Lowell ma
Lowell is a city situated in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. It is the fourth largest city in the state of Massachusetts.
History:
In the 17th century, the Christian Indian village of Wamesit inhabited the area now known as Lowell. In 1826, it was officially incorporated as a town. It became a city in 1836 and was named after a businessman named Francis Cabot Lowell.
By the 1850s, Lowell was home to around six miles of canals, making it the largest power canal system in the world. Even today, Lowell is considered by many as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S.
Lowell was an important center for the textile industry (especially for cotton cloth) during the 19th century. Its textile mills were supposedly the largest and most up to date mills of that time. Lowell was also one of the first industrial cities to employ women. As a matter of fact, it was known as the Lowell system to hire young, unmarried women as workers to improve efficiency and productivity.
Lowell became a significant industrial city and thus attracted several immigrants. The citys population grew at a great speed due to the many immigrants from places such as Canada, Northern England, Ireland, Poland, Greece and parts of Central and Eastern Europe. The huge number of Roman Catholic immigrants in the city also gave way to many churches, catholic schools and catholic hospitals.
Due to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the citys industries suffered a great deal. The textile companies moved towards the south since the cost of labor there was cheaper. As a result, Lowell had a scarcity of jobs. That just further made the citys economy and quality of life go severely downhill.
Lowell's economy started to rely upon smaller scale industries and the retail stores of the downtown shopping area. But the rise of the shopping malls during the 1960s and 1970s persuaded the major retailers to abandon their downtown shops for the climate-controlled malls to avoid Lowells cold winter. Due to that, there was a real decline in pedestrian traffic in the city.
Lowell's original mills were destroyed in the 1960s to build a high-rise housing tower. This helped encourage the renewal of the city by making good use of its significant stand in industrial history and its cultural diversity. The three most important aspects in this renewal were the University of Lowell, the Lowell National Historical Park and the computer industry.
The Lowell National Historical Park opened up in 1978 and proved to be an essential part in the revival of the city. It inspired several plans that helped the city's further development. Most of the original textile mill buildings were renovated to include museums, offices and condominium housing.
After going through an economic decline in the mid 1800s, Lowell's prosperity started to grow again during the 1990s. The development of its technology industry and some new service industries helped revive the city.
Government:
Lowell has a city council as well a school committee. While the city council contains nine members, the school committee consists of six members. The city council chooses one of its members as the citys mayor and another as the vice-mayor. But the actual executive head of the city is the city manager. He is elected by the city council and is responsible for the citys day-to-day activities.
Population:
Lowell has a large Irish-American population and also a huge Franco-American population. Most of the Franco-American population that resides in Lowell are French-Canadians who migrated mainly from Quebec and Northern Maine. There is also a booming population of Cambodians. As a matter of fact, Lowell is home to the second largest Cambodian population in the United States (after Long Beach, California). You can also find Laotian, Vietnamese and Hispanic population in this diverse city.
PROMINENT RESIDENTS:
Lowell has also been home to many notable figures:
• Bette Davis actress
• Michael Chiklis actor
• Ed McMahon entertainer
• George Bassett Clark astronomer
• Benjamin Dean lawyer and politician
• Paul Tsongas former United States Senator and presidential candidate
• Marty Meehan congressman in the United States House of Representatives
• Benjamin Franklin Butler union general in the Civil War and presidential candidate
Lowell is place that is reaching for new heights, but is still connected to its roots. It offers the best of the new world yet with a taste of the past.
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