Lowell, Massachusetts City of Lowell Lowell on the Merrimack River with Cox Bridge Lowell on the Merrimack River with Cox Bridge Official seal of City of Lowell City of Lowell is positioned in the US City of Lowell - City of Lowell Website City of Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell is a town/city in the US Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Located in Middlesex County, Lowell (along with Cambridge) served as a governmental center of county until Massachusetts disbanded county government in 1999. With an estimated populace of 109,945 in 2014, it is the fourth-largest town/city in Massachusetts, and the second-largest in the Boston urbane statistical area. The town/city is also part of a lesser Massachusetts statistical region called Greater Lowell, as well as New England's Merrimack Valley region.
Incorporated in 1826 to serve as a foundry town, Lowell was titled after Francis Cabot Lowell, a small-town figure in the Industrial Revolution.
Many of the Lowell's historic manufacturing sites were later preserved by the National Park Service to problematic Lowell National Historical Park. During the Cambodian genocide, the town/city took in an influx of refugees, dominant to a Cambodia Town and America's second-largest Cambodian-American population. Lowell is home to two college studies schools, the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Middlesex Community College.
8.1 Pollard Memorial Library / Lowell City Library 8.4 Center for Lowell History Main articles: History of Lowell, Massachusetts and Timeline of Lowell, Massachusetts Founded in the 1820s as a prepared manufacturing center for textiles, Lowell is positioned along the rapids of the Merrimack River, 25 miles northwest of Boston in what was once the farming improve of East Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
As Lowell's populace grew, it acquired territory from neighboring towns, and diversified into a full-fledged urban center.
By the 1850s, Lowell had the biggest industrial complex in the United States.
In 1860, there were more cotton spindles in Lowell than in all eleven states combined that would form the Confederacy. Yet the town/city did not simply finish raw materials produced in the American South, but rather became involved in the South in another way, too.
Many of the coarse cottons produced in Lowell eventually returned to the South to clothe enslaved citizens , and, as stated to historian Sven Beckert, "'Lowell' became the generic term slaves used to describe coarse cottons." The town/city continued to thrive as a primary industrial center amid the 19th century, attracting more migrant workers and immigrants to its mills.
They came to work in Lowell and settled in ethnic neighborhoods, with the city's populace reaching almost 50% foreign-born by 1900. By the time World War I broke out in Europe, the town/city had reached its economic and populace peak of over 110,000 citizens .
In the 1970s, Lowell became part of the Massachusetts Miracle, being the command posts of Wang Laboratories.
The former foundry precinct along the river was partially restored and became part of the Lowell National Historical Park, established in the late 1970s.
At this same time, the Lowell City Development Authority created a Comprehensive Master Plan which encompassed recommendations for zoning adaptations inside the city.
Although Wang went bankrupt in 1992, the town/city continued its cultural focus by hosting the nation's biggest no-charge folk festival, the Lowell Folk Festival, as well as many other cultural affairs.
By the 1990s, Lowell had assembled a new ballpark and arena, which became home to two minor league sports teams, the Lowell Devils and Lowell Spinners.
The University of Massachusetts Lowell and Middlesex Community College period their programs and enrollment.
By 2004, the recommended zoning shifts were unanimously adopted by the City Council and despite various shifts to the 2004 Zoning Code, it remains the basic framework for resolving zoning issues in Lowell to this day. The Hamilton Canal District (HCD) is the first precinct in Lowell in which regulation and evolution is defined by Form-Based Code (HCD-FBC) and legislated by its own guiding framework consistent to the HCD Master Plan. The HCD is a primary redevelopment universal that comprises 13-acres of vacant, underutilized territory in downtown Lowell abutting former industrialized mills.
