Lowell

Sister cities

• Saint-Dié-des-Vosges

History

The Pawtucket Falls, which provided the hydropower for Lowell's industry in the 1800s, also served as an important seasonal fishing site for native people at the time of European colonization in the 1600s. The Pawtucket people are named for this location, literally meaning "at the falls" in Massachusett. In the mid-1600s, English efforts to convert native people to Christianity led to the founding of the "praying town" of Wamesit at the confluence of the Concord and Merrimack Rivers in what is today Lowell, who had died five years before its 1823 incorporation. As Lowell's population grew, it acquired land from neighboring towns, and diversified into a full-fledged urban center. Many of the men who composed the labor force for constructing the canals and factories had immigrated from Ireland, escaping the poverty and Great Famine of the 1830s and 1840s. The mill workers, young single women called Mill Girls, generally came from the farm families of New England. By the 1850s, Lowell had the largest industrial complex in the United States. The textile industry wove cotton produced in the Southern United States. In 1860, there were more cotton spindles in Lowell than in all eleven states combined that would form the Confederate States of America. Many of the coarse cottons produced in Lowell eventually returned to the South to clothe enslaved people, and, according to historian Sven Beckert, "'Lowell' became the generic term slaves used to describe coarse cottons." The city continued to thrive as a major industrial center during the 19th century, attracting more migrant workers and immigrants to its mills. Next were the Catholic Germans, followed by a large influx of French Canadians during the 1870s and 1880s. Later waves of immigrants came to work in Lowell and…

Geography

Lowell is located at (42.639444, −71.314722). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of of which is land and (5.23%) is water. Lowell features a four-season Humid continental climate, with long and very cold winters, which typically experience an average of snowfall, with the highest ever recorded seasonal snowfall being in the winter of 2014–2015. Summers are hot and humid, and of average length, while autumn and spring are brief transition periods between the two. On average, temperature in Lowell ranges from in the summer months, and between in the winter months, with the yearly average being . Lowell is located at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord rivers. The Pawtucket Falls, a mile-long set of rapids with a total drop in elevation of , ends where the two rivers meet. At the top of the falls is the Pawtucket Dam, designed to turn the upper Merrimack into a millpond, diverted through Lowell's extensive canal system. 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 downriver from Lowell. It is believed that in prior ages, the Merrimack continued south from Lowell to empty into the ocean somewhere near Boston. The glacial deposits that redirected the flow of the river left the drumlins that dot the city, most notably, Fort Hill in the Belvidere neighborhood. Other large hills in Lowell include Lynde Hill, also in Belvidere, and Christian Hill, in the easternmost part of Centralville at the Dracut town line. The Concord, or Musketaquid (its original name), forms from the confluence of the Assabet and Sudbury rivers at Concord, Massachusetts. This river flows north into…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  23,152
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  21,377
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  20,529
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  19,758
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  18,133
• White-breasted Nuthatch

  Sitta carolinensis Latham, 1790 · Aves
  17,462
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  16,725
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  15,393

Largest nearby schools

• Lowell High
  High · Lowell · 3,167 students · 13.7:1 ratio
• Gr Lowell Regional Vocational Technical
  High · Tyngsborough · 2,302 students · 10.8:1 ratio
• Billerica Memorial High School
  High · Billerica · 1,726 students · 13.5:1 ratio
• Westford Academy
  High · Westford · 1,525 students · 13.5:1 ratio
• Chelmsford High
  High · North Chelmsford · 1,367 students · 13.7:1 ratio
• Shawsheen Valley Vocational Technical High School
  High · Billerica · 1,292 students · 10:1 ratio
• Collegiate Charter School of Lowell
  Other · Lowell · 1,203 students · 21.9:1 ratio
• Justus C. Richardson Middle School
  Middle · Dracut · 848 students · 14.6:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3.8 — 2025-01-27
  9 km SE of York Harbor, Maine
• M 2.7 — 2023-12-23
  5 km SW of Chichester, New Hampshire
• M 2.7 — 2018-02-15
  0 km SE of East Kingston, New Hampshire
• M 2.8 — 2016-03-21
  4 km ESE of Warner, New Hampshire
• M 2.61 — 2013-10-11
  New Hampshire
• M 3.15 — 2010-09-26
  2 km SW of Canterbury, New Hampshire