National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Lowell National Historical Park

Lowell, MA

BOOTT MILLS 

COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Historic Structure Report

Lowell National Historical Park

Lowell, Massachusetts

Historic Structure Report

Boott Mills Counting

House and Mill #6

Lowell National Historical Park

Lowell, Massachusetts

Part 1

Introduction, Historical Background and

Context, Chronology of Development, Current

Physical Description, Character-Defining Features

Produced by the Division of Publications

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Washington, DC

September 9, 2016
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Table of Contents 

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

List of Photographs

1.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................

I. Executive Summary................................................................................................

 Purpose and Scope......................................................................................

 Methodology................................................................................................

 Statement of Significance............................................................................

II. Administrative Data................................................................................................

 Location of the Site......................................................................................

 National Register of Historic Places Information...................................

 

1.2 1984 HSR: HISTORY PORTION- BUILDING 6, THE 

COUNTING HOUSE, THE ADJACENT COURTYARD, AND THE 

FACADES OF BUILDING 1 AND 2............................................................

By: Laurence F. Gross, Ph.D. & Russell A. Wright, AIA

 i. Acknowledgments............................................................................................... 

 ii. Statement of Significance.................................................................................... 

 iii. Preface...................................................................................................................

I. Introduction...............................................................................................................

II. Forms and Structures of Textile Industry............................................................

III. Origins and Development of the Boott Cotton Mills.......................................

IV. Textile Technology and Process: Cotton Processes, Bale to Bolt , As 

 Practiced at the Lowell and Boott Cotton Mills.................................................

V. History and Evolution of the Boott Mills Counting House , Mill 6, 

 Facades of Mills 1 and 2, and the Courtyard : Physical Origins to 1870.......

VI. Occupation and Use, 1871 to 1904.........................................................................

VII. Physical History 1871 - 1904...................................................................................

VIII. Occupation and Use 1905 to 1930..........................................................................

IX. Physical History 1905 - 1930...................................................................................

X. Occupation and Use 1931 - 1954............................................................................

XI. Physical History 1931 - 1955...................................................................................

XII. Physical History 1956 to Date................................................................................

XIII. Summary....................................................................................................................

1

1

2

4

5

5

6

14

35

51

79

101

113

167

203

291

327

381

399

411

11

11

12

1

11
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

XIV. Future Research........................................................................................................

 Annotated Bibliography..........................................................................................

 Appendices................................................................................................................

1.3 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT (1984-2015)........

I. Birth of Lowell National Historical Park.....................................................................

II. Creating a Mixed-Use Center for Education, Interpretation and NPS 

functions.................................................................................................................................

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT.................................................

I. History of Use and Physical Changes...........................................................................

 A. Counting House..................................................................................................

 1839 - 1936 (Summary by EYP).................................................................

 1937 - 1983 (Summary by EYP).................................................................

 1984 - 1993....................................................................................................

 1994 - 2016....................................................................................................

 B. Mill 6.....................................................................................................................

 1872 - 1955 (Summary by EYP).................................................................

 1956 - 1983 (Summary by EYP).................................................................

 1984 - 1993....................................................................................................

 1994 - 2016....................................................................................................

II. Tabulated Building Timeline....................................................................................... 

 

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION...............................................

I. Counting House................................................................................................................. 

 Exterior Elements.....................................................................................................

 Interior Elements......................................................................................................

II. Mill 6..................................................................................................................................

Exterior Elements.....................................................................................................

 Interior Elements.....................................................................................................

423

427

435

467

468

468

474

482

493

499

499

515

537

562

575

589

589

593

596

596

601

457

460

457

467

589
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.6 CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES.................................................

I. Counting House.................................................................................................................

Exterior Features.......................................................................................................

 Interior Features.......................................................................................................

II. Mill 6..................................................................................................................................

 Exterior Features......................................................................................................

 Interior Features.......................................................................................................

Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................

Appendix 1: Annotated list of drawing sets consulted............................................................

Appendix 2: Existing floorplans for Counting House and Mill 6...........................................

613

613

615

616

616

617

620

621

626

613
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Acknowledgments 

The preparation of this Historic Structures Report (HSR) has been 

made possible by the valuable input of various staff and personnel 

of the Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP), in particular Rachel 

Edlund, Charles Parrott and Jack Herlihy. They provided insight, 

access to archival materials and valuable guidance during the 

writing process.

The authors also wish to thank Margo Muhl Brooks and Eric 

Thuerk at the NPS Denver Service Center and Charles Tonetti at 

the LNHP for their useful comments and guidance during the HSR 

preparation. 

This HSR provides an update to an existing HSR for the Counting 

House and Mill 6, prepared in 1984. The 1984 HSR also included 

the Adjacent Courtyard, and the Facades of Building 1 and 2 in 

its purview, which have not been updated in the 2016 effort. The 

2016 report does include complete digital transcription of the 1984 

HSR and reformatting with new digital scans of all figures and 

photographs. This transcription forms Chapter 1.2 of this current 

report. For credits refer to the Table of Contents and for additional 

acknowledgments included in the 1984 HSR, please refer to Page 

11 of this report.

EYP Architecture and Engineering

September 9, 2016
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

List of Figures* 

Figure 1. Conjectural drawing of Almy, Brown and Slater's Mill, 1793

Slater Mill Collections

19

Figure 2. "Pawtucket Farms", 1821, that part of the town of Chelmsford that would become 

Lowell

Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP), Museum Collections LOWE 3946

21

Figure 3. Kirk Boott, 1790-1837. Portrait by Chester Harding

LNHP, Library Collections, Illustrated History of Lowell and Vicinity, CourierCitizen Company, Lowell, Mass., 1897. P. 228

23

Figure 4. The Lowell Canal System, 1848, with all canals completed

Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), National Park Service, MASS, 

9-LOW, 8-(sheet2 of 2), 1976

54

Figure 5. Lowell and Belvedere Village, 1832

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 14442

58

Figure 5A. City of Lowell, 1845

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 14443

59

Figure 6. Merrimack Manufacturing Company, c.1850

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 1039

60

Figure 7. Merrimack Manufacturing Company Mill No. 6, c.1848

LNHP, Museum Collections, Library Collections, A History of Lowell, by Charles 

Cowley, 1868, p. 48

61

Figure 8. Early Plan of Boott Mill yard, 1835. Shows Mills 1 through 4 with eight rows of 

company owned boarding houses

LNHP, Museum Collections, Proprietors of Locks and Canals Collection (L&C), 

Plan Number 153-025

65

Figure 9. Section Through the Furnace of one of the Boott Cotton Mills, 1835

University of Massachusetts, Center for Lowell History (UML,CLH), Proprietors 

of Locks and Canals

Collection (L&C), Plan Number C112-2259

67

Figure 10. "View of the Boott Cotton Mills at Lowell Mass." from Gleason's Pictorial, dated 

May 29, 1852

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 4636

68

Figure 11. Unlabeled view of Boott Cotton Mills, between 1865 and 1881

UML, CLH, Lowell Historical Society Collections (LHS)

69

* Figure 40-117 were created by EYP unless otherwise noted.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Figure 12. Plan of the Massachusetts Cotton Mills, 1839

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 147-29[2], folder 2 of 8

71

Figure 13. Front and End Elevations of one of the Boott Blocks of Boarding Houses, dated 

August 1836

LNHP, L&C Plan Number C112-2260

72

Figure 14. 1878 view of Boott Mills, from Hill's Lowell Illustrated

LNHP, LOWE 15281

73

Figure 15. Plan of one of the Boott Cotton Mills, c. 1836

UML, CLH, L&C, Plan Number C-112-2246

105

Figure 16. Boott Corporation, from Sidney and Neff's Map of the City of Lowell, Mass. 1850. 

Mills 1 through 4 are at right, with their picker houses. The Counting House and 

various repair shops are at left.

LNHP, LOWE 1039

110

Figure 17. Detail of window sills for Mill Number 6, from Channing

Whitaker's sketchbook, undated, but pre-construction

UML, CLH, Lambert Collection (Channing Whitaker’s

Sketchbook), undated.

170

Figure 17A. 1926 plan showing repairs and replacements to piers and columns at Mill 

Number 6

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-076

294

Figure 18. Layout of tracks to serve Coal Pocket of Mill Number 6, Sept. 1926

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-070

301

Figure 19. Details of Proposed Railroad Bridge over Eastern Canal, April 1927

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-086

302

Figure 20. Details of Plate Girder for Boott Mills RR Bridge over Eastern Canal, April 26, 

1927

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-087

303

Figure 21. Clearance for Side Track to Boott Mills Coal Pocket, Sept. 1926

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-074

309

Figure 22. Plan of First and Second Floors, Boott Mills Office, March 1931, corrected 1936.

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-114

382

Figure 23. Plan of First and Second Floors, Boott Mills Office, July 26, 1937

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-143

383

Figure 24. Proposed Stairway, Office Building, Boott Mills, May 1937

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-142

385

Figure 25. Side Elevations of Office Building, Boott Mills, Feb. 1936

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-132

386
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Figure 26. Deflection in walls of Mill Number 6, drawing dated August 21, 1935

LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-129

387

Figures 27-38 Not Used

Figure 39. Cut-away perspective sketch showing museum, admin and TIHC program 

layout at various floors, c. 1986

DSC Archives, LOWE_475_41012_[id144017]

461

Figure 40. First Floor - Counting House; 1839 469

Figure 41. Second Floor - Counting House; 1839 469

Figure 42. North Elevation - Counting House; 1839 470

Figure 43. South Elevation - Counting House; 1839 470

Figure 44. First Floor - Counting House; 1937 475

Figure 45. Second Floor - Counting House; 1937 475

Figure 46. North Elevation - Counting House; 1937 476

Figure 47. South Elevation - Counting House; 1937 476

Figure 48. First Floor - Counting House; 1983 478

Figure 49. Second Floor - Counting House; 1983 478

Figure 50. North Elevation - Counting House; 1983 479

Figure 51. South Elevation - Counting House; 1983 479

Figure 52. "Preliminary Study of Boott Mills", Boott Mill Entry Development, 1983

DSC Archives, File No. LOWE_475_40014_[id36299]

482

Figure 53. "Preliminary Study of Boott Mills", Counting House Courtyard, 1983

DSC Archives, File No. LOWE_475_40014_[id36299]

483

Figure 54. First Floor - Counting House; 1993 484

Figure 55. Second Floor - Counting House; 1993 484

Figure 56. North Elevation - Counting House; 1993 485

Figure 57. South Elevation - Counting House; 1993 485
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Figure 58. First Floor - Counting House; 2016 494

Figure 59. Second Floor - Counting House; 2016 494

Figure 60. North Elevation - Counting House; 2016 495

Figure 61. South Elevation - Counting House; 2016 495

Figure 62. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1872 500

Figure 63. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1872 500

Figure 64. Third, Fourth & Fifth Floors - Mill 6; c. 1872 501

Figure 65. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1872 502

Figure 66. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1872 502

Figure 67. East Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1872 503

Figure 68. West Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1872 503

Figure 69. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1955 510

Figure 70. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1955 510

Figure 71. Third & Fourth Floors - Mill 6; c. 1955 511

Figure 72. Fifth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1955 511

Figure 73. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1955 512

Figure 74. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1955 512

Figure 75. East Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1955 513

Figure 76. West Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1955 513

Figure 77. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1983 522

Figure 78. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1983 522

Figure 79. Third, Fourth & Fifth Floors - Mill 6; c. 1983 523
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Figure 80. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1983 524

Figure 81. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1983 524

Figure 82. East Elevation- Mill 6; 1983 525

Figure 83. West Elevation- Mill 6; 1983 525

Figure 84. Roof Plan-Demolition, Mill 6, 1980529

Drawing A1, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 

1980. LOWE_475_25902_[id14563]- DSC Archives.

529

Figure 85. Roof Plan-New Constriction, Mill 6, 1980

Drawing A2, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 

1980. LOWE_475_25902_[id14563]- DSC Archives

530

Figure 86. Roof Details, Mill 6, 1980

Drawing A6, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 

1980. LOWE_475_25902_[id14563]- DSC Archives

531

Figure 87. South Elevation, 1981

Drawing A3, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 

1980, Notes per site visit 2/23/1981. LNHp Archives

532

Figure 88. North Elevation, 1981

Drawing A4, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 

1980, Notes per site visit 2/23/1981. LNHP Archives

533

Figure 89. East & West Elevation, 1981

Drawing A5, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 

1980, Notes per site visit 2/23/1981. LNHP Archives

534

Figure 90. Window Details, 1981

Drawing 1 of 2, Boott Mill No. 6, ESI & Moore-Heder, 7/28/1981. 

LOWE_475_25900_[id19242] - DSC Archives

535.

Figure 90A. Window Details, 1981

Drawing 2 of 2, Boott Mill No. 6, ESI & Moore-Heder, 7/28/1981. 

LOWE_475_25900_[id19242] - DSC Archives

536

Figure 91. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989 540

Figure 92. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989 540

Figure 93. Third Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989 541

Figure 94. Fourth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989 541

Figure 95. Fifth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989 542
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Figure 96. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1989 543

Figure 97. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1989 543

Figure 98. East Elevation- Mill 6; 1989 544

Figure 99. West Elevation- Mill 6; 1989 544

Figure 100. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993 552

Figure 101. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993 552

Figure 102. Third Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993 553

Figure 103. Fourth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993 553

Figure 104. Fifth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993 554

Figure 105. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1993 555

Figure 106. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1993 555

Figure 107. East Elevation- Mill 6; 1993 556

Figure 108. West Elevation- Mill 6; 1993 556

Figure 109. First Floor - Mill 6; 2016 564

Figure 110. Second Floor - Mill 6; 2016 564

Figure 111. Third Floor - Mill 6; 2016 565

Figure 112. Fourth Floor - Mill 6; 2016 565

Figure 113. Fifth Floor - Mill 6; 2016 566

Figure 114. North Elevation- Mill 6; 2016 567

Figure 115. South Elevation- Mill 6; 2016 567

Figure 116. East Elevation- Mill 6; 2016 568

Figure 117. West Elevation- Mill 6; 2016 568

Figure 118. Details of aluminum window used for Phase I and Phase II of the Window 

Replacement Project at Mill 6, drawing dated 9/15/2015

LNHP

573
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

List of Photographs* 

Photo A.1. Aerial view of the Boott Mill Complex, 2016

www.bing.com

5

Photo 1. Feeder, preparer, & opener in mill#9-4, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

83

Photo 2. Feeder, preparer, & opener in mill#9-4, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

84

Photo 3. Pickers in mill #9-3, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

85

Photo 4. Cards in mill #5-2 west delivering sliver to can coilers, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

87

Photo 5. Slivers entering & leaving drawing frames in mill #5-2 West, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

88

Photo 6. Slubbing frames in mill #5-2 West, 1911.

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

90

Photo 7. Roving frames in mill #8-2, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

91

Photo 8. Ring spinning in mill #5-4 West, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

92

Photo 9. Mule spinning in mill #4-4, 1911.

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

93

Photo 10. Duck looms (not-automatic) in mill #3-2, 1911.

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

95

Photo 11. Bevel gear and main shaft carrying power from turbine #2, below, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

97

* Photos 49-131 were taken by EYP unless otherwise noted.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Photo 12. Main belt drive delivering power to Mill #3, 1911.

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

98

Photo 13. Draper automatic looms in mill #7-3. 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, 

interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery

99

Photo 14. Stereopticon view of Boott Mill Number 6 and the Counting House, c.1875

UML, CLH, B6456 CN 05

102

471

Photo 15. "Bridge Street Looking Toward Merrimack River, February 5, 1930" Note blind 

arcade of Bridge Street elevation of Mill Number 6

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8786

168

Photo 16. Bridge Street facade of Number 6 with blind arcade, June 1985

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8786, HAER, MA 16, 1985

171

Photo 17. "Bridge and Coal Pocket at Mill No. 6 (1912)." Note wood picket fence and sliding 

door

LNHP, L&C, LOWE 7638

173

507

Photo 18. Side Track and Bridge to Coal Pocket of Boott Mill, Sept. 3, 1926" showing 

original design of Coal Pocket and sliding door

LNHP, L&C, LOWE 8514

174

Photo 19. Boott Mill Number 6, June 1985

LNHP

175

480

Photo 20. Cast iron columns at first floor of Boott Mill Number 6, June 1985

HAER, NPS MA-16, 1985

185

508

Photo 21. Connecting wall between east and west sections of Boott Mill Number 6, third 

floor. June 1985

HAER, NPS, MA-16, 1985

186

508

Photo 22. View of Boott Mills, c.1865-1880. Mills Number 1 and 2 and their connector is at 

the right. Note House and structure at stair tower

UML, CLH B6456 CN 01

197

Photo 23. Boott Mill Yard, c.1895

LNHP, Library Collections, Illustrated History of Lowell, 1897, P. 261

198

Photo 24. "Yard of Boott Mills" Note removal of house houses and fenced lawn area

UML, CLH, LHS, LM, Pin 4111

199

504

Photo 25. Electric motor powering belt drive for ring spinning in #5-4 east, 1911

UML, CLH, LHS, LM, Flather Collection, Box 30, F-49

233

Photo 26. "Boott Mills Looking East, March 1928" Mill Number 6 is at right, with Counting 

House in front of it.

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8658

292

473

506
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Photo 26A. Boott Cotton Mills Coal Pocket Entrance

LNHP, Museum Collections, Lowe 8643

299

Photo 27. "Boott Mills Railroad Bridge Showing Bridge Floor and Tracks, Aug 1927

LNHP, Museum Collections, Lowe 8581

300

507

Photo 27A. "Passageway thru Mill No. 6 to Boott Mill Coal Pocket, June 1927"

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8556

310

Photo 27B. "Boott Mills Coal Pocket Trestle, June 1927"

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8558

311

Photo 28. "Coal Pocket Trestle, interior, June 1927"

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8557

312

Photo 29. "Boott Mills Upper Yard, showing repairs to towers (of Mills No. 1 and 2) made 

by Locks and Canals, June 1927."

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8741

317

Photo 30. Mill yard between Boott Mills Number 1 and 2 and Number 6, Dec. 1933. Note 

fire stair at west end of Number 6, accessory structure at elevator 

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8986

320

506

Photo 31. "Rebuilding Boott Bridge, Aug 9, 1924." Bridge spans Eastern Canal, with 

Counting House shown at left.

LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8399

322

Photo 32. Striking workers picketing the Boott, c.1942.

American Textile History Museum

373

Photo 33. West stair tower at Boott Mill Number 6, October 1942. Note top floor in place, 

and skylights and vents in roof of Counting House in the foreground

LNHP, Museum Collections, Lowe 15655

390

Photo 34. "Courtyard at Mills No. 1 and 2", 1957. Note "Recreation and Employee's Room" 

or "Personnel

House" at right, constructed in 1950

UML, CLH, LHS, LM Flather Collection

395

Photo 35. East stairtower, Mill Number 6, June 1985. Note later elevator shaft at right, and 

altered door at stair tower.

Source: HAER, NPS MA-16, 1985

405

520

Photo 36. Eastern Canal elevation of Boott Mill Number 6, July 1979. Note curious sheet 

metal shaft at fourth bay, third floor to roof.

Source: HAER, NPS MA-7 #4, 1976

406

517

Photo 37. Stair towers at Mills Number 1 and 2, 1975

Source: HAER, NPS MA-7, 1975

408
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Photo 38-48 Not Used

Photo 49. President Jimmy Carter signs the legislation establishing the

Lowell National Historical Park, June 5, 1978.

Marion, Mill Power, 2014, p. 51

459

Photo 50. South Elevation of Counting House, 1982

HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--17

480

Photo 51. South Elevation - Counting House; c. 1993

Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-millsmuseum/

486

Photo 52. Double- height pedestrian passageway at west end of Counting House, 2016 487

Photo 53. Entrance lobby at first floor of Counting House, 2016. Note the double height 

space created in 1993 by removing a section of the second floor slab and re 

framing the area with new beams and columns.

487

594

Photo 54. Open stair to second floor in Counting House lobby, 2016 488

593

Photo 55. Concrete pilasters at exterior wall of Counting House retained in the 1993 

renovation, 2016

488

Photo 56. Museum bookstore at second floor of Counting House, c. 1993

Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-millsmuseum/

489

Photo 57. North Elevation of Counting House, 2016 490

Photo 58. Detail of hood reconstruction , 1993

1993 As-built drawings, Flansburgh Architects, LNHP

491

Photo 59. Opening on north facade of Counting House for pedestrian passageway, 2016 491

Photo 60. Multi-stall toilets created at first floor of Counting House since 1993; 2016 493

Photo 61. Multi-purpose events space at second floor of Counting House, 2016 496

595

Photo 62. Pedestrian passageway entry at south facade of Counting House, 2016 496

Photo 63. Deterioration at brick pier at Counting House substructure, 2015 497

Photo 64. 'Flattening' of granite arch (towards right) supporting southwest corner of 

Counting House above, 2015

497

Photo 65. Failed brick vault at Counting House substructure, 2015 497
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Photo 66. Wood spiral staircase in octagonal stair tower. Railings were added in 1914, 

undated

LNHP Archives, LOWE 16552

505

Photo 67. Bridges between Mills #6 and # 1 looking east

HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--24

505

Photo 68. East elevation, Mill 6. Note the blind windows on first floor at coal pocket 

location.

HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--8

514

Photo 69. View from mill yard of north and west facades of Mill 6, c. 1979. Note the 1917 

freight elevator tower at the corner, the 1973 freight elevator tower next to it, and 

missing window sash

LNHP Archives, LOWE 16552

516

Photo 70. Entrance at west stair tower, 1982. Note altered opening, non-historic door, 

replacement windows above in Mill 6.

HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--30

518

Photo 71. View of Mill 6, looking west, 1982. Note the new wood window sash, restored 

wood frames and new metal cornice at west end wall and 1981 reproduction of 

the removed brick chimney to vent the Wang boiler and eliminate the boiler flue 

previously routed through an adjacent upper floor window

HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--29

519

Photo 72. View of Mill #6 from the south (1982). Note the new wood window sash and 

restored wood frames.

HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--9

521

Photo 73. View of west elevation of east wing of Mill 6, 1976. Note the altered entrance at 

east stair tower, the 1973 freight elevator tower with adjacent one-story machine 

room, window openings with brick and plywood infills and mechanical flues.

HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,8--27 (zoomed from 

original)

526

Photo 74. View of Mill 6 looking west, 1982. Compare with Photo 70 and note the restored 

window openings with replacement wood sash and removal of mechanical flues. 

Also note rebuilt metal cornice at west end of the building.

HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,8--27 (zoomed from 

original)

527

Photo 75. View of Weave Room at first floor of Mill 6, 2016. Note 1-wythe thick brick 

pilasters/piers added to the exterior wall between window openings in 1989.

538

602

Photo 76. View of east tower entrance, 2016. Note new wood hood and paneled double 

door based on historic design, constructed in 1989.

539

Photo 77. View of arched masonry partition at first floor, 2016. Note new tie-rods installed 

(in place of existing) in 1989.

539
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Photo 78. Entry ramp and steps built in 1993 at the historic 1917 elevator tower, photo 

taken 2016

545

Photo 79. View of new internal stair from floors 1-3 inserted in west part of Mill 6 in 1989, 

Photo taken 2016

545

Photo 80. Weave Room at first floor of Mill 6 , c. 1993

Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-mills 

museum/

546

Photo 81. Curved stair connecting floors 1 and 2 of the museum located directly east of the 

arched masonry partition added in 1989, photo taken 2016

547

603

Photo 82. Theater located on floor 2 of the museum, added in 1989; photo taken 2016. 548

604

Photo 83. View of corridor along exterior wall on floor 2 of the museum, built in

1989; photo taken 2016. Note the brick piers between windows, the bi-color wall 

paint scheme and the dark painted ceilings and systems above.

548

604

Photo 84. Exhibit space at west end of Mill 6 on floor 2, built in 1989; photo taken 2016. 

Note the vaulted ceiling and cast iron columns.

549

604

Photo 85. Exhibit space directly east of the space in Photo 80, at west end of Mill 6 on floor 

2, built in 1989; photo taken 2016. Note the dropped ceiling and cast iron columns

549

604

Photo 86. View from lobby looking west at west wing of Mill 6 on floor 3, general layout 

from 1989; photo taken 2016.

549

Photo 87. Lunch room on floor 4, built in 1989; photo taken 2016. Note the dropped ceiling 

and cast iron columns.

549

607

Photo 88. View of third floor looking south , c. 1993. Note arched masonry partition on 

right with one arch infilled; double-height opening created in the floor above and 

new connecting stair between floor 3 and 4 added in 1993.

Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-millsmuseum/

550

Photo 89. View of third floor looking north , c. 1993. Note double-height opening created in 

the floor above and new connecting stair between floor 3 and 4 added in 1993.

Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-millsmuseum/

551

Photo 90. View of connecting stair between floors 4 and 5, constructed 1993, photo taken 

2016

557

Photo 91 & 92. View of material conservation labs at floor 5 of Mill 6, constructed 1993, photo 

taken 2016.

557

608

Photo 93. View of north facade of Mill 6, 2016. 558
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Photo 94. View of north facade of east wing of Mill 6, 2016. Note the three doors that were 

added at floor 1 between 1989-1993.

559

Photo 95. View of east facade of Mill 6, 2016. Note the window openings converted to 

louvers in 1993.

560

Photo 96. New entry at 1917 elevator tower created in 1993, photo taken 2016. 561

599

Photo 97. Bookstore at first floor of Mill 6 - relocated to this space in 2007. Prior location 

was the second floor of the Counting House

562

Photo 98. Typical 1981 wood window at Mill 6 563

600

Photo 99. Typical 2013-2016 custom replacement aluminum window with true divided 

lights and integral storm panel, at Mill 6

563

600

Photo 100. Room 340 - Workshop converted to wet use in 1995. Photo taken 2016 569

Photos 101 & 102. Enclosed offices added on fourth floor post 1993. 570

Photo 103. New partition (not extending all the way to underside of structure) at left of 

picture, added post 1993 at fifth floor to create new TIHC workshops; photo 

taken 2016

571

Photo 104. PV arrays and solar hydronic system added at roof of Mill 6 in 2007 and 2010 ; 

photo taken 2016

571

601

Photo 105. Canal penstock substructure under south wall of Counting House visible during 

canal dewatering, 2015

589

Photo 106. Easternmost arch at the canal penstock entrance (visible on the left of photo 105), 

directly under west end of Counting House,visible during canal dewatering, 2015

589

Photo 107. View of eastern gallery under south wall of Counting

House, visible during canal dewatering, 2015

590

Photo 108. North wall of Counting House, 2015. 590

Photo 109. Double-height pedestrian passageway at west end of Counting House, created 

inside the building shell in 1993, photo taken 2015

591

Photo 110. South facade of Counting House, 2015 591

Photo 111. Detail of windows at south facade, 2015 591

Photo 112. Windows at north wall of Counting House, 2015 592
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

Photo 113. Typical doorway at north wall of Counting House, 2015 592

Photo 114. West and south facade of Counting House, 2015. Note the slate roof and wood 

cornice.

593

Photo 115. West (left) and north (right) facade of Mill 6, 2015. Photo taken from mill yard. 

Note the octagonal east stair tower on the left of the photo and the 1917 elevator 

tower at the inside corner of the L-shaped Mill 6, at center of photo.

597

Photo 116. Detail of diamond shaped anchor plate at Mill 6, 2015 597

Photo 117. East stair tower at Mill 6., 2015 598

Photo 118. West stair tower at Mill 6, 2015 598

Photo 119. 1917 elevator tower at Mill 6, 2015 599

Photo 120. Chimney at west end of Mill 6, 2015 601

Photo 121. Entry vestibule at first floor of 1917 elevator tower at Mill 6, 2015 602

Photo 122. Elevator lobby at first floor of Mill 6, 2015 602

Photo 123. Typical bricked in wall opening at historic hoist access at west wall of east wing, 

2015

602

Photo 124. Spiral stair at octagonal stair tower, 2015 603

Photo 125. Metal plate at each tread of the spiral stairs with the letters 'Boott Cotton Mill' 

stamped on them, 2015

603

Photo 126. Event Center at second floor of Mill 6, 2016 605

Photo 127. TIHC classroom at third floor of Mill 6, 2015 605

Photo 128. View from third floor looking up through opening in fourth floor slab, 2015. Note 

fourth floor arched opening with glazed partition

605

Photo 129. Corridor at third floor of Mill 6, 2015 605

Photo 130. Curatorial space at west end of third floor, 2015 606

Photo 131. Corridor along north exterior wall on fourth floor of Mill 6, view of NERO office 

space on the right, 2015.