In July 2012, Lowell youth led a nationally reported campaign to gain voting privileges for 17-year-olds in small-town elections; it would have been the first municipality to do so. The 'Vote 17' campaign was supported by nationwide researchers; its goals were to increase voter turnout, problematic lifelong civic habits, and increase youth input in small-town matters. The accomplishment was led by youth at the United Teen Equality Center in downtown Lowell. Lowell is positioned at 42 38 22 N 71 18 53 W (42.639444, -71.314722). According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 14.5 square miles (38 km2).13.8 square miles (35.7 km ) of it is territory and 0.8 square miles (2.1 km2) of it (5.23%) is water.
Lowell is positioned at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord rivers.
The Merrimack, which flows southerly from Franklin, New Hampshire to Lowell, makes a northeasterly turn there before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport, Massachusetts, approximately 40 miles downriver from Lowell.
It is believed that in before ages, the Merrimack continued south from Lowell to empty into the ocean somewhere near Boston.
Like the Merrimack, the Concord, although a much lesser river, has many waterfalls and rapids that served as power sources for early industrialized purposes, some well before the beginning of Lowell.
The ten communities designated part of the Lowell Metropolitan region by the 2000 US Enumeration are Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Groton, Lowell, Pepperell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, and Westford, and Pelham, NH.
Lowell has eight distinct neighborhoods: the Acre, Back Central, Belvidere, Centralville, Downtown, Highlands, Pawtucketville, and South Lowell. The town/city also has five ZIP codes: four are geographically distinct general ZIP codes, and one (01853) is for post-office boxes only.
It is positioned in the southwestern section of the city, bordered to the east by the Lowell Connector and to the north by the barns .
Downtown, Belvidere, Back Central, and South Lowell make up the 01852 ZIP Code, and are the southeastern sections of the town/city (south of the Merrimack River and southeast of the Lowell Connector).
Belvidere is the mostly residentiary region south of the Merrimack River, east of the Concord River, and north of the Lowell and Lawrence barns .
South Lowell is the region south of the barns and east of the Concord River.
The ZIP Code 01854 is the northwestern portion of the town/city and includes Pawtucketville; the University of Massachusetts Lowell; and the Acre.
Pawtucketville's Lowell Dracut Tyngsborough State Forest is the probable site of a Native American tribe, and in the age of the Industrial Revolution was a prominent origin where granite for canals and factory foundations was obtained. Between 1990 and 2010, the city's proportion of ethnic minorities more than doubled, increasing from 23.5 percent of inhabitants to 47.2 percent. In 2010, Lowell had the highest proportion of inhabitants of Cambodian origin of any place in the United States, at 12.5% of the population.
Estimates of the total number of Cambodians living in the town/city of Lowell range from 11,000 to 25,000-35,000. The Government of Cambodia had opened up its third U.S.
Lowell has also experienced a momentous increase in the number of inhabitants between the ages of 50-69 while the percentages of inhabitants under the age of 15 and over the age of 70 decreased. In 2010 the city's populace had a median age of 32.6. The age distribution was 23.7% of the populace under the age of 18, 13.5% from 18 to 24, 29.4% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.1% who were 65 years of age or older.
The town/city of Lowell is primarily policed and protected by the Lowell Police Department, secondarily by the Massachusetts State Police, the UMass Lowell Police, and the National Park Service.
In 2008, the violent crime rate for Lowell was 1,126.3 per 100,000 of the population, ranking it the 7th most violent town/city in Massachusetts right ahead of Boston with 1,104 per 100,000. Lowell's crime rate has dropped tremendously since the 1990s In the years from 1994 to 1999, crime dropped 50 percent, the highest rate of decline for any town/city in America with over 100,000 residents. In 2009, Lowell was ranked as the 139th most dangerous town/city of over 75,000 inhabitants in the United States, out of 393 communities.
Out of Massachusetts cities, nine are larger than 75,000 residents, and Lowell was fifth most dangerous or safest. For comparison Lowell is rated safer than Boston (104 of 393), Providence RI (123), Springfield (51), Lynn (120), Fall River (103), and New Bedford (85), but rated more dangerous than Cambridge (303), Newton (388), Quincy (312), and Worcester (175). March: Lowell Women's Week - A week of affairs recognizing women's achievements, struggles, and contributions to the Lowell improve past and present.
