2.
"The Mile
of Mills,"
Lowell
3. The
Park Service
comes to Lowell
5.
The
boardinghouses
of the Merrimack
Manufacturing
Company,
constructed in
1822
7.
New Lanark,
Scotland
9.
Amoskeag
Corporation
housing.
Manchester, New
Hampshire
constructed
1840-50
10.
Amoskeag
Corporation
housing.
Manchester, New
Hampshire
constructed
1840-50
11.
View of Lowell,
1834, from
across the
Merrimack River
showing the
housing and the
mills of the
Merrimack
Manufacturing
Company before
the construction
of the Boott
Mills
12.
Belknap Mill,
Laconia, New
Hampshire, ca.
1825. One of the
few surviving
examples of the
early Lowell
mill type, with
the front stair
in a projecting
gable-roofed ell
on the mill's
long side and
the small belfry
on the ridge.
14.
The medieval
town hall in
Marburg,
Germany. This
building shows
an important
similarity with
the early Lowell
mill type The
projecting front
ell served the
same purpose as
it did in
Lowell,
providing space
for the
staircase where
it would not
interfere with
the main floor
space.
15.
Early
nineteenth-century
warehouse,
Copenhagen. A
projecting stair
was not needed.
but otherwise
the Copenhagen
warehouses have
a remarkable
resemblance to
the Lowell mill
type.
16.
Middle Mill. New
York Mills, New
York, 1824. This
is a rare
example of an
1820s mill which
had unusual
architectural
pretensions,
carrying a full
pedimented gable
with a Georgian
bell tower.
17.
Bay State Mills,
Lawrence,
constructed in
1845. These
mills are the
tallest known to
have been
constructed
according to the
Lowell plan, and
with nine
stories, must
come close to
setting a record
for traditional
mill
construction.
Perhaps they
exceeded the
limits of
practicality,
because they
were demolished
and replaced in
the 1880s.
18.
The Lyman Mills,
Holyoke, 1850
20.
The symmetrical
plan of
Lewiston, Maine,
1851
21.
Lewiston. Maine,
ca. 1870. This
view of the
planned mill
town taken at an
early stage of
Lewiston's
growth shows the
intentional
order of the
canal, the
mills. and the
boardinghouses
-all landscaped
with elm trees
by the
developing
company.
22.
Lewiston. Maine
with the elms
fully grown,
just prior to
their demise
from the blight.
25.
Salt's Mill,
Saltaire,
England
|
/Harv-rev-images/01_small.jpg)
1 Boott
Mills, Lowell
Architecture
provides an
important
reflection of a
culture. It is a
document of the
social as well
as artistic
attitudes,
ambitions, and
goals not just
of its
individual
creators, but of
society as a
whole. City
planning
provides a
similar document
on a larger
scale,
especially if
the plan is
realized in the
third dimension
during the same
era in which it
was laid out. By
this token, a
"new
town"
provides an
unusual
opportunity to
examine the
impact of the
social forces at
work on the
physical
environment of a
whole community
in a given time,
by bringing
together the
abstract ideals
of the founders
with the
practical
realities faced
in the field by
the community
builders of
succeeding
generations.
The
planned
industrial
cities of New
England provide
rich contexts
within which to
examine what the
built remains of
a place can
reveal about its
social history.
Lowell,
Massachusetts,
the first and
most famous of
these cities, is
particularly
notable, for it
has long held a
special position
as a symbol of
the rise of
industry in the
United States,
and the social
system which
supported it in
its earliest
phase. Now, with
the recent
founding of the
National Park,
Lowell has
emerged as a new
popular
historical
symbol, gaining
a status
previously
accorded only to
the natural
wonders of the
West and the
battle monuments
of the
Revolution in
the East.
The
history of
Lowell is
commonly divided
into two
historic
periods: the
first, a
twenty-year
period when the
city was world
famous as an
almost utopian,
model,
industrial
community, and
the second, when
it had declined
into an ordinary
and drab
industrial town.