607
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1.1 INTRODUCTION

1

1.1 Introduction

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Purpose and Scope 

This Historic Structure Report focuses on two structures within the 

Boott Mill Complex of Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP) - 

the Counting House and Mill 6. Both these structures are owned 

and operated by LNHP. Major renovations at both buildings were 

last completed in 1993. In the last 23 years, there have been some 

minor changes in the program areas, layout and systems at the 

buildings but largely the buildings are very similar to their interior 

and exterior appearance in 1993.

A Structural Fire Protection Condition Assessment (FPCA) survey 

of Mill 6 completed in 2007 identified inadequate code compliant 

egress for higher occupancy functions located on the upper floors 

of Mill 6. Currently the Park is looking to correct these deficiencies 

by moving and reorganizing program functions within the two 

buildings. This may necessitate changes to the existing layout and 

systems. The intent of this 2016 HSR update to better guide those 

changes, document the chronological development of the buildings 

post-1984 and identify the character defining features.

An HSR for these buildings was completed in 1984 and includes 

only the History Portion. The 1984 HSR contains detailed 

information about historical contexts, and the history of use and 

physical changes at Mill 6 and the Counting House. However, it 

does not contain a list of character-defining features, and since it 

was completed in 1984, does not document the major renovations 

completed in the 1980's and 1990's. This document includes a 

complete digital transcription of the 1984 HSR in Chapter 1.2. It is 

important to note that the 1984 HSR looked at four distinct parts of 

the Boott Mills Complex – Mill 6, the Counting House, the adjacent 

courtyard and the facades of Mills 1 and 2 (which are privately 

owned buildings). The current HSR update effort will focus only 

on two of these- Mill 6 and the Counting House.

This historic structure report is written in accordance with NPS 

Director’s Order #28: Cultural Resource Management Guidelines 

and will include modified components from both “Part 1: 

Developmental History” and “Part 2: Treatment and Use”. Part 

1 sections included are: Introduction, Historical Background and 

Context and Chronology of Development, ; Part 2 sections included 

are: Character-Defining Features.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.1 INTRODUCTION

2

Methodology

The research for this HSR Update relied on the following major 

sources:

1984 HSR: The 1984 HSR served as the primary source of information 

for physical changes to the building fabric and the dates when these 

occurred. In order to accurately identify which building features 

that current exist at the buildings are original to the structure, and 

which represent later replications/additions/ modifications, it 

was first crucial to analyze and digest the information contained 

in the 1984 HSR. This information was used to populate the 

tabulated building chronology, summarize physical changes at 

the two buildings and generate a series of illustrated chronological 

diagrams that are included in Chapter 1.4. This information was 

also crucial to generate the list of character defining features in 

Chapter 1.6. 

Denver Service Center (DSC) Archives: The DSC provided the 

authors with 30 digital files (29 PDFs and 1 Excel file) pertaining 

to Mill 6 and the Counting House. Refer to Appendix 1 for an 

annotated bibliography of the files that were accessed from DSC.

Lowell National Historic Park (LNHP) Archives: Information at 

LNHP is at two locations- at the Plan Room, in the basement of 67 

Kirk Street, Lowell MA, which is the Park Headquarters building; 

and at the Archives/Curatorial division of LNHP located on the 

third floor of Mill 6. 

HABS/HAER and MACRIS (Massachusetts Cultural Resource 

Information System): These online repositories were important for 

gaining access to historic photographs (mostly from a documentation 

effort in 1976 and 1983) and to the various NRHP nominations and 

Inventory forms that have been prepared for these buildings. The 

following documents were accessed:

LOW.C: Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District, 1976 (NHL 1977).

Includes the Boott Penstock and Mill Yard.

LOW.BC: Lowell National Historical Park, National Register District, 

1978 (Documented 1985).Lists Boott Mill #6 and Boott Mill Counting 

House as Contributing Resources.

LOW.1526: Boott Cotton Mills Mill #6. Cultural Resource Inventory 

Form, 1985. Notes details and includes photos of the building
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.1 INTRODUCTION

3

LOW.1517: Boott Cotton Mills Counting House. Cultural Resource 

Inventory Form, 1985. Notes details and includes photos of the 

building

LOW.BG: Boott Cotton Mills, Cultural Resource Inventory Form, 1970, 

2005. Includes historical photos and developmental history of 

entire Boott Mills Complex.

Books/ Web/Online sources: While a complete list of books, articles 

and websites accessed for the report are included in the Bibliography, 

there are some important publications that merit mention. The 2014 

book 'Mill Power-The Origin and Impact of Lowell National Historical 

Park' by Paul Marion was crucial in piecing together the history of 

events surrounding the creation of LNHP in the late 1970's and the 

events that led to the acquisition and redevelopment of Mill 6 and 

the Counting House by the Park Service. 

In addition to the sources listed above, the authors visited the 

buildings on various occasions during the winter of 2015-2016 to 

observe existing spaces, features and finishes. The existing photos 

included in this report are from those trips. 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.1 INTRODUCTION 4

Statement of Significance 

The following is reproduced entirely from the 1984 HSR 

Building No. 6, the Counting House, facades of Mills No. 1 and No. 

2, and the Courtyard of the Boott Cotton Mills-Boott Mills complex 

represent significant examples of the thinking of the developers 

of the large- scale New England textile industry at the time of its 

establishment and throughout its life, the manner of their operation 

of the mills, and the experiences of the workers in them. Furthermore, 

mills such as these served as models for textile factory development 

and patterns of industrial development generally for enterprises 

throughout the country. Building No. 6 stands as an example of 

mid-nineteenth century cotton mill construction, revealing, in its 

strengths and weaknesses, a particular approach to the developing 

industrial capitalism of the time. In the conservatism of its 

original design, its comparatively slight modifications over time, 

and its consistently poor working conditions and climate control 

capabilities, it reveals a great deal about the priorities of the owners, 

the constraints placed upon its managers, the degree of interest or 

faith in its continuing profitability. lt also stands as an instructive 

example of the working conditions faced by those who staffed its 

operations. The Counting House represents one of only two such 

survivals in Lowell. The nerve- center of the entire operation of the 

Boott, it connects all aspects of the mill’s history. It also indicates 

the comparative scale of production and of management at the 

site. The facades of Mills No. 1 and No. 2, with their connector, 

document the evolution of the early Lowell mills. They indicate 

the size and free-standing nature of the earlier generations of mills. 

The connector presents the fulfillment of original intentions, and 

the fifth floor reflects a final phase of development, the replacement 

of gable roofs with a full story. The Court Yard demonstrates the 

importance of open space in the original organizational pattern of 

the Boott Cotton Mills, the arrangement of the early mills in long 

rows, separated by continuous open spaces to provide natural light 

and ventilation. Later structures further closed in the area and 

limited access to the John Street entrance. The space itself remains 

intact, although constricted, and continues to play an important 

role in the mill’s appearance and activity. All these factors work 

together to present the various elements involved in the operation 

of a typical Lowell cotton mill, an example to the nation in the 

nineteenth century, a fruitful object for study for those who seek 

lessons in the past in the twentieth. 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.1 INTRODUCTION

5

II. ADMINISTRATIVE DATA 

Location of the Site 

The Counting House is situated along the north edge of the Eastern 

Canal, at the east side of the John Street bridge that serves the Boott 

Mill complex. Mill 6 abuts the building directly to the east. To the 

north of the building lies the Boott mill-yard. Mill 6 is also located 

along the north edge of the Eastern Canal. It abuts the 2-story 

Counting House to the west, is bounded by Bridge Street on the 

west and faces the Boott millyard on its north. Mill 6 is connected 

to Mill 7 on the north via a five story masonry connector. The street 

address for the building is 115 John Street, Lowell MA.

Photo A.1. Aerial view of the Boott Mill Complex, 2016

Source: www.bing.com
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.1 INTRODUCTION

6

National Register of Historic Places Information

The Counting House and Mill 6 are part of the following NRHP 

documentation---LOW.C: Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District, 

1976 (NHL 1977) that includes the Boott Penstock and Mill Yard; 

LOW.BC: Lowell National Historical Park, National Register District, 

1978 (Documented 1985), which lists Boott Mill #6 and Boott Mill 

Counting House as Contributing Resources; LOW.1526: Boott Cotton 

Mills Mill #6. Cultural Resource Inventory Form, 1985; LOW.1517: 

Boott Cotton Mills Counting House. Cultural Resource Inventory Form, 

1985; and LOW.BG: Boott Cotton Mills, Cultural Resource Inventory 

Form, 1970, 2005. 


chapter 1.2 1984 HSR

Historic Structure Report- History Portion

Building 6; 

The Counting House;

The Adjacent Courtyard;

and the Facades of Buildings 1 and 2

work directive no. 3-0011-84-02

basic agreement no. CX-2000-3-0011

by

Laurence F. Gross, Ph.D.

Russell A. Wright, AIA

for the

Denver Service Center

National Park Service

HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.2 1984 HSR HISTORY PORTION

11

Acknowledgments 

The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution by Betsy Bahr 

of material informing the sections on the development of factory 

interiors, particularly as regards heating, ventilating, lighting, 

and fire- protection systems. We are also grateful for the research 

assistance of David Zarowin and Martha Mayo. Without the 

cataloging of the Flather Collection done under the direction of 

R. Nicholas Oldsberg, that valuable resource could not have been 

utilized. 

Statement of Significance 

Building No. 6, the Counting House, facades of Mills No. 1 and No. 

2, and the Courtyard of the Boott Cotton Mills-Boott Mills complex 

represent significant examples of the thinking of the developers 

of the large- scale New England textile industry at the time of its 

establishment and throughout its life, the manner of their operation 

of the mills, and the experiences of the workers in them. Furthermore, 

mills such as these served as models for textile factory development 

and patterns of industrial development generally for enterprises 

throughout the country. Building No. 6 stands as an example of 

mid-nineteenth century cotton mill construction, revealing, in its 

strengths and weaknesses, a particular approach to the developing 

industrial capitalism of the time. In the conservatism of its 

original design, its comparatively slight modifications over time, 

and its consistently poor working conditions and climate control 

capabilities, it reveals a great deal about the priorities of the owners, 

the constraints placed upon its managers, the degree of interest or 

faith in its continuing profitability. lt also stands as an instructive 

example of the working conditions faced by those who staffed its 

operations. The Counting House represents one of only two such 

survivals in Lowell. The nerve- center of the entire operation of the 

Boott, it connects all aspects of the mill’s history. It also indicates 

the comparative scale of production and of management at the 

site. The facades of Mills No. 1 and No. 2, with their connector, 

document the evolution of the early Lowell mills. They indicate 

the size and free-standing nature of the earlier generations of mills. 

The connector presents the fulfillment of original intentions, and 

the fifth floor reflects a final phase of development, the replacement 

of gable roof s with a full story. The Court Yard demonstrates the 

importance of open space in the original organizational pattern of 

1.2 1984 HSR: History Portion - Building 6, The Counting 

House, The Adjacent Courtyard, and the Facades of 

Building 1 and 2
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.2 1984 HSR HISTORY PORTION

12

the Boott Cotton Mills, the arrangement of the early mills in long 

rows, separated by continuous open spaces to provide natural light 

and ventilation. Later structures further closed in the area and 

limited access to the John Street entrance. The space itself remains 

intact, although constricted, and continues to play an important 

role in the mill’s appearance and activity. All these factors work 

together to present the various elements involved in the operation 

of a typical Lowell cotton mill, an example to the nation in the 

nineteenth century, a fruitful object for study for those who seek 

lessons in the past in the twentieth. Preface 

This Historic Structures Report [HSR] has been prepared by 

Laurence Gross and Russell Wright in conjunction with Earl R. 

Flansburgh and Associates, Inc. While the several participants have 

worked closely together, the sections dealing with Occupation and 

Use, by Gross, and Structures, by Wright, stand separately within 

the body of the HSR. 

In the course of discussion over the approach to be taken in this 

HSR, agreement was reached that it would be very site-specific, 

avoiding the large body of information on the cotton textile industry 

and Lowell in general. Furthermore, inclusion of interpretive 

information on the use and occupation of the site, including such 

things as wages and labor- management relations, was mutually 

agreed to by all parties. 

The report follows a set chronological organization which divides 

the history at 1870, 1904, and 1930. The period to 1870 saw the 

establishment of powered textile production in this country, the 

founding of Lowell, and the incorporation of the Boott Cotton Mills. 

The company erected its first buildings and began operations. This 

period, called by some the “Golden Age” of Lowell’s history, has 

received by far the most study of any part of that city’s history. In 

fact, the general perception of the city in the history of the United 

States relates to the events of this time. For some of the corporations 

rich records survive from these early days, but such is not the case 

for the Boott. 

The period 1870-1904 begins with the building of Mill No. 6, the 

centerpiece of this report, and ends with the failure of the Boott 

Cotton Mills. The new mill was part of the great expansionist boom 

in the industry following the Civil War. Its history established 

patterns of operation which persist in the story, particularly in the 

area of reinvestment, or rather the lack thereof. It was also the era 

which witnessed the onset of serious conflict between North and 

South over cotton production, the advent of non-Yankee domination 

of the workforce, the invention of new automatic machinery, and 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.2 1984 HSR HISTORY PORTION

13

the eruption of violent fluctuations in the economy with profound 

effects of the mill’s operation. 

During this time the information on which to base a history of the 

Boott and its people begins to mushroom. Most significant, the 

data begins to become available at just the time where historical 

attention to Lowell has declined. Despite the interest in and 

treatments of early Lowell, the study of the city throughout most 

of its history has been slight. While collections of essays on the 

community treat particular events and themes in this period, and 

a very few analyses of the industry incorporate some of the city’s 

story through the early years of the twentieth century, historians 

have offered little study of cotton in Lowell from 1870-1 954. 

Fortuitously, the available information on the Boott coincides with 

those periods for which knowledge about the Lowell industry’s 

situation is least studied, least known. In the period 1870- 1904 such 

information begins to appear, and particularly for those areas little 

treated: labor, machinery, and local management. 

This Report’s next section, 1904-1930, marks the takeover of the 

buildings by new owners and management at its outset. It offers 

a record of unparalleled completeness, including a wealth of 

information from outside evaluators of the mill’s ever y aspect, 

enabling the historian to observe the information flow to the owners 

and management, as well as their responses. The impact of World 

War I, the coming of the Depression, and the shift of leadership 

expertise from cotton production to business management 

dominate this era. 

The final section of the cotton mill story, 1931-1954, enters a period 

of stark conflicts. Operation within the confines of a decision not to 

reinvest in the North, the impact of two wars, and the struggle over 

unionization combine with the ever- growing spectre of southern 

competition to create a time of desperation and disagreement. Still, 

the efforts of all parties to these disputes present a more clear and 

specific account of the time leading up to the mill’s closing than has 

received scholarly treatment previously. The quality of this record 

insures that the discussion of the fate of the Boott Mills represents a 

story of enduring importance. 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.2 1984 HSR HISTORY PORTION

14

I. INTRODUCTION A. Development Of T

heAmerican 

TextileIndustry 

One often hears about the important role played by textile 

manufacturers in blazing the trail toward mechanical production 

as a machine/industrial economy came to replace the domestic 

economy of the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth 

centuries. Yet, while industrialization brought impressive changes 

in the material environment during the past 200 years, those changes 

have also meant a fundamental reorientation in people’s lives: a 

reorientation in their relationship to each other and in their roles in 

the country’s economy. The development of industrial capitalism 

in the United States during the nineteenth century represented a 

more profound event than the resultant availability of inexpensive 

cloth. But the nature and extent of these social changes, the drastic 

alteration of human relations that accompanied industrialization, 

have attracted less attention from scholars. 

To some extent this avoidance is understandable. Living in an 

industrial society, it is difficult to appreciate the extent of the social 

changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, changes 

which continued throughout the nineteenth century. One views 

this industrial society from within, without a familiar benchmark 

with which to judge the changes it imposed. Its tenents and 

presuppositions dominate the outlook and conceal the magnitude 

of their novelty, the “otherness” of what existed previously. 

But it is important to recognize that the decisions of entrepreneurs, 

decisions regarding the form and organization of the new factoryproduction technology, entailed tremendous social changes as 

well. These decisions represented issues of vital interest to the 

American people of the colonial and early national periods and the 

changes come through clearly in early documents relating to textile 

production. 

Thus the textile industry not only played a major role in the colonial 

economy and set patterns for industrial development nationally. 

Its history also reveals the patterns of social change that would 

eventually create a new society. 

The earliest settlers, alone amidst a cold and fearsome wilderness, 

recognized clothes for protection and sails to power transportation 

as essential to the survival not just of the individual, but of the 

community. The colonists saw their lack of the necessary tools, 

skills, and raw materials as, first, a dangerous weakness, and later, 

as a source of an unwelcome dependency on England. 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.2 1984 HSR HISTORY PORTION

15

The English were equally conscious of the significance of the 

capability to produce these vital materials and erected every 

obstacle to a domestic textile manufacture: embargoes on the 

emigration of skilled labor from England and on the exportation 

of sheep, machinery, plans, or models, all eventually raised to its 

logical conclusion by the blockade of colonial ports during the 

Revolution. 

The colonists’ awareness of their dependent position and its 

consequences appears throughout their records. In 1645 the General 

Court of Massachusetts ruled: 

“Forasmuch as wollen cloth is so useful a commodity without 

which we cannot so comfortably subsist in these parts, by reason 

of the cold winters, it being also, at present, very scarce and deare 

amongst us, and likely shortly to be so in parts from whence we 

can expect it, by reason of ye wars in Europe destroying in a great 

measure the flocks of sheepe amongst them, and also ye trade and 

means it selfe of making woolen cloaths and stuffs, by ye killing and 

other wise hindering of such persons, whose skill and labor tended 

to that end; and whereas, through the want of woolen cloaths and 

stuffs, many pore people have suffered much could and hardship...” 

They therefore urged the towns to encourage the importation and 

keeping of as many sheep as possible. 1

 Service to and perpetuation 

of the settlement, not individual profit, were their goals, and they 

trusted to God for their success in this righteous cause. 

But encouragement of keeping sheep could not by itself solve the 

colony’s problem, so two decades later the General Court again 

moved to proclaim and protect the community interest: 

“1. This Court, taking into consideration the present straight and 

necessities that ly upon this country in respect of clothing, which 

is not like to be so plentifully supplyed from foreign parts as in 

times past, & not knowing any better way and means, condusable 

to our subsistence, than the improving of as many hands as may 

be in spinning woole, cotton, flax, etc.; --It is therefore ordered by 

this Court & the authority thereof, that all hands, not necessarily 

employed on other occasions, as women, girls, & boys, shall be, 

& hereby are, enjoyned to spin according to their skill & ability, 

and that the Selectmen in every towne do consider the condition 

& capacity of every family, & accordingly to assess them at one or 

more spinners. 

2. That every one, thus assessed for a whole spinner, do after this 

present year, 1656, spin for thirty weeks every year three pounds per 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.2 1984 HSR HISTORY PORTION

16

week of lining, cotton, or wooling, and so, proportionably, for one 

half or one quarter spinners, under the penalty of twelve shillings 

for every pound short, and the Selectmen shall take special care for 

the execution of this order. “ 2 

These injunctions may have served a secondary purpose, in that 

they worked to prevent those idle hands for which the devil was 

said to make work, but the communal need clearly represented the 

overriding motivation. 

Another avenue directed to the same end can be seen in the account 

of the coming of a weaver to a Massachusetts town: 

In 1656, William How was admitted as an inhabitant of Chelmsford, 

Mass., a part of which town was incorporated one hundred and 

seventy years later, receiving the name of Lowell. Twelve acres of 

meadow and twelve acres of upland were allotted to him “provided 

he set up his trade of weaving, and perform the town’s work.” 3

These three events make clear the philosophy which led to the 

identification of the State as a “Commonwealth,” an entity devoted 

to the general welfare of its inhabitants, one in which production 

had to serve communal needs first, and an individual’s purposes 

only as they could be accommodated. 

The colonials’ program of required production, bounties, penalties, 

free training, and facilities served not only to lay the groundwork for 

s elf-sufficiency but also contributed to the economic independence 

ultimately needed to make the success of the political revolution 

meaningful. Furthermore, insofar as the settlers were drawn 

together from their isolated farmsteads to assist one another in 

various aspects of the textile process, whether at sheep shearings, 

spinning bees, or at other such tasks, they served an important 

socializing function for the otherwise separated families, as well as 

furthering the common purposes of self- preservation. Motivated 

by necessity, the desire for independence, and an underlying 

dedication to the general welfare, the colonists produced increasing 

quantities of material for clothes, furnishing fabrics, and sails. 

Also a result of this economy which required productivity from 

all able hands was a social structure with little poverty and 

comparatively little economic stratification. Devotion to the 

Commonwealth left litt le opportunity for the accumulation of 

wealth from either one’s own labor or from that of others. Meeting 

society’s pressing needs and serving its shared goals generally 

precluded the amassing of great riches at the expense of one’s 

fellow citizens. 
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The earliest of what would become the elements of industrial 

production, non- human- powered machinery, appeared in 

Massachusetts in the seventeenth century. Water wheels in fulling 

mills captured the force of falling water and used it to lift heavy 

wooden hammers which, falling on wet woolen cloth in a box 

beneath, pounded the fibers and caused them to mat together, or felt, 

greatly increasing the material’s strength and warmth. Thus those 

producing cloth were spared one of the tasks previously required 

to finish it. People welcomed and encouraged this assistance. 

Towns (e.g. Andover, Massachusetts in 1673 and in 1682) provided 

land and waterpower privileges, which they controlled, in order to 

insure the availability of this useful service. 

4

 The manner in which 

cloth was produced did not change appreciably, however. The 

social r ole of the fulling mills and their relationship to the larger 

economy were of a piece with their time. Their historical connection 

to factory production is primarily technological for they were 

simply absorbed into the existing social and economic structure. 

The operators of saw- and grist-mills received similar 

encouragement; they were given grants of land or timber or other 

inducements to assure the local community the benefits of these 

mechanical innovations. In each case, the water powered mills 

were grafted onto local economies which remained essentially 

unaltered. They permitted the production of increased amounts 

of materials, thus enabling the people to make use of more cloth, 

flour, or boards. These “labor- saving” devices did not reduce the 

amount of labor to be done but simply shifted the composition of 

daily labor. Labor changed, for example from grinding wheat to 

producing and transporting more grain and flour, from hewing 

timber to transporting logs and building with more lumber, and 

from finishing cloth to tending more sheep, to spinning, carding, 

and weaving more material.

5

Throughout this period, people worked hard, as they always 

had and as they expected to do, but the rhythm of work was preindustrial. Work schedules were determined by many things: 

weather, seasons, and pressing needs. Schedules were interrupted 

by innumerable events, whether visitors, pedlars, holidays, 

or simply the unplanned occurrences of any household’s day. 

Work varied daily, from tending animals and crops to preparing 

food, repairing utensils, or producing goods to provide directly 

or through barter for family needs; and it varied seasonally, as 

nature’s cycles dictated. Periods of intense activity and labor were 

interspersed with times of rest and entertainment. Drinking was 

pervasive, as were numerous other common entertainments. 

After the Revolutionary period, the pattern began to change. The 

spinning jenny, water- frame, and power loom initiated quantum 

leaps in the quantities of yarn and cloth which people could produce. 

Emerging technologies differed in style, as between the jenny (and 
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its successor, the mule) and the water-frame : both multiple-spindle 

spinning machines, but the former hand-controlled with strength 

and skill, the latter run with little skill but producing poorer yarn 

from equal stock. 

These machines did not impose systems of productions, but 

offered new implements for accomplishing old ends. Which would 

be developed and how they would be organized remained to be 

determined. 

B. Advent of Industrial Capitalism

In the United States Samuel Slater first succeeded with powered 

yarn production in 1791 (Figure 1). By that time, successful meant 

profitable for the investors, the owners of the machines and 

building. 

The break with the earlier system of production was not complete: 

Slater himself worked in the mill with his employees (mainly 

children) and their product was woven on hand looms, often by the 

parents of the young workers. This “putting- out system” utilized 

early production methods, then, but still made great changes. 

Weavers no longer determined their product; they might even 

work together in a factory, in which case they would be subject to 

the owner’s schedule and oversight. Things were changing (and 

objections were raised), but patterns of the developing system were 

obscured by the small scale, the mixed modes of production, and the 

direct involvement of the owners, in many cases, in the production 

process. Still, production was now capitalist, individualistic, not 

communally/socially motivated or controlled. 

The developments at Waltham, Massachusetts, represent the 

fulfillment of the promise of Slater’s Mill. In 1810 Francis Cabot 

Lowell visited England for his health. As a New England trader 

of some importance, he was warmly welcomed by British 

manufacturers. Since they saw him as a merchant rather than as a 

competitor, they allowed him to visit their factories and examine 

their machinery and observe their system of organization. 

Upon his return to the States, he hired an exceptional machinebuilder, Paul Moody, and together they contrived to reproduce 

the power looms Lowell had seen. Lowell and his friends, looking 

for a way to profit further from the money they had accumulated 

in shipping (a trade made less attractive by England’s dominance 

of the seas and Congress’ closing of United States ports in the 

War of 1812), formed the Boston Manufacturing Company 

[BMC] and built the first integrated textile factor y in the world 

in Waltham. Raw cotton went i n one end and cloth came out the 
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Figure 1. Conjectural drawing of Almy, Brown and Slater's Mill, 1793

Source: Slater Mill Collections

other, with all processes performed by machines. The BMC, a 

joint-stock company, was itself a novel business organization for 

this country. The investors, located in Boston, not Waltham, and 

adept at financial manipulation, not cotton production, viewed 

the project as an opportunity to make money, not simply to serve 

the Commonwealth’s needs. They repeated the pattern that had 

worked for Slater, duplicating English factory organization to create 

a profitable enterprise. Even more than in the earlier instance, the 

system, as well as the implements, made the corporation a success. 

Their effort provides a good example of the Industrial Revolution. 

The headings in their ledger book indicated their task: Land and 

Water Power, Buildings, Machinery, Labor, and Administrative 

Supervision. In the words of George Sweet Gibb, “How successfully 

these factors could be combined by unpractised men to turn out an 

unfamiliar product on equipment not yet invented was far from 

clear.” 

6

 In a factory to be peopled with workers not yet present or 

trained, he might have added. But in any case, as the ledger shows, 

labor represented simply another commodity in this scheme. 
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Waltham worked. They reinvented the power loom, improved 

other machines, and devised “stop- motions” to halt machines 

automatically when they malfunctioned and required attention. 

Every aspect of cloth production was to be reduced to its simplest 

elements, and each worker to attend just one such element. Every 

development aimed at reducing the amount of skill required of the 

operatives. Indicative of the intent of the BMC, the chosen style of 

production utilized the water- frame rather than the mule. Labor 

was not to intrude through skill to interfere with investors’ control. 

Thirty miles of cloth per day flowed from the mill. As cloth spewed 

forth, profits poured into the investors’ coffers. The factory was 

repeatedly enlarged and soon the power available from the Charles 

River could support no more expansion. C. Development of Lowell

The same small group of mercantilist- investors looked for a suitable 

site for further development. Paul Moody “found” the Pawtucket 

Falls of the Merrimack River in East Chelmsford (Figure 2). Here, in 

the same community that years before had given land to a weaver 

in order to assure itself the availability of his skill, was a thirty- foot 

drop in the mighty Merrimack River, enough power for ninety or 

more mills the size of Waltham’s. Despite the presence of farmers 

and a few small mills on nearby streams or utilizing a bit of the 

river’s power with wing- dams, no one recognized the value of the 

falls to investors: “So unconscious was America of the value of its 

water power that Jackson with very little difficulty succeeded in 

acquiring a majority of the stock of the Locks and Canals Company 

and title to the key farmlands.”