Irish Cultural Week - A celebration of Irish history and hulture inside the Greater Lowell community.
April: Lowell Film Festival- Showcases documentary and feature-length films focusing on a range of topics of interest to the Greater Lowell improve and beyond July: Lowell Folk Festival - A three-day no-charge folk music and traditional arts festival attended by on average 250,000 citizens on the last weekend in July October: Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival - A celebration of the works of Jack Kerouac and his roots in the town/city of Lowell Among the many tourist attractions, Lowell also presently has 39 places on the National Register of Historic Places including many buildings and structures as part of the Lowell National Historical Park.
Lowell National Historical Park: Maintains Lowell's history as an early manufacturing and immigrant city.
University of Massachusetts Lowell: State college Lowell High School: The first desegregated and co-educational high school in the United States Lowell Cemetery: burial site of many of Lowell's wealthy industrialists from the Victorian era, as well as a several U.S.
The Acre: Lowell's gateway neighborhood where waves of immigrants have established their communities.
University of Massachusetts Lowell Radiation Laboratory: The site of a small nuclear reactor at the school In the early years of the 1840s when the populace quickly exceeded 20,000, Lowell became very active as a cultural center, with the assembly of the Lowell Museum, the Mechanics Hall, as well as the new City Hall used for art exhibits, lectures, and for the performing arts.
The Lowell Museum was lost in a devastating fire in the early morning of January 31, 1856, but was quickly rehoused in a new location.
The Lowell Art Association was established in 1876, and the new Opera House was assembled in 1889. Continuing to inspire and entertain, Lowell presently has a plethora of creative exhibitions and performances throughout a wide range of venues in the city: The Boott Cotton Mills Museum: Lowell National Historic Park Mogan Cultural Center: Lowell National Historic Park Center for Lowell History, University of Massachusetts Lowell - small-town history library and archive Lowell Rocks - Lowell eveninglife and entertainment web site Lowell Telecommunication Corporation (LTC) - A improve media and technology center The United Teen Equality Center A by teens, for teens youth center promoting peace, positivity and empowerment for young citizens in Lowell.
Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund both began their careers in Lowell, the subject of the 2010 film The Fighter. Arthur Ramahlo's West End Gym is where many of the city's boxers train. University of Massachusetts Lowell River Hawks, NCAA Division I Hockey, Soccer, Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Track & Field, Field Hockey Cross Country, Volleyball Le - Lacheur Park Baseball Stadium, shared by Lowell Spinners and the University of Massachusetts Lowell Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell - multi-use sports and concert venue (6500 seats hockey, 7800 concerts)- the University of Massachusetts Lowell River Hawks, and various arena shows.
Cawley Memorial Stadium- Stadium for Lowell High School and other sporting affairs around the Merrimack Valley.
Costello Athletic Center indoor arena on ground of the University of Massachusetts Lowell UMass Lowell Bellgarde Boathouse used as a rowing and kayaking center for UMass Lowell and the greater Lowell region See also: List of mayors of Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell City Council (as of 11/22/12) Lowell has a council-manager government. There are nine town/city councilors and six school committee members, all propel at large in a non-partisan election.
As of January 2012, the members of the Lowell School Committee are Mayor Edward Kennedy, Jackie Doherty, Stephen Gendron, Robert Gignac, Vice Chair Connie Martin, Andre Descoteaux, Robert Hoey.
The administrative head of the town/city government is the City Manager, who is responsible for all day-to-day operations, functioning inside the guidelines of City Council policy, and is hired by and serves at the pleasure of the City Council as whole.
Lowell is represented in the Massachusetts General Court by State Representatives Thomas Golden, Jr.