The interest in
Lowell as an
historical
symbol has
naturally
emphasized the
importance of
the first period
in its history
rather than the
subsequent
years. In fact,
the city's
resurgence as a
National Park
came about
primarily
because the
record of its
early years made
it so famous.
Because
of this
historical
emphasis on its
early decades,
there is a
danger of
overlooking the
valuable lessons
that a more
comprehensive
treatment might
reveal. By
celebrating the
beginning years
of Lowell, it is
easy to ignore
the later
evolution of the
city as
technology
advanced, as the
community began
to mature, and
as immigrants
began to
displace the
native workers.
Equally
significant are
the cities which
were laid out
and established
later, according
to similar
planning
principles,
namely Nashua,
Somersworth,
Dover, and
Manchester, New
Hampshire;
Lawrence and
Holyoke,
Massachusetts;
and Biddeford
and Lewiston,
Maine. A
discussion of
the architecture
related to these
later
developments in
Lowell and its
sister cities
may add a new
dimension not
only to our
understanding of
the growth of
industry in the
United States,
but also to the
interpretation
of the early
history of
Lowell, which we
are using as a
primary example.
The
stylistic
changes which
occurred in the
designs of the
mills of Lowell
and related
cities between
1840 and the
post-Civil War
period symbolize
the social and
economic changes
that each city
underwent during
the same period.
These changes in
architectural
form and style
in Lowell, in
particular,
document the
fundamental
shift from the
relatively
comfortable
paternalism of
that city's
early years to
the relatively
stressful later
period.
Instead
of declining
into old age
during the
second half of
the nineteenth
century, Lowell
was only then
beginning to
mature as a
city. Some of
the stresses in
its social
structures were
part of the
growing struggle
within the local
community to
break free from
the autocratic
control of the
Boston-based
corporate
operations. At
the same time,
the
proliferation of
machines
throughout New
England and
after-wards,
throughout the
South, placed
Lowell within a
competitive
framework that
was very
different from
the position it
had maintained
during the first
two decades of
its history.
This change in
Lowell's status
can only have
been inevitable,
but it serves to
illustrate the
uniquely
favorable, but
short-lived,
economic context
in which early
Lowell existed.
Lowell
was largely the
outcome of the
efforts of
Francis Cabot
Lowell who, in
Waltham in 1813,
assembled the
first
successful,
completely
mechanized
cotton mill in
the United
States. While
the importance
of Lowell's
innovation and
the transfer of
British
technology to
America in
establishing
industrialism
should be
recognized, the
project would
surely have
failed without
the enormous
capital
resources of a
number of Boston
entrepreneurs.
This Boston
money, made in
the mercantile
trades, was to
be used for
industrial
development when
the 1812 war
with Britain
closed the
ports. Lowell
was the first
major product of
the redirection
of this
investment
capital. The
city was
established in
1822 after F C
Lowell's death
by a group of
his former
partners, led by
Nathan Appleton
and Patrick
Tracy Jackson.
New England,
especially Rhode
Island, was
already dotted
with mill
villages, some
of which
undoubtedly had
power looms
before the
founding of
Lowell. Lowell
stands out,
however, because
it was conceived
of as an
industrial
community of
unprecedented
size even before
the first sod
was turned for
the first mill.
4.
Plan of Lowell
showing the
Merrimack Mills,
1827. This plan
shows the
orderly layout
of the five
original mills
and the rows of
the first
boardinghouses.
The plan also
shows the
original
corporation-built
church (lower
center) and the
mansion built
for the first
and most famous
agent, Kirk
Boott (right).
The layout of
the future Boott
Mills is barely
perceptible
adjacent to this
mansion.
Lowell
was in every
sense a planned,
industrial
"new
town." For
the first time
the scale of the
factory had
expanded beyond
the
architectural
confines of a
single building,
and the problem
of housing the
laborers had
transcended the
simple provision
of minimal
residential
quarters.
Lowell's
original layout
was more orderly
than most of the
earlier, Rhode
Island mill
villages. In
Pawtucket, the
first major
factory town in
New England, the
growth of many
separate, small
factories led
directly to the
haphazard
construction of
many mills,
small and large,
along the river
adjacent to a
series of small
dams and weirs.
In Lowell, the
first mills were
arranged in a
single',
straight row
facing the water
power canal with
their backs to
the river, and
housing was laid
out in regular
rows on a
rectangular
plan. Five mills
were constructed
in Lowell within
the first three
years, three
with their broad
side to the
river and one on
either end
perpendicular to
the row. The
central mill had
a belfry in its
ridge. The bell,
of course, was
more than
ornamental,
being used to
signal the
beginning of
each part of the
workday.
The
most famous
aspect of the
plan of Lowell
was its social
system. Francis
Cabot Lowell,
followed by
Appleton and
Jackson,
conceived of the
plan to attract
single, native
women from the
rural farms to
work in the
mills, housing
them in strictly
proper and
carefully
managed
boardinghouses.
This was a way
of obtaining the
necessary labor
force to operate
such a
large-scale
industrial
establishment in
a time of labor
shortage. It was
these
boardinghouses
that so
impressed such
diverse
personages as
Charles Dickens,
Michael
Chevalier, Davy
Crockett,
President
Jackson, and
many others.
They became part
of the formula
in all of the
similarly
founded mill
cities that
followed Lowell,
and in some
places (such as
Manchester, New
Hampshire) they
continued in
use, with many
of the same
rules and
regulations,
long after the
native girls had
left the mills.
6.
The
boardinghouse
regulations of
the Amoskeag
Manufacturing
Company; similar
regulations
existed for the
Lowell
corporations.
This
"boardinghouse
system," as
it became known,
along with the
other provisions
of corporate
paternalism both
inside and
outside the
mills, placed
Lowell alongside
of utopian
industrial
developments
such as Robert
Owen's New
Lanark in
Britain, and
Godin's
Philanstere in
France. However,
while some of
the procedures
were similar to
these in
practice, the
prime purpose of
Lowell was not
to create a
utopian
community, but
to found one
which would
work. Physical
attractiveness
and certain
utopian social
principles were
as much or more
a product of
sound business
judgment as they
were a result of
idealism on the
part of the
entrepreneurs.
The mill girls
and their
parents
tolerated
nothing less
than the moral
standards
imposed, and, in
a nation with a
shortage of
labor, they
provided the
only available
labor supply. As
it turned out,
the
boardinghouses
were a canny
business
decision; they
both attracted
the labor and
were very
favorably
received by the
press and the
public. Lowell's
good press
continued for
its first twenty
years, helping
to ease the
resistance to
the introduction
of textile
factories and
industrialization
as it spread
throughout the
United States,
and giving the
Boston
industrialists a
remarkable
political
advantage.
The
balance of
utopian social
principles and
industrialist
pragmatics found
expression in
the architecture
and planning of
Lowell.' The
first
boardinghouses
constructed for
the Merrimack
Manufacturing
Company were
wood clapboard
houses
resembling the
traditional New
England
farmhouses of
the day, and
would not have
looked out of
place in a
Shaker village.
Each building
contained two
separate
boardinghouses.
These identical
wooden dwellings
extended out
from the mills
in long rows. In
the later mill
complexes, brick
row houses
supplanted these
wood duplexes.
Fire protection
was one stated
reason for this
change, but the
architectural
expression of
durability and
permanence was
also undoubtedly
part of the
reason for the
decision. Not
surprisingly,
the
boardinghouses
were prominent
and substantial
buildings,
especially after
brick supplanted
wood for the
exterior.
Resembling
Beacon Hill
townhouses,
these later
brick structures
were designed to
the same
standards of
taste, and even
on occasion by
the same
architects. The
best surviving
examples can be
seen in
Manchester, New
Hampshire.
8.
Elevation of the
first
boardinghouses
in Lowell -
reconstructed by
the author from
Figure 5
-showing the
formal geometry
of the facade.
Besides
the
boardinghouses,
the corporations
provided a
church, a
library, a
lyceum, and a
savings bank.
All of these
were arranged in
the town whose
plan was
basically very
simple: a main
street with
shops and public
buildings on
both sides, and
a cluster of
identical houses
for the workers
leading off from
the main street
to the mills.
The mills were
large structures
with the same
simple,
Federal-style
detailing as the
boardinghouses
and dominated
the scene, more
because of their
size than
because of any
architectural
treatment. A
significant
design
contribution was
in the
landscaping of
the whole area.
Lowell's basic
plan may have
been simple but,
with rows of
elms, public
parks, and deed
restrictions
controlling the
building
heights, site
coverage, and
building use,
Lowell and its
sister cities
achieved a level
of refinement
and amenity in
their
environments
rarely matched
in other
speculative new
town
development.
The
first mill in
Lowell
constituted a
basic building
design that
would be
employed time
and time again
as the city
expanded, not to
mention its
imitation
throughout the
Northeast. Over
the first two
decades the
basic pattern,
established by
this 1822 mill,
changed only in
size, structural
strength, and
fire resistance,
not in
architectural
form. It was a
marriage between
the barn and
meetinghouse
common to New
England, and was
a vernacular
type of building
that had
parallels
throughout
Europe and the
United States.
Even as larger
mills were
constructed,
they retained
the simple
unadorned
appearance of
the first Lowell
mills. In
Manchester, for
example, the
first mill was
referred to as
having been
built according
to "the
Lowell
Plan." 2 By
1845, when
Lawrence was
founded, the
size of each
mill had been
greatly expanded
in length and in
height. The
first mills
constructed in
that city, the
Bay State Mills,
were remarkably
oversized
versions of the
original Lowell
mill type,
rising nine
stories, at that
time a
remarkable
height for a
wood and masonry
structure less
than sixty feet
wide and full of
machinery. As
late as 1850,
the type
appeared again
in the Lyman
Mills of Holyoke
with just a
slight vestige
of Greek Revival
trim.
In
the case of
every city
modeled upon
Lowell, the
pattern was the
same, with the
first mills
designed
according to
this original
formula, and
only later
phases of mill
construction
showing more
expressive and
fashionable
examples of
architectural
taste. In other
words, the
entrepreneurs
chose to begin
in each city
with functional
buildings devoid
of any
contemporary
architectural
statement,
except for an
occasional
cupola
containing a
bell. The matter
of style was
considered
insignificant
compared to the
need for
utility.
The
plan for the
first mills and
housing in
Lowell can
easily be seen
to be at the
root of each
succeeding
millyard
development, not
only in Lowell,
but also in each
of the cities
which followed
it. However,
after twenty
years of growth
and development
had taken place,
the simplicity
of Lowell's
original plan
became lost in a
tangle of
diagonally
intersecting
streets, with
mills and
housing located
on both sides of
the main street
in a pattern
that left
clusters of
housing isolated
by double ranks
of mill
buildings and
mill canals.
13.
Section of the
Merrimack Mill
#1, ca. 1822,
showing the
original water
wheel
The
Lowell plan of
1835 does not
resemble a
classical layout
of a pre-planned
city. Lowell was
not planned for
grand visual
effect despite
the influence of
the late-Baroque
planning in
Washington and
in the original
plans for
Paterson, New
Jersey. The
canals provided
some remarkable
opportunities
for visual
design, but, at
least initially,
they were almost
entirely
unexploited.
Despite their
grand intentions
the
entrepreneurs
founded, during
the first phase
of Lowell's
growth, a 22
series of
separate and
distinct
companies and
built individual
millyards with
separate canals,
sometimes
without any
relationship to
each other.
Later a wider
canal had to be
constructed at
great expense to
increase the
water supply to
the older
canals. Only in
the later cities
did a single
plan encompass
the entire city,
and only in the
case of
Lewiston, Maine,
one of the last
cities to follow
Lowell's model,
does the
original city
plan show an
overall, urban
design unity,'
although the
failure to
develop one of
the key,
main-canal mill
sites prevented
the completion
of this
impressive
scheme.
19.
Plan of Lowell,
1841. This plan
shows how the
orthogonal
layout of each
mill cluster did
not extend
across the
entire city, and
how the downtown
area (center)
was squeezed
between the two
areas of mills.
The
lack of visual
expression
notwithstanding,
the plans of the
cities which
followed Lowell
were more
orderly, with
the canal or
canals parallel
to the river,
the mills in an
orderly row
between, the
rows of
boardinghouses
opposite, and
the main
commercial
street and the
grid of private
residential
streets running
adjacent to the
whole group. It
was, in fact,
the plan of
Lowell's
individual
millyards,
rather than its
city plan, which
became the
formula for the
layouts of the
later mill
towns. The plans
of Manchester,
begun in 1837,
and Lawrence,
begun in 1845,
show a clear
linear pattern
defined by the
rows of mills on
one side and the
workers housing,
the main street
and private
residential area
on the other.
23.
Plan of Lowell.
ca. 1830 This
plan provides a
remarkable view
of the grand
scale of a part
of Lowell which
was never
completed. Only
nine of the
twenty-two mills
shown were ever
built, and even
those exceeded
the capacity of
the available
waterpower until
a new canal was
constructed in
1845. The
massive area of
company housing
needed for such
a development is
shown as many
parallel brick
blocks, with a
unique touch of
Baroque in the
tiny circles to
relieve the
monotony. Except
for the circles,
this plan
resembles the
layout of early
Manchester, New
Hampshire, most
closely, but as
a vision of an
unrealized
development of
massive scale,
it is a
precursor of
Holyoke.
24.
Plan of
Lawrence, 1845.
Lawrence
exhibits the
simplified
layout of the
later cities
with mills and
canals parallel
and adjacent to
the river,
followed by the
boardinghouses,
the commercial
center, the town
common, and the
private
residential
areas.
The
plan of the
millyard
clusters in
Lowell, in which
each cluster
represented an
individual
company, was the
basic building
block for the
total plan of
these later
cities, but it
was not until
these later
developments
that there
emerged a layout
that was of city
scale. When
Michael
Chevalier
visited Lowell
in 1939, he
wrote,
"Lowell is
not amusing, it
is decent,
peaceable and
sage." This
perfectly
characterized
both the virtues
and the limits
of early Lowell.
Particularly
revealing is the
lack of any
singular
architectural
symbol that
could have given
early Lowell a
central focus or
identity. The
symbols were the
boardinghouses
and the mills as
building types,
to be repeated
in rows as far
as practicable.
Lowell sharply
contrasts with
those utopian
communities
which used
sophisticated
architectural
expression in
their plans,
such as Robert
Owens's proposed
project for New
Harmony, and the
more
business-oriented
Saltaire by Sir
Titus Salt,
outside of
Bradford,
England.
Continued:
Go to PART II
footnotes
1
For a thorough
and creative
study of the
architecture of
early Lowell,
see John
Coolidge, Mill
and Mansion,
1931.
2
C E Potter, History
of Manchester,
Manchester, N.H.,
1856
3
This should not
be confused with
the results in
Manchester and
other cities
where urban
design of a high
quality resulted
from the
subsequent
extension and
rebuilding of
the mills, etc.
4
Gordon Grimes,
"Portrait
of Salmon
Falls," New
Hampshire
Profiles,
November 1974,
p. 30
5
Grimes,
"Portrait
of Salmon
Falls," p.
30
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