7

 Land purchased for $20 an acre 

was valued at $4300 a year later, in 1821. A natural resource of 

great potential for the entire society was sold and monopolized 

for the benefit of a select few, indicating the identity between the 

capitalists’ economic outlook and the state’s political stance. 

The effect on labor was enormous. No factory labor force stood 

ready to provide the essential human element to the Waltham/

Lowell mills. Furthermore, the bad press of English textile factories, 

the “dark Satanic mills” of the romantic poets, had prejudiced the 

Yankees against the idea of factory work. 

But the BMC began with a plan. Rather than pay high wages, 

sufficient to draw employed males away from their occupations, 

they would attempt to attract an unskilled female labor force, for 

whom the only widely available occupation paying cash wages was 

domestic service, a subservient position none too popular among 

the young women of rural New England. Farm life had taught 
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Figure 2. "Pawtucket Farms", 1821, that part of the town of Chelmsford that would become Lowell

Source: Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP), Museum Collections LOWE 3946
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them to work and not to fear it. If they would come, they could do 

the job. 

Andrew Ure described the crux of the problem facing the early 

industrialists in 1835, when he wrote: 

The main difficulty did not, to my apprehension, lie so much in the 

invention of a proper self-acting mechanism for drawing out and twisting 

cotton into a continuous thread, as in the distribution of the different 

members of the apparatus into one co- operative body, in impelling each 

organ with its appropriate delicacy and speed, and above all, in training 

human beings to renounce their desultory habits of work, and to identify 

themselves with the unvarying regularity of the complex automaton. To 

devise and administer a successful code of factory discipline, suited to the 

necessities of factory diligence, was the Herculean enterprise, the noble 

achievement of Arkwright. Even at the present day, when the system is 

perfectly organized, and its labour lightened to the utmost, it is found 

nearly impossible to convert persons past the age of puberty, whether drawn 

from rural or from handicraft occupations, into useful factory hands. After 

struggling for a while to conquer their listless or restive habits, they either 

renounce the employment spontaneously, or are dismissed by the over 

lookers on account of inattention.

8

Women were not only the cheapest available workers, they might 

also accept the new discipline with less of the resistance born of 

craft traditions anticipated from men. In any case, new attitudes 

were to govern human relations, and only the establishment of a 

new work discipline could answer the owners’ needs. Their task 

was two-fold: to attract the workers and to teach them a new 

way of work, a new way of life. Their responses to the two needs 

dovetailed, with many measures serving both ends. 

To attract their female workforce, by appealing to them with cash 

wages, escape from rural farms, or whatever other unknown motives 

combined to draw them to this truly “new world,” and by nullifying 

the fears excited in them and their parents by ideas of immoral 

English factories, and once attracted, to extract the maximum 

value from their labor, the owners developed a system to control 

them, to supervise their every waking hour. Boardinghouses with 

matrons were provided, and their cost deducted from the meager 

wages (some $3 per week, a fraction of that paid men). They built a 

church, Episcopal, like the resident agent (and unlike the workers), 

and required attendance and support. Gradually stores, a library, 

schools, and eventually a hospital were added. Since they located 

in a sparsely settled region, they were able to create a complete 

social matrix to serve their interest: profit. 

The Boott Cotton Mills was founded in 1835 by John Amory Lowell, 

Abbott Lawrence, Nathan Appleton and other Boston investors. 
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The owners of the mills named them in honor of Kirk Boott (Figure 

3), the man they had selected to carry out the establishment of 

cotton manufacture in Lowell from the buying of the land to 

the supervision of the construction and operation of the first 

corporation, the Merrimack. American-born, English- educated 

(Rugby, Sandhurst), he served under Wellington in the Peninsular 

Campaign before returning to the States. His very conservative, 

heirarchical disposition is reflected in his planning of Lowell and is 

commented upon by nearly every historian. 

The first church in Lowell, Queen Anne’s, was named for his wife, 

made Episcopal, his religion, and supported by the employees. He 

consistently represented the owners’ narrow interests, opposing 

support of local schools, Jacksonianism, or any other measures 

which could impinge on profits. Words such as imperious, aloof, 

and domineering are generally associated with both his character 

and his outlook on society. 

Boott’s house had to be relocated in order that the Boott Cotton 

Mills could occupy the spot. Boott died in 1837. 

While the various corporations at Lowell served the same small 

group of capitalists, the cooperation could not completely eliminate 

competition, however slight. In May, 1836 a writer complained to 

Amos Lawrence that while at present “water, girls, and men [are] 

plenty,” these conditions would continue only until “about July 

and August, when the demand for girls to supply the Boott Mills 

will probably sensibly affect us.”9

Figure 3. Kirk Boott, 1790-1837. Portrait by Chester 

Harding

Source: LNHP, Library Collections, Illustrated 

History of Lowell and Vicinity, Courier- Citizen 

Company, Lowell, Mass., 1897. P. 228
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D. Position of Labor

Labor represented a major factor in the BMC plans, as the ledger 

heading underlined. They dealt with it as rationally, and as 

dispassionately, as they did with any other factor in their equations. 

The City of Lowell reflected not a utopian humanitarian effort but 

the operation of economic calculations. Nathan Appleton wrote that 

company housing “secures an excellent class of work[ing] people 

which tells materially in the prosperity of the company.”10 He saw 

the entire organization as an entity, not a scene of human endeavor: 

“We are building a large machine I hope at Chelmsford.”11 Factory, 

housing, all was a construct of and for the BMC, whose interests it 

was designed to serve. 

Henry Miles, a primary defender of and apologist for the Boston 

investors, extended the logic to justify complete control: 

The productiveness of these works depends upon one primary and 

indispensable condition-- the existence of an industrious, sober, 

orderly, and moral class of operatives. Without this, the mills in 

Lowell would be worthless. Profits would be absorbed by cases of 

irregularity, carelessness, and neglect; while the existence of any 

great moral exposure in Lowell would cut off the supply of help 

from the virtuous homesteads of the country. Public morals and 

private interests, identical in all places, are here seen to be linked 

together in an indissoluble connection. Accordingly, the sagacity of 

self- interest, as well as more disinterested considerations, has led to 

the adoption of a strict system of moral police. 12

Miles’ justification for this pervasive social control indicates the, 

at best, lack of respect (at worst, contempt), for the workers on 

the part of management. The superiority of that class is evident in 

its ability to define and regulate both “public morals and private 

interests” in its own interest. They assumed that these people who 

had survived for generations would suddenly develop habits of 

“irregularity, carelessness, and neglect.” They proclaimed that 

for them to require 24-hour control of “private morals,” necessary 

to make individuals part of Ure’s “complex automaton,” simply 

served “public interest.” Despite their intense interest in the 

outcome, their struggle to maximize profit, they alone retained the 

objectivity to define how most of the population could best serve 

“public” interest by adopting a new way of life which concentrated 

wealth in the hands of a few owners. 

A Lowell mill-owner could be frank about the utility of providing 

schooling for his employees: 

“I have found the best educated to be the most profitable help; even 
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those females who merely tend machinery give a result somewhat in 

proportion to the advantage enjoyed in early life for education; those 

who have had a good common school education giving as a class 

invariably, a better production than those brought up in ignorance. 

I have uniformly found the better educated as a class possessing a 

higher and better state of morals, more orderly and respectful in 

their deportment, and more ready to comply with the wholesome and 

necessary regulations of the establishment. And in times of agitation 

on account of some changes in regulations or wages, I have always 

looked to the most intelligent, best educated and the most moral for 

support, and have seldom been disappointed. For while they are the 

last to submit to imposition, they reason; and if your requirements 

are reasonable, they will generally acquiesce, and exert a salutary 

influence upon their associates; but the ignorant and uneducated 

I have generally found the most turbulent and troublsome, acting 

under the impulse of excited passion and jealousy.”13

Once the enterprise of textile production lost its basic purpose of 

fulfilling society’s needs and became first and foremost a source 

of profit for a few, it required new techniques and motivations to 

inspire the workers to perform the owners’ tasks. Educating the 

workers to a supposed identity of goals, a context for “reason,” 

helped predispose them to accept a discipline serving capitalists’ 

interests, as this owner recognized. 

The workers were seen by the owners not as people like themselves, 

but as a commodity to be managed. Workers who felt that Yankee 

managers would see them as fellow New Englanders were naive. 

They were not even seen as a permanent workforce, for the intention 

was to keep them working for only a few years, after which it was 

presumed they would return home, or at least leave, part of a 

constant self-renewing pool of inexperienced, docile, unorganized 

labor. In fact, Miles realized the potential danger of a workforce of 

local residents who might come to object to their treatment: 

Employing chiefly those who have no permanent residence in 

Lowell, but are only temporary boarders, upon any embarrassment 

of affairs they return to their country homes, and do not sink 

down here a helpless caste, clamouring for work, starving unless 

employed, and hence ready for a riot, for the destruction of property, 

and repeating here the scenes enacted in the manufacturing villages 

of England. To a very great degree the future condition of Lowell 

is dependent upon a faithful adhesion to this system; and it will 

deserve the serious consideration of those old towns which are now 

introducing steam mills, whether, if they do not provide boardinghouses, and employ chiefly other operatives than resident ones, they 

be not bringing in the seeds of future and alarming evil. 14
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Miles admits there exists no identity of interests between owners 

and workers. He only hopes to avoid English-style disruptions by 

employees who recognize their exploitation at the hands of the 

investors. The distance between the two groups is made evident 

by the degree of paternalism, so thorough that it left no significant 

decisions, day or night, to the workers. 

The similarity in status of cotton mill labor to the equipment was 

made plain by two mill owners cited by Henry K. Oliver in his 

report to the Massachusetts State Senate: 

In 1855, when visiting the various establishments there [Fall 

River], I inquired of the agent of a principal factory, whether it was 

the custom of the manufacturers to do anything for the physical, 

intellectual or moral welfare of their work-people. The reply was so 

surprising that it took firm root in my memory: “We never do,” he 

said, “and as for myself, I regard my work- people just as I regard 

my machinery. So long as they can do my work for what I choose to 

pay them, I keep them getting out of them all I can. What they do, or 

how they fare, outside of my walls, I don’t know, nor do I consider 

it my business to know. They must look out for themselves, as I do 

for myself. When my machines get old and useless, I reject them 

and get new, and these people are part of my machinery.” Akin to 

this was the reply of an agent at Holyoke to another official who 

visited his mill. He affirmed that he used his millhands as he would 

use his horse: as long as he is in good condition and renders good 

service, he treats him well; when not, he gets rid of him as soon 

as possible, and what becomes of him is no affair of his. He said 

that having noticed that the hands manifested some languor in the 

early part of the day on account of rather spare breakfasts, he tried 

the experiment of working them without any, and so secured an 

additional three thousand yards a week, and only discontinued the 

plan from the opposition of the other mills and the landlords. His 

operatives were mostly of the lowest class, and among them were 

130 children under fifteen years of age, many of whom had never 

attended school.15

Given such assessments, the owners’ realization of the truth 

of Ure’s charge, that shaping labor to the new factory system 

represented their foremost task, becomes clear. They utilized every 

avenue, every institution, to mold a new workforce amenable to 

the needs of capital. These owners reveal their use of paternalism 

simply to further their own end: they control the workers’ lives, 

whether breakfast or schooling, but they deny any concomitant 

responsibility for their fate. The distance from this situation to that 

of the “commonwealth” approaches the immeasurable. 
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E. Nature ofWork

The other major aspect of this great revolution was the change in the 

nature of the work itself. For the first time in history, people worked 

at a pace set relentlessly by machines. Spools whirled or lays beat, 

and someone had to tend the spinning frames or looms constantly, 

without let up. Work, furthermore, was part of the larger system Ure 

described, and labor had to move at the pace the factory dictated. 

There existed no separation between these people and the machines, 

which in combination produced profit for the owners. Instead of 

the confines and labor of the farm, the requirements of social needs, 

a system dominated by the requirements of capital shaped work 

and life itself. Machinery and buildings were expensive; their pace 

controlled life within the factory where profit reigned. People had 

to learn a new way of life. A degree of freedom previously available 

to all people was lost to most. And it was not simply a question of 

pace. As noted, these workers were accustomed to intense labor. 

But now labor was changed in every significant way. 

After the Industrial Revolution, powered machinery was used to 

strip workers of the craft pride and sense of accomplishment which 

had been theirs when they produced something through their own 

efforts, despite the labor and tedium involved. The workers’ sense 

of accomplishment was further reduced by the specialization of 

the factory system as devised by the BMC and its followers. Each 

part of the production process was broken down into smaller and 

smaller segments, each of which required less and less skill, and 

no one of which could be said to produce a finished product. This 

careful and extreme division of labor freed the owners from the need 

for skilled operatives (whether handweavers or mulespinners), 

permitted them to utilize a short- term workforce, and minimized 

the opportunity for labor to “interfere with” or exert and have 

control over, the boss’ system (and their own lives). 

The intention, and result, was to develop “labor-cheapening” 

machinery, capital- saving, not labor-saving. The investors devised 

every aspect of their factory system to minimize the workers’ 

role (skill, independence, responsibility, creativity) and cost. 

They produced coarse cloth, such as mattress-ticking, for which 

their comparatively crude machinery was suited. Similarly, they 

avoided woolens. Thus they escaped the need for skilled help (e. 

g. mulespinners, finishers, etc.) required for fine goods and wool 

cloth. 

Instead, they segregated tasks until they could be learned quickly, 

diminishing drastically the ability of their employees to bargain 

over wages or conditions, or to affect production. The machinetenders were to be easily replaceable. 
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The emphasis on stop-motions exemplifies this intent. These 

mechanical devices stopped a machine in the case of malfunction, 

just as an operator would. By using the stop- motion, however, 

the owner reduced the employee’s responsibility and skill, and 

therefore his/her role in and potential control over production. 

An individual then could tend more machines and be more easily 

replaced, a perfect combination. 

As time went on, hours of work increased, the number of machines 

tended went up (the stretch- out) as did their operating speed (the 

speed-up), while the piece-rate, and real pay, went down. Owner 

motivation received further expression when in the late 1840s 

and 1850s the onslaught of famine in Ireland provided ample 

supplies of labor lacking even the alternative of return to a farm. 

The speed-up and stretch-out continued to be the order of the day. 

Boardinghouses and other amenities were gradually abandoned. 

Now economic necessity made efforts to attract labor superfluous. 

The system’s nature was still more clearly revealed. F. Fruits of Development

The developments described were a great success for their owners, 

reaping immense profits; and not made without opposition. In 

connect ion with the first point, it is worth noting that Lowell became 

the model for a whole series of similarly planned cities: Lawrence, 

Holyoke, Springfield, and Chicopee Falls, in Massachusetts; 

Manchester and Nashua in New Hampshire; Biddeford and 

Lewiston in Maine, et cetera. The system worked. Corporate 

planners came from all over the country to study the model. 

And the model was simple. The BMC investors’ operations were 

based on high capital investment; large mills with integrated 

processes; simple materials for which there were wide markets and 

which could be produced with minimal skills; absentee ownership; 

and local social control. They were prepared to change the face of 

civilization, to “improve” it. And change it they did. People now 

view the world from the perspective they established. 

The profits from Lowell and the other cities enabled them to alter 

the course not only of local industrial history, but also of national 

development, through the many-faceted enterprises they controlled 

from 1815-1860: textiles, railroads, insurance companies, banks and 

more, giving them dominance of the New England economy and 

influence in Pennsylvania, New York, and the mid- west through 

banks and railroads and through the example of their success. 

This closed club of large investors enjoyed political power as 

well, serving on the state and national level and supporting other 

candidates, such as Daniel Webster, willing to adopt their views. 
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Given legislative monopolies for railroads, creating them in textiles 

by founding series of companies with non-competing products, and 

near monopolies in other areas, they became millionaires. Edward 

Everett, a friend, wrote in 1863: “Without the aid of William and 

Nathan Appleton and Abbott Lawrence, no new venture could be 

launched in New England.“ 16 Nathan Appleton alone was involved 

in thirty-one textile companies. 

What had begun as an esoteric novelty developed into a political 

and social experiment in management and control without parallel. 

Gibb, the business historian, in 1950 compared the new system to 

an older one: “This was a pattern of feudalism in which the mill was 

the castle and the agent was the bailiff. Some would have said that, 

on the one day in the week when he visited the mill, the treasurer 

was the Lord High Executioner. The position of the unskilled or 

semi-skilled laborer in Lowell was one of considerable economic 

and social subservience.“ 17

Work rules imposed the owners’ idea of order on the job, forbidding 

merriment, reading, singing, drinking, meetings, leaving work, 

gambling, in other words, all the things people had traditionally 

assumed as part of their daily life and work, and all these things that 

people assumed they were competent to consider for themselves.18

This type of control even aimed at controlling intelligence, whether 

of the textile process beyond the assigned tasks, or of a machinist’s 

invention, which as early as 1820 was assigned to the company by 

contract. Capital’s monopolization of the intelligence of and the 

control over production, along with the diminished autonomy and 

cost of labor, equalled maximum surplus labor value, and therefore 

profit. 

Opposition was continuous, and occurred on every level of society. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, for one, saw something amiss in the BMC’s 

plans to enlarge the power system for Lowell: 

An American in this ardent climate gets up early some morning 

and buys a river; and advertises for 12 or 1500 Irishmen; digs a 

new channel for it, brings it to his mills, and has a head of 24 feet 

of water: then, to give him an appetite for his breakfast, he raises a 

house; then carves out within doors a quarter township into streets 

& building lots, school, tavern, & methodist meeting house -- sends 

up an engineer into New Hampshire, to see where his water comes 

from &, after advising with him sends a trusty man of business to 

buy of all the farmers such mill privileges as will serve him among 

their waste hill & pasture lots and comes home with great glee 

announcing that he is now owner of the great Lake Winnipiseosce, 

as reservoir for his Lowell mills at Midsummer. 19
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Emerson plainly resented the arrogance that believes the rich can 

possess nature and its resources. The Indian-named lake represents 

the communal resource of earlier times, now made a millpond for 

Lowell. Emerson, used here to represent the widespread opposition 

to the development of industrial capitalism in “intellectual” (read 

“publishing” ) circles, continued his expression of disapproval of 

these capitalists: 

They are an ardent race and are as fully possessed with that hatred 

of labor, which is the principle of progress in the human race, as 

any other people. They must & will have the enjoyment without the 

sweat. So they buy slaves where the women will permit it; where 

they will not, they make the wind, the tide, the waterfall, the steam, 

the cloud, the lightning, do the work, by every art & device their 

cunningest brain can achieve.20

The resentment stems from the belief that some need not labor, 

that “progress” means their triumph, through purchasing natural 

resources or human labor. 

Workers protested in parallel terms. They rejected a system in which 

they could only participate by selling their labor-time, in which 

they gained no stake in the product of their exertion, as they always 

had previously, even under feudalism. They complained that they 

were enslaved, made “wage- slaves” by a system which reduced 

their position to that of automatons, undivided in treatment or role 

from the machines they tended, comparable to the chattel slaves of 

the South. 

The Lowell model represented the extreme extent of this 

development. Owners played no part in production, most workers 

had little skill and less responsibility. They not only worked as part 

of the factory’s mechanical system, but they gave up control of their 

life outside the factory gate as well. 

Claims of utopianism, idealism, of concern for the well-being of the 

workers contrast sharply with reality. In both Lowell and Lawrence 

Irish workers and their families lived in the most miserable shanty 

towns, even sod huts, and without public services. As the century 

“progressed,” immigrant worker housing in Lawrence, for example, 

was among the country’s worst. While many travelers admired the 

neat new cities and the clean air of water- powered industry, others 

noted the age, pallor, and sadness of the workers, recording that 

the “nuns of Lowell, instead of working sacred hearts, spin and 

weave cotton. “21 America’s 66 hours per week in 1870 exceeded 

England’s: the former “satanic mills” of Britain had had a 10-hour 

a day law since 1847. 
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Strikes hit these companies as early as 1820, and were continued 

despite the social disapprobation of such conduct by women. 

They knew how they were being used. Sarah Bagley, one of their 

leaders, noted that inmates in prison in Massachusetts worked two 

hours less per day than she, and had more opportunity to use the 

library than did Lowell workers. She observed to an incarcerated 

forger, “’You might have selected some game equally dishonest, 

that would... have made you looked up to as a man of wealth. 

You might have performed some ‘hocus-pocus’ means of robbery, 

without forgery, and passed as an Appleton, a Lawrence, or an 

Astor in society.’“22 But knowing a situation, protesting it, did not 

include the ability to alter it. 

Despite protests, these female workers had few alternatives. Only 

domestic service, seen as a subservient position, offered alternative 

employment at similar wages. Otherwise, the return to a failing 

farm economy which did not adequately support its participants 

awaited. Still, as dividends stayed high and wages were cut in 

order to pay for worn-out machinery, the Yankee women voted 

with their feet. The famines in Ireland provided their replacement. 

The basic pattern did not change. Strong and independent labor 

continued to be seen as the enemy and a low-skilled, transient, 

divided workforce the defense. Workers were purpose fully 

divided by sex, by nationality, by status. Profit came from the 

surplus product of labor, and by maximizing their dominance the 

Boston Associates maximized their profit at the expense of a way 

of life, of life itself for many. The death rate from respiratory illness 

among Massachusetts farmers in 1870 was 4%, among Lawrence 

workers, 70%! One mill had 1000 accidents in five years.23 In the 

words of Emerson, again, “’The ways of trade are grown selfish to 

the borders of theft, and supple to the borders (if not beyond the 

borders) of fraud.’”24

The response of one Lowell worker, Amelia Sargent, remains 

an unfulfilled prophecy : “’We will soon show these drivelling 

cotton lords, this mushroom aristocracy of New England, who 

so arrogantly aspire to lord it over God’s heritage, that our rights 

cannot be trampled upon with impunity. ‘”25 Perhaps Sargent erred 

when she said “soon,” but some later developments give cause to 

wonder if her expectations were unfounded. In fact, if the “we” 

in her statement meant Yankee women, her statement rings true, 

for they soon left Lowell’s mills. She simply had not anticipated 

the ease of their replacement after Ireland’s potato famines and 

ensuing international developments. 

What she recognized was the extent of the change she and her 

fellow workers endured. Massachusetts had moved far from a 

commonwealth of mutual responsibility and effort in which all 
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shared in both the product of labor and the deprivation of hard 

times. Now the ruling class concentrated its control while denying 

any responsibility. Products and decisions belonged to them. To 

labor went small wages for long hours. 

As noted at the outset, textiles helped set a pattern of industrial 

development for the United States. The pervasiveness of its 

patterns of organization can be seen in Frederick Taylor’s adoption 

of identical tenets as “Scientific Management.” The continuance of 

the pattern and the potential fulfillment of Sargent’s threat, appear 

in two situations: After 1900, northern states began to require 

employers to take some responsibility for the workers through 

the social welfare legislation associated with the Progressive 

Movement. The textile industry moved away, to the South, which 

lacked such an ideology and its onerous burdens. There they 

repeated the pattern of development that had worked before, but 

which they were unable to perpetuate in the North. 
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ENDNOTES 

1. William Bagnall, The Textile Industries of the United States (Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1893), 

pp. 6- 7. 

2. Ibid., pp. 7- 8. 

3. Ibid., p. 8. 

4. Sarah Loring Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover, p. 152. (1880; rpt. Cambridge: The Riverside 

Press, 1974)

5. See, for example, Raphael Samuel, “Workshop of the World: Steam Power and Hand Technology in 

mid- Victorian Britain, “ History Workshop Ill (Spring 1977), pp. 6-72. 

6. George Sweet Gibb, The Saco- Lowell Shops: Textile Machinery Building in New England, 1813- 

1949 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950), p. 23. 

7. Ibid., pp. 65- 66. 

8. Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures: or, An Exposition of the Scientific, Moral, and 

Commercial Economy of the Factory System of Great Britain (London: Charles Knight, 1835), pp. 15-

16. 

9. A. Luther Lawrence to Amos Lawrence, 7/18/36. Amos Lawrence Papers, MHS, Book 2 (67), Baker 

Library. 

10. Frances W. Gregory, Nathan Appleton, Merchant and Entrepreneur, 1779- 1861 (Charlottesville: 

University Press of Virginia, 1975), p. 191. 

11. Nathan Appleton, quoted in Thomas Bender, Toward an Urban Vision (Lexington: University 

Press of Kentucky, c. 1975), p. 99. 

12. Rev. Henry A. Miles, Lowell, As It Was, And As It Is (Lowell: Powers and Bagley and N. L. Dayton, 

1845), p. 128. 

13. Report of the Special Commission on the Hours of Labor and the Condition & Prospects of the 

Indus trial Classes (Boston : Wright & Potter, State Printers, 1866), p. 13. 

14. Miles, pp. 75-76. 

15. Massachusetts Senate, Report of the Hon. Henry K. Oliver, Deputy State Constable, Specially 

Appointed to Enforce the Laws Regulating the Employment of Children in Manufacturing and 

Mechanical Establishments (Boston: Wright & Potter, State Printers, 1868), p. 23. 

16. Gregory, p. 196. 

17. Gibb, p. 70, p. 89. 

18. Paul E. Johnson, A Shopkeeper’s Millenium: Society & Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 

(New York: Hill & Wang, 1978), describes the religious revivals of the early nineteenth century as 

serving “not the needs of ’society’ but of entrepreneurs who employed wage labor” [p. 137). Similarly, 

he describes drinking as part of the ‘’pattern of irregular work and easy sociability sustained by the 

household economy” [p. 57) preceding the factory system. 
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19. Merton M. Sealts, Jr., ed., The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, X 

(Cambridge, The Belknap Pres s of Harvard University Press, 1973), p. 102. 

20. Ibid., pp. 102-3. 

21. Michael Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States: Being a Series of Letters on 

North America (Boston: Weeks, Jordan and Company, 1839), p. 143. 

22. In Hannah Josephson, The Golden Threads: New England’s Mill Girls & Magnates (New York: 

Duell, Sloan, & Pierce, c. 1949), p. 252. 

23. Donald B. (Chapel Hill: Cole, Immigrant City: Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1845-1921 The University 

of North Carolina Press, c. 1963), pp. 75- 76. 

24. Josephson, p. 116. 

25. Helena Wright, “Sarah G. Bagley: A Biographical Note,” Labor History, 20 (1979), p. 409 and Note. 
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II. FORMS AND STRUCTURES OF 

TEXTILE INDUSTRY 

The evolution of the physical form, structural systems and 

construction techniques that would proliferate at Lowell as part of 

the phenomenal expansion of the cotton textile industry during the 

first half of the 19th century can be traced to two sources. First is the 

late 18th and early 19th century development of the frame and the 

stone mills in Rhode Island, especially when considered along with 

the parallel experiences in Great Britain, and the pioneering work 

of such millwrights as Richard Arkwright. The second source, not 

unexpectedly, is the design and construction of the second mill at 

Waltham by the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1815- 1819. 

A. The Rhode Island System

While Massachusetts was active in the production of woolens, most 

of the cotton manufacturing carried on in this country prior to the 

War of 1812 took place in Rhode Island and neighboring towns 

of southern Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut. However, 

although of great significance to the development of the textile 

industry in the United States as a whole, their importance to the 

architectural development of the mills at Lowell is somewhat 

limited to technological innovations.1

 Usually referred to as the 

“Rhode Island System,” these mills borrowed heavily from the then 

standard English patterns, especially that of spinning in a factory 

and “putting-out” the spun yarn for weaving, either at workers 

cottages that clustered around the mill or to outside sources such 

as the Lippit Mill which contracted its weaving to inmates of the 

Vermont State Prison.2

The early spinning mill was housed in a variety of building types, 

the design of which was almost always based on contemporary 

domestic and light industrial vernacular forms, often unrelated 

to the manufacturing activity they contained. Occasionally, a new 

mill use was installed in an existing structure: Stephen Jenks & 

Sons reused an 1811 musket factory in Central Falls as a cotton Mill; 

Alan Bissell and George Palmer Jr. converted a 1795 snuff factory in 

Exeter into a cotton mill.3

Slater Mill in Pawtucket (Figure 1) is typical of the early Rhode 

Island mills constructed for the processing of cotton and exemplifies 

the use of traditional forms and techniques to satisfy the building 

requirements of the evolving industry. Carl Condit described this 

process: 
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The adaption of the heavy timber frame to industrial building came 

with the construction of Slater Mill in 1793 three stories high, with 

a shallow attic under a gable roof. All floor, roof and wind loads 

are carried by an unbraced frame of massive columns and beams 

roughly square in section. The whole structural system is simply 

an expansion of the basic New England frame to the size necessary 

to support a three story mill.

