American Textile History Museum

Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, it is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of the last census, and the third most populous in the Boston metropolitan statistical area. The city is also part of a smaller Massachusetts statistical area, called Greater Lowell, and of New England's Merrimack Valley region. Incorporated in 1826 to serve as a mill town, Lowell was named after Francis Cabot Lowell, a local figure in the Industrial Revolution. The city became known as the cradle of the American Industrial Revolution because of its textile mills and factories. Many of Lowell's historic manufacturing sites were later preserved by the National Park Service to create Lowell National Historical Park. During the Cambodian genocide (1975–1979), the city took in an influx of refugees, leading to a Cambodia Town and America's second-largest Cambodian-American population.Lowell is home to two institutions of higher education. UMass Lowell, part of the University of Massachusetts system, has three campuses in the city. Middlesex Community College's two campuses are in Lowell and in the town of Bedford, Massachusetts. Arts facilities in the city include the Whistler House Museum of Art, the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, and Sampas Pavilion. In sports, the city has a long tradition of boxing, hosting the annual New England Golden Gloves boxing tournament. The city has a baseball stadium, Edward A. LeLacheur Park, and a multipurpose indoor sports arena, the Tsongas Center, both of which have hosted collegiate and minor-league professional sports teams.

The following is a timeline of the history of Lowell, Massachusetts, US.

The Whistler House Museum of Art is the birthplace of painter and etcher James McNeill Whistler. It is located at 243 Worthen Street, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA, and is open as a museum displaying works from the museum collection and shows by artist members.

The Owl Diner, formerly known as the Monarch Diner is a historic diner at 246 Appleton Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. The diner was built by Worcester Lunch Car Company as #749 in 1940, and was originally located in Waltham, Massachusetts, where it operated as the Monarch Diner. In 1951 the diner was moved to its present location in Lowell. The manufactured portion of the diner is nine bays wide and four deep, with enamel wall panels and a metal monitor-shaped roof; it is a rare regional example of a semi-streamlined form. Its present center entry was probably built when the diner was moved, as was the concrete block addition in the rear which houses the kitchen and restrooms. A second addition on the diner's south end adds seating space; it was probably added between 1952 and 1966. The diner is the last (out of sixteen) that once operated in the city.The diner was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church is a historic Greek Orthodox Church building at 62 Lewis Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. Holy Trinity is one of the many Eastern Orthodox churches in Lowell, along with St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Transfiguration of Our Savior Greek Orthodox Church, and St. George Greek Orthodox Church. The church is under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and is locally administered by the Metropolis of Boston. The church is located the Downtown Lowell neighborhood known as The Acre. It was built in 1906 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Holy Trinity was the first church built for a Greek Orthodox congregation in the United States. It is known for its golden dome, mosaics, iconography, and rich history. Archbishop Iakovos of America, who led the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America from 1959 through 1996, was ordained as a priest at Holy Trinity on June 16, 1940.

St. Patrick's Church is a historic Roman Catholic church at 284 Suffolk Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. Built in 1853 for a predominantly Irish congregation founded in 1831, it is one of the oldest Catholic parishes north of Boston in the United States. The building, a fine example of Gothic Revival architecture designed by the noted ecclesiastical architect Patrick C. Keely, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The Howe Building is a historic commercial building at 208 Middlesex Street in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. The four story brick building was built in 1883, and is one of the city's finest Queen Anne commercial buildings. Its architecturally prominent features include a mansard roof (unusual for the style and period), and a large central stepped gable with an arched window at the center. It was built by John F. and Henry C. Howe, brothers who were heavily involved in the commercial development of downtown Lowell who also sat on the city council.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The Merrimack Canal is a power canal in Lowell, Massachusetts. The canal, dug in the 1820s, begins at the Pawtucket Canal just above Swamp Locks, and empties into the Merrimack River near the Boott Cotton Mills. The Merrimack Canal was the first major canal to be dug at Lowell exclusively for power purposes, and delivered 32 feet (9.8 m) of hydraulic head to the mills of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. The Merrimack Manufacturing Company was the first of the major textile mills constructed in Lowell. It was demolished around 1960. The canal, which runs along the southeast side of Dutton Street and then between the two halves of Lowell High School, is unique in the Lowell Canal System as it delivers the full 32-foot (9.8 m) drop of the Merrimack at once, instead of operating on a 13-foot (4.0 m) and a 17-foot (5.2 m) two-level system.

The Warren Fox Building is a historic commercial building in Lowell, Massachusetts. The four-story brick building was built in 1884 by Warren Fox, and is a good example of commercial Queen Anne architecture. The building is nine bays wide; brick piers rise surrounding the central bay, where the main entrance is, and rise above the level of the flat roof to form a cornice.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989; it was included in the bounds of the Lowell National Historical Park in 1978.

The Lowell Power Canal System is the largest power canal system in the United States, at 5.6 miles in length. It is operating through six major canals on two levels, controlled by numerous gates. The system was begun in the 1790s, beginning its life as a transportation canal called the Pawtucket Canal, which was constructed to get logs from New Hampshire down the Merrimack River to shipbuilding centers at Newburyport, Massachusetts, bypassing the 30-plus-foot drop of the Pawtucket Falls. In the early 1820s, Associates of the recently deceased Francis Cabot Lowell bought up the old Pawtucket Canal in what was then East Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Within a few years, the new industrial center that became Lowell was using canals feeding off a widened and deepened Pawtucket Canal as a direct power source for their textile mills. The first of these canals was the Merrimack Canal, which powered the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. The repurposing of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals allowed the Associates to sell water power to other companies, starting with the Hamilton Canal, leading to the explosive growth of the town, and then shortly thereafter, city, of Lowell. By the late 1840s, Lowell's canal system was producing as much power as possible. However, the Chief Engineer of Locks and Canals, an Englishman by the name of James B. Francis devised the Northern Canal and the Moody Street Feeder, to increase the capacity of, and availability of water to various parts of, the whole system. The Pawtucket Gatehouse was constructed to control flow from behind the Pawtucket Dam into the Northern Canal. The dam itself, which was built twenty years earlier, was lengthened at that time, diverting the entire Merrimack (during periods of lower flow) into the two canal system entrances above it. It is a stone dam topped with wooden flashboards – a system still used on this dam today. The level of the water is regulated by the flashboards and the metal pins that hold them back. When there is too much water going over the top of the dam, the pins bend backwards, releasing the boards, and the outflow of the dam is increased. The Gatehouse contains ten wooden gates that control the flow of the Merrimack into the canal. Originally, they were opened by a Francis Turbine, also an invention of James B. Francis. Today, the Gatehouse is controlled electrically and remotely by Boott Hydroelectric, who is partially a continuation of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, and who operates a 24-megawatt hydroplant on the Northern Canal. The Canal System and the Gatehouse were designated a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the ASCE in 1984 and a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the ASME in 1985 and are part of Lowell National Historical Park. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and declared a National Historic Landmark the next year.

Samuel Pollard Memorial Library or Pollard Memorial Library is the main branch of the public library in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The National Streetcar Museum is a streetcar museum and heritage railway located in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is owned by the New England Electric Railway Historical Society, which also operates the Seashore Trolley Museum, and is operated as part of the National Park Service's Lowell National Historical Park.