Lowell National Historic Park-the Final Part

        Hi everyone. Today's post is a scheduled post since I am now (hopefully)  in Greece.  However, I did want to finish my Lowell National Historic Park posts because I know that when I come home, there will be other things to share. 😏

    For this last post about the National Historic Park we'll be heading to a boarding house museum where, in the early years of Lowell's manufacturing history, the women employed by the mills would live.  The first 2 parts of this visit, if you're interested, can be found here Part 1 and Part 2.

     These boarding houses were very close to the mills themselves, so the mill girls (as they were called) could easily walk back and forth not only at the beginning and end of the day, but also for their meals. 

      That brick building behind this park is one of those boarding houses. A lot of the mill girls  came from farms in the area up to a few hours away from the mills. At that time, New England farms could be pretty tough places to live because most farmers were not wealthy, and farm work was not easy or leisurely work either. The soil here is rocky; there are so many trees to clear and keep clear, and the winters are fairly long (in comparison to other places). Never mind that the small family farms meant there were always animals to care for or crops to deal with. And on top of that, there was the normal day to day living for women which included cooking,cleaning, keeping  fires going, and helping out with child care.

     A lot of the stories the museum shared  talk about girls who felt they had a chance to get out in the world by going to work at a mill. Besides work, there were concerts, parties and often church related events the workers could attend.

    However, keep in mind, the workers were at the mills 6 days a week,  many day for 12 (+)  hours, so even though these girls were out in the world, it's not like they were socialites who slept in and went to glamorous balls. (And the question is, did they really escape to better conditions?)

Here's a boarding house bedroom where several women slept and even shared beds. 

And this is part of the dining room where the women shared communal meals.

And you might not be able to read these next few photos, but the meals the girls were fed were pretty hearty sized meals. This exhibit showed typical breakfasts, lunches and dinners. 

As you can see, it was not a glamorous life. 

Over time, the overall make up of the mill workers changed, especially as other opportunities for women came into being. As immigrants arrived from other parts of the world, they began to fill those mill jobs. 

However, when the mills shut down, it did create a lot of hardship. New England is filled with mill towns, some textiles, some not. Even some farming communities had small mills, including my town where we have under 3,000 people today and  where there were fewer in the past.  Was it an easier life than farming? I don't know the answer to that question, but as the west opened up with better farming land, many New England farms ceased to exist. Mills became a place for people to make their livelihood. The forests grew back.  People left the country and went to the city  where there were more opportunities.  Immigrants arrived from various places in the world.  And the economy in New England over time, as it is in many places (and as many of you probably already know) has changed from manufacturing to white collar and service jobs.

However, I think the history of an area is always interesting to glimpse. The history of the Lowell Mills might have begun as a unique commercial project, but it does reflect one part not just of Lowell's story, but in New England's history as well. 

I'll finish this post with  a view of a mill and the same park (only a different view) as my first photo.

That's all for me today. I'll "see" you back in the blogosphere when I return home at the end of next week.