4

The 1793 section of Slater Mill is two and one-half stories in height, 

rectangular in plan, 43’ x 29 ‘. It initially had a gable roof with 

trap- door monitor. The original structure was added to in 1801 (a 

57’ west wing) and between 1812 and 1817 (a 40’ east wing) with 

a final change, a stair tower, occurring between 1823 and 1835. 

The distinctive bell tower, is documented as in place at the south 

elevation by 1812, but may not have been original. The mill has stone 

foundations and piers at the intermediate columns, timber sills, 

wall columns, longitudinal girders, floor beams and roof rafters, 

and a plank floor. The vertical wall sheathing and weather boards 

are nailed to the sill and plate, eliminating the need for studs. This 

system had been in general use throughout New England from the 

mid-17th century, used in the construction of the entire spectrum of 

building types, from the smallest cottage to rope- walks and barns, 

and with the addition of an end wall cupola, to town halls and 

meeting houses. 

Other early mills in Rhode Island repeated the Slater Mill timber 

frame construction, including the second structure at Centerville 

Mills in West Warwick, a three story building put up in 1807, and 

the Lippett Mill, a three and one-half story, 106’ x 34’ structure 

erected between 1809-1810. Importantly, the Lippit Mill has a 

full length clerestory monitor and an inset end-wall Federal style 

cupola over the northeast entrance. 

The small frame spinning mills were gradually replaced in Rhode 

Island at the turn of the century by somewhat larger structures of 

either rubble stone or coarsed granite ashlar construction. Hitchcock 

states: “The earliest stone mills of the first quarter of the century 

remain almost as domestic as the first wooden mills, and cognate in 

character with the other architecture of the Early Republic, except 

that they are simpler and solider.”

5

 He further describes their 

construction: 

Solid mills were built, usually of masonry after 1810, because they 

represented a large investment and as a partial protection against 

the very serious danger of fire. Of course the interior structure was 

of heavy timber, not unlike that in earlier barns and meeting houses, 

to carry the weight of the machinery.

6
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Perhaps the most important of the early stone mills is the 1810-1811 

Wilkinson Mill, built by Oziel Wilkinson next to the Slater Mill in 

Pawtucket. As constructed, it was three and one-half stories tall and 

had a monitor roof. A brick end-wall tower with belfry was added 

c.1840.

7

 Also of note are the 1813 three-story, 80’ x 36’ Georgiaville 

Mill in Smithfield, with its trap-door monitor, open belfry and 

stuccoed rubble walls,

8

 and Crompton Mills, West Warwick, a 

three- story, 117’ x 33’ stone mill dating from 1807.

9

 Anthony Mills, 

in Coventry, combined timber frame and stone in the construction 

of a six-story mill in 1810, the lower three floors in stone, the upper 

three frame.10

*

While the heavy timber frame with wood shingle or weatherboard 

siding and the stone mills with their massive granite walls were, 

as mentioned, of limited relevance to the design, construction 

and use of materials of the mills to be erected beginning in 1823 

in Lowell, a number of features derived from the “Rhode lsland 

System” bear mention. First, the location of all of the early mills 

was determined: “...with reference to the water power, and the 

particular development of the power in hand,”15 with the design 

reflecting “ limitations that were imposed by the type of water 

wheel in use when the mill was actually constructed.” 16

Second, once the site and method of power transfer had been s 

elected by someone familiar with the harnessing of the available 

water power, the design of the mill itself was entrusted to: 

...professional architects or gifted amateurs preoccupied with, or 

guided by, fundamentally stylistic and formalistic concerns, but 

with pragmetically-motivated millwrights and business- minded 

entrepreneurs, seeking practical answers to crucial technical and 

economic questions. 17

Richard Candee, describing early mill villages in Rhode Island 

expands on this theme and the use of the vernacular: “Buildings 

erected for manufacturing companies were the products of 

carpenters and masons working from contracts that often reflected 

the owners’ familiarity with buildings in other nearby factory 

communities.” 18 * (Mills of comparable design and construction in the Merrimack Valley 

built before the War of 1812 are rare. An inventory11 completed in 1978 listed 

only four, all of which worked with wool: A one-story frame, 40’ x 12’ c. 1800 

structure converted to a woolen mill in 1802 by James Scholfield at North Ando-

ver; an 1812 two story brick satinet mill at Amesbury, now the site of the Ham-

ilton Woolen Company (built by Paul Moody and Ezra Worthen, who were to 

play prominent roles in the development of Lowell)12 and a second small woolen 

mill at the same site built in 1813,13 and; a two- story shingle-on-frame cotton and 

woolen mill built in Andover by the Abbott brothers in 1814, which used king 

and queen post trusses to support its gable roof.14

)
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Third, the floor area and volume of the early mills was directly 

affected by the available power and the limits imposed by the 

dependence on the use of “...horizontal line shafting, which 

transmitted power from the water wheel’s vertical main drive 

shaft to individual machines at each floor the first factories were 

necessarily kept short because the cumbersome line shafting and 

pulley system was too inefficient to permit otherwise.” 19

While the length of the early mills reflects the constraints of the line 

shafting and pulley system, the width was limited by a dependence 

on natural light to illuminate the interior work areas. Solutions to 

this problem included the raising of ceiling heights and the use of 

tall vertical windows at the peripheral walls, with the attic-level lit at 

first by dormers or their combination into a trap-door-like monitor, 

and by the turn of the century by full-length clerestory monitors. 

(The Allendale Mill retained the design of the dormered clerestory 

when it was built in 1822, while the Lippit Mill was ahead of its 

time when it introduced a continuous clerestory monitor in 1810.) 

Theodore Sande has completed an interesting comparison of the 

floor sizes of 214 mills constructed in Rhode Island between 1790 

(the start of the cotton mill as a building type in this country ), and 

1860, at which time the “modern automatic cut-off steam engine” 

was in general use, resulting in the whole-sale replacement of earlier 

water wheels with turbines.20 The analysis showed that the range 

of sizes of the mills built between 1790-1800 was only 33’-47’ x 26’- 

30’, with a median plan of 40’ x 28 ‘. During the period beginning 

in 1800 and continuing through 1840 the range increased to 40’-

175’ x 25 ‘-50 ‘, with a median size of 82’ x 40’. With improvements 

to shafting and power take- offs, the length of mills built between 

1840-1850 was expanded to as long as 300’ (median of 102’), yet the 

width remained at a median of only 44 ‘, indicating the persistent 

lack of satisfactory artificial lighting despite the introduction of gas 

in the 1850s to replace candles and oil lamps.21 The Sande study, 

while based on Rhode Island examples, can be applied to Lowell 

where the mills built between 1820-1830 “have been nearly of a 

uniform size, 150 to 160 feet long, by 45 feet wide, four-stories high, 

or three, with a finished attic.” 22

Sande also discusses the use of belfrys and towers at the early mills, 

a feature that would not reach full development in New England 

until the construction of the second mill at Waltham:

... cupola and tower... are interrelated. As towers became important, 

cupolas tended to disappear, because the cupola’ s primary function 

as bell holder was usually replaced by a belfry mounted directly on 

the tower itself. 
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There were two types of tower common to the textile factory: stair 

and toilet. Stair towers were located on the main entrance side of 

the mill and were the only means of entrance or egress from the 

building. They also provided vertical circulation between floors 

for workers, machinery, raw materials and finished goods. Toilet 

towers were usually placed on the opposite side of the factory from 

the entrance tower, and if possible over an adjacent river or stream. 

The important point about towers is that they provide one further 

indication of the textile manufacturers’ desire to make the most 

efficient plan possible. By removing stairs and toilets from the 

basic rectangle, they were able to acquire unemcumbered interior 

floor space, allowing utmost freedom for arranging machinery and 

production flow.23 

The stair tower became more and more of a separate unit, pulled 

away from the body of the mill. Its value increased as it also became 

the primary means of egress during a fire. 

B. BritishPrecedents

Concurrent with the development of the mills of the “Rhode Island 

System,” and of a more direct relevance to Lowell (because of the 

impact they had on the design of the second mill at Waltham), 

are the early water powered mills built in England during the last 

quarter of the 18th century. Sir Richard Arkwright had constructed 

a mill at Nottingham in 1769. He improved the basic design when he 

built his first water-powered mill at Cromfield in 1771. Arkwright 

added a second mill to this site in 1777, with both mills coming 

after he had revolutionized the industry with his development of 

the water powered spinning frame, patented in 1769. Together with 

the Bedworth Worsted Mill, Warwickshire (c. 1800) and William 

Strutt’ s mills at Belper, Derbyshire, (the West mill started in 1797, 

the North mill built in 1808), the Cromfield mills are considered 

the precursors of what by 1815 would become a clearly definable 

building type, a structure designed expressly for the manufacture 

of cotton textiles. Sande, in describing these and similar mills, refers 

to:

...the strong precedent they set for the Americans...The typical 

British textile mill of the time was composed of exterior brick or stone 

bearing walls of approximately two- feet thickness, slow burning 

timber or partially fire protected wood interior framing and a gable 

roof with either a continuous monitor or rows of dormer windows; 

the whole standing four to five stories tall with the attic story also 

utilized for manufacturing. The interior columns were quite often 

of cast- iron rather than timber. The roof was usually constructed 

of either a king or queen post timber truss that supported wood 
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purlins and plank and this was covered with a slate weather surface. 

In order to maintain clear space for the efficient use of the attic, 

the lower cord (sic) of the truss was kept as high as possible and a 

ceiling placed against it, thus creating a cock-loft above the attic 

floor.24

A number of points mentioned in the above description require 

amplification, as they have direct bearing on the design and 

construction of the mills that would appear in this country at the 

start of the 19th century. 

Textile and other mills constructed in England at the close of the 

18th century (and even earlier) were almost exclusively built of 

brick. Not infrequently, the brick structure contained brick floors 

that usually rested on cast-iron frames of various designs. Brick, and 

to a lesser degree cast-iron, were the traditional building materials 

employed in England at that time and their use in mill construction 

is to be expected. In Rhode Island, however, only 18 of 200 textile 

mills built between 1790 and 1860 were brick (48 were frame, 21 

frame and stone, 1 frame and brick, and 112, or 56% were stone). 

25 However, Candee points to the use of brick as the most common 

form of construction in Northern New England, defined as Maine, 

New Hampshire, Vermont, and the eastern part of Massachusetts 

when he states: 

Of nearly six hundred cotton and woolen mills for which the exterior 

wall material is known, almost seventy-five percent of the factories 

in northern New England were of brick and less than ten percent 

were of stone. In the southern New England states and western 

Massachusetts, forty percent were built in stone, thirty-six percent 

in wood, and only fourteen percent in brick.26

Also, Sande, after compiling the statistics on Rhode Island Mills 

acknowledges that: “At Lowell and the other major textile cities on 

the Merrimack it (brick) was preferred from the outset.” 27

The term slow-burning timber appears for the first time in this 

discussion, a technique that was known in England perhaps as early 

as 1816 (the H. Hicks & Sons New Mill at Eastington, Gloucestershire 

is thought to have used this construction). It was not introduced 

to this country until after the initiation of the construction of the 

first mills at Lowell.28 Candee places the use of this technique in 

America as 1826-1828. 29 

Much has been written describing slow burn construction30, but 

Pierson provides what is perhaps the clearest definition: 
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Among the numerous fire-prevention devices developed during the 

late 1830’s was an ingenious method of interior wooden framing. 

Although exterior masonry walls helped to reduce the fire hazard, 

they by no means eliminated it entirely. When a fire occurred in the 

early mills one of the greatest difficulties encountered in fighting it 

was the rapidity with which the wooden floors burned through and 

collapsed. The problem centered around the use of conventional floor 

joists. They were relatively light and thus quickly consumed. They 

were also closely spaced which created numerous hollow spaces into 

which it was difficult to get water to fight the fire; moreover, these 

joists exposed an excessive amount of wood surface to the flames. 

The American solution to this was practical and it was simple. 

The joists were eliminated. To compensate for the loss of structural 

strength, the large transverse beams were increased in size, and the 

floor, instead of remaining a single layer of plank, was increased 

to two layers totaling several inches in thickness. The first layer 

was made up of the heaviest planks running across the beams, the 

second, of lighter boards extending in the opposite direction. The 

beams, which were normally spaced about 8 feet apart, continued 

to be supported in the center by either wooden posts or columns, 

and at their ends by the masonry walls. The principal advantage 

of this system was the increased dimension of all its members. It 

would take a fire considerable time to burn through 14-inch beams 

and 4 inches of solid floor, thus allowing time to get water to the 

fire and bring it under control. Furthermore, the recessed firetraps 

created by the conventional joists were eliminated and the amount 

of exposed wood surface was cut almost in half.31

The mention of “partially fire protected wood interior floors” by 

Sande refers to the replacement of the earlier system of thin joists 

and floor boards with heavy timber girders and 3’’ to 4” plank 

floors as proposed in the use of slow burn construction. It should 

be extended to include the use in England of the iron-frame and the 

combination of brick arches and vaults resting on iron beams as a 

method of providing fireproof structural flooring. William Strutt’s 

Belper West Mill (begun in 1793) is usually regarded as the first, 

multi-storied, iron-framed incombustible building, and the use 

of brick floors had occurred in “several highly capitalized textile 

factories (in England) as early as the 1790s.32 Sande writes, “The 

British system was known to the New England manufacturers, 

but they generally thought it too expensive...”33 and specifically 

mentions that Slater and Zacharia Allen both knew of this type of 

construction. He further states that “...the apparent lack of interest in 

iron structural systems on the part of the New England mill owners 

is that they had a more than adequate regional timber supply. This 

gave them a material that, used in larger than traditional framing 

widths and thicknesses, was not only cheap but relatively safe in its 

slow-burning characteristics.”34
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The “gable roof with either a continuous monitor or rows of dormer 

windows” is a reference to what was known in this country as the 

trap-door roof, where a series of additional rafters were added to 

the traditional gable roof, usually inset at least one bay to simplify 

framing. Low windows were installed between the two sets of 

rafters. However, because of the limited light provided by such 

narrow bands of glass, the trap- door monitor gave way after 1820 

to the more efficient double, or clerestory monitor, and was the 

norm when the second mill at Waltham and the original buildings 

at Lowell were put up. This roof form is directly attributable to 

Arkwright’s 1777 mill at Cromford, and was “first employed in 

America on an 1810 mill in Lippit, Rhode Island (sic. Lippit Mill is 

in West Warwick).35 This roof form was constructed by indenting 

the gable end walls and extending them in their same plane 4-6’ 

above the eaves, adding vertical supports in line with the higher 

gable, and building a second, higher roof, usually of the same 

pitch, above the lower roof, from end wall to end wall. “...thus two 

roughly parallel roof planes were introduced, one rising from the 

eaves to the continuous window sill, the other from the head of the 

clerestory windows to the roof ridge.”36

The clerestory roof virtually demanded the use of either a king post 

or a queen post truss to create usable floor space in the attic level. 

This roof form continued in use until the Civil War, when it was 

gradually replaced by shallow pitched roofs (made practical by the 

introduction of modern bituminous materials in the 1850s), which 

evolved soon thereafter into the flat roof with parapet. 

The final detail mentioned by Sande in reference to the early 

English mills is the use of cast iron columns. While cast iron was in 

general use in Britain, wood columns were often preferred in New 

England. If cast iron columns were used in original construction 

they were sometimes replaced by wood at a later date: 

Occasionally cast iron was used for the interior columns [for pre1860 New England structures], supporting heavy timber beams, 

but there seems to have been much debate about the efficiency 

and safety of the iron. When the Pemberton Mill of 1853-1856 at 

Lawrence, Massachusetts, collapsed in 1860, its original cast-iron 

columns were replaced by heavy timber columns.37

The preference for wood rather than iron columns is stated in 

various insurance reports. An 1882 report mentions the subject but 

somewhat skirts the issue: 

The question of using iron posts in place of wood is not treated. 

On the whole, the judgment of the underwriters favors the wooden 

posts of sufficient size...and one of the principal advantages of wood 
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over iron is that, when the wooden post begins to fail, the weakness 

usually becomes apparent before it reaches a dangerous point. 38

C. The Mills atWaltham

The first to improve upon the design and organization of the early 

New England textile mills by incorporating experiences learned 

from contemporary English models were Francis Cabot Lowell and 

his circle of Boston friends. Reacting to economic changes brought 

about by the Embargo Act of the War of 1812 they sought new and 

divergent ways to invest their cash reserves: 

Impressed by the successes of the textile industry in Rhode Island, 

they began to see manufacturing as a potential for investment. Unlike 

the Rhode Islanders, however, who were mechanics and engineers, 

these Boston men were merchants and bankers with great executive 

capacity and wide experience in business organization. Their role in 

manufacturing therefore, was planning, financing, and marketing, 

plus attention to the social problem associated with the hiring of 

labor. Technical and operational problems they left to the mechanics 

and specialists. Out of this came a new type of factory organization 

which was, in fact, the prototype of the great modern corporation. 

It was characterized by absentee capital and the concentration of 

all processes of production-from raw material to finished productunder one management and in one plant. 39

Organized at Waltham as the Boston Manufacturing Company in 

1813, the company almost immediately started construction of their 

first mill at a ten-foot waterfall on the Charles River. Incorporating 

a single power loom developed by Lowell after his celebrated rest 

cure trip to England in 1810-1812, the mill was producing cloth for 

sale by 1815. 40 This first mill was similar in detail to many of the 

mills in Rhode Island (with the exception that it had brick exterior 

walls), with a simple rectangular plan, 90’ x 40’, four-stories with 

an attic lit by a continuous clerestory roof, and an octagonal belltower centered at the upper ridge pole. As Pierson mentioned, the 

mill was the first example of the vertically integrated factory in 

this country, where all operations from spinning to weaving was 

accomplished under one roof, from “bale to bolt.” This system 

of manufacturing was in full operation in England at the turn of 

the century (Bedworth Worsted Mills, Warwickshire, c.1800; the 

aforementioned Belper Mill, c.1808 at Deryshire) and its use there 

was almost certainly known to Lowell. 

With considerable foresight, the mill site was selected with a 

view towards expansion, where the waters of a major river might 

support at least a small number of additional factories. (Earlier 

New England mill concentrations, especially those in Rhode Island, 
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were severely restricted by the availability of sufficient water to 

create a head. When it came time to expand, the new mills were 

located by necessity at separate locations in order to husband the 

water power.) Despite serious economic problems experienced by 

most other developers at the close of the War of 1812 and an end 

to its import restrictions, the Boston Manufacturing Company did 

choose to expand, a decision prompted by Lowell’s lobbying in 

Washington for new import control: “The famous minimum duty of 

6-1/2 cents per square yard on imported cotton fabric was proposed 

by Mr. Lowell, recommended by Mr. Lowndes, advocated by Mr. 

Calhoun, and incorporated into the tariff of 1816.” 41

Lowell recognized that the size of a cotton mill was limited by the 

dependability on line shafting (we have seen that the median length 

of mills built in Rhode Island prior to 1810 was only 80 feet, and the 

first Waltham mill 90 feet). With this in mind, he determined that 

the most efficient way to take full advantage of the water power 

available from the Charles River was to construct a separate mill to 

supplement the first. Therefore, he located the second of the Boston 

Manufacturing Company’ s mills, built between 1816-1818, 80 feet 

down river from the earlier mill, marking “the first time in America 

that two individual factory units were combined.”42 The mills were 

built in line, but initially were unconnected. This separation of 

individual mill structures was to persist until well into the 1840s, 

when the introduction of wrought-iron shafting, combined with 

the wide spread use of slow-burn timber framing and brick exterior 

walls reduced the possibility of a catastrophic fire destroying both 

mills. At that time the area between the mills was infilled with 

additional manufacturing space. While it is romantic to speculate 

that a concern for aesthetics and light and air may have played 

a part in the decision to separate the two mills at Waltham, and 

later at Lowell, the control of fire was almost certainly the primary 

concern until later in the 19th-century when the owners recognized 

the value of such amenities in attracting and holding a labor force.

43

The traditional width of 40 feet (the optimum for spaces relying on 

windows in the exterior walls to provide natural light) was retained 

at the second mill, but the length was extended to 150 feet. Yet the 

form, with the by now traditional brick and frame construction, 

was still basically a simple rectangular masonry box. However, 

here the box-like appearance was made less severe.

...attached to the center of the long side was a narrow wooden tower 

which rose to the level of the clerestory window and was crowned 

by a pitched roof and pediment. This seems to be among the earliest 

appearances of the outside tower, a feature which would become 

standard in the fully developed nineteenth-century factory. In this 

case, however, the motivation appears to have been more practical 
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than aesthetic: it was on the stream side of the mill and it may have 

contained primitive toilets on each floor. 44

In addition to the use of the exterior tower, the second mill at 

Waltham introduced another feature of crucial importance to the 

planning of the mills at Lowell, the use of a canal in conjunction 

with a river. Pierson discusses this feature: 

In Rhode Island, where a single mill was served by a single 

headrace, the building was generally oriented at right angles to the 

stream. This was logical. The water wheel was almost always at 

the center of the mill and with the side of the building facing the 

dam the headrace could be brought directly to the wheelhouse in 

a straight line. If more than one mill was to be served, however, it 

was necessary, as at Waltham, to provide a feeder canal, generally 

parallel to the stream, from which a headrace could flow to each mill. 

The headrace for each mill fed from a canal which passed behind the 

mills (at Waltham) on the side away from the river, the tailraces 

flowed back into the stream. Thus, the respective wheels received 

their water from the same head with a minimum length of canal 

and penstock. 45

While Lowell’s decision to group several mills together (an 

additional mill was constructed later in the 19th- century) into 

a single manufacturing complex was not unknown in Britain, 

the application of this principle at Waltham and the resulting 

requirement of a canal parallel to the river established the 

parameters of the plan and mill orientation for the development 

of Lowell. The visual appearance of both Waltham mills would 

not be materially changed either, for better or for worse. Pierson 

compares the simplicity of the Waltham mills to “that of the best 

contemporary architecture in Boston” and credits the owners with 

being “knowledgeable in architectural matters” including the work 

of Charles Bulfinch. It must be mentioned, however, that the plain 

and austere treatment of the exterior of the mills was also the most 

expedient and the cheapest form of construction, and that the basic 

concern of most millwrights was utility and a return on investment. 

Sande refers to the design of mills of this period as stylistically 

retardataire and cites in a footnote: “Interestingly, J. M. Richards 

also found this true for similar British structures: ‘In many instances 

the buildings’ simple functional character is partly overlaid, but not 

disguised, by embellishments.” 46 
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D. Conclusions

With the construction of the second mill at Waltham, the evolution 

of the physical form, structural systems and construction techniques 

that would be used at Lowell is complete. The plan is rectangular, 

150’ - 160’ x 40’ -50 ‘, four-stories of open floor space with a clerestory 

lit gable roof, with brick bearing walls on stone foundations. The 

structural framing system was timber, in some instances with cast 

iron columns, with a full height exterior stair tower centered in one 

of the long elevations. They were either initially built, or planned to 

be expanded, as a series of similar structures. 
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 ENDNOTES 

1. Slater Mill, considered the first cotton spinning mill in America was the first to use the Arkwright 

water-powered spinning frames; Wilkinson Mill was one of the first to combine steam with water as a 

power source and one of the first (1819) to produce worsteds. 

2. Rhode Island: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, HAER, 1978, page 267. 

3. Ibid., pp. 43 and 87. 

4. Carl Condit, American Building, Chicago, 1968, pp. 41 - 42. 

5. Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Rhode Island Architecture, Providence, 1939 as republished by De Capo 

Press, New York, 1968, p. 42. 

6. Ibid., p. 38. 

7. Rhode Island, p. 149. 

8. Ibid., p. 225. 

9. Ibid., p. 265. 

10. Ibid., p. 51. 

11. The Lower Merrimack River Valley, An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 

MATH and HAER, 1978. 

12. Ibid., P· 90. 

13. Ibid., p. 1. 

14. Ibid., P· 9. 

15. Stephen Greene, Motive Power, “NEC MA 

16. Ibid., p. 130. “Modifications in Mill Design Resulting From Changes in (Waltham) October 27, 1897, 

Transactions No. 65, p. 12. 

17. Theodore Anton Sande, “The Textile Factory in Pre-Civil War Rhode Island,” Old Time New 

England (SPNEA) Vol. 66 (Summer- Fall 1975), p. 14. 

18. Richard M. Candee, “New Towns in Early New England Textile Industry,” Perspectives in 

Vernacular Architecture, 1980. 

19. Sande, Textile Factory, Rhode Island, p. 17. 

20. Greene, p. 128. 

21. Sande, Textile Factory, Rhode Island, p. 15. 

22. Hand-Book for the Visitor to Lowell, Lowell, 1848, p. 11. 
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23. Ted (Theodore Anton) Sande, “The Architecture of the Cotton Textile Mills at Lowell, Massachusetts,” 

1822- 1860, unpublished manuscript, Lowell University Library Special Collections, 1971, p. 22. 

24. Sande, Mills at Lowell, op. cit., p. 7. 

25. Sande, Textile Factories, Rhode Island, op. cit., p. 18. 

26. Candee, New Towns, p. 36. 

27. Ibid., p. 18. 

28. Sande (Mills at Lowell, p. 20) states that “ the system may have been used in the Merrimack 

Company’ s first mills at Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1822, but surviving records are not clear.” Other 

sources date the use of slow burn construction at 18 27, Bernon Mill, Woonsocket, Rhode Island (HAER 

Rhode Island Inventory, Candee, p. 45, Sande, p. 20). 

29. Candee, New Towns, p. 45. 

30. See: Boston Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company Special Report No. 10, April 1, 1882, 

and plates published in 1908; Insurance Engineering Experiment Station Report No. V., Slow- Burning 

or Mill Construction, September 1902. 

31. William H. Pierson, Jr., American Buildings and their Architects, (Garden City, New York), 1980, 

p. 49. 

32. Sande, Textile Factories, Rhode Island, op. cit., p. 19. 

33. Ibid., p. 19. 

34. Sande, Mills at Lowell, op. cit., p. 6. 

35. Candee, op. cit., p. 35. 

36. Sande, Textile Factories, Rhode Island, op. cit., p. 22. 

37. Sande, Mills at Lowell, op. cit., p. 6. 

38. Boston Manufacturers Special Report, op. cit., pp. 9, 2. 

39. Pierson, p. 59. 

40. The importance of Francis Cabot Lowell and his friends has been discussed many times--see 

Pierson, pp. 59-63; Cowley, pp. 40-41; Steve Dunwell, The Run of the Mill, pp. 30-32; Arthur L. Eno, 

When Cotton Was King and others. 

41. Cowley, Illustrated History of Lowell (Boston and Lowell) 1868, p. 41. 

42. Pierson, p. 61. - 41 – 

43. See Hitchcock, p. 38. 

44. Pierson, p. 61. 

45. Ibid., pp. 61-62. 
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46. Sande, Textile Factories, Rhode Island, Footnote 55 quoted from The Functional Tradition in Early 

Industrial Buildings, London, 1958, p. 19.
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III. ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT 

OF THE BOOTT COTTON MILLS 

A. Description of the Mills in Lowell

Contemporary with the Founding of the

Boott Cotton Mills. 

