History of Lowell, Massachusetts

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Lowell, Massachusetts is considered the Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution, as it was the first large-scale factory town in America. Situated along the Merrimack River in northeastern Massachusetts, Lowell was founded to take advantage of that river's abundant waterpower to run its textile mills. The city began as a money making and social engineering venture 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 deindustrialization and suburbanization.

[edit] Geography

Lowell is located at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord Rivers. The Pawtucket Falls, a mile-long set of rapids with a total loss in elevation of 32 feet, ends where the two rivers meet. At the top of the falls is the Pawtucket Dam - designed to turn the upper Merrimack into a millpond, diverted through Lowell's extensive canal system.

The Merrimack, which flows southerly from Franklin, New Hampshire to Lowell, makes a northeasterly turn there before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport, Massachusetts, approximately 40 miles downriver from Lowell. It is believed that in prior ages, the Merrimack continued south from Lowell to empty into the ocean somewhere near Boston. The glacial deposits that redirected the flow of the river are also responsible for the drumlins that dot the city, most notably, Fort Hill in the Belvidere neighborhood. Other large hills in Lowell include Lynde Hill, also in Belvidere, and Christian Hill, in the eastermost part of Centralville.

The Concord, or Musketaquid (its original name), forms from the confluence of the Assabet and Sudbury Rivers at Concord, Massachusetts. This river flows north into the city, and the area around the confluence with the Merrimack was known as Wamesit. Like the Merrimack, the Concord, although a much smaller river, has many waterfalls and rapids that served as power sources for early industrial purposes, some well before the founding of Lowell. Immediately after the Concord joins the Merrimack, the Merrimack descends another ten feet in Hunt's Falls.

There is a ninety-degree bend in the Merrimack partway down the Pawtucket Falls. At this point, the river briefly widens and shallows. Here, Beaver Brook enters from the north, separating the City's two northern neighborhoods - Pawtucktville and Centralville. Entering the Concord River from the southwest is River Meadow, or Hale's Brook. This brook flows largely in a man-made channel, as the Lowell Connector was built along it. Both of these minor streams have limited industrial histories as well.

[edit] Prehistory to Contact

The site was a rendezvous point and an important fishing ground for the Pennacook Indians in pre-Columbian times. The land above the falls on the northern bank of the Merrimack was inhabited by the Pawtucket group, while the land along both sides of the Concord 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, Massachusetts (and would later be added to Lowell). In 1726, Wamesit was forcibly annexed to Chelmsford, since it now contained mostly white settlers who were not paying tax to the town yet wanted representation. Wamesit then became known as East Chelmsford.

[edit] Early industrialization and the Waltham System

Boston Manufacturing Co., Waltham, Massachusetts

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, 11 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 Mystic River at Charlestown, Massachusetts. A direct, all-water route from Boston, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire was now available.

Consequently, many small manufacturers were opening up milling and manufacturing operations in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. However, most were run by man-power and quite small. Meanwhile, Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy but sickly Newburyport merchant, was in Great Britain in an attempt to improve his health. He also toured the textile factories there. F.C. Lowell learned the key aspects of their operation, and in 1811, F.C. Lowell met with his colleagues Nathan Appleton in Edinburgh, Scotland. They discussed starting textile mills in their native New England, and 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 opened up a new opportunity. F.C. Lowell, his brother-in-law Patrick Tracy Jackson, Appleton, and others 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 The Boston Associates. The Amesbury mechanic Paul Moody, with F.C. Lowell's help, recreated the machines Lowell had seen in Britain within a year. By offering a very early example of a public stock option, the investors were capitalized with $100,000, which they used to build a textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts, near Boston. Their textile mill used the waterpower of the Charles River, and employed largely young Yankee women. The Waltham system, later called the Lowell system, began. The young Yankee women, or "mill girls," lived in company boardinghouses and attended churches supported by the companies. Life inside and outside the factory was closely scrutinized. The Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham, the first to transform raw cotton to cotton cloth in one mill, were extremely successful. However, due to the small size of the Charles River, it was evident that to continue expanding, a new, larger source of power would be needed.

