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Wood Worsted Mill

National Register of Historic Places in Lawrence, Massachusetts
Wood Mill Lawrence
Wood Mill Lawrence

The Wood Worsted Mill is located at South Union St. and Merrimack Street, on the south bank of the Merrimack River, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The mill building was constructed between 1906 and 1909 for the American Woolen Company, and was dubbed by some locals as the "eighth wonder of the world" due to its size. It is a six-story brick building that is 1,300 feet (400 m) long and 125 feet (38 m) high, and encompasses some 17 miles (27 km) of aisles. Its purpose when built was to perform the complete textile manufacturing cycle of worsted woolens, from raw material to finished fabric, under a single roof.The surviving mill elements include the main building and a portion of a storehouse. The storehouse is a seven-story brick building located just east of the main building, of which approximately half remains from its original construction. The two sections (of an original four) were demolished in 2009, along with a number of other structures in the complex, including sections of the main mill building.The main mill building as it now stands is divided into four parts, featuring Romanesque Revival styling executed in brick with granite and cast stone detailing. The first is an office section, which protrudes from the main body. Like the main part of the building it is six stories, but is topped by a clock tower. The other three sections were originally labelled D, E, and F, and extend eastward from the office. Section D is 33 window bays, E is 42, and F 45 window bays in length. There are three stairwell towers that interrupt the pier-and-spandrel construction of the length of the building on its south (street-facing) elevation. These stairhouses are where entry is gained to the premises, through doorways recessed under arches. The north facade, facing the river, is uniformly window bays, broken only by wrought iron fire escapes and a few bricked-up bays where the building was connected to the demolished A, B, and C sections via covered bridges over a railroad spur.The mill complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 12, 2010. At the time of the listing, section D was being converted to residential housing.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Wood Worsted Mill (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Wood Worsted Mill
South Union Street, Lawrence

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Latitude Longitude
N 42.7025 ° E -71.153333333333 °
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Riverwalk Apartments

South Union Street 1
01843 Lawrence
Massachusetts, United States
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Wood Mill Lawrence
Wood Mill Lawrence
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American Woolen Company Townhouses
American Woolen Company Townhouses

The American Woolen Company Townhouses are a collection of brick townhouses built c. 1907 by the American Woolen Company in Lawrence, Massachusetts. They were part of a program of company-built housing between 1906 and 1910 that included the nearby American Woolen Mill Housing District. The townhouses are located on a series of short streets off Market Street in South Lawrence. A historic district comprising these six buildings was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.The townhouses stand on a large parcel of land 100 feet (30 m) deep, with 475 feet (145 m) of frontage on Market Street. The lot has been divided into three sections, each of which contains two townhouses facing each other across a central private road (Wood Way, Washington Way, and Prospect Way). The short ends of the townhouses face Market Street. When originally built the central areas provided foot access to the units, but they have been paved over and are now used for parking.The six buildings are identical in all major details, and were designed by local architect James E. Allen. Each one is a two-story brick 98 feet (30 m) long and 39 feet (12 m) deep, and houses seven living units. Each unit presents 14 feet (4.3 m) of frontage into the central area. There are minor variations in the front facades of the units. In some cases the entries of adjacent units are paired, and some entries or entry pairs are sheltered by a pilastered pediment. The rear of all units was substantially identical: a recessed porch, set under a segmented arch, provided access to the unit's back door.