Rock Park, a wooded conservation district on the southern edge of Lawrence that spans the Lawrence-Andover town line, provides recreation for nature lovers and rock-climbers alike. There are also several small parks throughout town.
Transportation
Lawrence lies along Interstate 495Interstate 495 (Massachusetts)
Interstate 495 is the designation of an Interstate Highway half-beltway in Massachusetts. It was the longest auxiliary Interstate Highway of its kind—measuring 120.74 miles —until 1996, when the PA Route 9 section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was redesignated as Interstate 476, making it about ...
, which passes through the eastern portion of the city. There are three exits entirely within the city, though two more provide access from just outside the city limits. The town is also served by Route 28 passing from south to north through the city, and Route 110, which passes from east to west through the northern half of the city. Route 114 also has its western terminus at Route 28 at the Merrimack River. Lawrence is the site of four road crossings and a railroad crossing over the Merrimack, including the O'Leary Bridge (Route 28), a railroad bridge, the Casey Bridge (bringing Parker Street and access to Route 114 and the Lawrence MBTA station to the north shore), the Duck Bridge (which brings Union Street across the river), and the double-decked O'Reilly Bridge, bringing I-495 across the river.
Lawrence is the western hub of the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority's bus service. It is also home to the Senator Patricia McGovern Transportation Center, home to regional bus service and the Lawrence stop
Lawrence (MBTA station)
Lawrence Station is a rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail system in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The station is located at the Senator Patricia McGovern Transportation Center on 211 Merrimack Street in the city's Gateway District...
along the Haverhill/Reading Line
Haverhill/Reading Line
The Haverhill Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running north from downtown Boston, Massachusetts through the cities and towns ofMalden,Melrose,Wakefield,Reading,Wilmington,Andover,...
of the MBTA Commuter Rail
MBTA Commuter Rail
The MBTA Commuter Rail serves as the regional rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in the United States. It is operated under contract by the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company a joint partnership of Veolia Transportation, Bombardier Transportation and Alternate...
system, providing service from Haverhill to Boston's North Station. Lawrence Municipal Airport
Lawrence Municipal Airport (Massachusetts)
Lawrence Municipal Airport is a public airport located two miles east of the central business district of Lawrence, a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States...
provides small plane service, though it is actually located in neighboring North Andover. Lawrence is located approximately equidistant from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport
Manchester-Boston Regional Airport
Manchester-Boston Regional Airport , commonly referred to simply as "Manchester Airport," is a public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Manchester, New Hampshire on the county line of Hillsborough and Rockingham counties...
and Logan International Airport
Logan International Airport
General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport is located in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts . It covers , has six runways, and employs an estimated 16,000 people. It is the 19th busiest airport in the United States.Boston serves as a focus city for JetBlue Airways...
.
Climate
Lawrence has a humid continental climateHumid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters....
(Köppen climate classification Dfa), which is typical for the southern 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...
region in eastern Massachusetts.