[edit] Beginnings of Lowell

Lowell's canal system - historical evolution

With the War of 1812 over, British goods again returned to the American markets. Lowell, wanting to protect the fledgling American textile industry, went to Washington, D.C. to lobby for a protective tariff on finished cloth. Although he was successful, Lowell died the following year in 1817 at age 42, leaving the very wealthy Boston Manufacturing company to Patrick T. Jackson. By 1820, the Company was searching the Merrimack River for points to locate their new operation, but were struggling. Eventually, Paul Moody was informed by business associate Ezra Worthen about the Pawtucket Canal, and in 1821, the Boston Manufacturing Company bought up the old Proprietors of Locks and Canals. The canal was deepened, the number of locks was decreased to three, and to improve the flow into the canal, a dam was built at the top of the falls. Additionally, a sizable amount of farmland was bought in East Chelmsford, and in 1822, The Boston Manufacturing Company spun off the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, with 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, mostly farmers. Needing a workforce, thousands of employees, mostly young women, were recruited from all over New England to work in new textile mills and living in the company boardinghouses. These women were to be model citizens, unlike the working underclass in England. 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 virtually the full 32 foot drop, or head of the Pawtucket Falls, to 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 here a few years later in 1831. The Merrimack Manufacturing Company's first mill was operational on September 1, 1823 and the following year, a church and a school were founded. In 1825, Proprietors of Locks and Canals separated from the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, which allowed it to lease water power back to the Merrimack Company, and additionally other ventures. Kirk Boott was also the agent of this company. This same year, the Lowell Machine Shop opened, 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 lead 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 Mills, Eastern Canal
• 1839: Massachusetts Mills
• 1844: Prescott Mills were founded, and bought by the Massachusetts Mills in 1845.

Finally, on Thanksgiving Day 1847, the Northern Canal and Moody Street Feeder opened, greatly increasing water power available to the corporations.

[edit] City of Lowell

Lowell's canal system - today

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 Salem. 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, arguably the oldest railroad in 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, 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 Whistler, the father of painter James McNeil 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.

[edit] The immigrant city

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 Germans. 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 affect 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, 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 turn 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 early 20th century, about 30 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 run factories 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.

[edit] Decline

Commuters waiting for a bus, January 1941. This appears to be the old main train station, where the Lord Overpass is today.

By the 1920s, the New England textile industry began to shift South and many of Lowell's textile mills began to move South 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. 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.

[edit] Bottoming out

View of the former "Mile of Mills" showing factory buildings in various stages of disrepair/rehabilitation. Click for details.

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 facades 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 lead some residents to begin thinking about saving the historical structures.

[edit] National Park

The Boott Mill complex now converted to a museum.

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 residents, most notably Lowell native and U.S. Congressman Paul Tsongas, thought the city should embrace and preserve its historical legacy. In 1974, Lowell Heritage State Park was founded, and in 1978, Lowell National Historical Park became the country's first urban national park. 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, many Southeast Asians moved into the city. 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 for tax free and auto friendly Nashua, New Hampshire. 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, and obviously did nothing to help the reputation of the city as a dangerous and depressed place to be.

[edit] Lowell today

Sculpture commemorating the textile mill industry in downtown Lowell.

However, a new revitalization occurred in the late 1990s, and Lowell became home to both the Tsongas Arena and LeLacheur Park in 1998. The addition of the Lowell Devils hockey and Lowell Spinners baseball farm teams have brought notability and visitors to the city. In addition to sports, culture is a highly visible component of Lowell's economy today. The Tsongas Arena and the old Lowell Memorial Auditorium bring in many national acts, and events such as the annual Lowell Folk Festival are major draws as well. The National Park continues to expand, and many buildings are still being rehabilitated. Lowell is one of the safest cities of its size in the nation ^[1]. The condo boom in the first half of the 2000s has brought many wealthier residents and artists into the city's old mills, creating a more vibrant downtown with the galleries, shops, and restaurants they bring with them. However, many long-established retail stores in Lowell continue to fail. Ambitious new projects are underway to rebuild dilapidated industrial areas and some of the inner-city neighborhoods. A project that will redevelop land once held by the Saco-Lowell Shops and the Hamilton and Appleton Mills is underway, and an historically sensitive rehabilitation of part of the Acre has been planned. The University of Massachusetts Lowell, with its new Chancellor, Lowell native and former U.S. Congressman Marty Meehan, has been doing significant research in Biotechnology and Nanotechnology, which may eventually bring higher-skilled jobs into the city as the traditional industrial sector continues to decline. Many new groups have moved into Lowell's neighborhoods, including Brazilians and Africans, continuing Lowell's traditional role as a melting pot. Although the city must always look forward, in many ways its traditional strengths are what keeps it a vibrant city today.

[edit] References

• Cowley, Charles (1868, republished September 13, 2006). A History of Lowell. Michigan: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library. ISBN 978-1425522018. 
• Prendergast, John (1996, Third Edition). The Bend in the River. Tyngsborough, Massachusetts: Merrimack River Press. ISBN 0-9639338-0-5. 
• Coburn, Frederick William (1920). History of Lowell and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co. 
• Lowell Historical Society (2005). Lowell the Mill City. Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-3760-8. 
• National Park Handbook, retrieved 3/24/07
• Suffolk Turbine Exhibit brochure, retrieved 3/24/07
• Lowell Historical Society Timeline, retrieved 3/24/07

[edit] External links

• City of Lowell
• Lowell National Historical Park
• University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Lowell History
• 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.