Lowell National Historical Park, Massachusetts, United States

5Brendan S 5:00 PM May 29, 2022

Lots to see here
Lowell NHP integrates historical mills and related museums into a modern small town. The buildings date back to the 19th and early 20th century. The main attractions are a canal walk that circumnavigates the town and some small museums including most notably the Boots Cotton Mill, where period machinery is operated to demonstrate the working conditions. Others include a boarding house and a quilting museum. You could spend an hour or two at the Cotton Mill museum and get a good sense of the place, or most of a day exploring the different areas and buildings and museums, depending on interest level.

4Lou L 5:00 PM Sep 13, 2020

Good Lessons to Learn
The Lowell National Historical Park tells an important story of immigrant workers in the United States and their role in a predominantly manufacturing town that transformed to a hot spot because of the mills. Today, it is a bustling urban city while UMASS takes over the surrounding area. You begin your visit at the visitor center, which due to Covid is limited capacity but still has the area to stamp your passport. The gift shop has been moved to the Boot Cotton Mills Museum a few blocks away. You can drive from place to place if its a rainy day, but the walk is short and you can see the canals as you go. The visitor center is free to access but the museum of the working mill does have a fee. Given the circumstances, you could skip the main visitor center all together and (you'd miss some exhibits) and park directly at the mills if its raining that day. When more of the exhibits are open the whole place would take a couple hours but thats your call, depending on how in depth you want to go with the visit.