Lowell City Hall With a quickly growing student population, Lowell has been considered an emerging college town. With approximately 10,000 students at Middlesex Community College (MCC) and 17,000 students at University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell is presently home to 27,000 college students.
UMass Lowell is the second biggest state college and fifth biggest university in Massachusetts, while MCC is the second biggest Associate's college in Massachusetts. University of Massachusetts Lowell Lowell Public Schools operates precinct enhance schools.
Lowell High School is the precinct enhance school.
Non-district enhance schools include Greater Lowell Technical High School, Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School, Lowell Community Charter Public School, and Lowell Collegiate Charter School. Pollard Memorial Library / Lowell City Library The first Lowell enhance library was established in 1844 with 3,500 volumes, and was set up in the first floor of the Old City Hall, 226 Merrimack St.
In 1890-91, the City of Lowell hired small-town Architect Frederick W.
Stickney to design the new Lowell City Library, known as "Memorial Hall, with respect to the city's men who lost their lives in the American Civil War. In 1981, the library was retitled the Pollard Memorial Library in memory of the late Mayor Samuel S.
And, in the mid-2000s the century old National Historic building underwent a primary $8.5m renovation. The town/city also, recently period the library fitness to include the Senior Center Branch, positioned in the City of Lowell Senior Center. In fiscal year 2008, the town/city of Lowell spent 0.36% ($975,845) of its budget on its enhance libraries, which homes 236,000 volumes, and is a part of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium.
Currently, circulation of materials averages around 250,000 annually, with approximately one-third deriving from the children's collection. In fiscal year 2009, Lowell spent 0.35% ($885,377) of its budget on the library some $8 per person. The Lydon Library is a part of the University of Massachusetts Lowell system, and is positioned on the North Campus.
The O'Leary Library is a part of the University of Massachusetts Lowell system, and is positioned on the South Campus.
The Center for Lowell History [special collections and archives] is a part of the University of Massachusetts Lowell system, established in 1971 to assure the safekeeping, preservation, and availability for study and research of materials in unique subject areas, especially those related to the Greater Lowell Area and the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Its current collections and archives focus on historic and intact issues of Lowell (including: industrialization, textile technology, immigration, civil history, county-wide history, workforce history, women's history, and surroundingal history). The Sun, headquartered in downtown Lowell, is a primary daily journal serving Greater Lowell and southern New Hampshire.
Route 3, the Lowell Connector, and Massachusetts Routes 3 - A, 38, 110, 113, and 133, all of which run through the city, the last one (Route 133) begins at the spot where Routes 110 and 38 branch off just south of the Merrimack River.
Route 3 exit (32 - A) in close-by Burlington. There are six bridges crossing the Merrimack River in Lowell, and four crossing the Concord River (not including the two for I-495).
For enhance transit, Lowell is served by the Lowell Regional Transit Authority, which provides fixed route bus services and paratransit services to the town/city and encircling area.
These connect at the Gallagher Transit Terminal to the Lowell Line of the MBTA commuter rail system, which joins Lowell to Boston.
The Lowell National Historical Park provides a no-charge streetcar shuttle between its various sites in the town/city center, using track formerly used to furnish freight access to the city's mills.
See List of People from Lowell, Massachusetts 1997 and 1998, Lowell was a finalist for the All-American City award. 1999, Lowell received an All-American City award. "FAQ City of Lowell, Massachusetts".
City of Lowell, Massachusetts.
"State & Count Quick - Facts: Lowell (city), Massachusetts".
"Lowell National Historical Park".
"Monument in Lowell the Cambodian community's past and its progress - The Boston Globe".
"Profile for Lowell, Massachusetts, MA".
Marion, Paul, "Timeline of Lowell History From 1600s to 2009", Yankee magazine, November 2009.