1. Origins 

The introduction of the power loom to this country by Francis Cabot 

Lowell at his Boston Manufacturing Company’s mills at Waltham 

created a need to increase dramatically the scale of manufacturing 

operations to compensate for the high cost of machinery. Despite 

careful planning, Lowell and his associates were soon stymied 

in their effort to expand the three-mill complex at Waltham. The 

Charles River was simply unable to provide sufficient water 

power for any additional mills of any size. Much has been written 

describing the search for a site for a new factory town and the 

presence of the Pawtucket and Middlesex canals at the Merrimack 

River at what at the time was referred to as East Chelmsford1 

(Lowell did not become a town until March 1, 1826). It need not be 

restated here other than to introduce the men primarily responsible 

for the development of Lowell. John Coolidge mentions the union 

of Patrick Tracy Jackson (manager of the Waltham mills), Nathan 

Appleton, (a major shareholder in the Boston Manufacturing 

Company), and Kirk Boott, “who had been a Boston merchant until 

the evil days of the embargo” and their efforts to locate a suitable 

site:

After one or two false starts, they heard of a suitable location in the 

autumn of 1821. This is Appleton’s account: ’I was at Waltham 

one day when I was informed that Mr. Moody* had been lately 

at Salisbury, when Mr. Ezra Worthen, his former partner said to 

him, ‘I hear Messrs. Jackson and Appleton are looking out for water 

power. Why don’t they buy up the Pawtucket Canal? That would 

give them the whole power of the Merrimack, with a fall of over 

thirty feet.’ On the strength of this, Mr. Moody had returned to 

Waltham by that route, and was satisfied to the extent of the power 

which might thus be obtained, and that Mr. Jackson was making 

inquiries on the subject.’2

Appleton visited the proposed site and described the trip: 

* Mr. Moody was Paul Moody, a machinist and mechanical engineer 

who collaborated with Lowell in the development of the power loom and the 

construction of the mills at Waltham.
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Our first visit to the spot was in the month of November 1821, and 

a slight snow covered the ground. The party consisted of Patrick 

T. Jackson, Kirk Boott, Warren Dutton,

†

 Paul Moody, John W. 

Boott and myself. We perambulated the grounds and scanned the 

capabilities of the place, and the remark was made that some of us 

might live to see the place contain twenty thousand inhabitants...

3

The Waltham contingent quietly acquired control of the Proprietors 

of the Locks and Canals on the Merrimack River, (chartered by 

Governor John Hancock in 1792, and the owners of the Pawtucket 

Canal) and purchased all water rights and the major landholdings 

between the canal and the Merrimack (Figure 2). They incorporated 

as the Merrimack Manufacturing Company on December 21, 

1821, with Jackson, Appleton, both Bootts, and Paul Moody as 

shareholders.

4

 Kirk Boott (Figure 3) was appointed treasurer and 

agent. All quickly recognized the vast potential of the Pawtucket 

Falls: 

They decided to monopolize both power and real estate, augmenting 

their manufacturing profits by organizing new mills, selling them 

land, and leasing them waterpower. The location was too potent to 

waste on another one- company town. 

The Merrimack Manufacturing Company was reorganized in 1825 

to take full advantage of these new investment opportunities. The 

parent company transferred control of the waterpower, real estate, 

and machine shop to the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals, a 

wholly owned subsidiary that had previously administered the 

Pawtucket Canal. While Merrimack Manufacturing continued to 

make cloth, Locks and Canals was now free to reap tremendous 

profits by organizing and outfitting new mills, leasing power and 

manipulating real estate.

5

 In addition to his titles at the Merrimack Company, Boott was made 

agent of the reorganized Locks and Canals when the transfer of the 

locks, canals and water rights belonging to the Proprietors on the 

Merrimack River was formalized on January 2, 1826. 

6

 Boott was 

responsible for allocating the land to new developers, who were to 

build their mills along the planned canal system to be constructed 

by his corporation, and the awarding of “mill powers.”

‡

 Each of the 

prospective manufacturers was to supply:

...its own power generating machinery--Locks and Canals only 

delivered the water to the mill... besides distributing water for 

† Warren Dutton would become the first president of the Merrimack 

Manufacturing Company; John W. Boott was Kirk Boott’s brother. ‡ A mill power at that time was defined as the water power required to 

run a mill equal in size to the second mill at Waltham, 3, 548 spindles.
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power, Locks and Canals also engaged in other varied activities. 

It originally built all the mill buildings, dug the canals, installed 

the penstocks and waterwheels. It set up the Lowell Machine 

Shop which built all the machinery for textile manufacturing and 

processing, and which spun off as a separate enterprise in 1845.7

2. The Canals 

The first concern of Locks and Canals, however, was the completion 

of the canals, needed before any mills could be put into operation 

or the machine shop could find customers for its textile machinery. 

The evolution of the canal system (Figure 4) that supplied the water 

power to the mills at Lowell is thoroughly documented§

 and need 

not be more than summarized here.

The Pawtucket Canal, a “nine-thousand foot waterway had been 

built by the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Merrimack 

River...to provide a route around the falls for rafts carrying timber 

and other northern products to the sea at Newburyport.”8

 By 

1821 the Pawtucket Canal was supplanted for commercial use by 

the Middlesex Canal (finished in 1803), which branched off the 

Merrimack River a mile upstream from the falls. The Merrimack 

Manufacturing Company immediately enlarged the by then 

secondary Pawtucket Canal and planned for the construction of the 

new Merrimack Canal which would directly serve their mill site. 

The completion of this canal was followed by the construction of the 

Hamilton Canal serving first in 1825, the Hamilton Manufacturing 

Company and, in 1828, the Appleton Manufacturing Company. 

The Lowell Canal, providing water for the Lowell Manufacturing 

Company was built in 1828, followed by the Lawrence Canal 

(Lawrence Manufacturing Company) in 1830 and the Western 

Canal (for the Suffolk Manufacturing Company and the Tremont 

Mills) in 1831. 

The Eastern Canal, built for Boott Cotton Mills, was completed 

in 1836, with the Massachusetts Cotton Mills also drawing water 

from it beginning in 1839. The Boott penstock was constructed to 

improve the flow of water in 1846. It was enlarged in 1848 and 

modified in 1873, 1889, and 1906. 

The final canal to be built by the Proprietors was the Northern Canal, 

the largest of all. Designed and supervised by James B. Francis as 

a much needed feeder canal to supplement the overtaxed Western 

and Lawrence Canals, it was completed in 1848. 

§ See Canals and Industry, Pat Malone for a detailed description of their 

construction.
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Figure 4. The Lowell Canal System, 1848, with all canals completed

Source: Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), National Park Service, MASS, 9-LOW, 8-(sheet2 of 2), 1976
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3. The Town Plan 

Concurrent with, and subservient to the construction of the canals, 

the plan for the town of Lowell was evolving. When the Eastern 

Canal was completed in 1836: 

...twenty-six textile mills, two print works, and the machine shops 

of Locks and Canals were operating with power supplied by the 

Merrimack River. The nine mill complexes on the system produced 

49,413,000 yards of cloth that year and employed almost 8000 

workers out of a total population of 17,600. Within the city, canals 

and the mills they powered were the dominant features of the urban 

landscape. Corporate housing, small businesses, and private homes 

were built only where they did not interfere with the routing of 

power canals and the production of textiles. The first priority in the 

development of Lowell was to bring water power to the best mill 

sites. 9

The canals not only brought water power to the mills, they also 

dictated the plan of the early factory-sponsored town. The limits 

of development were determined by the Merrimack River at the 

northern edge, and the Pawtucket Canal which ran from just above 

the rapids at Pawtucket Falls south and west to create a diamond 

shaped parcel of land 3/4 of a mile at each of its four sides (Figure 

2). The diamond was bisected in a roughly east - west direction 

by a road leading west from the Pawtucket Bridge, just below the 

falls, to a bridge across the Concord River at the east, 750 feet south 

of its confluence with the Merrimack (this road then continued on 

to Salem and Boston). Much of the pre- 1822 east-west road was 

incorporated into the present day Merrimack Street. The area north 

of this road, to the river, was set off for the mills and mill housing. 

The land south, except for a large tract along the eastern third of the 

Pawtucket Canal, between it and what would become Hamilton 

Street by 1828 and the site of the Hamilton, Appleton, and Lowell 

mills, was left to the initiative of private enterprise who would 

develop the remainder of the town. 

According to many accounts, Francis Cabot Lowell,10 had 

developed a conceptual plan for a new industrial community based 

on the notion that the “plant could no longer exist apart from the 

community and that it was now a responsibility of industries to 

create the towns in which they were to be located.” 11

According to Coolidge, Lowell:

... conceived of the town [at an as yet unselected site] as made up of 

two distinct groups, the employees and the citizenry. All that had 

to be done was to designate two zones, one for the corporation, and 
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one for the bourgeoisie... 

That was the problem. The most straightforward solution was a 

scheme of ribbon development. A great road would be built following 

the course of the river about a quarter of a mile away. This road was 

to serve two functions: it would be the backbone of the community, 

with shops, public buildings and parks clustered around; it would 

also divide the property into two distinct portions. The land between 

it and the river would be reserved for industry. The land away from 

the river would be given over to the bourgeoisie. 12

As agent of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, Boott was charged 

with the responsibility of building a town. “As the town’s planner, 

architect, and chief engineer, Kirk Boott had been primarily 

concerned with the proper planning of mill sites and housing for 

the workers and supervisors; in this work, he was most painstaking. 

In planning for the rest of the city, Boott was almost neglectful.” 13

The resulting plan was not predicated on a concern for the welfare 

of the inhabitants or their social, recreation, or transportation 

needs, but was simply the result of “a limited dream of limited 

men desiring maximum profit on a long term investment...the plan 

showed no awareness of the organic community relationships that 

are the heart of a true city.” 14 

Coolidge convincingly states the real concerns of the investors: 

At Lowell the factories were conceived first. They were planned as 

normally as possible, and when they were finished, the town was 

arranged to fit into the area left over. 

Accordingly, the Merrimack River bank was saved for manufacturing 

about three quarters of a mile above the mouth of its tributary, the 

Concord. Another obvious site for factories was on either side of the 

Pawtucket Canal, below the Swamp Locks. 

The next consideration was the location of the housing. The best 

place for it was right behind the mills, and that is where it was 

put in the ideal scheme. At Lowell likewise land was earmarked 

for housing in back of the band of property held for plants...There 

remained the matter of laying out the streets... The land set aside 

for the Corporation constituted a great F-shaped area. The highways 

were related to this area in the most unfortunate way imaginable. 

The main traffic arteries converged upon the one space surrounded 

on three sides by Corporation property.15
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The street pattern within the original factory town continued to 

expand throughout the 19th century, but the mill sites had been 

allocated and for the most part built upon by 1835 (Figures 5, 5A) 

when the Boott Cotton Mills came into existence. The year 1835 

also marks the completion of the last determinant of the plan, the 

initiation of service by the Boston and Lowell Railroad. Started 

in 1832 by Patrick Jackson and financed by the mill owners, the 

Boston and Lowell was followed three years later by the Nashua 

and Lowell Railroad, the Lowell and Lawrence Railroad in 1847 and 

the Salem and Lowell Railroad in 1850. (The success and growth of 

the railroads as prime movers eventually caused the closing of the 

Middlesex Canal in 1852.) 

4. The Mills 

The first mills to be built in what would become Lowell were those 

at the Merrimack Manufacturing Company at the head of the 

Merrimack Canal, where the canal turned to the northwest and 

run parallel to the river, then made a hairpin turn to the south. 

Merrimack mills in 1822 consisted of five cotton factories (Figure 

6). Three of the cotton mills were sited in a row parallel to and 

between the river and the hairpin turn of the canal. The two other 

original mills were placed at right angles to the row and the river. 

A printworks was constructed southwest of the western of the two 

perpendicular mills. The mills, “each about twice the size of the 

second mill at Waltham, from which individually they did not 

differ greatly” conformed to a description offered in the Handbook 

for Visiters to Lowell published in 1848. “The cotton mills, as 

heretofore built, have been nearly of a uniform size, 150 to 160 feet 

long, by 45 feet wide, four-stories, or three, with a finished attic, 

capable of containing from 6,000 to 8, 000 spindles.”16

The first Merrimack mills were brick,

¶ 156’ x 45’ with a basement 

that housed the 30 foot breast wheels** and steam boiler, three upper 

stories and a finished attic lit by a continuous clerestory. Patrick 

Jackson and Kirk Boott have both been credited with the design of 

the mills, but in reality they were simply a variant of the first and 

second mills at Waltham, incorporating the bell tower and cupola ¶ Cowley, Illustrated History of Lowell, p. 45, writes: “The bricks used in 

building the mills of this and the succeeding manufacturing corporations were 

chiefly from Bedford and Merrimack in New Hampshire.”

** Boott visited the mill on September 4, 1893, and wrote in his diary, 

“After breakfast, went to the factory, and found the wheel moving round 

his course, majestically and with comparative silence. Moody declared that 

it was ‘the best wheel in the world.’ Appleton became quite enthusiastic. In 

the afternoon, he spent an hour looking at the wheel, after which returned 

home by Andover.” (William Bagnall, “Sketches of Manufacturing and Textile 

Establishments in the Eastern United States,” typescript in the possession of the 

Museum of American Textile History, North Andover, Ma., p. 2157, diary of Kirk 

Boott [diary has disappeared].). 2016 HSR Update Note: The date for Boott's visit in 

the first sentence of this footnote is inaccurate since Boott died in 1837.
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Figure 5. Lowell and Belvedere Village, 1832

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 14442
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Figure 5A. City of Lowell, 1845Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 14443
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from the first and the projecting stair tower centered in the long 

facade from the second. 

Except for the lack of rooftop cupolas, the other four early mills 

of the Merrimack Corporation were identical in design to the first. 

Picker houses were built in front of and separate from each mill 

after the No. 2 mill burned in January, 1829. (The remaining two 

structures of the original row of three were burned in 1855 and 

rebuilt. At the same time the center structure was demolished and 

rebuilt to match the flanking mills. ) The clerestory monitor roofs 

were removed sometime after 1835, to be replaced with a simple 

gable roof with full length dormers, raising the upper level to a full 

story in height. According to Coolidge, “It simplified and added 

greatly to the impressiveness of the mill buildings.” 17

Mill housing was constructed west of the canal and a Counting 

House, or office, and various other accessory structures were 

placed directly south of the row of three mills. In various forms and 

with only minor changes, this pattern was to obtain throughout the 

development of Lowell--an exception would be the last complex 

to be put up, the Massachusetts Cotton Mills (1839). By 1848 

Merrimack Manufacturing Company consisted of six mills, the 

sixth (Figure 7) “a very large mill, 350 feet long lately built. “18

Figure 6. Merrimack Manufacturing Company, c.1850. 

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 1039
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Figure 7. Merrimack Manufacturing Company Mill No. 6, c.1848

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, Library Collections, A History of Lowell, by Charles Cowley, 1868, p. 48

The Hamilton Manufacturing Company with their charter granted 

in 1825 was the next to be developed. Situated south of the original 

Pawtucket Canal, (between it and Jackson Street) Hamilton Mills 

constructed three structures of the traditional size and design, 

the first in 1826, the second in 1827, and the third in 1830. By 1848 

“they have filled in the space between two of the old mills (75 

feet) with extensions front and rear, and have erected a large mill 

320 feet long... (and an) excellent print works for the manufacture 

of calico.”19 Four other mills and an addition to the original No. 

2 mill had been constructed at Hamilton by 1883, completing the 

complex. 20

The Appleton Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1828, built 

two mills southwest of the Hamilton mills in that year, added a 

third in 1846, a fourth in 1861, and a fifth in 1873. Like the Hamilton 

mills, they had filled in the space between the first two mills by 

1848. Lowell Manufacturing Company was also chartered in 1828 

and immediately started construction of their facilities across the 

Pawtucket Canal from the Hamilton and Appleton mills. The first 

of the Lowell Manufacturing buildings was a five-story, 240’ x 54’ 

mill, followed by a somewhat smaller mill to house the just patented 

Bigelow Power-Loom (for carpets) in 1842, a larger one-story mill 

that covered almost an acre, in 1848, and a 364’ x 66’ three-story 

mill in 1884. Middlesex Manufacturing Company, the only mill in 

Lowell to work exclusively with wool, was chartered in 1830 and 

was developed at the eastern terminus of the Pawtucket Canal at 
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the Concord River, the site of the early Thomas Hurd Mill (1818). 

They constructed two mills in 1840, by 1848 had four, and in 1884 

built a 375’ x 56’ six- story mill. 

Also in 1830, three separate companies were organized by Amos 

and Abbott Lawrence, newcomers to the Lowell investment 

scene--the Tremont, the Suffolk, and the Lawrence. The Tremont 

Mills and the Suffolk Manufacturing Company straddled Suffolk 

Street at the upper part of the Western Canal, below the Lawrence 

Canal where perpendicular feeder canals were constructed to run 

southward to the new mills. Each company had two mills with 

separate picker houses and cotton warehouses by 1831, with the 

space between the mills infilled by 1834.21 Their neighbors to the 

northeast, the Lawrence Manufacturing Company had built four 

mills of the standard size and design, arranged in a row parallel to 

and between the Lawrence Canal and the Merrimack River, and a 

large “U”-shaped mill between the row of four and the Merrimack 

Mills to the east. 

Boott Cotton Mills was incorporated in 1835 (discussed below). The 

final addition to the manufacturing scene was the Massachusetts 

Cotton Mills, incorporated in 1839. They built four 150’ x 45’ mills, 

(the traditional size), four stories high with a basement and attic. 

The four mills were arranged in an “L” - shaped row east of the 

Boott Mills and Bridge Street, between the northern leg of the 

Eastern Canal and the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord 

Rivers. A connector mill was constructed in 1852-53. All four mills 

had been linked by similar constructions by 1862. In 1872 a 79’ x 116’ 

wing was added to the southern mill. Finally, in 1911, an elevenstory reinforced concrete storehouse was constructed to complete 

the Massachusetts Cotton Mills as originally conceived. Prior to 

this, however, the Prescott Mills with a large spinning mill and a 

weaving mill located between Merrimack Street and the Pawtucket 

Canal at the Concord River was merged with the Massachusetts 

mills in the 1840s. 

Fire protection in the 1830-40s was provided by a system of force 

pumps connected by underground mains in each individual mill 

yard, following the example set by the Merrimack Company after 

their No. 2 mill was destroyed by fire in January, 1829. In 1847-48 

the individual yards were linked by a ten-mile integrated system, 

which was further improved when the deadend pipe lines were 

connected to form a continuous loop in 1853. Perforated pipe 

sprinklers were first experimented with in 1845 at the Suffolk picker 

house, and by 1852 they had been installed at other picker houses 

throughout the town. By 1859 all picker houses were sprinklered 

to comply with provisions established by the mill owned Mutual 

Insurance Company. All mill buildings were provided with similar 

sprinkler devices as a matter of course from 1863 on, pre-dating the 

Boott No. 6 mill. 
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The Lowell Gas Company was established in 1849, providing 

the mill agents the opportunity to convert from oil lamps to wall 

mounted or suspended gas lighting, a change quickly made in the 

interest of fire safety and economy. The final innovation that affected 

the design of the Boott mills, especially Mill No. 6, occurred in 1855, 

when the Merrimack demolished and replaced one of its original 

mills: “here the octagonal turrets were placed at the corners, and 

the rich cornice was carried all about the whole structure”. 22

5. Conclusions 

The mill buildings constructed at Lowell prior to the four built at the 

Boott Cotton Mills in 1836- 39 did not differ to any great degree from 

the composite of the first and second mills at Waltham developed 

in the first quarter of the 19th century, the composite used as the 

model for the mills put up in 1823 by the Merrimack Manufacturing 

Company. The obvious exception is the elimination of the cupola 

centered at the ridge of the clerestory monitor or “double-roof.” The 

“typical” mill structure was a simple rectangular box, with fourstories (five if the dormer lit attic is counted) of uninterrupted open 

floor space served by an exterior stair tower attached to the middle 

of the long facade. As the size and volume of the neighboring mills 

expanded later in the century, so did those constructed at the Boott. 

Perhaps the most important visual changes were the addition of 

connectors between the original 150’ x 45’ mills and the replacement 

of the clerestory monitor roof with a dormered gable design.††

Other elements that contributed to the design and construction of 

the Boott Cotton Mills were also either in place by 1836- 39, or were 

adapted at the Boott as they occurred. Steam heat was in limited use 

at the Merrimack Mills from the start (1823). By 1826 the Proprietors 

of Locks and Canals had insisted that all buildings built on land 

controlled by the corporation were to be of brick or stone, and 

roofs were to be covered with slate or some other incombustible 

material.23 Fireproof construction (the heavy plank floor and timber 

frame system) was, according to a letter written in 1832 in use at the 

Suffolk, Tremont, and Lawrence mills at that time.

 John Reps, in The Making of Urban America, reproduces comments 

on the visual appearance of Lowell at the time the Boott Cotton 

Mills were established. 

Foreign visitors, such as Michael Chevalier in the mid 1830’s, came 

away impressed both by Lowell’s rapid growth and by its character. 

As Chevalier wrote, 

†† The use of connectors was introduced to Lowell around 1845 and 

became common practice thereafter.
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‘The town of Lowell dates its origin eleven years ago, and it now 

contains 15,000 inhabitants... At present it is a pile of hugh factories, 

each five, six, or seven stories high, and capped with a little white 

belfry By the side of these larger structures rise numerous little 

wooden houses, painted white, with green blinds, very neat, very 

snug, very nicely carpeted, and with a few small trees around them, 

or brick houses in the English style... All around are churches and 

meeting-houses of every sect... Here are all edifices of a flourishing 

town in the Old World, except the prisons, hospitals, and theaters.’ 

24

B. Development of the Boott Cotton

Mills‡‡

1. Origins 

Named for Kirk Boott, (Figure 3) the first agent of the Merrimack 

Manufacturing Company and the reorganized Proprietors of the 

Locks and Canals, Boott Cotton Mills was chartered on March 27, 

1835 “for the purpose of manufacturing cotton and woolen goods 

in the town of Lowell,”25 and authorized to “acquire such real estate 

as may be necessary.”26 In 1835, the Boott purchased a 5.7 acre site 

bounded by the Merrimack River on the north, Bridge Street at the 

east, French Street at the south and Kirk Street and the Merrimack 

wasteway at the west from the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals27

(Figure 8). Power for the mills was to be provided by the Eastern 

Canal, constructed in 1835 by Locks and Canals for the anticipated 

Boott construction (and later used by the Massachusetts Cotton 

Mills, 1839): 

Water flowed down the upper level of the Pawtucket Canal, produced 

power in upper level mills by dropping thirteen feet through their 

wheels, discharged into the lower level of the Pawtucket canal, 

continued down the Pawtucket and the Eastern Canals to the Boott 

Mills, and dropped a final seventeen feet through their wheels.28

Boott Cotton Mills leased nine mill privileges from the Proprietors 

of the Locks and Canals in 1835, a mill privilege at this particular 

location being the right to draw 45.5 cubic feet per second from the 

waterway.

‡‡ Much of this section of the report is drawn from two sources: Lowell 

National Park and Preservation District Cultural Resources Inventory, Shepley, 

Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott; Inventory Forms and Research Report for Boott 

Cotton Mills (undated); and The Mill as a System, A Report to the National Park 

Service, Lowell Historic National Park, Draft, October 18, 1983.
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65 Figure 8. Early Plan of Boott Mill yard, 1835. Shows Mills 1 through 4 with eight rows of company owned boarding houses Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, Proprietors of Locks and Canals Collection (L&C), Plan Number 153-025
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2. Mills One through Four 

Construction of Mills #1 and 2 was begun by Locks and Canals (who 

were also the designers), in June 1836,29 while Benjamin French was 

agent at the Boott Cotton Mills. Mills #3 and 4 were completed by 

1839.30 The first four mills were all of approximately the same size, 

157’ 10” x 45’ 6”, and were arranged in a parallel row between the 

Eastern Canal which turned at right angles along Amory Street 

and bisected the company site, and the Merrimack River. All four 

mills were four-stories high with gable roofs, measured 19 x 4 bays, 

and constructed of brick laid in common bond, 7:1 (seven rows of 

stretchers to one row of headers). A projecting, square gable roofed 

stair tower of the same height was located in the center of the south 

facade of each mill, with freestanding gable roofed, two story picker 

houses situated at either side of the tower. 

The four mills were provided water power by four brick barrelvaulted underground raceways that ran perpendicular to the canal. 

It is likely that the water turned 17’ diameter wood and iron breast 

wheels that would have been set into the cellars of each mill (Figure 

9). By 1848, two 9 ‘-4” Francis center vent turbines had been installed 

at the Boott, but the breast wheels at Mills 1 through 4 probably 

remained in operation until 1857 when six 7’ -8” Boyden outward 

flow turbines were installed, replacing all breast wheels. 31 A “View 

of the Boott Cotton Mills at Lowell, Mass.” (Figure 10) appearing in 

the May 29, 1852 edition of Gleason’s Pictorial shows thick smoke 

belching from tall chimneys, one at each of the end walls of Mills 

#2 and 3, probably indicating the presence of furnaces to heat the 

individual mills. 32

Sometime after 1835 (and if the Gleason view is accurate, after 

1852), and before the early 1860s full length dormers were added 

to the roofs of all four mills, as shown in an unlabeled view of 

the mills (Figure 11), dated as c.1862 by the presence of a square 

plan smokestack to the rear of Mill No. 1 and the existence of the 

connectors between the two pairs of original mills. This view, 

supplemented by a c. 1865-80 stereoptican “Views of Lowell Mass. 

and Vicinity” (Photograph 14) shows the four-story tall connectors 

with the present day square tower and belfry tower replacing the 

original centered stair towers. The connectors were added c.1863-

65 and are 75’ long, 94 ‘-97’ deep.33 The wood frame dormers 

creating the fifh floors were replaced c.1880 by the existing full 

story masonry construction. In 1880 a five- story, “L”-shaped, flat 

roofed brick addition was appended to the west end of Mill No. 4. 

The south section of the addition measures 52’ x 68 ‘, the rear which 

returns along part of the north wall of the original No. 4 structure, 

90’ x 28’ - 31’.34
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Figure 9. Section Through the Furnace of one of the Boott Cotton Mills, 1835

Source: University of Massachusetts, Center for Lowell History (UML,CLH), Proprietors of Locks and Canals 

Collection (L&C), Plan Number C112-2259
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Figure 10. "View of the Boott Cotton Mills at Lowell Mass." from Gleason's Pictorial, dated May 29, 1852

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 4636
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Figure 11. Unlabeled view of Boott Cotton Mills, between 1865 and 1881Source: UML, CLH, Lowell Historical Society Collections (LHS)
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3. The Counting House and Outbuildings of the 

First Period. 

Concurrent with the 1835-39 construction of the four original mill 

structures, a Counting House (or mill office) and three smaller 

brick structures of undocumented use were built along the north 

edge of the canal. Thought by some researchers to have been a 

cotton storehouse, a repair shop and storage structure, the smaller 

structures are no longer extant. 35 However, the footprints of two 

appear in a “Plan of the Massachusetts Cotton Mills” (Figure 12) 

prepared in 1839.36 These two structures were demolished prior to 

the construction of Mill #6. The Counting House remains. 

4. Mill Housing 

The first unit of the Boott Cotton Mill housing was constructed 

between 1836-1839. The initial eight rows, each with eight housing 

units, were situated at the four blocks south of Amory Street and 

the canal, north of French Street between Bridge Street at the east 

and Kirk Street at the west. Arranged perpendicular to the canal on 

the north- south axis, each row was 150±’ x 36 ‘, 18 bays long, three 

stories tall with dormer lit gable roofs (Figure 13). Twenty four 

additional units were constructed in the 1850s, all similar in design 

to the first rows, between French and Paige Streets at George and 

John Streets. 