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg high °F (°C) |
33.9 (1.0) |
36.4 (2.4) |
45.2 (7.3) |
56.6 (13.7) |
68.2 (20.1) |
77.3 (25.2) |
82.6 (28.1) |
81.1 (27.3) |
72.9 (22.7) |
62.5 (16.9) |
50.7 (10.4) |
38.1 (3.3) |
58.8 (14.9) |
| Avg low °F (°C) |
15.4 (-9.2) |
16.9 (-8.4) |
27.0 (-2.8) |
37.1 (2.8) |
47.3 (8.5) |
56.6 (13.7) |
62.3 (16.8) |
60.6 (15.9) |
52.2 (11.2) |
41.6 (5.3) |
33.0 (0.6) |
21.4 (-5.9) |
39.3 (4.1) |
| Rainfall in inches (millimeters) |
3.92 (99.6) |
3.17 (80.5) |
3.93 (99.8) |
4.06 (103.1) |
3.67 (93.2) |
3.46 (87.9) |
3.34 (84.8) |
3.18 (80.8) |
3.78 (96.0) |
3.96 (100.6) |
4.06 (103.1) |
3.56 (90.4) |
44.09 (1,119.8) |
Demographics
According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2010 Census, the city's population is 76,377, the population density is 10,973.7 per square mile (4237/km²), and there are 27,137 households (25,181 occupied). The racial makeup of the city is 42.8% White (20.5% non-Hispanic), 7.6% Black or African American, 2.5% Asian, 1.3% American Indian or Alaskan Native, 0.1% (57 total) Hawaiian Native or Pacific Islander, 39.3% some other race, 6.5% two or more races, and 73.8% of the population is Hispanic or Latino (of any race) (U.S. Average: 12.5%).As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 72,043 people, 24,463 households, and 16,903 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 10,351.4 people per square mile (3,996.5/km²). There were 25,601 housing units at an average density of 3,678.4 per square mile (1,420.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 48.64% White (U.S. Average: 72.4%), 4.88% African American (U.S. Average: 12.3%), 2.65% Asian (U.S. Average: 3.6%), 0.81% Native American (U.S. Average: 0.1%), 0.10% Pacific Islander (U.S. Average: 0.1%), 36.67% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
(U.S. Average: 5.5%), 6.25% from two or more races (U.S. Average: 2.4%).
There were 24,463 households where the average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.46.
- 41.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them. (U.S. Average: 32.8%)
- 36.6% were married couples living together. (U.S. Average: 51.7%)
- 25.7% had a female householder with no husband present. (U.S. Average: 12.2%)
- 30.9% were non-families. (U.S. Average: 31.9%)
- 25.5% of all households were made up of individuals. (U.S. Average: 25.8%)
- 10.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. (U.S. Average: 9.2%)
In the city the population had a median age was 30.0 years (U.S. Average: 35.3):
- 32.0% under the age of 18
- 11.1% from 18 to 24
- 30.3% from 25 to 44
- 16.7% from 45 to 64
- 9.8% were 65 years of age or older.
For every 100 females there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $25,983 (U.S. Average: $41,994), and the median income for a family was $29,809 (U.S. Average: $50,046) . Males had a median income of $27,772 versus $23,137 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $11,360. About 21.2% of families (U.S. Average: 9.2%) and 34.3% (U.S. Average: 12.4%) of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.7% of those under age 18 and 20.1% of those age 65 or over.
Local
| Voter Registration and Party Enrollment as of October 15, 2008 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Number of Voters | Percentage |
Democratic Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous... |
21,254 | 53.25% |
Republican Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S... |
2,980 | 7.47% |
Unaffiliated | 15,380 | 38.54% |
Minor Parties | 297 | 0.74% | |
| Total | 39,911 | 100% | |||||||||||||
Form of government:
Plan B - "Strong mayor" - Mayor and city council, the councilors being elected partly at large and partly from districts or wards of the city. Party primaries prohibited.
Lawrence has an established City Charter and with a Mayor-council government
Mayor-council government
The mayor–council government system, sometimes called the mayor–commission government system, is one of the two most common forms of local government for municipalities...
. There are nine city councilors and six school committee members; most are elected by district; three city council members are elected at large. There are six districts in Lawrence and all elections are non-partisan. The Mayor serves as the seventh member and chair of the school committee. The city council chooses one of its number as president who serves as chair of the council. The city of Lawrence also elects three members to the Greater Lawrence Technical School Committee these members are elected at-large. City Council and Mayoral terms of office begin in the month of January.
| City Council Local government in the United States Local government in the United States is generally structured in accordance with the laws of the various individual states. Typically each state has at least two separate tiers: counties and municipalities. Some states have their counties divided into townships... | Lawrence School Committee | Greater Lawrence Technical School Vocational-technical school A vocational-technical school, often called a vo-tech school, is a high school in the United States and Canada designed to bring vocational and technical training to its students. Such skills become highly valuable to students entering into a vocational or technical field without first obtaining... Committee |
|---|---|---|
|
William Lantigua William Lantigua is a Dominican American politician in Massachusetts. He became Mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts in January 2010 following his November 2009 defeat of Lawrence City Councilor David Abdoo... (Mayor)* |
|
- = President/Chair
** = Vice President/Vice Chair
Lawrence has its own police and fire departments, as well as emergency medical service (EMS). The city also has its own public works and trash pickup departments.
