Waterpower Walk Map (click to enlarge)

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Download the Canalway Walk Brochure

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Length: 1.3-mile loop
Time: 1 hour

The Waterpower Walk is one of four urban trails at Lowell National Historical Park. The route follows sections of the Pawtucket, Eastern, and Merrimack canals, passing the Lower Locks on the Pawtucket Canal and the Boott Cotton Mills complex along the way. It is a pleasant walk and a good way to see the historical downtown area and the canals of Lowell. For a map, pick up a copy of the Lowell Waterways brochure at the Visitor Center.

The map shows the Waterpower Walk as a 1.2-mile out-and-back trail. Double this distance in order to get back to the start if you follow the trail route to a T. However, by using a segment of the Redevelopment Rove you can make a 1.3-mile loop, which is definitely the way to go.

I started at the Visitor Center by walking out of the building onto Market Street. Being a loop, you can take a left or a right—I took a right and proceeded in a counterclockwise direction. Walk a short ways down the street and take another right between the Visitor Center building and a parking garage. You will be heading towards the Pawtucket Canal, but as you walk between the buildings it looks as if you are going to run into a dead end. A mill building that sits parallel to the canal appears to join with the parking garage to form an L-shape, but as it turns out, there is a gap between the buildings that allows you to get to the walkway along the canal.

Walkway along the parking garage next to the Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center

Gap between the parking garage and an old mill building on the Waterpower Walk in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts

Walkway along the Pawtucket Canal

The building across the canal was built by the Hamilton Manufacturing Company between 1911 and 1920. Hamilton was the second mill company to set up shop in Lowell, operating in the city from 1825 to 1929. Today the building is Loft 27, part of Jackson Street Lofts. It is one of many old mill buildings that have been converted into housing.

1911 Hamilton Mill building in Lowell, Massachusetts

Follow the walkway along the canal—there is only one way to go—down to the bridge at Central Street. When you reach the bridge, your next destination is the walkway next to the building that is catty corner to your right. However, you can’t cross the bridge when you first come to it, but instead must take either a left or a right to reach an official crosswalk, then head back towards the building. This is where the Waterpower Walk and the Redevelopment Rove diverge. You would take a right on the bridge and just keep walking to Jackson Street if doing the Redevelopment Rove.

Central Street Bridge crossing (click to enlarge)

Once you get across the street you will have a nice view of the Lower Locks and Gatehouse and the Middlesex Community College building. Take the walkway towards the locks and gatehouse.

Lower Locks Gatehouse and Middlesex Community College in Lowell, Massachusetts

The Pawtucket Canal was originally built to circumnavigate the Merrimack River’s Pawtucket Falls located on the northwest side of Lowell. The river, which begins in the lake region of New Hampshire, was used to transport lumber from the area to the shipyards of Newburyport, Massachusetts, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean. Lumber could also be shipped down the coast to Boston, a journey of roughly 60 miles. The only problem was that boats could not get past the one-mile stretch of falls, rocks, and rapids that dropped 32 feet. Goods had to be unloaded just before the falls, carted a mile downriver, and then reloaded onto another boat, an obvious waste of time and money.

View of the Pawtucket Falls section of the Merrimack River in Lowell, Massachusetts

In 1792, a group of wealthy Boston merchants formed the Proprietors of Locks and Canals to build a canal around Pawtucket Falls. Completed in 1796, the result was a two-mile long canal that ran from just south of the falls to the east side of what was then the farming village of East Chelmsford (Lowell wasn’t incorporated as a town until 1826, and as a city until 1836).

Pawtucket Canal (click to enlarge)

In 1804, the Middlesex Canal opened, and it connected the Merrimack River directly to Boston (it started just a mile downriver from the Pawtucket Canal). This cut the distance of transporting goods to Boston in half, plus cargo could travel on the calm and controlled waters of a canal instead of on the open sea. Furthermore, while lumber was still needed for the shipbuilding industry in Newburyport during the first decade of the 1800s, in 1811 a fire destroyed the city, and the War of 1812 put a damper on trade and the market for new merchant ships. As a result of these two factors, the Pawtucket Canal’s usefulness dwindled, and by 1820 it saw very little boat traffic.

When the war ended in 1815, wealthy mill owner Francis Cabot Lowell began looking for a place to build more mills. Realizing the potential of the little-used Pawtucket Canal as a source of water power, Lowell and fellow investors decided to focus their attention on developing East Chelmsford into an industrial center. The idea was to dig power canals—canals built for water power, not transportation—that branched off the Pawtucket Canal and use the Pawtucket Canal to keep them filled. Massive textile mills could then be built right along the edges. When canal-side real estate ran out, simply dig a new canal and put up more mills. By the mid-1800s there were approximately ten major mill companies and dozens of smaller ones operating in Lowell.

Francis Cabot Lowell died suddenly in 1817 from pneumonia and never saw the results of his ideas—or the city named for him—but his Boston Manufacturing Company continued on with the Lowell project. The first power canal built was the Merrimack Canal in 1823, and more canals were built in the following years. The Hamilton Canal opened in 1825, and within ten years the Lowell, Western, Lawrence, and Eastern canals were in operation. The Northern Canal, the last one built in Lowell, opened in 1848. This canal connected directly to the Merrimack River at Pawtucket Falls and was 100 feet wide, so it not only provided power for the mills situated along its edge, it provided 50 percent more water for the entire canal system. In all, there are approximately 5.5 miles of canals in Lowell.