5. Mill #5 

A new weaving mill, Mill No. 5 (the central section of the three parts 

that make up today’s No. 5 mill) was built in 1847- 48. As originally 

constructed, the brick, gable roof mill was three stories, 500’ x 46’ 8” 

and had a Greek Revival four bay wide central projecting pavilion 

with a large centered bull’s eye window in the pedimented gable 

(Figure 14). The pavilion also had a full width granite tablet with 

BOOTT COTTON MILLS in raised letters. The existing square 

towers that now flank the central pavilion, and fourth floor were 

added prior to 1872. 37

In c. 1860 a freestanding 150’ x 50’ picker house was built in the 

northwest corner of the mill yard.38 By 1870 it was raised to fourstories to match the height of the west end of Mill No. 5 West, to 

which it was attached in 1880. The original mill was lengthened by 

a twenty foot connector at that time. The east part of Mill No. 5 was 

extended north towards the river in 1882-83 when the riverbank 

was redefined, with a four-story addition. 
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Figure 12. Plan of the Massachusetts Cotton Mills, 1839

Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 147-29[2], folder 2 of 8
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Figure 13. Front and End Elevations of one of the Boott Blocks of Boarding Houses, dated August 1836

Source: LNHP, L&C Plan Number C112-2260
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Figure 14. 1878 view of Boott Mills, from Hill's Lowell IllustratedSource: LNHP, LOWE 15281
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The Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott report describes 

additional structures thought to date from the pre-civil war period: 

Other buildings dating from this period, but not extant, are a 

rectangular plan structure (perhaps a cotton storehouse) which stood 

at the corner of the Eastern Canal and the Merrimack Wasteway 

(now the site of the No. 9 Mill- Picker House); a small rectangular 

plan building at the west end of the No. 5 Mill (demolished 1860-

61); and an L-plan structure at the yard’s northeast corner (on the 

site of the No.7 Mill), perhaps an early boiler house and fuel storage 

shed.39

6. Cotton House and Mills #8 and 9 

A three-story, 408’ x 45’ brick Cotton House was constructed in 

1865 along the canal, west of the Counting House and across the 

mill yard from Mills No. 3 and 4. Originally 48 by 5 bays, the Cotton 

House was serviced at the north elevation by a railroad spur at the 

second level (removed in the 1880’s). A three-story addition, 24 feet 

deep was put up along the entire north wall of the Cotton House 

in 1900, at which time it appears that the building was divided at 

the interior into what is known today as Mills No. 8 and 9. At this 

time a fourth floor was added and a former picker house (c. 1880), 

four-stories tall, 125’ x 40’ in plan was incorporated into the west 

end of Mill No. 9. 

7. Mill #6 

Mill No. 6 was constructed in 1871- 72. Designed in two sections, 

the east part, running along Bridge Street measures 113’ 8” x 73’ 5” 

(14 by 8 bays) and the west part, along the canal, 237’ 9” x 48’ 2” (29 

by 6 bays). Both sections of the “L”-plan structure are five-stories. 

8. Mill #7 

Construction of the #7 mill and the connector mill between Mills #6 

and 7 in 1876- 78 completed the development of the Boott Cotton 

Mills within the original manufacturing site. The connector runs 

along Bridge Street. 92’ x 23’ in plan. Originally two-stories tall, it 

was raised to five stories in 188640 to match the height of Mill #6. 

Like the first floor of Mill No. 6, the first floor of the #7 connector 

was blind for its entire 11 bays. A door has been subsequently let 

into the south bay, most likely when the coal pocket entrance at 

Mill #6 was enlarged in 1927- 28. The door enters the coal pocket. 

The #7 mill (like the connector originally two stories high) was 

raised to four-stories in 1882 when the northern three bays were 
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added to the first eleven. The addition is the result of the expansion 

of the riverfront land by 25 feet in that year as mentioned in the 

discussion of Mill #5.41 At this same time, a new power house was 

built at the southwest part of Mill #7, incorporating most of the 

earlier boiler house, furnace room and coal pocket, and an octagonal 

plan chimney replaced the earlier square one. 

9. Cotton Storehouses 

Cotton Storehouse No. 1 was constructed on the site of former 

Boott Mill housing (units 57-64) at Kirk, Amory, and French Streets 

between 1879 and 1881. Six- stories high with a flat roof, the brick 

structure measures 158’ x 80’ in plan. Cotton Storehouse No. 2, a 151’ 

x 45’ structure, is along the east wall of No. 1. Two stories tall, it was 

built in 1900. The earliest Cotton Storehouse, No. 3, measures 151’ 

x 36’ and was originally units 49-56 of Boott Cotton Mill housing, 

built 1835-39. It was raised to six- stories from the original three 

between 1889 and 1896. 

10. Power Supply 

As mentioned above, the four mills constructed 1836- 39 were 

powered through underground raceways running perpendicular 

to the canal into the cellar of each of the mills. In 1847-49 Mill No. 

5 was powered by two 9’ - 6” Francis center-vent turbines, one at 

either end of the mill, the raceways passing under the No. 2 and No. 

3 mills. The four original mills were converted to turbine power in 

1857 when six 7’8” Boyden outward flow turbines were installed. 

A Warren turbine was added in 1860. The two center vent turbine 

wheels that powered Mill No. 5 were replaced in 1874-78 by two 6’ 

diameter turbines: “It is possible that the two original raceways to 

the #5 Mill were replaced around this time by two raceways which 

pass beneath the Counting House between the #2 and #3 Mills and 

beneath the central section of the #5 Mill.”42

Prior to this change, a 6 ‘-8” Swain turbine had been installed at a 

one-story wheel house located at the southwest corner of Mill #4. 

Later the turbine was moved to the basement of the 1880 addition 

to #4. The Boott Penstock which provided additional water drained 

from the Merrimack Canal was rebuilt in this same period to 

increase its efficiency. 

Steam power was introduced to supplement the water powered 

turbines in 1873 when a 440 horsepower engine was installed, 

presumably at the area now occupied by Mill #7. By 1878 a 1000 

horsepower Corliss engine was in place.43 The combined use of 

steam and water for power continued as late as 1932, at which time 
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‘’5/8ths of the power at the Boott Mills was produced by steam, 

and the remaining 3/8ths by water.”44

A report prepared in 1902 by Walter E. Parker, (an engineer 

employed by the Boott then and in subsequent years to assess the 

physical plant) states that the Boott leased 17.87 mill powers in 

that year, calculating that at 65 horsepower per mill power, they 

had 1161 horsepower at their disposal, and “The wheels are large 

enough [23 feet] to give about 1500HP more, or a total of 2657.85HP 

if it is deemed wise to use surplus water... there are nine wheels, 

all in fair condition, and with a fall of 23 feet will give... [a total of] 

2657.85HP.”45

Parker closed with the comment that “in the event of a reconstruction 

of the Mills itself their location and style make them [the wheels] of 

doubtful value.” 

Such value was academic, however, because in 1923 a 1700 

horsepower “hydro-electric unit” was put in place at the river side 

of the No. 5 West Mill. 46 The last improvement to the new water 

powered electric system occurred in 1947, when three 33” Leffel 

turbines (482.3 horse power) were inserted into the ground floor of 

the connector at Mills #1 and 2.47
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ENDNOTES 

1. See John Coolidge, Mill and Mansion, Russell & Russell, New York, N. Y., 1967, p. 19- 21; John W. 

Reps, The Making of Urban America, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1965, p. 415; 

Steve Dunwell, The Run of the Mill, David R. Godine, Boston, 1978, pp. 34-42. 

2. Coolidge, Mill and Mansion, p. 20. 

3. Patrick M. Malone, Canals and Industry, Lowell Museum, Lowell, p. 2. 

4. Arthur L. Eno, ed., Cotton Was King, New Hampshire Publishing Company and Lowell Historical 

Society, Lowell, p. 73. 

5. Dunwell, Run of the Mill, p. 39. 

6. Eno, p. 73; Book 6, page 211 of the South District Middlesex North District Registry of Deeds. 

7. Ibid., p. 78. 

8. Malone, p. 2. 

9. Ibid., p. 6 

10. Reps, Coolidge, Charles Cowley, Illustrated History of Lowell, r evised edit ion, Boston and Lowell, 

1868, et al. 

11. Reps, p. 415. 

12. Coolidge, p. 23. 

13. Eno, p. 99. 

14. Dunwell, p. 37. 

15. Coolidge, pp. 24- 25. 

16. Handbook for the Visiter to Lowell, D. Bixby & Co., Lowell, 1848, p. 18. 

17. Coolidge, p. 47. 

18. Handbook, p. 11. 

19. Ibid., p. 12. 

20. Frank B. Hill, Lowell Illustrated, Lowell, 1884, p. 73. 

21. G. W. Boynton, Plan of the City of Lowell, 1845. 

22. Reps, quoting from Michael Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States, Boston, 

1839, pp. 128-29. 

23. Proposals of the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River for the sale of mill powers 

and land at Lowell in the County of Middlesex, Massachusetts, Boston, 1826, pp. 17- 18. 

24. Coolidge, p. 101. 
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25. Chapter 74, Acts of 1835, General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

26. Chapter 53, Acts of 1825. 

27. Middlesex County Deeds, Southern Registry, Book 349, p. 458. 

28. Shepley, Bulfinch, Richar dson and Abbott, (SBRA) Cultural Resources Inventory, Lowell National 

Historical Park and Preservati on. 

29. Lowell Directory, 1836. 

30. Ibid., 1838. 

31. SBRA, p. 7. 

32. Gleason’s Pictorial, May 29, 1852, No. 22, Vol II, p. 1. 

33. SBRA, p. 12 and Inventory form for Mill No. 1, (Mill No. 1). 

34. Ibid., Inventory form for Mill No. 3. 

35. Ibid., p. 13. 

36. Plan of Massachusetts Cotton Mill, November 1839, Middlesex County Deeds, Southern Registry, 

Record Book 405, end page. 

37. SBRA, Inventory form for Mill No. 5. 

38. Ibid. 

39. Ibid., p. 10. 

40. Ibid., Inventory form for Mill No. 7. 

41. Chapter 89, Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

42. SBRA, p. 17. 

43. “Local Historical & General (Scrapbooks)”, University of Lowell Library, Special Collections, v. 1, 

p. 85. Article clipped from New York Herald, May 1, 1878. 

44. SBRA, p. 19. 

45. Report on the condition of the Boott Cotton Mills, Lowell, Mass., 1902, Watler E. Parker, p. 14. 

46. Locks and Canals Photograph 2016 “Boott Cotton Mills 1700 H.P. Hydro-Electric Unit Outside of 

Courtyard Power Hous e, 9/12/1923.” 

47. Locks and Canals Photograph 3225, July 3, 1947, “Guides and Draft Tubes of 33” Lef fel Type 2 

Wheels for Boott Mills.”
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IV. TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY AND 

PROCESS: COTTON PROCESSES, 

BALE TO BOLT, AS PRACTICED AT 

THE LOWELL AND BOOTT COTTON 

MILLS 

The cotton process belies its image as a simple sequence of acts 

performed by unskilled labor. It includes several discrete steps: 

buying cotton, then opening, carding, drafting, spinning, twisting 

and · winding, weaving, and finishing it. Each step requires skillful 

supervision and work of varying complexity. Coordination of the 

many processes is crucial. 

In 1845 Henry Miles described the standard procedure of an early 

Lowell cotton mill in Lowell, As It Was, And As It Is: 

The cotton purchased by agents at the South, and shipped to Boston, 

is brought to Lowell by the railroad, and deposited in storehouses 

ready for use. When wanted, it is wheeled by the yard hands to 

the carding-room, which is on the first floor of the mill. Here the 

bales are opened, and the cotton from different bales is well mixed 

together, in order to give the whole a more uniform appearance. It 

is then made to pass through a machine called the “whipper”, by 

which it is beaten and thrown into a light state. Passing through 

another machine called the “conical willow”, it comes out still more 

opened and cleansed, and is ready for the “picker”. The picker rooms 

are two small buildings standing a few feet removed from the mill, 

and are made fire proof, in order to guard against ignition, which is 

liable to ensue from the great rapidity of the machinery. The cotton, 

laid on to a strip of cloth or leather called an “apron”, is drawn 

into the picker when it is thoroughly opened and freed from lumps 

and dust, and then, passing through the “lapper, “ it comes out in 

sheets, nicely wound round a wooden cylinder. These laps are then 

taken to the card room, and are applied to the backs of cards. They 

go through two processes of carding, the first by the “breaker”, after 

which the cotton passes through the “ lap- winder” or “doubler”, by 

which it is wound again on the lap, and then through the “finisher”, 

by which the carding process is completed. 

Thus far only male hands have been employed, as the work is both 

laborious and disagreeable. The cotton is now taken by female 

operatives who carry it first through the “drawing frame”, by which 

the fibres are laid in one direction, and are brought together in a 

rope- like form, then through the “double- speeder”, which twists 

this into a coarse “roving”, and then through the “stretcher”, which 

still further draws the roving out. In this stage it is packed in boxes, 
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and by means of the “elevator” it is taken up into the spinning room 

above. In the carding room there are two overseers, three hands 

employed with the pickers, two grinders to keep the cards in order, 

five persons employed in stripping the cards--all of the above being 

males. There are likewise in this room eight females attending the 

drawing frames, about a dozen more employed upon the speeders, 

together with three or four spare hands, who are employed by the 

day, the others being paid by the quantity of work got off. Wages of 

the drawers will average one dollar sixty- two and a half cents per 

week; speeder hands about two dollars per week. In this case, and 

throughout this chapter, when wages are given, the net earnings are 

meant exclusive of board. 

From the carding room we pass up to the spinning room. The 

spinning frames in Lowell are all “throstles”, both warp and filling. 

A large mill will soon be completed, where mule spinning will be 

adopted, and this will be the first and only one of the kind in the 

city. In a Lowell spinning room about sixty girls are employed, 

including both warp and filling spinners, and four or five spare 

hands. In the room there are three male overseers, and one man to 

distribute roving. Spinning is light and easy work compared either 

with weaving or attending the speeders, but requires more skill than 

drawing. The pay for this work is graduated accordingly, averaging 

about one dollar and seventy-five cents per week. 

On the speeders, throstles, warpers, and dressers, there are clocks, 

which mark the quantity of work that is done. The clocks are made 

to run one week, at the end of which the overseer transfers the 

account to a board which hangs in the room in the sight of all the 

operatives. From this board the monthly wages of each operative are 

ascertained. 

The filling is now ready for the weaver; but the warp undergoes yet 

further preparation in what is called the “dressing room”. Here the 

yarn is warped off from the spools upon section beams. These beams 

are then transferred to the dresser, who sizes, and brushes, and dries 

the yarn. The yarn on eight of these beams is then transferred to a 

loom beam, the ends of the yarn being drawn in through the harness 

and reed. This is done by hand, and it is the first and only hand 

process in the manufacture of the fabric. 

Warping is regarded as hard work, as it requires constant standing, 

and reconnecting the threads, which are perpetually running off, 

or are breaking between the spool and the beam. The pay is made 

out for so many thousand yards wound on a section beam, and will 

average two dollars and twenty-five cents per week. These wages 

are made high solely on account of the hardness of the work, which 

in other respects is not difficult, and requires no rare skill. For the 
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same reason the various processes are so arranged, that the warpers 

will not be required to work as many hours as the other operatives, 

they being frequently permitted to leave the mill some hours before 

the rest. Dressing is paid higher than any other process, because 

it demands peculiar skill and judgment. This also is female work, 

and the average pay for it is from two dollars and fifty cents, to 

three dollars and fifty cents per week, while from five to six are 

occasionally earned by the most skillful hands. In the dressing room 

are usually three overseers, from six to eight dressers, from six to 

eight warpers, and from six to eight drawers-in. Drawing-in is light 

and easy work, the operative sitting all the time by her window. The 

pay, being piece work, will vary according to dexterity, but will 

average from two to three dollars per week.

We now come to the weaving room, where the materials before 

prepared are put together in cloth. There are two weaving rooms 

to each mill. In each room are two or three overseers, and a boy to 

distribute the filling. In both rooms there are from one hundred and 

thirty, to one hundred and forty weavers employed. Paid by the 

piece, their wages will vary according to diligence and skill, but will 

average from two dollars, to two dollars and a quarter per week. In the 

mills which make the finer kinds of cloth, superior skill is required, 

and wages will average somewhat more. When woven, the fabric 

is carried to the cloth room. Here are employed one male overseer, 

and a number of girls, varying from ten to twenty-five, according 

to the kind of goods made. The cloth is trimmed, measured, folded, 

and recorded. It is then either baled, or delivered to the print works. 

Beside the hands above enumerated, each mill has two watchmen on 

duty day and night, who relieve each other at intervals of six hours 

each. Each room likewise, has one woman, generally Irish, who does 

nothing but keep the room clean, by constant washing, scrubbing, 

and sweeping. 

1

Miles’ account lays out the primary processes of the mill and 

also presents the view of one friendly to but not involved in the 

operation. No work done for piece rates can accurately be called 

“easy,” and drawing-in, while quiet and clean, was subject to the 

same time pressure as other jobs. However, this account provides 

an adequate outline of the basic steps in the process and suggests 

certain areas of skill and strength. Some aspects of the process had 

changed by the time of the building of Mill No. 6, particularly in 

terms of scale, sophistication of machinery, especially in spinning, 

and the breakdown of jobs according to sex. 

The purchase of cotton took place away from the mill, a function of 

the Treasurer and the Boston office. He chose among several basic 

American types of fiber for those suitable to the mill’s intended 

production. Prices fluctuated widely and cotton could be bought 

as futures, as well as in existing bales, so this aspect of the business 
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played a major role in the mill’s profitability. Length of staple, 

diameter, and the character of the fiber, its relative silkiness and 

strength, contributed to determining its I price and suitability for a 

given product. 

The cotton as it came from the farms is ginned to remove the 

seeds, graded according to its quality, and compressed into bales 

of some 800 lbs. before it was shipped north. When the bales 

arrived at the factory they were put into storage, by category, and 

drawn upon as needed for particular production runs. The bales 

were then opened, to allow the cotton to “ relax” and resume its 

normal condition, and mixed in order to minimize the differences 

between batches. Mixing took place as cotton from different bales 

was spread in horizontal layers on the floor, then taken in vertical 

sections for insertion to the initial processing machines. Since the 

cotton still contained considerable foreign matter, the purpose of 

these machines, whether bale breakers, openers, or willows, was to 

begin to separate the cotton from the dirt and leaves as well as to 

break apart the clumps of fiber (Photograph l). 

Cotton from these first opening, mixing, and cleaning stages moved 

to the pickers, which continued these operations and began to form 

the fibers into a continuous sheet of as even a weight per volume as 

possible. All the machines associated with these steps operated in 

similar ways. The cotton was fed into them on a moving feed apron 

of cloth or wooden slats. It then passed through contiguous feed 

rolls which released the fiber into a series of chambers in which it 

was acted upon by whirling arms containing increasing numbers 

of teeth as the material was opened up. The openings in the 

surrounds of these chambers allowed foreign matter to be blown 

out by the winds created. In each successive stage, the machines 

were breaking up smaller clumps of cotton and expelling smaller 

particles of dirt and, ultimately, dust. 

Cotton moved through the first, or breaker, picker and was formed 

into a sheet or lap as it was delivered (Photographs 2 and 3). Several 

of these laps were then fed into the intermediate and finisher pickers. 

This introduced doubling, which would continue through the 

process and by which the products of one machine were combined 

with others from that or like machines in order that through the 

law of averages the thicker places in one product would combine 

with the thinner places in another, leading to an evener product 

being delivered at each stage. At the same time, each machine in 

the series drew out, drafted, or attenuated the materials fed into it 

more than its predecessors, preventing the product from increasing 

in size as it moved through the mill. Despite the many doublings 

which occurred, and they amounted to thousands, the degree of 

drafting was such that the product of the machines diminished in 

size steadily as it moved through the mill. For example, if three 

picker laps were fed into one card, it drafted them by a ratio of 
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Photo 1. Feeder, preparer, & opener in mill#9-4, 1911Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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Photo 2. Feeder, preparer, & opener in mill#9-4, 1911Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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Photo 3. Pickers in mill #9-3, 1911Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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at least 3:1 and produced a lap no heavier than one of those fed. 

Similarly, if 12 ends entered a roving frame together, drafting of 

more than 12:1 produced a subsequent product doubled (12 times), 

but also diminished. In addition to the effect of doublings, various 

feed mechanisms and eveners also strove to detect and compensate 

for inequalities of materials feeding into machines. 

After the cotton moved through the several pickers, it went to the 

card room, entering the mill proper for the first time (Photograph 4). 

Cotton manufacturers learned early that the whirling metal parts of 

the opening apparatus were prone to causing sparks upon hitting 

various foreign matter, stone or metallic, in the cotton, and that 

the cotton dispersed in the air within the machines would ignite 

nearly as easily as the dust of a flour mill and therefore separated 

the picking from the rest of the mill. 

The lap created by the final picker moved to the carding department 

where the removal of impurities and the separation of clumps of 

fiber continued and where the parallelization of the cotton began. 

Instead of whirling arms holding a number of teeth, the machine 

now employed a revolving cylinder completely covered with a 

wire-brush-like material known as card clothing. From the feed, 

the cotton moved onto this cylinder, where it was carried around 

to encounter flats, or bars parallel to the surface of the cylinder and 

also covered with card clothing. As the cotton moved between the 

points of the two arrays of card clothing the fibers were disentangled 

and laid parallel. After moving through a series of these machines 

it was drawn off as a sliver, a rope-like amalgam of parallel fibers. 

The slivers from several cards, up to 12, were then combined in 

a through, or railway, and conducted to a railway head which 

combined the several slivers, automatically adjusting its drafting 

to compensate if one or more slivers did not arrive, thus evening 

out the slivers and drafting them through a series of rolls turning 

at increasing speeds in order to reduce the final product to a size 

smaller than that of any one of the card’s sliver. The drafting 

performed by these series of paired rollers turning at increasing 

speeds also helped lay the fibers parallel. 

The sliver from the railway head moved to a series of drawing 

frames which repeated the action of the railway head, combining 

and drafting a number of slivers (Photograph 5). The number of 

these frames related to the fineness of the mill’s production. They 

offered the last major opportunity to even out the product of 

previous machines.

Once the cotton left the drawing frames, it was clean, parallel, and 

even, but the sliver was much too large to be drawn and spun into 

yarn. At this point the cotton moved through a series of speeders 
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Photo 4. Cards in mill #5-2 west delivering sliver to can coilers, 1911Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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Photo 5. Slivers entering & leaving drawing frames in mill #5-2 West, 1911

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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or, later, fly frames where renewed doublings produced improved 

evenness and substantial drafting reduced the material into roving, 

a smaller but still essentially untwisted form. Terminology in this 

area was not precise, but speeders tended to be designated coarse, 

intermediate, and fine, while the (chronologically) succeeding 

fly frames were slubbers, intermediates, and roving frames 

(Photographs 6 and 7). Each of these machines received slivers or 

rovings of cotton, drafted them between rolls to reduce the size and 

increase evenness, twisted the product slightly and wound it onto 

a bobbin. A difference in speed between the delivery of the roving 

and the bobbin on which it was wound produced a twisting effect 

which helped hold together the steadily diminishing product. A 

bobbin and flyer arrangement, similar to that sketched by Leonardo 

da Vinci, but increased in speed and simplicity of operation, 

accomplished this twisting and winding process. The accumulation 

of the roving on the bobbin had to be precisely regulated in order 

that the package formed would readily unwind as it was drawn 

into the next stage of manufacture. 

The fine roving produced by these machines, the product of 

thousands of doublings and sufficient drafting to have reduced the 

cotton to a point where the next step could provide sufficient draft 

and twist to result in yarn, moved to the spinning rooms where it 

was spun on either ring frames (Photograph 8) or self-acting mules 

(Photograph 9). These machines continued the drafting process but 

for the first time introduced substantial amounts of twist. 

The ring spinning frame took roving placed on bobbins in its creel 

and attenuated it through a series of rollers before allowing it to 

pass through a traveler, or steel clip, which spun around a ring 

within which a bobbin accumulated the yarn produced. Because 

the bobbin and the traveler revolved at different speeds, the roving 

received a predetermined amount of twist. The bobbins revolved 

on spindles, the construction of which played a major role in the 

technological advances of the period. On ring frames, the actions 

described occurred continuously: drafting at the top, spinning at 

the ring, and accumulation on the bobbin. 

The same results could also be accomplished on a mule, a spinning 

machine which also drafted, twisted, and built a package, but in 

an entirely different manner. The mule required more skilled labor 

(and was therefore avoided in Lowell’s early years) but produced 

better yarn from a given stock and used less power. As in the ring 

frame, the roving was creeled at the top of the machine and passed 

through drafting rollers. However, instead of the continuous 

process of the spinning frame, the mule employed a carriage, 

holding many whirling spindles, which ran away from the creel 

as the drafted roving was delivered. As the carriage moved away, 

the roving slipped off the tops of the inclined spindles rather than 

accumulating and was thus twisted, or spun. Once the drafting 
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Photo 6. Slubbing frames in mill #5-2 West, 1911.

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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Photo 7. Roving frames in mill #8-2, 1911.Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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Photo 8. Ring spinning in mill #5-4 West, 1911

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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Photo 9. Mule spinning in mill #4-4, 1911.Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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and spinning cycle was completed, the delivery stopped and the 

spinning of the spindles continued, putting the desired amount of 

twist into the yarn, after which another shift in the machine’s drive 

halted the spinning and initiated the winding- on motion which 

applied the yarn just made to the bobbin as the carriage ran back to 

the head of the machine to resume the operation. Because the yarn 

made on the mule had a softer, loftier construction manufacturers 

continued to use it for the weft, or filling, yarn after adopting ring 

frames to produce the hard twisted warp yarns. 

Once the yarn was produced, it moved to package-changing 

machines to prepare it for ensuing operations. Warp yarns were 

wound onto large spools from which they were drawn through a 

dressing operation which coated them with starch to stiffen and 

protect them from the harshnesses of the weaving process. After 

dressing, they were wound onto warp beams, several thousand 

at a time, perhaps several hundred yards long, before placement 

at the back of a loom. Weft yarns were twisted together, or plied, 

on a machine much like a spinning frame, but with no drafting, to 

produce evener and heavier filling for the cloth. 

All the processes described thus far combined to produce yarn. For 

some mills, that ended the operation. For a cloth mill such as the 

Boott, all that represented preparation for weaving, an interlacing 

of these yarns to produce fabric (Photograph 10). The power 

loom which accomplishes this task utilized five basic motions 

both simultaneous and intermittent. In part because of the timing 

involved and also on account of the fact that these were not all 

rotary motions, as in spinning, the invention of the power loom 

followed that of powered spinning. 

The threads, or ends, were interlaced at a 90 degree angle. The many 

ends wound on the warp beam at the back of the loom were brought 

forward through individual heddles, groups of which are held in 

the harnesses, then through a comb-like device, the reed, held in 

the beater, before being wound onto the take- up beam parallel 

to the warp beam but in the front of the loom. A let- off motion 

allowed the yarn to unwind from the back as a take- up motion 

drew it to the front. A harness, pattern, or shedding motion raised 

and lowered different harnesses, forming an opening, or shed, 

between the warp threads through which the picking motion sent 

the weft, or filling yarn, wound on a bobbin in a shuttle. The weft 

yarn went back and forth through the new shed formed for each 

pick, or passage, and was thus interlaced with the warp. After each 

pick the beater moved forward and the reed beat the weft against 

the edge, or fell, of the cloth. In addition to these five basic motions, 

there were several stop- motions often, and over time increasingly, 

used: the protector motion stopped the loom if the shuttle failed to 

reach a shuttle box after each pick, thus protecting against a smash, 

which would be produced if the shuttle remained in the shed when 
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Photo 10. Duck looms (not-automatic) in mill #3-2, 1911.

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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the beater came forward. Warp and weft stop motions halted the 

loom for broken threads. The automatic bobbin- changing motion, 

introduced to the Boott in 1901, will be discussed below. 

Once produced, the cloth may still need finishing. In the bleaching 

department, the boiling-out process removes dirt and impurities, 

while the bleaching process whitens the material, removing natural 

color from the cotton. When producing corduroy, the pile is cut as 

part of the finishing process. After finishing, the cloth is folded, 

baled, and shipped. 

This summary of operations provides an outline for the processes to 

be discussed in terms of the operations of Boott Mill #6. All aspects 

of the process have received numerous book-length treatments, 

producing a large body of literature for those who wish greater 

depth of information on any aspect. Throughout the course of the 

Historic Structures Report each part of the process from carding 

through weaving will be elaborated. 