State and federal
Lawrence is one of Essex County's two county seats, along with Salem. As such, it is home to a juvenile, district and superior court, as well as a regional office of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. It is also home to the Lawrence Correctional Alternative Center, a regional alternative jail for low-risk offenders. It is not home to the county's sheriff or district attorney; they are located in Middleton (home to the county's correctional facility) and Salem, respectively. The city is also covered by the Andover barracks of Troop A of the Massachusetts State PoliceMassachusetts State Police
The Massachusetts State Police is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Public Safety and Security responsible for criminal law enforcement and traffic vehicle regulation across the state...
, which serves much of the western Merrimack Valley and several towns just south of Andover.
Healthcare
Lawrence General Hospital is the city's main hospital, providing service to much of the area south of the city. Other nearby hospitals are in Methuen, Haverhill and Lowell. The city also is served by the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center.Public schools
The City of Lawrence has a public school system managed by Lawrence Public Schools.Charter schools
High schools
- Lawrence High School:
- Greater Lawrence Technical SchoolGreater Lawrence Technical School-Greater Lawrence Technical School:Established in 1963, the prepares students for college and career. Greater Lawrence is a four-year career and technical high school offering technical programs, a technology-rich curriculum, strong academics with personalized academic support and honors classes,...
Private schools
Elementary schools- Bellesini Academy
- Lawrence Family Development Charter School
- Our Lady of Good Counsel School
- St.Mary's of the Assumption
- St. Patrick's School
High schools
- Central Catholic High SchoolCentral Catholic High School (Lawrence, Massachusetts)Central Catholic High School is a college preparatory school with an academic campus in Lawrence, Massachusetts and an athletic campus in Methuen, Massachusetts associated with the Marist Brothers of the Schools and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and founded in 1935 by Brother Florentius...
- Notre Dame High SchoolNotre Dame High School (Lawrence, Massachusetts)Notre Dame High School is a small, private, Roman Catholic high school in Lawrence, Massachusetts as part of the Cristo Rey Network of high schools. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.-Sports Teams:...
Higher education
Public- Northern Essex Community CollegeNorthern Essex Community CollegeNorthern Essex Community College is a state-assisted, two-year college, located in Essex County in northeastern Massachusetts...
Private
- Cambridge CollegeCambridge CollegeCambridge College is a private, non-profit college based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializing in adult education.It offers distance learning and blended learning programs toward undergraduate and graduate degrees in education, counseling, psychology, management, health care management, and...
Library
The Lawrence public library was established in 1872. In fiscal year 2008, the city of Lawrence spent 0.55% ($1,155,597) of its budget on its public library—some $16 per person.Media and communications
Lawrence is home to RumboRumbo (newspaper)
Rumbo is a free weekly bilingual newspaper published in Lawrence, Massachusetts covering the Merrimack Valley and southern New Hampshire. The paper switches between the Regional edition and the Local edition every other week making it a bi-weekly paper in some areas but weekly in Lawrence and...
(a bilingual English/Spanish paper) and Siglo 21 (a bilingual English/Spanish paper). Other newspapers closely covering Lawrence news are The Valley Patriot (a monthly paper published in North Andover Massachusetts), and The Eagle-Tribune, one of the major newspapers for the Merrimack Valley which was founded in Lawrence in 1890 and later moved its facilities to the Town of North Andover on route 114. The city has one FM station, WEEI-FM
WEEI-FM
WVEI-FM is a radio station broadcasting a sports radio format, largely simulcasting Boston-based WEEI. Licensed to Westerly, Rhode Island, USA. The station is currently owned by Entercom Communications...
