![]() On the west, Downtown Lowell’s border with the Acre follows Arcand Drive and Dutton St. Where: The Merrimack River forms Downtown Lowell’s borders with Pawtucketville to the north and its border with Belvidere to the east. When: The land that became Downtown Lowell came from Chelmsford’s original land grant to Lowell in 1826. It was such a raving success and moneymaker that the Boston Manufacturing Company had plenty of capital to expand north into Lowell in the decade following Lowell’s untimely death in 1817. Lowell also devised the mill girl system, bringing women into Waltham from the countryside, and becoming one of the earliest exploiters of the gender wage gap in the US. Under Lowell’s guidance, they built the factory that would serve as the template for all textile mills for the rest of the 19th century. ![]() ![]() They built their first mill in Waltham in 1814 along the Charles River. The names of his partners read like a page ripped from an atlas of today’s Lowell: Appleton, Jackson, Thorndike, Moody, Otis. After returning to Massachusetts, he teamed up with his wealthy, well-connected associates and set about creating the Boston Manufacturing Company. When the War of 1812 broke out and Lowell returned to the United States, he was able to get his plans for US-based machines through the port of Halifax because he had memorized them.įrancis Cabot Lowell’s ability to memorize those plans helped create Lowell the city. He couldn’t buy drawings of the machines he found there, but he memorized how they worked. When he went to visit family in the UK in 1810, he sought out the water- and steam-powered spinning and weaving machines in Scotland and England. He knew the United States needed onshore manufacturing capabilities. He felt it when the Embargo of 1807 stifled overseas trade for the United States. Lowell noted how dependent the US remained on imports to run its manufacturing industries. He began importing tea and silk from China, textiles from India, and later expanded into rum distilling. His father died six years later in 1802, and Lowell used his sizable inheritance to buy eight merchant ships. When he came back to the US in 1796, he returned to Boston and became a merchant on Long Wharf. His travels took him to France–right as the Industrial Revolution was unfolding. His mother, Susanna, was a member of the Cabot family, one of Boston’s first and most prominent families.įrancis Cabot Lowell was barely 20 years old and full of ideas from his education at Harvard University when he set out to learn about shipping and to get ready for a career as a merchant in 1795. George Washington had appointed his father, John Lowell, as the first district judge for the US District Court of Massachusetts. What Makes Francis Cabot Lowell So Important?įrancis Cabot Lowell came from a world of influence. ![]() Want to jump ahead to the summaries on each neighborhood? Just click a link below: Downtown Lowell Shortcuts to Lowell Neighborhood Information ![]()
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