To provide the necessary water on a reliable basis, two other construction projects were undertaken. First off, the original Pawtucket Canal needed to be widened and deepened, for while it was perfect for canal boats, more water was required to power the mills. A typical transportation canal of the time was around 50 to 80 feet wide and only 3-4 feet deep. The Pawtucket Canal was enlarged to at least 75 feet wide and 12 feet deep. This expansion ran from the Merrimack River to the Swamp Locks. All of this, as well as the original work on the canal, was done by hand, mainly by Irish immigrants.

The second project was to create holding ponds where multiple canals came together, such as at the Swamp Locks where the Merrimack Canal (and later the Hamilton and Western canals) branched off of the Pawtucket Canal, and at the Lower Locks where the Pawtucket and Eastern canals diverged. This was accomplished by building the Swamp Locks Dam and the Lower Locks Dam, and then constructing gatehouses over the top of them to control the flow of water. If you look underneath either of the Swamp Locks Dam Gatehouse or the Lower Locks Dam Gatehouse, you will see many sluice gates. If all are open, most of the water continues down the Pawtucket Canal. If they are all closed, the water is diverted into the side canals. The entire canal system was still owned by the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, but instead of charging canal boats a toll, the company now operated as a water company. Mill owners paid for the amount of water they used, and the gatehouses allowed for the release of just the right amount of water at any given time.

Sluice gates of the Lower Locks Gatehouse on the Pawtucket Canal, Lowell National Historical Park

Because boats also needed to travel down the canal, the locks were left operational. The Lower Locks (a double lock) are the last on the Pawtucket canal, and boats passing through them end up on the Concord River. A left turn and a .25-mile journey and they are back on the Merrimack River and on their way to Newburyport.

Downstream gate of the Lower Locks on the Pawtucket Canal, Lowell National Historical Park

When done at the Lower Locks, continue down the walkway to the glass-paneled pedestrian bridge and take it to the other side of the Pawtucket Canal.

Glass-paneled walkway across the Pawtucket Canal near the Lower Locks, Lowell National Historical Park

Once across the bridge, take a left and work your way back up the canal towards the gatehouse and circle around the Middlesex Community College building (which should be on your right). The path eventually meets up with Lowell National Historical Park’s trolley tracks. From here, simply follow the tracks all the way back to the Visitor Center.

Trolley tracks along the Eastern Canal in Lowell, Massachusetts

The canal that you are now walking along is the Eastern Canal. After a short walk you will pass the Massachusetts Mills on your right. This was the last major mill complex built in Lowell, opening in 1840 and continuing in operation until 1930. The Massachusetts Mills Company was also the first to open a facility in the south in the 1890s, and most other mills would soon leave for the south as well. Today the mill is an apartment complex.

Massachusetts Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts

The trail—and trolley tracks—eventually makes a left turn and runs right in front of the Boott Cotton Mills. While most of the mill complex is now offices and apartments, the first building you come to houses the Boott Cotton Mills Museum, part of Lowell National Historical Park. It is a large museum, and a proper visit requires roughly two hours of your time. There is a fee to enter, and you can get tickets at the mill or the Visitor Center.

Boott Cotton Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts

When you reach the end of the mill complex, the trail makes an S-curve to the left and crosses a bridge over a very narrow channel at the end of the Merrimack Canal. You can’t follow the trolley tracks over this bridge, so take the walkway that is sandwiched between the channel and a parking lot.

Path along the Merrimack Canal wasteway near the Merrimack Mill site, Lowell National Historical Park

The channel is called a wasteway. This particular one leads to the Merrimack River, allowing excess water to exit the canal. However, there is also a gate on this channel that can be closed to divert water into the Eastern Canal if needed.

Merrimack Canal wasteway at the northern end of the canal, Lowell National Historical Park

The building located along the wasteway is on the site of the former Merrimack Mills. The Merrimack Manufacturing Company was the first mill company to open in Lowell. It was in business from 1823 until 1958, which also gives it the distinction of being the last of the original mills to close. Soon afterwards, Merrimack and many of the other old mill buildings began falling victim to the wrecking ball. This mustered preservationists into action, sparking an urban renewal movement in the 1970s. Today, many of the surviving mills have been turned into offices, condos, and apartments. Urban renewal also resulted in Lowell National Historical Park being created in 1978.

The Waterpower Walk follows the wasteway for a hundred yards before making another sharp turn to the left at the very end of the Merrimack Canal, which will now be on your right. Follow the canal–you’ll immediately cross French Street—and continue about .2 mile until reaching Merrimack Street. You will pass St. Anne’s Church, which was built in 1823 as part of the image that mill owners were trying to present to the families of potential female mill workers. With amenities such as chaperoned boarding houses, schools, and a church, families felt comfortable allowing their daughters to move to Lowell and work in the mills.

St. Anne’s Church in Lowell, Massachusetts

When you reach Merrimack Street, take a right and walk a short ways to the intersection with Dutton Street. At this point you will once again see the trolley tracks, and just fifty yards ahead is a Boston & Maine Railroad 6-wheel steam switcher engine built in 1911. It was purchased by the National Park Service in 1991 and moved to this location in 1993 for what was to be a larger exhibit on the history of Lowell’s railroad system as it pertained to the mills. Supposedly the exhibit is housed inside the railroad car behind the engine, but I did not notice it when I visited. A related attraction is the National Trolley Museum located next to the train (this is not part of Lowell National Historical Park). The B&M engine is also where you will find the Visitor Center Trolley stop. The Visitor Center itself is just a hundred yards farther down Dutton Street.

Boston and Maine No. 410 locomotive in Lowell, Massachusetts

There are plenty of interesting historical sites to see along the Waterpower Walk. If you plan to stop at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum and / or the Mogan Cultural Center, working this trail into your itinerary is not a bad idea.

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