93.7, and four AM stations, WNNW
WNNW
WNNW is a radio station licensed to serve Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. The station is owned by Costa-Eagle Radio Ventures, LP, a partnership between Pat Costa and his chief investor, the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. It airs a Spanish Tropical music format...
800, WCAP 980, WCCM
WCCM (AM)
WCCM is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Salem, New Hampshire, USA, the station is currently owned by Costa-Eagle Radio Ventures Limited Partnership, a partnership between Pat Costa and his chief investor, The Eagle-Tribune.-History:The 1110 frequency in...
1110 and WLLH
WLLH
WLLH is a radio station in the Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts, licensed to Lowell, Massachusetts. The station is owned by Gois Broadcasting, LLC, and airs a tropical music format. In addition to a transmitter in Lowell, there is a synchronous transmitter in Lawrence, together forming...
1400. Lawrence Community Access Television is the only television station operating out of the city, and the city is considered part of the Boston television market.
What's Good in the Hood (est.2010), a local blog produced by youth, covers stories about Lawrence.
Lawrence is served by Area codes 978 and 351
Area codes 978 and 351
Area codes 978 and 351 are Commonwealth of Massachusetts area codes serving the communities of Salem, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Peabody, Fitchburg and Leominster as well as northeastern Massachusetts. Area code 978 was created as a split from Worcester's 508 on September 1, 1997, it finished...
. Originally a part of area code 617, it became part of area code 508 in 1988 before that, too, was split, with 978 covering the northern half of the old area code. Area code 351 is considered an overlay
Overlay plan
In telephony, especially in North America, an overlay plan is the practice of introducing a new area code by applying it onto a geographic area that is already occupied by one or more existing area codes, resulting in two area codes serving the same area.- Methodology :Prior to the introduction of...
code.
Economy
New BalanceNew Balance
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. , best known as simply New Balance, is a footwear manufacturer based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. It was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Support Company...
has a shoe manufacturing plant in Lawrence, one of five plants operating in the US.
Points of interest
- Bellevue Cemetery
- Essex Art Center
- Great Stone DamGreat Stone DamGreat Stone Dam, built in 1845, is a historic dam on the Merrimack River & MA 28 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.It was built in 1845 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977....
- Lawrence Community Works
- Lawrence Experiment StationLawrence Experiment StationThe Lawrence Experiment Station, now known as the Senator William X. Wall Experiment Station, was the world's first trial station for drinking water purification and sewage treatment...
- Lawrence Heritage State ParkLawrence Heritage State ParkLawrence Heritage State Park is a Massachusetts state park located in Lawrence. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.-Description:Lawrence Heritage State Park comprises three separate park areas, as follows:...
- Lawrence History Center
- Lawrence Public Library
- Saint Alfio Society (Feast of the Three Saints)
- Semana Hispana (Hispanic Week)
- Veterans Memorial StadiumVeterans Memorial Stadium (Lawrence)Veterans Memorial Stadium is a 9,000 seat stadium in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The stadium is located adjacent to the new Lawrence High School. It has been recently renovated and has a turf along with a new track, and new seating. The venue opened in 1927 and was renovated in 2006...
Notable residents
- Aaron FeuersteinAaron FeuersteinAaron Feuerstein was the third-generation owner and CEO of Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts.When the Malden Mills factory burnt down on December 11, 1995, Feuerstein decided not only to use his insurance money to rebuild it, but to also pay the salaries of all the now-unemployed workers...
, one of the CEO's of Malden Mills. Known for his generosity for which he was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. - A. J. AntoonA. J. AntoonA. J. Antoon was an American theatre director. He attended the Yale School of Drama. Beginning in 1971, Antoon directed numerous plays at the New York Shakespeare Festival over a period of nearly 20 years. In 1973, Antoon became one of the few directors to have been nominated for two Tony Awards...
