TravelCent

Lowell and the 19th Century

The Lowell National Historical Park preserves the history of America’s early working life; it’s essentially a series of museums in the middle of Lowell, just about thirty miles outside Boston.  This small city, founded in 1820, was created as a center for textiles.  To learn about the Industrial Age in America, all you need do is check into one of the hotels Lowell has to offer, and set out among the trolleys and canals to the various museums that will grant any visitor a window nearly two hundred years into the past.  From the Textile Museum to the Working Peoples and Immigrants Museum to the Boott Cotton Mills Museum, you’re certain to learn the way people lived and worked in the 19th Century.

The Boott Cotton Mills were certainly a part of that history, whose doors were open for over a hundred and twenty years, not shutting down until 1955.  The museum now features exhibits of the mill equipment and allows guests to experience the look of a working mill.  In the “Weave Room,” there are industrial grade looms, fully active, operating at its highest speed.  The roar of the looms illustrates what workers had to endure on a daily basis here.  You’ll find the museum gift shop next to the Weave Room, where there’s much more information about Lowell and the Mills.

Walking along the grounds of the Boott Cotton Mills, you’ll stroll past the Merrimack River, and may pass the cotton storehouse.  The museum itself contains three floors, two occupied by the museum, and the third by condominiums and lofts which have a view of the waterfront.  Throughout the park, you’ll also may see The Boardinghouse, a place where the women who worked in the mill lived.  The Boardinghouse now is known as the Mogan Cultural Center, which provides historical exhibits, educational programs and celebrates communities and their urban roots.
If you’re a history buff, but also want a scenic place to relax, Lowell, Massachusetts, with its proximity to Boston, may be a pefect choice for a visit.

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