For further data of a general nature, one can consult The American 

Cotton Handbook, first published, by a company of that name, in 

New York, in 1941, and written by G. R. Merrill (of Lowell Textile 

Institute), A. R. Macormac, and H. R. Mauersberger. Unfamiliar 

terms are defined in many textile dictionaries, for example, 

Callaway Textile Dictionary by W. L. Carmichael; George E. Linton, 

and Isaac Price published by Callaway Mills, La Grange, Georgia. 
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Photo 11. Bevel gear and main shaft carrying power from turbine #2, below, 1911

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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Photo 12. Main belt drive delivering power to Mill #3, 1911.

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery
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Photo 13. Draper automatic looms in mill #7-3. 1911Source: UML, CLH, LHS, Lowell Museum (LM) Flather Collection, Box 30, Photos 1-13, interior of Boott Mills, Power Transmission Machinery 
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 ENDNOTE 

1. Henry A. Miles, Lowell, As It Is, and As It Was (Lowell: Powers and Bagley and N. L. Dayton, 1845), 

pp. 76- 84.
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V. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF 

THE BOOTT MILLS COUNTING 

HOUSE, MILL #6, FACADES OF MILLS 

#L AND #2, AND THE COURTYARD: 

PHYSICAL ORIGINS TO 1870 A. The Counting House

The Counting House or office of the Boott Cotton Mills was 

constructed between 1836- 1839, concurrently with the first 

four mill structures, and most likely in 1836 so that it would be 

operative when Mills No. 1 and 2 went into production that June.

1

Unfortunately, other than the standing building and partial views 

made during the late 19th century, little documentary evidence has 

been located to trace the original design and early changes made to 

this structure.

2

Rectangular in plan, 100’ x 30’ the Counting House as built had a 

gable roof with a simple boxed wood cornice and flat rakes at the 

end walls. It was situated along the north edge of the Eastern Canal, 

at the east side of the John Street bridge that served the courtyard. 

Two stories in height, it was constructed of common molded red 

brick laid in lime mortar in American bond, 7:1. The granite walls 

of the Eastern Canal formed the foundation of the south elevation, 

while the remaining walls rested on grade. (Rough cut granite and 

brick foundation walls at these locations are visible in the interior. 

Mill #6, built in 1871-72 abutted the Counting House at its east 

gable end wall, with the west tower of the mill partially obscuring 

the first two bays of the north facade of the office.) 

The earliest known view (Photograph 14) of the Counting House 

was made between 1871 (the start of construction on Mill #6) 

and 1882 (when the early square plan smokestack was replaced 

with an octagonal one).

3

 This stereoptican photo (confirmed by 

on site architectural analysis) may be considered as an accurate 

representation of the original appearance of the south facade and 

roof of the Counting House. The south wall is shown as being eleven 

bays long, with ten windows at both floors and an entrance in the 

extreme west bay, the opening set between the two floors so that it 

would communicate with the foot bridge along the east side of the 

canal bridge. The view shows that all windows had 6/6 sash and 

stone sills and lintels, both features remaining today (much of the 

sash has been replaced over time, but enough of it remains at both 

the north and south elevations to substantiate its use). The entrance 

had a flared metal hood similar in design to that installed at the 

second floor of the 1863- 65 towers at Mills No. 1 and 2, and may 
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Photo 14. Stereopticon view of Boott Mill Number 6 and the Counting House, c.1875

Source: UML, CLH, B6456 CN 05
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have been installed at that time. Based on comparative analysis, it 

is more likely that the entrance consisted of a paneled door set into 

a simple rectangular opening with granite sill and lintel, as shown 

in a drawing made in 1936 (Figure 25) the opening was altered 

later.

4

 All other original openings had hammered granite lug sills 

and lintels, a material and technique used at the contemporary mill 

structures (as well as later). The stereoptican view also showed that 

the second floor windows at the south wall were provided with 

louvered shutters, an unlikely feature at a c.1836 vernacular mill 

office structure. 

The gable roof was covered with slate, conforming to the 

requirements of Locks and Canals and the Mutual Fire Insurance 

Company. The original fenestration pattern at both long elevations 

was irregular. Windows at the upper level of the south wall were 

not in line with those below at the second bay from the east, and the 

spacing between sets of windows in both walls varied considerably. 

The north elevation had doors in the fourth through seventh bays 

from the east and in the west end bay, a possible indication of 

the use of the first floor as storage and as an employment office, 

both uses carried on into the 20th century. (The five doors would 

have provided easy access to the mill yard for employees moving 

equipment and machinery, while the west door gave direct access 

to prospective workers.) The room in the west end also gave direct 

access to the stair that served the second, or main floor. The west 

gable end wall had a door in the north bay of the first floor, with two 

windows in the upper level lighting the interior stair. All openings 

repeated the use of hammered granite as trim. 

While no interior description prior to a 1936 plan for remodeling the 

office 

5

 has been located, a large vault of fire proof construction of 

the appropriate period is located at the center of ground floor, inset 

6’ from the north wall. Also, sections (Figure 24) prepared as part 

of the proposed 1936 work detail the timber framing, which from 

a visual inspection appears to be original.

6

 The exterior masonry 

walls were 16” thick, with a 12” brick north- south wall in the first 

floor dividing the structure into two almost equal parts. The east 

half had a 12” x 12” and a 9” x 12” beam spanning the width of the 

structure, let into pockets at the north and south walls and secured 

with iron ties. The west section was framed slightly differently 

because of the stair at the end wall. All cross beams are shown in 

the section as supported by a combination of 4” x 6” timber posts 

and 3-1/2” to 5- 1/2” diameter cast iron columns. It is not possible 

to determine which, if any, is the original treatment as both wood 

(Mill #2) and cast iron (Mill #1) columns were used in the 1836 

period. Floor joists were 2 x 10’s, 8-20” on center, sheathed with 

two layers of 2- 3⁄4”planking, laid perpendicular to each other as 

the flooring. The ceiling at the second floor is shown framed with 

2” x 10” joists, the attic braced with 6” x 6” cross ties, and the roof 

consisting of 4” rafters nailed to 8-1/2” x 8- 1⁄2” “cross beams” which 

are used as purlins. 
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 B. TheFacades of Mills #1 and #2 

As built in 1836, Mills #1 and 2 were identical in size and detailing, 

and will be discussed here as one. As shown on a “Plan of One of 

the Boott Cotton Mills” (Figure 15 undated but determined c.1836) 

each structure was 19 bays long, 4 bays wide, four-stories at the 

south elevation, with partial cellar, five - stories at the north wall 

where the full cellar appears. 

7

 The gable roof was without the, at 

that time, traditional clerestory monitor. Wall thicknesses were 24” 

at the cellar, 20” at the first and second floors. 16” at the third and 

fourth. The brick walls were laid in common bond, 7:1, set in a lime 

mortar raked flush. All openings were spanned with hammered 

granite sills and lintels. The double hung sash was 12/12, in wood 

torus molded casings. The end walls had similar windows in the 

cellar and the first four floors, with two windows in the gable in 

line with the second and third bays below. Molded rake boards 

terminated at short returns of the full length, corbeled brick, cornice 

that ran front and rear of the mill facade. 

Details shown in the c. 1836 plan and section are repeated in a 

“View of the Boott Cotton Mills at Lowell, Mass.” appearing in 

the May 29, 1852 Gleason’s Pictorial (Figure 10). While somewhat 

romanticized, this view is useful in attempting to corroborate 

details shown in the earlier drawings. The view and drawings 

agree on the design of projecting stair-towers at the center of the 

south elevation of each mill. Four-stories, square in plan, with a 

pedimented gable roof (shown with a full entablature in the c.1836 

drawing), the ridge of the roof is tucked neatly into the mill roof 

cornice in the c.1836 section, but projects above the roof eaves in 

the 1852 view. The towers had windows at each of the intermediate 

levels at the south wall, between the 1st- 2nd, 2nd-3rd, and 3rd4th, floors reflecting stair landings at these points. The entrance 

was offset at the first floor, apparently to the west, in both towers. 

The east and west side walls were blind. While the construction 

material is not identified in the c.1836 drawing, the stair towers 

were probably frame, comparable to similar towers at other Lowell 

mills, particularly those at the Massachusetts Cotton Mills (1839). 

Also, the towers that replaced the original towers c.1863-65 are 

frame, and there are no visible scars at the center bays of ether mill 

that would indicate the removal of masonry construction. 

The 1852 view also shows fire escapes leading to ladders at the roof, 

known to be in use by 1836. It also shows chimneys inset slightly 

at each gable end wall along the northern slope of the roof. The 

chimneys do not appear in the c. 1836 drawings, or in “Views of 

Lowell, Mass. and Vicinity,” (Photograph 14), a stereoptican pair 

made c.1865-88.

8

 However, early drawings do call for a furnace at 

these mills, and they would have required chimneys. 
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Figure 15. Plan of one of the Boott Cotton Mills, c. 1836

Source: UML, CLH, L&C, Plan Number C-112-2246
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The c.1836 drawing and the 1852 view are also slightly at odds 

with regard to the height of the freestanding picker houses that 

were appended to the fifth bays from either end of both mills. The 

drawing shows the square plan (21’± to a side) picker houses as one 

and one-half stories with a simple gable roof, two windows at the 

second level, one at the first in the side walls. The later view shows 

the picker houses as two stories tall, with the ridge of a pedimented 

gable end wall reaching the top of the windows in the third floor of 

the mill. There is a window in the gable and four windows at both 

levels in the side walls facing towards the tower, two in the opposite 

side walls. Both graphics show windows at each of the two interior 

levels at the front, and a loading door in the bay closest to the 

tower. Because of the high risk of fire associated with the picking 

process (and requirements of the insurance company) the picker 

houses were almost certainly of brick construction, with corbeled 

brick cornices and hammered granite sills and lintels similar to 

those used at the mill itself. The 25’ long connecting hyphens that 

linked the picker houses to the mill were of unknown construction, 

possibly wood but more likely brick because of the same threat of 

fire. They had a single, small square window centered in the east 

and west walls. Both the picker houses and the hyphens rested 

on granite faced foundation. The picker houses and the hyphens 

were removed prior to 1865, most likely when a large, freestanding 

picker house was constructed in 1860-61 north of Mill No. 4. 

While it has been previously assumed that the continuous dormers 

at both planes of the gable roofs for Mills No. 1 through 4 were 

added with the construction of the connector between the pairs in 

c.1863-65, a comparison of construction details, visual appearance 

and overall size of the dormers at each location raises a question 

as to their being concurrent. They are not identical in design. It 

is suggested here that the freestanding mills were provided with 

this additional illumination prior to 1863- 65. The dormers were 

frame, with ribbon-like rows of 8/8 double hung sash set into 

wood casings and sills. The roofs had simple moulded cornices 

at the eaves. (Unfortunately, the removal of all dormers for the 

construction of the fifth floor c.1881, precludes any investigation 

of structural techniques to substantiate or refute the possibility of a 

pre-1863-65 construction date for the dormers at the mills. 

Also somewhat in question is the exact date for the construction 

of the connector between Mills No. 1 and 2 and Mills No. 3 and 

4. While numerous sources list 1865 as a precise date (Coolidge, 

Crowley, HAER) the 1983 Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and 

Abbott survey, in a convincing analysis, suggests otherwise: 
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Construction dates for the various structures built during the 

Civil War are given in most sources as 1865; however, the large 

increases in equipment reported by the company in 1864 suggest 

that construction was carried out between 1861 and 1863, a period 

during which the mills were shut down three separate times for 

rebuilding and improvement. 1865 may merely be the first year in 

which new buildings were opened for manufacturing.

9

At any rate, the connector was in place by the mid- 1860’s, and its 

original appearance is documented (Photograph 22) in an unlabeled 

view of the same period (Figure 11) in Special Collections at the 

University of Lowell Library.10 The connector was 75’ x 94’ - 97’ in 

plan, originally four- full-stories high, with cellar windows partially 

exposed at the south elevation. It had a dormer lit roof, differing as 

mentioned above from the design of the dormers at the flanking 

mills. The south facade was eight bays of full height windows, 

the combined sills and lintels of one piece of hammered granite at 

the floor/ceiling line. Sash was 20/16 double hung. The wall was 

laid in common bond. 7:1 matching the coursing of Mills #1 and 2, 

but terminated at a finely detailed corbeled and bracketed cornice 

band. The drop brackets were one stretcher wide, ten courses deep 

with the bottom three courses corbeled and the top three courses 

stepped. The corbel table was surmounted with a molded wood 

cornice at the eaves and roof. The shed roof dormer was inset 

approximately six feet from the edge of the roof, and provided 

with a row of full size, adjoining windows with 12/12 sash. The tall 

dormer returned at both ends to connect with the new stair towers 

at the southwest corner of Mill #1 and the southeast corner of Mill 

#2 that replaced the original centered stair towers at this time. The 

outer walls of the dormer connections had a single 8/8 window, 

the wall facing inward provided with a 12/12 window. 

The 1863-65 towers, except for the cupola and belfry at Mill #2 

were identical in design and construction. Square in plan, 16’- 2” 

to a side, they rose five and one-half stories to a point above the 

present day fifth floor of the mills and connector, and terminated 

in a low, hipped roof that was surrounded with a balustrade of 

paneled square corner posts with urn finials, and turned balusters 

supporting a molded hand rail. The projecting eaves at both towers 

had a sawn and paneled wood bracketed cornice with flat frieze 

that was finished with a wood cyma-recta crown. The tower at Mill 

#2 had an exceptional, octagonal wood frame cupola with a bell cast 

copper roof resting on a bracketed cornice of detailing similar to the 

cornice at the tower eaves. The roof had an excellent copper spire 

and weather vane, with a stylized shuttle as the wind indicator. The 

cupola had round headed openings in each of the eight sides, with 

paneled keys at the top edge, and enclosed a large bell inscribed 

“Vickers Sons & Co. Limited, Sheffield, 1873, Cast Steel.” (The date 

on the casting indicates that the bell is either an early replacement 

or simply late in coming, yet it is unlikely that Boott Cotton Mills 
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would have been without a bell to call the workers to the job for 

such a period.)

*

 The west tower also had 7’ diameter wood clock 

faces in each of the three walls visible from the yard, set between 

the fifth floor and a string course just below the bracketed cornice. 

The clock faces were labeled “E. Howard & Co., Boston” and may 

be older than the towers, possibly reused at this location from 

elsewhere at the Boott. 

The body of both towers were identical, with full height paneled 

corner pilasters and beaded 5” horizontal flush siding. The east 

facade of the east tower and the west facade of the west tower 

and single, narrow 1/1 windows at each floor, with shallow caps 

and lug sills. They were set forward towards the front of the wall. 

The walls opposite these walls were blind. The front facades of 

the towers had large openings with three stairs at the first floor, 

presumably for double doors, and were flanked with a single 6/6 

window, to the left at the east tower, to the right at the west. A 

curious tripartite window lit the second floor of each tower (3/3- 

6/6- 3/3), trimmed with a flared metal hood. The third through 

fifth floors had conventional 12/12 sash with molded caps. 

A plan accompanying the Barlow Insurance Survey of 1882 shows 

a rectangular, one story structure in the corner formed by the east 

wall of the tower and the south wall of Mill No. 1. While it appears 

on maps of the mill yard as late as 1929, it is unnamed other than 

“Shed No. 1.” The stereoptican (Photograph 22) shows it as having 

a metal hip- on- concave roof, the west part of the concave roof 

extending over the entrance in the east tower. It had a 1/1 window 

in the east wall, a 4/4 window with molded cap in the south, and 

appears to be of frame construction. The shed was supported on 

brick piers at the corners. C. The Courtyard

The Courtyard south of Mills #1 and 2 was open at the south and 

east ends prior to the construction of Mill #6 in 1871- 72 and the 

#7 connector in 1876- 78. The area south of the mills was partially 

enclosed by the Counting House and two accessory structures 

shown in the 1839 plan of the Massachusetts Cotton Mills (Figure 

12). The east end of the Courtyard was more than likely enclosed 

by an iron fence along the west side of Bridge Street, especially 

since railroad access to the early coal pocket behind Mill #1 was * Gary Kulik, writing in Material Culture of the Wooden Age, states 

the importance of the bell and tower: “Celebrated bell towers, with their bells 

marking the temporal boundaries of the workday, dramatically reinforced the 

new sense of time and work entailed by the factory system; for in industrial 

societies, work would be increasingly defined by the clock rather than the 

available light, weather and the seasons.” Gary Kulik, “Factory System of 

Wood,” in Brooke Hindle, ed., Material Culture of the Wooden Age, (Tarrytown, 

New York), 1981, p. 327.
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provided c. 1850. (The track was in existence until Mill #6, with its 

enclosed track to the enlarged coal pocket was built.) Access to the 

Courtyard was limited to the canal bridge at the head of John Street, 

with a pedestrian walkway constructed along its eastern edge. 

The Sidney and Neff “Map of the City of Lowell,” (Figure 16) 

printed in 1850 shows part of the yard in front of Mills #1 and 2 

laid out into two ovals, each surrounded by a fence of iron posts 

and chain. The grass oval plots were bordered by a single row of 

trees. The areas in front of the mills and the Counting House were 

not planted, and it appears that they were unpaved, although they 

may have been in gravel. With the construction of the new tower 

at Mills #1 and 2, c. 1863- 65, paths were cut across the grass plots, 

centered on the entrances to the two mills. 

Octagonal one-story, frame hose houses appeared in the Courtyard 

in the 1850’s (Figure 10), but their locations are not clear. (Photograph 

22) shows a small brick rectangular structure of unusually fine 

detailing, including a metal bell cast roof, in front of the “Shed No. 

1” at the east tower. Presumably it was a variant of the hose house 

structure. It also has been destroyed. (Records indicate that a tool 

house in this area was demolished in 1955.) Other accessory pieces 

that appeared in this period in the Courtyard included cast-iron 

gate houses controlling the raceways, cast-iron hydrant boxes, and 

the exposed headgates for raceways 3, 4 and 5. These are still in 

existence in front of the connector between Mills #1 and 2. 
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Figure 16. Boott Corporation, from Sidney and Neff's Map of the City of Lowell, Mass. 1850. Mills 1 through 4 are at right, with their picker houses. 

The Counting House and various repair shops are at left.Source: LNHP, LOWE 1039
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 ENDNOTES 

1. Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, SBRA, Cultural Resources Inventory, p. 2. 

2. Shelf 112, “Drawings Belonging to the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Merrimack River, 

“ on file at the University of Lowell Library, Special Collections. 

3. University of Lowell Library, Special Collections, Photo file, Boott Mills Folder. 

4. Locks and Canals Shelf 153, drawing 132 (L & C Office, BCM). 

5. Ibid., 153- 114. 

6. Ibid., 153- 133. 

7. Ibid., Shelf 11 2, Sheet 2246 (U of L, Spec. Col.). 

8. View 33, “Views of Lowell Mass. and Vicinity” U of L, Spec. Col., Boott Mill Folder, undated, c. 

1865- 80. 

9. SBRA, p. 12. 

10. Unlabled view of Boott Cotton Mills, undated (c. 1865-1881) U of L, Spec. Col. Oversize Photos, 

Boott Hill Folder. 

11. Plan of Massachusetts Cotton Mill, 1839.
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VI. OCCUPATION AND USE, 1871- 

1904 

A. Introduction

Discussion of the “Occupation and Use” of the designated sections 

of the Boott Cotton Mills will describe the mill’s purposes and 

operations, the machinery it contained, and the relationships 

between labor, management, and the machines. Because of 

the unusually fine records on these subjects for this mill, the 

National Park Service directed the author to prepare a very sitespecific report detailing with maximum precision the contents 

and operations of this particular mill, neither a generic mill nor 

a generalized treatment of the industry, although the mill will be 

described within a wider context whenever appropriate. 

The result of this approach is an account which follows the 

development of each factor in the story over the time of the mill’ s 

operation, from early in the 1870s until its closing at the end of 1954. 

The cumulative effect of this report will be to acquaint the reader 

not only with the general pattern of cotton mill operations, but also 

with the ways in which changes in technology, management, and 

labor interacted to create a pattern vibrant with detail yet broad in 

scope. 

This chronological section, 1871-1904, will describe the equipping 

of the new mill, including some of the thought which went into 

making choices between alternate types of equipment. The 

machinery selected established patterns of operation which would 

affect the mill for decades. On the other hand, the complement of 

machinery was not static, and its changes over time will also be 

noted, along with the effects of those changes on the workforce and 

on production. At each stage, the capacities of the various pieces 

of equipment, in terms of quantity and quality of output, will be 

considered. 

A mill is much more than a collection of machinery. It has a 

population of its own, both workers and managers, whose daily 

lives are intertwined with one another and the equipment. Their 

place in this operation, their attitudes toward one another and their 

activities will play a prominent role. They can be observed in terms 

of their jobs, their pay, their comments (and those of others), and at 

times of conflict, such as strikes and economic panics. By noting and 

analyzing their commentary and conduct one can determine a great 

deal about their beliefs and how those relate to their performance. 
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A note about traditional ways of referencing these buildings is 

in order. Each of the several buildings in the Boott complex was 

designated by number, most often in the form “Mill #6,” for 

example. Particular floors were indicated along with the building, 

as in 6-1, 6-2, up to 6-5. Since such indicators are both succinct and 

exact, this practice will be followed in this report. 

B. Purposes, Operations, andProcedures

At the time of the planning and building of Boott Cotton Mill #6, 

Lowell’s monolithic cotton textile industry was in the process of 

rebounding from one of its most massive failures in judgment: a 

cessation of manufacture during the Civil War. Anticipating a 

short conflict, attracted by the prospect of selling large inventories 

of cotton at suddenly multiplied prices, the interconnected 

directorates of the several corporations disposed of their stock of 

raw material at the start of the war and were left without the ability 

to compete for the large amounts of work available as the war 

continued. Perhaps their sympathy for their erstwhile and longdefended trading partners in the South, the plantation owners who 

were their suppliers of cotton, misled them regarding the extent 

of the national division they had worked so long to deny and/or 

prevent. Other centers, such as Philadelphia, made great fortunes 

on government work while Lowell idled. Efforts to improve 

facilities or run small production in Lowell compared poorly with 

what might have been. 

By 1870, however, the potential for future profit was clear and 

an expanded capacity seen as a direct route to expanded income. 

Aside from the obvious error of the war years, the mills saw little 

reason to break new ground; past methods should continue to 

produce steady profits. The Lowell model of large production runs 

of a limited number of styles was tried and true, the market was 

rebounding, it was time to gear up to new levels of production. 

However, this period, 1871-1904, represented a time of critical 

importance in the history of the Boott Cotton Mills, one in which the 

company initially exhibited behavior typical of its earlier operation 

and later shifted toward its future course. The latter aspect included 

elements of both sides of its coming career, management acting 

at once intelligent and promising while sowing the seeds of its 

ultimate destruction. 

At first, the plan was to enlarge capacity to do the things which 

had brought success in the past. In order to produce more cloth, 

and thereby, presumably, more profit, the owners enlarged their 

power supply. Steam power had been introduced in the 1860s, and 

in 1873 they advertised the addition of a 440-horsepower engine. 
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By 1878 they operated a 1000- horsepower Corliss steam engine. 

Succeeding engines installed in the 1880s and 1890s made steam 

and waterpower approximately equal partners in powering the 

mill complex.

1

 The resulting increase in the demand for coal was 

exponential. 

At the same time, they expanded their water power by making 

more efficient use of the rights they leased from the Proprietors 

of Locks and Canals. Anticipating the increased power demands 

that Mill #6 would place on the system, in 1872 the Boott prepared 

to install a new and more efficient Swain turbine. Records of the 

Lowell Machine Shop [LMS], with whom they contracted for all 

necessary materials, show that they ordered in October and received 

in November new vertical-acting back and head gates for $2323. 55, 

followed by an order in November by the Swain Turbine Company 

for the Shop to produce an 80” Swan wheel weighing 9409-1/2 lbs. 

and costing $9879.66, which was sent to the Boott in December. 

Extra bracing, castings, various pattern work, and the delivery and 

setting up of the wheel cost an additional $1647.22. In January, 1873, 

the Mill received the two crown gears ($959. 64) which would take 

power off the wheel, and in February the Shop sent the “DoubleActing Regulator” which would govern the wheel’s speed so that it 

would run at a steady pace no matter what machines were turned 

on or off at any moment, thus insuring that operating machinery 

in the mill consistently ran at a predetermined pace. Next, “1 Jack 

Shaft--2 Spiders and Boxes included. Patterns and Plans $1551.58” 

arrived to carry the power away from this great wheel. Finally, 

“3 Plates--9 Stands--12 Boxes--1 Shaft-- 4 Bevel Gears ea. 34 & 35 

teeth chipped--to connect #1 & 2 with #6 Mill [Photograph 11].” 

For a final cost of $2489. 96 the final link had been delivered: power 

could now flow from the wheel to the new mill!

2

Thus were readied the engines, for water and steam both drove 

engines providing the motive power for the new factory, and the 

transmission system to bring the power to the textile machines in 

Mill #6. In effect, the mill was one great machine with an outside 

power source. Once the operations for which the new factory 

was designed are described, the manner of this giant machine’s 

operation will be explained. 

Mill #6 enlarged the plant’s capacity in carding, spinning and 

weaving (described in Ch. II). It also contained a blacksmith shop, a 

large machine shop, a paint shop, and a carpenter shop. The second, 

third, and fourth stories connected to the dressing mill in #7 where 

the yarn made by ring frames in #6 was warped in preparation for 

weaving there.

3

 In most respects, its operation was self-sufficient. 
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The new mill would add to the Boott’s production of sheetings, 

shirtings, and drillings. It would raise the operation’s statistics to 

112, 752 spindles and 1875 workers processing 6,760,000 lbs. of 

strict middlings cotton into 23,920,000 yards of cloth per year in 

1876.

4

Later in this period (1893), the plant’s overall size increased to 

148,412 spindles, 4000 looms, with 1687 female and 523 male 

workers. In a given year it consumed 6000 tons of coal, 800 bushels 

of charcoal, 14,500 gallons of oil, and 650,000 lbs. of starch. Print 

cloth by then offered a new product from the mills.

5

 The Treasurer 

also explored a Korean market for the drillings and sheetings 

during this period as he attempted to extend the market for their 

traditional products at the same time he worked to develop new 

materials.

6

 New products, new markets, and new problems, as will 

be seen. 

By the end of this period, warnings were being sounded regarding 

the mill’s products and policies. In 1904 William Parker, a 

consultant from Lawrence, Massachusetts, provided a survey 

of operations that charged, “It would appear from a study of the 

kinds of yarn used and the character of the cloth manufactured, 

that the mill has attempted to make too great a variety of yarn 

and cloth.” The plant that had begun and for years ran on three 

types of cloth made with a narrow range of coarse cotton yarns, 

now spun, in a six- month period, warp yarns of many different 

weights, or counts (as in hanks per pound), numbered: 7, 8, 10, 13, 

16, 18, 20, 22, 28, 40, 50; weft spun on ring frames: #11, 17, 20, 22, 24, 

30, SO, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85; and “of Mule Filling, every number from 

7 to 85. Here are over 100 different kinds of yarn made of several 

varieties of cotton, linen, flax and [cotton] waste, to be watched and 

kept separate through every process of manufacture. During the 

same time 276 different styles or kinds of cloth were made.”

7

 This 

variety represented a new path for a Lowell mill, one fraught with 

perils for a mill where managers, employees, and machinery were 

accustomed to a simpler production. 

Parker also treated a cause of this changing production: Southern 

competition. However, despite the South’s lower costs, he did 

not see it taking over textile production, but claimed that Lowell 

“is still a good place for a good mill, and I believe it is possible in 

the long run to succeed there about as well as anywhere else.” He 

then initiated a litany which would continue for decades: “I cannot 

see how it is possible to make a satisfactory rearrangement of the 

machinery in the old Boott Mills, and would not recommend the 

expenditure of a single dollar in that direction.” He noted a “lack 

of concentration of machinery belonging to different processes,” 

which found cards in seven rooms, roving frames in eight, ring 

frames in seven, mules in five, spooling in two, and looms in eight, 
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“with some of the rooms so small that the expense of caring for 

them is more than double what it should be. “ 

When it came to suggesting a solution, the consultant offered 

bluntly: 

Your old buildings have perhaps served well their purpose in the 

past, but they were long ago out of date, and are of no value now 

even if they can be considered safe to work in. 