, Tony winning American theatre director. - Al BernardinAl BernardinAl Bernardin was an American restaurateur and businessman who invented the McDonald's Quarter Pounder in 1971 as a franchise owner in Fremont, California. The creation of the Quarter Pounder earned him the nickname "Fremont's hamburger king."Bernadin later became McDonald's vice president of...
, inventor of the Quarter PounderQuarter PounderThe Quarter Pounder is a hamburger product sold by international fast food chain McDonald's, originally containing a patty with a precooked weight of a quarter of a pound .-History:... - Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, composer and conductor - Johnny BroacaJohnny BroacaJohnny Broaca was a professional baseball pitcher from 1934 to 1939. Broaca won at least 12 games for the New York Yankees his first three seasons. However, in 1937, Broaca took a leave of absence for no apparent reason and only pitched in 7 games. Broaca did not pitch at all in 1938, and in 1939...
, professional baseball player - Doc CaseyDoc CaseyJames Patrick "Doc" Casey was a third baseman in Major League Baseball. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he was a switch hitter that threw right-handed....
, professional baseball player - Susie CastilloSusie CastilloSusie Castillo is a former beauty queen who held the Miss USA title and competed in the Miss Teen USA and Miss Universe pageants...
, Miss USAMiss USAThe Miss USA beauty contest has been held annually since 1952 to select the United States entrant in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operates both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA...
2003 and host for multiple national television shows - James Champy , author, management expert, retired CEO.
- Ed Coleman, radio reporter/host for the New York MetsNew York MetsThe New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
- Irene DayeIrene DayeIrene Daye was an American jazz singer.Irene Daye began her career at age 17 by singing in Jan Murphy's big band while still in high school in 1935, continuing with Murphy through 1937...
, jazz singer - Ferdinand Waldo DemaraFerdinand Waldo DemaraFerdinand Waldo Demara, Jr. , known as "the Great Impostor", masqueraded as many people from monks to surgeons to prison wardens...
, "The Great Imposter" - Anthony DeSpiritoAnthony DeSpiritoAnthony "Tony" DeSpirito was a champion American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who found instant fame when he won the national riding title in 1952 as an apprentice in his first full year of racing....
, jockey - Marcos DeversMarcos DeversMarcos A. Devers is a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and a former acting mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts...
, first Dominican-American to serve as Mayor in the United States of America - William E. Donovan, MLBMajor League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
pitcher and manager - Sully ErnaSully ErnaSalvatore Paul "Sully" Erna , is an American vocalist and primary songwriter for the American heavy metal band, Godsmack. Erna is also a guitarist and drummer, performing these both on albums and during live shows. He has a daughter named Skylar Brooke Erna and an older sister named Maria.-Early...
, GodsmackGodsmackGodsmack is an American heavy metal band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The band is composed of founder, frontman and songwriter Sully Erna, guitarist Tony Rombola, bassist Robbie Merrill, and drummer Shannon Larkin...
lead singer - Joseph D. FitzGeraldJoseph D. FitzGeraldJoseph D. FitzGerald, S.J. was the 3rd President of Fairfield University located in Fairfield, Connecticut from 1951 to 1958. During his seven year tenure the first class of Fairfield University graduated in 1953 and the University was admitted to fully accredited membership in the New England...
, President of Fairfield UniversityFairfield UniversityFairfield University is a private, co-educational undergraduate and master's level teaching-oriented university located in Fairfield, Connecticut, in the New England region of the United States. It was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1942, and today is one of 28 member institutions of the...
(1951–1958) - Jocko FlynnJocko FlynnJohn A. "Jocko" Flynn , was a Major League Baseball player who played pitcher only in the 1886 season, after which he developed arm problems that kept him from pitching again. He would play for the Chicago White Stockings...
