Lowell Mills

My friend, Deirdre, recently took a class where they visited The American Thread Company in Willimantic, CT and did a play based on the Lowell Mills in Lowell, Mass.

I've always had an interest in mills, as my ancestors came from Canada to work in the mills, including The American Thread Company.

I also kept this tradition up by working at Charles House and Sons in Unionville, Ct while I was going to college.  I worked third shift in the weaving room.  Eventually I moved to the winding/spinning room. The mill was demolished several years ago.

So on Tuesday, Deirdre and I went to visit the Lowell Mills, which is a national park, too.

It was a great tour and a beautiful building!

They offer a trolley from the welcome center to the actual mill site....

This is the Boott Mills, a cotton mill built in 1835

The staircase that the workers would climb every morning.

The weaving room...it was kind of like being home...I spent almost three years on the weaving floor. We met the lady, I asked her name and forgot it, sorry, who works the mill..she actually works in several mills...

The looms are on the ground floor, where they were eventually moved because they would, at times, actually move the building...they had been on the fourth floor.

The second floor has the museum part....

These were AMAZING! They were WOVEN scenes..there were several, but these were my favorites.

There are two exhibits, the actual mill and then a boarding house, where the mill workers or "mill girls" would live

All in all, it was a great visit!  We both really enjoyed it. So if you ever get a chance to visit, do...

Also...North and South is on Netflix, about cotton mills in the north of England.  It is based on a book by Elizabeth Gaskell
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
So Far From Home by Barry Denenburg (part of the Dear America Scholastic books)
Hellfire by John Saul ( a ghost story)

I've read or watched these, but there are many more...some have been on my list to read....to be honest...the John Saul book is the one that has stayed with me the longest...I read that when I was a teenager....