World United States Massachusetts Lowell

Mike and Roxanne travel east

Lowell Sep 11, 2007

September 11, 2007

This morning we are off to Lowell to see the Lowell National Historical Park.

Lowell was born as a grand experiment that changed how Americans lived and worked. Capitalists tapped the energy of the falls of the Merrimack River to turn thousands of textile machines. Young Yankee women and immigrant families came here to turn out millions of yards of cloth. From their labors grew America's first industrial city.

In the early 1800's Francis Cabot Lowell observed British techniques for weaving textiles and with the aid of Paul Moody, a mechanic he produced a power loom.

Boston merchants founded the city along the Merrimack River to take advantage of the waterpower produced by the Pawtucket Falls. In 1814 the water-powered mill was erected which carried out all the steps of textile production, carding, spinning, and weaving. The mills hired young farm girls from throughout New England. The work provided them with their own money and a sense of worth.

Lowell continued to grow and by 1850, with a population of 33,000 it was the second largest city in Massachusetts with the mill employing more than 10,000 women and men.

With more and more mills opening in the Southern states where the raw materials were more readily available and labor was cheaper the mills began to lose money. The mills began closing in the 1920's and 30's. A brief resurgence came about during WWII but by the amid-1950[s the last of the original mills had shut down.

Lowell began to die with the problems seem by many cities. In the 1970's the area was taken over by the National Park system and many of the buildings were restored. In one of the mills the looms have been duplicated and are seen working. The noise is tremendous, even with earplugs provided by the park. Upstairs is the museum with the original carding machines, looms and reproductions of the material that was woven at the mills.

Lowell was definitely a "mill town". One of the volunteers lived in the area as a child and remembers the mills stretching for a mile along the canals. He says that even living a mile away he could hear the noise of the looms.