, MLB pitcher - Robert FrostRobert FrostRobert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
, poet - Robert GouletRobert GouletRobert Gerard Goulet was a Canadian American entertainer as a singer and actor. He played the role of Lancelot in the Broadway musical Camelot of 1960.-Early life:...
, singer - Steve Holman, voice of the Atlanta HawksAtlanta HawksThe Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are part of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association .-The first years:...
- William S. KnoxWilliam Shadrach KnoxWilliam Shadrach Knox was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts who served from 1895 to 1903.Knox was the son of William Shadrach Knox Sr and Rebecca Walker, and the grandson of Samuel Knox and Mary Kimbell and Jimmy Walker and Hannah Richardson...
, US Congressman from March 4, 1895 to March 3, 1903 - Thomas J. Lane, US Congressman from March 4, 1941 to March 3, 1963
- Abbott LawrenceAbbott LawrenceAbbott Lawrence was a prominent American businessman, politician, and philanthropist...
, Founder of Lawrence, US Congressman, and Ambassador to the United KingdomUnited States Ambassador to the United KingdomThe office of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was traditionally, and still is very much so today due to the Special Relationship, the most prestigious position in the United States Foreign Service... - Anna LoPizzoAnna LoPizzoAnna LoPizzo was a striker killed during the Lawrence textile strike , considered one of the most significant struggles in U.S. labor history...
, a striker killed during the Lawrence textile strikeLawrence textile strikeThe Lawrence Textile Strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World. Prompted by one mill owner's decision to lower wages when a new law shortening the workweek went into effect in January, the strike spread rapidly through the... - Sal MaccaroneSal MaccaroneSal Maccarone is a American author, woodworking seminar speaker, furniture maker, wood sculptor and kinetic artist. He is best known as a master craftsman, and for his internationally distributed woodworking books such as Tune Up Your Tools, ISBN 1-55870-409-4, and How to Make $40,000 a Year...
, sculptor - Ray MacDonnellRay MacDonnellRaymond Arthur "Ray" MacDonnell is an American actor, best known for his role as Dr. Joe Martin on the daytime soap opera All My Children, a role he played for 40 years...
, actor - Robert S. MaloneyRobert S. MaloneyRobert Sarsfield Maloney was a United States Representative from Massachusetts.-Early life and education:Maloney was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts...
, US Congressman from March 4, 1921 to March 3, 1923 - Frank McManusFrank McManus (baseball)Francis E. McManus , was a professional baseball player who played catcher from 1899-1904.McManus was murdered in Syracuse, New York.-External links:...
, MLB catcher - Robbie Merill, GodsmackGodsmackGodsmack is an American heavy metal band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The band is composed of founder, frontman and songwriter Sully Erna, guitarist Tony Rombola, bassist Robbie Merrill, and drummer Shannon Larkin...
bassist - Paul MonettePaul MonettePaul Landry Monette was an American author, poet, and activist best remembered for his essays about gay relationships.-Biography:...
, author, poet, and activist - George MoolicGeorge MoolicGeorge Henry Moolic , is a professional baseball player who played catcher in the Major Leagues in 1886. He played for the Chicago White Stockings and with local team of the New England League and with a club from Meriden, Conn.Moolic died February 19, 1915 at aged 50 years...
, professional baseball player and catcher - Ray MungoRay MungoRaymond Mungo is the author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books. He writes about business, economics, and financial matters as well as cultural issues...
, author of over 18 books and co-founder of Liberation News Service - Jane Ellen "Bonnie" NewmanBonnie NewmanJane Ellen "Bonnie" Newman is an American administrator and business executive who was selected to be the United States Senator from New Hampshire but did not take office when the vacancy she was to fill did not materialize....
, former Executive Dean of Harvard'sHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Kennedy SchoolKennedy SchoolThe Kennedy School is a former elementary school that has been converted to a hotel, movie theater and dining establishment in northeast Portland, Oregon. The facility is operated by the McMenamins chain.-External links:*...
and President of the UNHUniversity of New HampshireThe University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is... - John O'Connell, professional baseball player
- Henry K. OliverHenry K. OliverHenry Kemble Oliver was an American who served as the 5th Mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts, the 21st Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, and as the 26th Treasurer of Massachusetts.-Early life:Oliver was...