City of Lowell Master Plan Update: Existing Conditions Report, Department of Planning and Development, December 2011, 3.0 Land-Use pg 31 City of Lowell Master Plan Update: Existing Conditions Report, Department of Planning and Development, December 2011, 3.0 Land-Use pg 32 Hamilton Canal District Form-Based Code Zoning Section, City of Lowell Zoning Section 10.3, February 2009 pg 4 "Hamilton Canal District, Lowell, Massachusetts".
"my testimony in favor of lowering the voting age to 17 in Lowell, MA".
"1990 Enumeration of Population, General Population Characteristics: Massachusetts" (PDF).
"Lowell (city), Massachusetts".
"Ethnicity in Lowell: Lowell National Historical Park Ethnographic Overview and Assessment" (PDF).
University of Lowell, Massachusetts Libraries; Ethnicity in Lowell.
"Sustainable Lowell 2025" (PDF).
"State and County Quick Facts: Lowell (city) Massachusetts".
Davis III and the Lowell, Massachusetts police department)[dead link] "Lowell Women's Week".
"Lowell Film Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts - Lowell.com".
"Welcome Doors Open Lowell - National Preservation Month".
"Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!".
"WESTERN AVENUE - STUDIOS & LOFTS Lowell MA".
"New York Times" article "Destruction of the Lowell Museum by Fire" January 31, 1856 LHS - Lowell Historical Society Archived June 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
"Lowell Gallery".
"119 Gallery (911 Electronic Media Arts, Inc.) - Art, Music, Performance, and Community Lowell MA".
"National Streetcar Museum: Lowell, Massachusetts".
Tuttle, Nancye, "Cambodian art, a New England tradition", The Lowell Sun, May 15, 2008.
"University of Massachusetts Center for Lowell History".
"Lowell Summer Music Series".
"Lowell Rocks".
"Lowell Nor'easter - New England Football League".
"THE NPSL COMES TO LOWELL, MA".
"New soccer team in Lowell will join Premier League".
City of Lowell.
"Lowell City Manager Murphy ready to roll up his sleeves".
"Lowell Sun - College Town".
"UMass Lowell Demographics".
"Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School".
"Home Page - Lowell Community Charter Public School".
"UMass Lowell Libraries: Lydon Library".
"UMass Lowell Libraries: Lydon Library".
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Lowell, Massachusetts The Lowell Mill Girls: Life in the Factory (Perspectives on History Series) (1998) Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860, (Columbia University Press, 1981) Cotton was king: A history of Lowell, Massachusetts (New Hampshire Publishing Company, 1976) The Course of Industrial Decline: The Boott Cotton Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, 1835-1955 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993) Malone, Patrick M., Waterpower in Lowell: Engineering and Industry in Nineteenth-Century America, Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies in the History of Technology (2009) Mrozowski, Stephan A.; Ziesing, Grace H.; Beaudry, Mary C., Living on the Boott: Historical Archaeology at the Boott Mills Boardinghouses, Lowell, Massachusetts, The Lowell Historic Preservation Commission (1996) Savard, Rita, "Three Hard Words: I Need Help: Jobs gone and bills mounting, many more in Greater Lowell seek food aid", The Lowell Sun, January 22, 2010 Stanton, Cathy, The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City, University of Massachusetts Press.
The Continuing Revolution: A History of Lowell, Massachusetts (1991) So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, An Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts 1847 (Dear America Series) (2003) Eisler, Benita, The Lowell Offering: Writings by New England Mill Women (1840-1945), J.B.
The Lowell Historical Society, Lowell: The Mill City (MA) (Postcard History Series), Arcadia Publishing.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lowell, Massachusetts.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Lowell, Massachusetts.
City of Lowell official web site University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Lowell History
Categories:
Lowell, Massachusetts - Cities in Massachusetts - County seats in Massachusetts - Populated places established in 1653 - Populated places on the Merrimack River - Early American industrialized centers - History of the textile trade - Mayors of Lowell, Massachusetts - 1653 establishments in Massachusetts
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