North Canal Historic District

Along the North Canal in Lawrence, Massachusetts, a mile-long, 60-acre district preserves about 100 buildings and structures from the city's textile boom. The Essex Company began the canal in 1845 and finished it in 1848, together with the Great Stone Dam and a wooden gatehouse in the Greek Revival style. Large brick and granite mills for the Pacific, Atlantic, Bay State, Washington and Pemberton companies rose along the banks, along with bridges, storehouses, powerhouses and boardinghouses. Early granite-rubble buildings give way to later brick mills and reinforced-concrete structures from the 1910s and 1920s. The district is notable for showing the shift from water to steam power, the response to fire-insurance requirements, the move to wider looms and the arrival of electricity. Its mills made cotton and worsted goods and drew a workforce that was heavily immigrant, including Irish, French Canadian, Italian and other groups. Many mills are still used for commerce or industry, and canal water still powers some of them.