Dozen Distinctive Destinations
Lowell, MA
Year Listed: 2000
Lowell, Massachusetts, has experienced a renaissance by transforming itself from a gritty, declining factory town to a prosperous community with a proud historic, cultural, and working class heritage. Founded in 1821, Lowell was the site for a massive complex of textile mills in northeastern Massachusetts. By 1850, it was the second largest city in New England and the industrial center of America. Immigrants traveled to Lowell for work, creating the basis for the city’s ethnic mix which now includes people of Irish, Greek, French Canadian, Cambodian, and Hispanic descent. When the textile mills closed after World War I, Lowell suffered decades of decline.
In the 1970's, the city reinvented itself as a high-tech center, which then collapsed in the recession at the end of the decade. Turning to a comprehensive urban rehabilitation plan, residents and businesses realized that historic preservation -- including the heritage of working class communities -- would be good for business. In 1979, the National Park Service established the first national historical park, dedicated to preserving Lowell’s physical resources to tell the story of the industrial revolution in America. Today, Lowell’s former textile mills have been renovated to house offices, low-income family and elderly housing, apartments, condominiums, museums, a visitors’ center, a day care center, an art gallery, and a variety of uses for the University of Massachusetts at Lowell Surrounded by brick sidewalks and iron streetlamps, restored Victorian buildings accommodate stores, restaurants, and city agencies. Diverse houses of worship represent 40 religious denominations, and residential building styles include Victorians, colonials, capes, and ranches Cultural attractions in Lowell celebrate the city’s heritage and traditions. As part of Lowell’s National Historical Park, the National Park Service offers tours of the canals and mills.
The New England Folklife Center of Lowell and the Boott Cotton Mill Museum offer additional insight into how people lived throughout the city’s evolution. Art exhibits, concerts, and performances are available at the Brush Art Gallery, New England Quilt Museum, American Textile Museum, Boarding House Park, Lowell Memorial Auditorium, and the Merrimack Repertory Theatre. The Lowell Folk Festival, held in July, is the city’s premier cultural event Sports fans can see the minor-league baseball Spinners, the American Hockey League Lock Monsters, and the New England Sports Museum. The Merrimack and Concord Rivers furnish countless recreational opportunities in Lowell, including boating, fishing, water skiing, and white water rafting. The Lowell-Dracut- Tyngsboro state forest offers a thousand acres for hiking, jogging, backpacking, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing
