IHNE Field Trip #3, September 10, 2022
Destination:
Middlesex Canal Museum, Billerica, MA
Boott Cotton Mills Museum, Lowell, MA
Participants:
Michael Block
Miriam Block
John Mayer
Bob Perry
Eric Peterson
Our Hosts:
J. Jeremiah Breen, President, Middlesex Canal Association
Several U.S. Park Rangers, Boott Cotton Mills Museum
A view of a mill dam and its attendant brick and stone cenotaph (Faulkner Mill Co.), burst forth from the otherwise ordinary winding roadway in North Billerica, Massachusetts. Surveying a lush basin of the Concord River, with a pair of wheeling Great Blue Herons crisscrossing their domain, we met our guide J. Jeremiah Breen.
Beaming with pride and enthusiasm, he was quick to point out that we weren’t there to talk about a mill, but rather something far more historically significant (impactful?): the Middlesex Canal! And what we were looking at was the summit pond and the site of a floating towpath, remnants of a 27-mile-long passenger and freight route that in 1803 connected the Merrimac River in Lowell with the Charles River at Sullivan Square in Charlestown.
Inside the museum, we tried to ignore the remarkably well-preserved mill features. Instead, we focused on the “big dig” of the late 18th century, that created an essential transportation alternative which remained in operation for 50 years, before being rendered obsolete by the railroad. The museum presents a compelling story, with images and models, and philosophical musings from none other than Henry David Thoreau. When this important museum moves across the road to its new home in a renovated mill warehouse overlooking the river and Summit Pond, appreciation for this extraordinary waterway will no doubt ascend.
Driving north from the nearly erased canal-site, it was hard not to be amazed by the scale of the mill economy of Lowell in the early part of the 19th century. An opportunity to consider “progress,” not as an explosion but more as one industry leading the way for another. Working through narrow streets lined with barrack-like residences, punctuated with churches and finely detailed brick structures, the contrast with Thoreau’s chronicle of his arcadian travels alongside the canal on the Concord River, was stark. Upon reaching the epicenter, the incredibly intact Boott Mills complex, we needed a lunch break to acclimatize.
The towering brick ramparts and isolated courtyards, that one encounters entering the part of the Lowell National Historic Park that houses the Boot Cotton Mills Museum, impart an almost medieval tone. But the authoritative atmosphere was created not by a king, but by early American industrialists bent on reaping the extraordinary financial benefits of mass-production, regardless of the consequences.
The power symbols are unambiguous, from the clock tower to the streamlined production process, but interestingly do not extend to the way the site is interpreted today. The Park Service has invested significant government resources to tell a nuanced story that does not shy away from the negative aspects of the cotton-textile industry. The Weave Room must be one of the most effective ways to convey the at once horrifying and fascinating aspects of a complex, early industrial process. Along with advanced display techniques, the well-trained Rangers and acres of authenticity delivered an overall experience that was outstanding.
As we departed, the Lowell power canals channeling the rushing Merrimack reminded us that our American industrial heritage began alongside the water.
