Lowell - Massachusetts - History

A farming community originally settled in 1653 at East Chelmsford. Beginning in the early 19th century, this village grew to become a major cotton textile-manufacturing centre because of an abundance of waterpower from the Merrimack's Pawtucket Falls (32 feet) and the completion of the Middlesex Canal link to Boston in 1803. By 1824 the locality was crisscrossed by a canal system that served numerous cotton-textile mills along the Merrimack River. The community was incorporated as a town in 1826 and was named for Francis Cabot Lowell, a pioneer textile. The town's growth was further sustained by the completion of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in 1835.

By the mid 19th century, Lowell had become one of the nation's major industrial cities; it was called the "spindle city" and the "Manchester of America" because of its large textile industries. As such it aroused the interest of such European writers as Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollop, who recorded their impressions of it. Its peak as a textile centre was reached about 1924. Following a period of decline and eventual relocation of the textile mills to Southern states, the city's economy became more diversified and now includes the manufacture of electronics, chemicals, and textiles. Health care, higher education, and other services also are important.

Lowell's accomplishments spurred competition from many river towns in the northeast; competition meant lower prices, which affected wages and working conditions. Eager to work, immigrants from central and southern Europe travelled to Lowell. These families, together with the Irish immigrants already present, provided the basis for Lowell's cultural and ethnic diversity.