Factory buildings in Lowell, Mass. (LOC)

Delano, Jack,, photographer.

Factory buildings in Lowell, Mass.

1940 Dec. [or] 1941 Jan.

1 slide : color.

Notes:
 Title from FSA or OWI agency caption, which had a question mark after the word "Mass."
Photo shows buildings converted to a residential unit complex known as the Massachusetts Mills at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord rivers, in Lowell, MA. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2008)
Transfer from U.S. Office of War Information, 1944.

Subjects:
 Factories
United States--Massachusetts--Lowell

Format: Slides--Color

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Part Of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection 11671-1 (DLC) 93845501

General information about the FSA/OWI Color Photographs is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsac

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a33850

Call Number: LC-USF35-2

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    BronzePolgara, fondlinganorb, craig.lofstuen, mrBobBaker, and 31 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. Bruce Barone (60 months ago | reply)

    WOW!

    Looks so much like Easthampton, but, I guess, that mis not surprising.

    xo

  3. BronzePolgara (60 months ago | reply)

    Ha! My cousin lives in the building on the left now, they converted it to apartments. According to him, that fence in the front is where the swimming pool is now.

  4. adam.slight (59 months ago | reply)

    looks a lot like fall river too.

  5. BronzePolgara (59 months ago | reply)

    My cousin took a picture of what these buildings look like now, from the same angle:
    www.flickr.com/photos/pcarlson/2209255147/

  6. rrsafety (59 months ago | reply)

    Bronze, thanks a bunch.. that is great!

  7. mrBobBaker (59 months ago | reply)

    I believe I have been around this building on my trips to Umass, Lowell.

    --
    Seen in your 1930s-40s in Color set. (?)

  8. Marcfoto (59 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Old Textile Mills, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

  9. lreed76 (58 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Industrial Revolution in the US, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

  10. The Library of Congress (54 months ago | reply)

    BronzePolgara: Thanks so much for providing the visual 'then and now' comparison, and confirming the location of the factory. We'll update the source description and reload the record.

  11. Karla Jean Davis (54 months ago | reply)

    Wow...that looks kinda like the Cotton Mill Lofts in Atlanta, the ones that were just hit by a tornado.

  12. Marc Funaro (53 months ago | reply)

    ahhh.
    i go into the building in the back all the time now.
    that place is great for photographs.
    you can check out how it looks now in my photostream
    ;-)

  13. Steve Strange (43 months ago | reply)

    I lived in this mill back in the early 1990s, right after they did the conversion. Unfortunately, we left within two months due to horrible neighbors.

  14. kodaksights (19 months ago | reply)

    Good photo
    Boa foto
    Bună fotografie
    Hình ảnh tốt
    Gutes Foto
    Dobrá fotografie
    Bella foto
    Хорошие фото

  15. MCEJE62 (14 months ago | reply)

    In the late 60s I assisted in renovating one of the old mills, and discovered two signs attached to poles behind later wall additions. One sign prohibited "spitting on the floor" in several languages. The other prohibited "riding on the elevator unless approved by the overseer - Massachusetts Cotton Mills." A date of 1914 was scribbled in pencil on a portion of it. Large clumps of old cotton, from the time the buildings were used as cotton mills, were also found between the walls.
    At one point I also worked loading 1,500 pound rolls of news print off railroad box cars onto flatbed trucks to be delivered to the Lowell Sun newspaper located in one of the old mill buildings. I grew up in neighboring Tewksbury. The old mills were a familiar part of my youth.

  16. The Library of Congress (14 months ago | reply)

    @MCEJE62--What a good reminder of how the uses for the mill buildings have evolved over the course of a century. -- Helena

  17. kensavage (8 months ago | reply)

    I love these old Lowell photographs. Yes this place is now an apartment building called Mass. Mills on bridge st in downtown Lowell. I lived there for 2 years and I'm a Lowell MA photographer myself now.

  18. Blueeeyes1 (5 weeks ago | reply)

    I lived next to the exit to go into town of Dorchester,mass in 67 to summer 70, i walked the train tracks to work,took maybe 10 minutes. It was a Kodak Camera converted to making certain type of parts for Nam war...

    Seeing that pic had me thinking about the color of bricks and type of bricks was used to build old kodak camera building..

    Another 40-60 years even your towns main square, will not look like it is now...

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