, Treasurer of Massachusetts from 1886 to 1889 - Endicott PeabodyEndicott PeabodyEndicott "Chub" Peabody was the 62nd Governor of Massachusetts from January 3, 1963 to January 7, 1965.-Early life:...
, Governor of MassachusettsGovernor of MassachusettsThe Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
from January 3, 1963 to January 7, 1965 - Leo Z. PennLeo PennLeo Z. Penn was an American actor and director, and father of musician Michael Penn and actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn.-Early life:...
, actor and director - Joe PerryJoe Perry (musician)Anthony Joseph "Joe" Perry is the lead guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith. He is influenced by many rock artists especially The Rolling Stones and The Beatles...
, guitarist of AerosmithAerosmithAerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many... - Raymond PrestonRaymond PrestonRaymond Preston is a former American football linebacker who played nine years from 1976 to 1984 with the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League....
, NFLNational Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
linebacker - William QuinlanBill QuinlanWilliam David Quinlan is a former American football defensive end in the National Football League for the Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions, and the Washington Redskins. He also played in the Canadian Football League for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats...
, NFL defensive end - Gil ReyesGil ReyesGilberto Reyes is a professional boxer.Reyes, whose nickname is "Sugar", fights out of Miami, Florida. He has been featured numerous times on ESPN2 and Telemundo. In February 2005, Reyes beat Carlos Gonzalez for the vacant WBA Fedecentro Title...
, former WBAWorld Boxing AssociationThe World Boxing Association is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962...
, Fedecentro Welterweight Champion - William Herbert RollinsWilliam Herbert RollinsWilliam Herbert Rollins is a forgotten American scientist and dentist. He was a pioneer in radiation protection. Many of his inventions and investigations have been ranked in importance with those of Thomas A. Edison, Elihu Thomson, and William J. Morton. Rollins, although a practicing dentist,...
, pioneer in the field of radiation protection - William A. Russell, US Congressman from March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1885
- James ShannonJames ShannonJames Michael Shannon , also known as Jim Shannon, is a Democratic politician from Massachusetts. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985, and later as the Massachusetts Attorney General....
, Attorney General of MassachusettsMassachusetts Attorney GeneralThe Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected executive officer of the Massachusetts Government. The office of Attorney-General was abolished in 1843 and re-established in 1849. The current Attorney General is Martha Coakley....
and CEO of National Fire Protection AssociationNational Fire Protection AssociationThe National Fire Protection Association is a United States trade association that creates and maintains private, copywrited, standards and codes for usage and adoption by local governments... - Edgar J. ShermanEdgar J. ShermanEdgar Jay Sherman was an American attorney who served as District Attorney of the Eastern District of Massachusetts, as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Attorney General of Massachusetts and as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court.-Early life:Sherman was...
, Attorney General of MassachusettsMassachusetts Attorney GeneralThe Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected executive officer of the Massachusetts Government. The office of Attorney-General was abolished in 1843 and re-established in 1849. The current Attorney General is Martha Coakley....
and Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court. - Bethann SiviterBethann SiviterBethann Siviter is a British Registered Nurse originally from the United States; in the few years she has been in the UK, she has become a well-known nursing author, speaker and advocate for nursing students, healthcare assistants and the art of nursing practice. The author of a best selling...
, expatriate British Nurse leader and author - John K. TarboxJohn K. TarboxJohn Kemble Tarbox was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.-Early life and education:Tarbox was born in that part of Methuen, Massachusetts that became incorporated into Lawrence, Massachusetts, Tarbox pursued classical studies, engaged in newspaper work, studied law and was admitted to the...
, US Congressman from March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1877 and Mayor of Lawrence from (1873–1875) - Ernest ThayerErnest ThayerErnest Lawrence Thayer was an American writer and poet who wrote "Casey at the Bat".-Biography:Thayer was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts and raised in Worcester. He graduated magna cum laude in philosophy from Harvard in 1885, where he was editor of the Harvard Lampoon...
, writer and poet - Thelma ToddThelma ToddThelma Alice Todd was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase's short comedies, and co-starring with Buster Keaton and Jimmy...
, actress - John E. WhiteJohn E. WhiteJohn E. White was an American banker and politician who served as the Massachusetts Auditor.-Early life and education:White was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on December 13, 1873...
, Auditor of Massachusetts July 6, 1911 to 1914 - Michael C. WholleyMichael C. WholleyMichael C. Wholley is the current General Counsel for NASA and a retired United States Marine Corps brigadier general.-Early life and education:...
, current General Counsel for NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research... - William M. WoodWilliam Madison WoodWilliam M. Wood was a textile mill owner of Lawrence, Massachusetts who was considered to be an expert in efficiency. He made a good deal of his fortune through being hired by mill owners to turn around failing mills and was disliked by organized labor.- Early life :William Wood was born in 1858...
, Co-founder of the American Woolen CompanyAmerican Woolen CompanyThe American Woolen Company was established in 1899 under the leadership of William M. Wood and his father-in-law Frederick Ayer through the consolidation of eight financially troubled New England woolen mills. At the company's height in the 1920s, it owned and operated 60 woolen mills across New... - TermanologyTermanologyDaniel Carrillo , better known as Termanology is a rapper from Lawrence, Massachusetts. He first came to wide attention with the 2006 single "Watch How It Go Down". A solo album, Politics As Usual, was released in 2008...
, hip-hop artist
See also
- American Automobile and Power CompanyAmerican Automobile and Power CompanyThe American Automobile and Power Company was an American Brass Era car manufacturer, incorporated in Sanford, Maine, in 1903. They produced the American Populaire during 1904 and 1905....
- American Woolen CompanyAmerican Woolen CompanyThe American Woolen Company was established in 1899 under the leadership of William M. Wood and his father-in-law Frederick Ayer through the consolidation of eight financially troubled New England woolen mills. At the company's height in the 1920s, it owned and operated 60 woolen mills across New...
- Bread and RosesBread and RosesThe slogan "Bread and Roses" originated in a poem of that name by James Oppenheim, published in The American Magazine in December 1911, which attributed it to "the women in the West." It is commonly associated with a textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January-March 1912, now often...
- Lawrence textile strikeLawrence textile strikeThe Lawrence Textile Strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World. Prompted by one mill owner's decision to lower wages when a new law shortening the workweek went into effect in January, the strike spread rapidly through the...
- Malden Mills
- Noack Organ CompanyNoack Organ CompanyThe Noack Organ Company is a pipe organ manufacturer based out of Georgetown, Massachusetts.Fritz Noack began the company in 1960 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Prior to that he had worked with a number of organ builders in Europe and the United States...
- Pemberton MillPemberton MillThe Pemberton Mill was a large factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts, which collapsed without warning on January 10, 1860 in what is likely "the worst industrial accident in Massachusetts history" and "one of the worst industrial calamities in American history"...
External links
- Photos from Library of Congress at flickr.com
- Wall & Gray. 1871 Atlas of Massachusetts. Map of Massachusetts. USA. New England. Counties - Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden, Worcester, Middlesex, Essex and Norfolk, Boston - Suffolk,Plymouth, Bristol, Barnstable and Dukes (Cape Cod). Cities - Springfield, Worcester, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Newburyport, Salem, Lynn, Taunton, Fall River. New Bedford. These 1871 maps of the Counties and Cities are useful to see the roads and rail lines.
- Beers,D.G. 1872 Atlas of Essex County Map of Massachusetts Plate 5. Click on the map for a very large image. Also see detailed map of 1872 Essex County Plate 7.
}}