I therefore recommend the entire demolition of the present structures, 

or at least so much of them as are dangerous to work in, or would in 

any way interfere with the best arrangement and construction of a 

first-class new mill.8

An era initiated by new construction thus comes to a close with a 

recommendation of demolition. Coming just thirty years after the 

construction of Mill #6, this judgment underlines the belief it was 

built to out-of-date specifications. The path of this development, as 

reflected in changing equipment and operations, will provide the 

subject for this chapter in the mill’s history. 

C. Building Contents

1. Equipment Installed 

In order to consider the occupation and use of Mill #6, it is 

imperative to understand the machinery installed therein. Since 

the building was equipped during the period in which nearly all 

the textile machinery was purchased from the LMS, owned and 

operated by the same group of investors as the major corporations, 

and since its records survive, we have a remarkably clear picture 

of the contents of the building. Because, it appears, of the Boott’s 

difficulties and consultations over time, a similar level of precision 

remains possible throughout its history, making it perhaps the 

most precisely described example of this type available for study. 

Since its importance lies in its typicality, as has been noted, this 

precision informs not only the history of this operation, but in many 

ways stands as a significant example of the conduct of business 

throughout its companion factories in Lowell and elsewhere. 

Furthermore, the extent of this information permits the creation of 

a picture of the mill’s operations which becomes more and more 

detailed through the accretion of facts over time. 

The value of all this information is further heightened by the lack of 

attention to the city’ s history after the end of the so-called Golden 
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Age of Yankee “mill girls,” foreign visitors, and constant attention 

here and abroad to the great experiment in the industrial wilderness 

of the new nation. Historians have given little attention to the 

playing out of Lowell’ s story, despite the fact that the mills ran far 

longer with immigrant labor and declining conditions than during 

the pre-Civil War years. Thus the information now presented on the 

Boott illuminates not only its activities, but in doing so charts new 

ground on every area of its history: technology, labor, management, 

and their relationships.

A listing of the machinery proposed for #6 provides the basis for 

understanding its original production capabilities and determining 

alterations over time: 9

Proposed Machinery---Card Room.

76 Breaker Cards with 15 in. Doffers.

22 Top Flats each with Wellman’s Top Stripping Apparatus.

1 Lap head with Doubler attached to work with same.

76 Finisher Cards. In every aspect like Breakers.

8 Railway Heads to operate with same.

4 Heads Drawing. 6 Deliveries each, for 1st operation.

4 Heads Drawing. 6 Deliveries each, for 2nd operation.

4 Coarse Compressed Roving Speeders, 24 Spindles 

each 8- 1/2 in. space. (96 Spindles in all.)

6 Intermediate Compressed Roving Speeders. 48 Spindles each. 7 in. space. (288 Spindles in all.)

14 Fine Compressed Roving Speeders. 72 Spindles each. 5 

in. space. (1008 Spindles in all.) 

This group of machines occupied the top floor of the building, 

6-5, despite the weight of the carding machines. While they 

represented a greater floor load than the looms, their calm rotary 

motion contrasted so sharply with the action of the looms that they 

were better located high in the structure. Further, if the structurethreatening looms were to be located low in the building, putting 

the cards at the top was necessary to avoid a convoluted flow of 

materials through the building and the process. In this set-up, 

cotton moved from the Picker House to the top floor of #6 in the 

form of laps (batting) via the elevators, then down through the mill 

until it left as cloth, much like the flow of grain into flour in the 

prototypical Oliver Evans grist mill; both present early, vertical 

models for the assembly line. 

The breaker cards took the picked cotton and separated the clumps 

of fibers one from another while beginning the parallelization 

process which would continue until the cotton was spun into yarn. 
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In each card, a large main cylinder held in a strong and rigid frame 

spun rapidly as the cotton was carried around on it and between 

it and the fixed top- flats; both cylinder and flats were covered 

with card clothing, and this wire-brush-like material held and 

straightened the fibers. 

All the cotton moved first through one of the breaker cards, after 

which, again in lap form, it went to a finisher card and was recarded to increase the untangling and parallelizing effects. The care 

and precision here affected the quality of all operations to follow, 

making this equipment very important to the mill’s quality of 

output. The row upon row of evenly spaced cards stood, covered, 

constantly devouring and emitting streams of white material, 152 

islands of iron and wood amidst a sea of cotton. 

Mill #6 began operation about ten years after the widespread 

adoption of George Wellman’s top stripping apparatus, the 1854 

invention of a Merrimack Manufacturing Company (the Boott’s 

neighbor) employee which significantly affected cardroom work 

and efficiency. Wellman’s invention automatically cleaned the top 

flats of the card of the dirt and waste which accumulated on them 

and which previously had to be removed by hand. Costing $60 per 

card, it is said to have saved $300 of labor annually.10 In installing 

these strippers Boott managers made their card room current in the 

American field. 

The railway and drawing heads took the sliver, or rope-like product 

of the finisher cards, combined a number of them, and then drafted, 

or drew them out, substantially, enough so that the new product in 

each case was as small or light as any one of the slivers which had 

entered the machine. These doublings represented the first of the 

thousands to be employed in order to minimize the imperfections 

of the carding. The slivers moved directly from the cards, or from 

the tall cans into which they had been coiled, into the next machine. 

In other words, sliver was the form in which cotton entered and 

left the railway and drawing heads. At the next stage, the cotton 

began to assume a more recognizable shape and was wound onto 

bobbins. 

In the next production stage, the use of coarse, intermediate, and 

fine speeders represented the best solution available from the LMS 

at the time. For United States practice, using the three machines 

stood as the preferred style, but it did not equal the abilities of the 

English fly- frames which were coming into the market and which 

would soon become dominant. The three-stage speeders copied 

the English system of running the roving through three machines, 

but they did not match the technical superiority of the fly-frame. 

The deficiencies would become increasingly apparent as the Boott 

began to shift to more varied and finer production. 
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The three types of speeders stood in long rows creating aisles 

through which workers and cotton moved. At the coarse speeders, 

slivers were fed from cans into the machine, where they were 

doubled and drawn before being wound onto large bobbins as 

roving, the greatly reduced product of this speeder. The 8 1/2-

inch spacing referred to indicates the distance between spindles 

and thus the size (almost) to which a bobbin could be wound with 

roving before bumping into its neighbor. The bobbins then went to 

the second and third speeders which continued the process while 

accumulating the finer products in smaller and smaller packages. 

Each of these speeders wound the roving onto the bobbin by means 

of a throstle, a device much like the flyer of a spinning wheel, 

which revolved rapidly around the bobbin and made a noise like 

a thrush, it was thought, thus giving it its name. The room full of 

speeders would, of course, sound like a greatly magnified thrush 

accompanied by a cacophony of noises associated with the belts, 

shafts, pulleys, gears, hand-trucks, and employees moving through 

its aisles. 

These fifth floor operations transformed the cotton from laps, or 

sheets, to narrow rovings, perhaps between half the size of a pencil 

and pencil- size. Trucks of these packages of roving on bobbins 

constantly moved through the room to the elevators where they 

descended to the spinning department below. 

The spinning equipment was of two types: ring- and mulespinning. Thirty-six ring frames, each with 224 spindles spaced just 

1 5/8 inches apart, created aisles much more dense with spinning 

bobbins than those on the floor above and also turned the bobbins 

much faster, on the order of 7,000 revolutions per minute (rpm). 

Since the product here was finally thread, or yarn as it was called, 

the close spacing still permitted the accumulation of a considerable 

length of yarn on the bobbin before it had to be removed, or doffed. 

In the years to come, the general trend would be toward larger 

spacings, larger packages, and fewer doffs. 

In frame spinning #6 arrived at the end of an era: in 1870, for the first 

time, the LMS made no throstle spinners, thus ending a transitional 

period, which had begun in 1855, during which they offered both 

rings and throstles.11 Therefore, the decision to install ring frames 

in #6 was an easy one. 

However, in just those years around 1872 revolutionary 

developments were taking place in the technology of spindles, the 

all-important parts that spun the bobbins, and the managers of 

the Boott faced complex choices between the tried and true and a 

variety of new inventions. At a meeting of the New England Cotton 

Manufacturers Association (NECMA) in 1873, A. G. Cumnock, the 
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Boott Agent, described the process and considerations which led 

to his determination of which spindle to acquire. His comments, 

which are reproduced here in part, are significant for several 

reasons. They indicate the extent to which mill operations were 

carried out according to the best knowledge of the agents in charge; 

they underline the degree to which constant efforts in the mills 

evaluated and extended available knowledge; they describe the 

source of technological innovation at this time; finally, they reveal 

the extent to which the corporations shared their discoveries, 

debating them as they did here in a public forum, confident that 

their several companies did not compete significantly with one 

another and therefore did not benefit from the harboring of secrets. 

The men at the bottom of the financial hierarchy but the top of the 

operations ladder, the true cotton experts, recognized that they in 

effect all worked for the same small group of investors who gained 

from their shared knowledge. 

Cumnock’s comments: 

Mr. Cumnock. It became necessary in the mills that I am connected 

with to decide, early last year, what kind of a ring- spindle we should 

adopt; as we were about building a new mill, which required 9,000 

warp- spindles. I corresponded with quite a number of parties that 

had some experience running the light spindles of different makes, 

but could not get any of them to recommend them very strongly, on 

account of their short experience. On the whole, I was compelled to 

decide for myself, and I must say that I commenced my experiments 

with a prejudice against light spindles, for the following reasons: 

In 1871 we changed our spinning in our No. 4 mill, and put in 

60 ring-frames, of 224 spindles each. The spindle weighed 12-1/2 

oz., whereas we were running in the other three mills a spindle 

that weighed 10-1/2 oz. The result of the change was, the heavy 

spindle ran so much better that the girls could tend 1,120 of the 

heavy spindle, to 960 of the light. The roving was changed from one 

mill to the other, and the result was the same. You will of course 

understand my position from my experience with the light and 

heavy spindle on the old plan. 

Before I commenced the experiments on the new styles of spindles 

I had my doubts of getting a fair and correct result, on account 

of the bias of overseers and the influence of patentees upon them. 

So to avoid that, an order was given friend Richardson here, Supt. 

Lowell Machine Shop, to build a frame and put a spindle in, that 

was termed, at the time, the Cumnock-Richardson spindle.

This was an amalgamated thing. (Laughter.) It was, in fact, a 

Pearl spindle with the step a little smaller - the size of the Sawyer. 

This frame was run three months, bands broken and put on again, 
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without any knowledge of the overseer what was going to be done 

with it. At the end of that time, the dynamometer was applied and a 

test was made that gave us 4 778/1000 ft. lbs. per second on a speed 

of 6,096 revolutions of spindle, and of front roll, 72 48/100 on No. 

30 yarn. 

The spindle during the three months ran very satisfactorily, except 

a slight tremor when half full, and of course increasing as the bobbin 

got fuller. 

The next move was to overcome the difficulty just mentioned. Three 

sets of spindles were put into the same frame, one after the other, 

different in size and length, without being able to overcome the 

tremor. So that we settled in our own minds, that should we adopt a 

spindle of this kind, we should take the spindle first made. There are 

now running at the Ocean Mills, Newburyport, 30 of these frames, 

built like the frame tested, in every respect, and I believe they are 

running very satisfactorily. 

My next move was to have Mr. Draper [inventor and manufacturer 

of machinery] alter a frame in our No. 3 mill, and have him turn the 

frame over to me so that it might be run and tested under the same 

circumstances as the frame I have just spoken of. He consented, and 

the frame was changed. It was run under the same overseer; nothing 

was said by me to him as to what was to be done with it, or when 

the test was to be made. It ran ten weeks; the bands wore out and 

new were put on as in the previous case, and by the man that put 

them on the other frames in the room, so that we might get a test of 

the power of the two spindles mentioned, under ordinary running 

circumstances, and not a test got up for the occasion, as I fear a 

great many of them have been that were sent us. The dynamometer 

was applied at the end of the time mentioned, weighed by the same 

party under my direction, as in the previous case, and it gave us 

4 831/1000 ft. lbs. per second, on a speed of 6,591 revolutions of 

spindle, and of front roll, 68 43/100 on No. 34 yarn.12

Cumnock’s statement represents a tour de force of technological 

sophistication. It reveals a technical knowledge and precision 

encompassing experimentation, measurement (of both speed and 

power), and evaluation (of both performance and effect on labor). 

The original correspondence, the Newburyport example, and 

this statement demonstrate the openness with which the agents 

operated. Cumnock went on to describe the continuing assessment 

of the spindle in #6, justifying its extra cost through the efficiency 

of its performance. His discussion enables the modern reader to 

witness the amount of effort, and expertise, applied to the selection 

of what often seem to be simply a random assortment of equipment. 
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Yet despite all these words of explanation, a reader might still 

respond, “But it’s only a spindle. Why all the fuss?” Spindles 

inserted the twist into the yarn as it was being made. Therefore, 

their speed presented a limit on production; increasing it had the 

potential to speed the entire mill. 

In 1871, Jacob H. Sawyer, Agent of the Appleton Mills in Lowell, 

addressed the New England Cotton Manufacturers Association 

and described his new spindle. Through observation and 

experimentation, he had developed a spindle which was supported 

at its center of gravity, ran steadily, and could be run at 7500 rpm. 

“So unwavering was the operation of the faster and lighter spindle 

that even at its higher speeds it produced less breakage and more 

uniform yarn than had been possible with the common spindle.”13 

Samuel Webber tested the frames in the Boott in August, 1876 and 

recorded their performance: 5-1/2 oz. spindles ran at 6020 rpm, 

front rolls turned at 97 rpm producing a draft of 8.80, and requiring 

2.144 horsepower per frame.14 These figures not only record the 

operation of the frames, but also indicate, again, the precision and 

sophistication with which machinery could be tested and evaluated. 

It is interesting to note that the Sawyer spindle, as well as others of 

its type, were the products of experimentation of those who worked 

in the mills rather than of researchers in machine-building shops 

or elsewhere. Little innovation had been taking place in recent 

years: “The cotton- textile machinery industry of the 1870s had 

been softened by three or more decades of heavy demand. In those 

decades the advance in machine technology had been very slow. On 

every hand there were complaints from mill men that machinery 

companies had not changed their models in thirty years.”15 When 

new ideas did appear, they were likely to arise from the shop floor, 

an ominous sign for the future of the quiescent machine builders. 

In addition to the 8064 ring spindles purchased, twelve mules of 

648 spindles apiece (7776 in all) were also installed. The ring frames 

appear to have filled the ell on 6-4 and part of the main part of the 

building, with mules in most of the west section of the third and 

fourth floors. These areas of the building, with their one row of 

centered columns, were ideally suited to accommodate these giant 

machines. 

Each mule was on the order of 75 feet long with a moving carriage 

full of spindles rolling back and forth through an approximately 

5-foot draw; the mule required floor-space of over 75 feet by seven 

or eight feet. Viewed from the end of the floor, they ran in facing 

pairs, the spindles of the mules separated by only a small walkway 

when the carriages of two machines were in their “out” position, by 

about ten feet if both carriages ran in (toward the creeled rovings 

about to be spun). The back or creel of one mule lay to the windows 
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on the canal, that of the next mule facing it, toward the center posts; 

behind that, on the other side of the posts, stood the back of another 

mule facing a fourth with its back to the windows on the yard side. 

The view of the machines in operation showed all these carriages, 

rolling to and fro, each spinning 648 spindles, first running out from 

the creel as the roving was stretched and twisted, then running 

back as it “wound on” the yarn just made; first an expanse of 648 

parallel pieces of yarn five feet long, then diminishing to a scant few 

inches after the rest was wound onto the bobbin; yarn accordians 

constantly expanding and contracting. 

Up until the Civil War, United States manufacturers relied largely 

on the Sharp and Roberts pattern mule, of the style of that English 

inventor of these machines and produced by the Mason Machine 

Works of Taunton, Massachusetts. While these two independently 

developed machines served ably, the Civil War’s onset took 

domestic machine-builders out of the textile- machine business to a 

great extent and manufacturers began to import two English mules, 

one by Parr, Curtis, and Madely and another, the one adopted by 

the LMS after the war, by Platt Brothers of Oldham, Lancashire, 

“both, in all essential features, lineal descendants of the Sharp and 

Roberts mule.”16 These machines reflected the state of the art and 

would not quickly become obsolete. 

The mules, which made a softer, loftier yarn than the ring frames, 

produced the weft yarn for the looms. The yarn from the frames 

made up the warps. They were a high- skill machine, and for that 

reason avoided in Waltham and early Lowell. Their efficiency, 

quality, and flexibility had overcome those feelings. Their presence 

indicated a realization by the Lowell mills that their plans to 

eliminate skilled labor had limitations. A tendency to move toward 

increased variety and quality in product at the Boott accentuated 

the need for mules. 

The LMS also provided 285 looms, each capable of weaving 40-inchwide cloth. These were placed in the ell portion of 1/6, arrayed in 

rows on the second and third floors. Placed in facing lines, they 

left little space between them for the weaver to work in, only about 

1’9”, in fact, while behind them, where access was required for 

bringing in bulky new warps, wider aisles remained. These rows 

ran with the ends of the looms on the canal-to-yard axis of the ell, 

the looms facing toward or away from Bridge Street. Simple plaincloth looms, their thundering operation resounded through the 

building, shaking the very floors and walls. Their limited capacity 

did not suggest a long life for them if the mill were to begin to 

vary its production. While they were probably adequate, loombuilding does not seem to have been an area in which the LMS 

excelled and was one of the first areas of textile-machine-building 

which it dropped in later years. In fact, the Lowell corporations had 

begun in the 1820s by adopting looms like those built in Waltham, 
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rather than those in the Scotch, or Rhode Island model which were 

to prevail, and their efforts were somewhat hampered by that mischoice during the early decades. That event was testimony to both 

their capacity to err, and their ability to survive their mistakes 

through their great economic strength. 

This carding, drawing, roving, spinning, and weaving equipment 

completed the basic productive capacity of Mill #6. Supplied by 

the LMS, it cost $151,982, a large amount of money at that time, but 

at standard rates from the shop which was integrally connected, 

economically, to the Boott and other Lowell companies. In 

general, the choice required primarily consideration of productive 

capacities, coordination of numbers of cards to spinners to looms, 

since they were basic units of production for the time if one were to 

rely on the LMS. However, where there were other considerations, 

as in the case of spindles, where choice was not automatic at the 

time, great care was taken. 

Of course, running this operation demanded innumerable related 

tools and supplies which did not appear in inventories of major 

purchases. Since #6 represented simply another link in a series 

of comparable operations at the Boott, determining the needed 

auxiliary equipment would not offer any difficulty. 

The Card Room required card clothing, tacks and special hammers 

for applying it to the cards, hand cards for stripping or cleaning 

the cards periodically, gauges for adjusting them, and various 

wrenches, chisels, files and other hand tools for dealing with 

everyday problems too minor to call for the assistance of the 

Machine Shop. 

The speeders utilized bobbins, with skewers, for both the feed and 

delivery ends, in addition to a supply of spares. A reel to measure 

and a scale to weigh the roving maintained quality, and various 

hand tools permitted minor adjustments. 

Spinning demanded thousands of bobbins for each type of machine 

in order to both make and transport yarn in the mill. Replacement 

parts, change- gears, testers and hand tools ensured continuous 

operation. 

Warp preparation equipment included several thousand spools, 

with skewers, as well as slasher combs. Harnesses and drawing-in 

hooks provided for final preparation of the warps for insertion into 

the looms. 

The Weave Room machinery’s rough usage necessitated stockpiling the numerous loom parts expected to wear out routinely. 
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Leather straps and pickers, shuttles, and other small parts waited 

in readiness. Weavers’ tools, including combs, reed hooks, and 

scissors had to be provided. Harnesses, heddles, beam trucks, and 

the usual tools all had to be purchased.17

It was these sort of small items which had to be ready at all times if 

the juggernaut of a factory was not to be halted for want of a nail, as 

in the horseshoe-horse-battle routine. While the LMS provided the 

big items, numerous small shops had arisen in Lowell to fill these 

sundry needs. 

Mill #6 also consolidated the mill complex’s service facilities: 

Machine Shop, Paint, Carpenter, Blacksmith, and Belt Shops 

occupied the first two floors and fulfilled the needs of all the 

buildings. Most important was the first, which contained a 

substantial quantity of machines: 

1 Upright Drill. Built in 1842, by Putnam Mch. Co.

1 Gear Cutter, Built in 1840.--Builder unknown.

2 Drill Lathes. (Wooden Frames.) Built in 1840.

1 Traverse Drill. 8 ft. Bed. Built by Lowell Machine Shop in 

1848.

1 Double Lathe. 25 ft. Bed. Swing 24 ins. Built in 1856 by the 

Lowell Machine Shop.

1 Double Lathe. 18 ft. Bed. Swing 24 ins. Built in 1852.

1 Lathe. 6 ft. Bed. Swing 10 ins. Built in 1848.

2 Lathes, 8 ft. Bed. Swing 10 ins. Built in 1868 by Warren 

Aldrich.

1 Lathe, 14 ft. Bed, Swing 16 ins. (Wooden Frame.) Built in 

1836. Builder unknown.

1 Chucking Lathe. (Wooden Frame.) Swing 20 ins. Built in 

1836. Builder unknown.

1 Daniel’s Planer. Built in 1845.

2 Wood Turning Lathes, 6 & 8 ft. Bed. Built in 1845.

2 Saw Benches. Built in 1850.

1 Engine Lathe for turning Pullies. 1873.

1 Boring Lathe.

1 Grooving Machine.18

This equipment, of various vintages, was presumably assembled 

from other locations at the Boott. With it, machinists could make 

numerous and substantial repairs on the textile equipment. 

New gears could be cut to replace those that broke or to fill a 

gap between gears of different sizes when changing a machine’s 

output. Boring of all sorts could produce the innumerable types, 

sizes, and alignment of holes required in metal or wood. Lathes 
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could hold pieces of metal nearly as long as their beds and turn 

out round pieces of regular or irregular shape for shafts, cranks, or 

other round parts. The Daniel’s planer could smooth large timbers, 

its whirling knife-tipped arms a pronounced danger to operator or 

passerby alike. Wood-turning lathes and saws permitted repair of 

wooden machine- and building- parts. The presence of this large 

group of machine tools made the mill comparatively independent 

of outside repair facilities. It indicates the amount of wear and 

breakage that could be anticipated, and, through the size of the 

investment it required for creation and operation, the importance 

of ready repair to the mill’s success. The variety of equipment could 

work on the largest and smallest parts of the machines, the shafting 

system, and even the building. The Blacksmith Shop could bend 

these parts into needed shapes, could harden the steel which had to 

bite against softer metal, and weld together those parts which were 

not bolted or screwed. The role of the Paint and Carpenter Shops 

is parallel and more obvious, but the connection between the Belt 

Shop and the rest of the facility may be less clear. 

There was another part of this system, this factory-as-machine, 

which has been alluded to but not discussed: the complex array 

of shafts, belts, and pulleys which brought the power from the 

engines, water and steam, noted at the outset, to the building, the 

floors, and the machines since described. No machine ran off an 

individual motor. Rather, whole buildings of machines ran off one 

or two motors. How this system was structured and operated had 

much to do with the shape, lay-out, and performance of the mill 

and the machines within. 

The “science” of shafting had made significant advances as 

implemented in Lowell over the years, and its advancement would 

continue at #6. James Geldard wrote, in 1851: 

Mechanicians have always disagreed as to the best mode of conveying 

power from the prime mover to the machinery to be impelled. Some 

prefer gearing, some belts and pulleys, while others prefer a mixture 

of both. Doubtless each system has its advantages. All agree, that, to 

convey the power by the shortest possible train, first to the heaviest 

and then to the lighter machinery, is correct both in theory and 

practice.19

BMC inventor Paul Moody had helped do away with the use of 

gearing in connection with shaft drive during the earlier years of 

Lowell’s development. 

The description of the installation of the Swain turbine, along 

with associated shafting and gears, which initiated this section, 

represented the beginning, as well, of the system of power 

conveyance according to Moody’s system, which ran Mill No. 6. 
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The shaft of the turbine rotated in a vertical plane, and two bevel 

gears turned that power 90 degrees so that it ran horizontally 

through another shaft. This shaft ran parallel to #6 until it reached 

a point from which a leather belt could be run from a large pulley 

on the shaft to a similar pulley in 6-1 (Photograph 12). The belt 

connecting these two pulleys would have been on the order of 20 

inches wide or more, made of several thicknesses of leather, and in its 

entirety consuming numerous cowhides. Once the power reached 

#6 it had to be carried to each of the five floors before it could be 

directed to the many machines. This transmission paralleled that 

from the wheel to the building, but in a vertical plane, with belts 

only slightly smaller than the first revolving around a pulley on 

the first- floor shaft and another on a shaft on at least every other 

floor above. To recapitulate, vertical rotary motion at the turbine 

was turned by a pair of gears and ran through a shaft revolving 

in a horizontal plane, from which it was carried by a belt running 

around a pulley on the shaft to a pulley that revolved on a parallel 

shaft in #6, from which it was carried upward from a pulley on 

that shaft to a pulley on each of several shafts above via more belts. 

Once the shafts on given floors were turning, power could be taken 

from them down to machines below, or through the ceiling/floor 

to machines above, by smaller belts, to a pulley on each machine. 

In one sense, this was a simple system, all mechanical, no electric 

motors, computers, or gear boxes. At the same time, it was a 

highly sophisticated, potentially efficient system with a thorough 

theoretical background by the time of its installation in #6. 

James B. Francis, Moody’s successor, had continued the 

experimentation with shafting in Lowell and in 1867 published 

the results of his studies in the Journal of the Franklin Institute. 

His research was available to the men planning and directing 

the operation of Mill #6. The complexity and specificity of his 

calculations provided a mathematical basis for determining the 

necessary diameter of various shafts according to the amount of 

power to be transmitted and speed of revolution, for example. His 

precise formulae remind that the engineering of these hundredyear-old mills drew upon sophisticated theoretical foundations: 

“To transmit the same power the necessary tension of a belt 

diminishes in proportion to its velocity; consequently, with pulleys 

of the same diameter, the transverse strain will diminish in the same 

ratio as the velocity of the shaft increases. In cotton and woolen 

factories with wooden floors the bearings are usually hung on the 

beams, which are usually about eight feet apart; and a minimum size 

of shafting is adopted for the different classes of machinery, which 

has been determined by experience as the least that will withstand 

the transverse strain. This minimum is adopted independently of 

the size required to withstand the torsional strain due to the power 

transmitted; if this requires a larger diameter than the minimum, 

the larger diameter is of course adopted. In some of the large cotton 
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factories in this neighborhood, in which the bearings are about 8 feet 

apart, a minimum diameter of 1-7/8- inch was formerly adopted for 

the lines of shafting driving looms. In some mills this is still retained; 

in others 2-1/8-inches and 2-3/16-inches have been substituted. 

In the same mills the minimum size of shafts driving spinning 

machinery is from 2-1/8 to 2-11/16-inches. In very long lines of 

small shafting fly-wheels are put on at intervals, to diminish the 

vibratory action due to the irregularities in the torsional strain.”20

This theoretical, but experimentally determined, background 

provides a context for understanding the significance of the 

few preserved comments of two of the planners of the system 

under consideration: Channing Whittaker, a consultant for the 

Lowell Machine Shop and professor at Massachusetts Institute 

of Technology (MIT), and A. G. Cumnock, the Mill’s Agent. The 

surviving Notebooks of the former provide a wealth of detail 

regarding the installation of the LMS machinery in the new 

building. In preparing figures for the installation of the ring frames 

he specified 18 counter-shafts 6’ 8” long and 1-13/16” in diameter, 

with 4 pieces 15’7” long the same thickness.21 Elsewhere he noted 

that all shafting should run at 300 rpm except that of the Weave 

Room, which should turn at 240 rpm. Card Room shafting would 

run 1-11/16” diameter and turn the card cylinders at 120 rpm. 

Railway heads would be driven with “quarter twist belts,” and 

looms would operate at 135 picks per minute (ppm).22

Cumnock recommended, in an 1879 comment, a refinement 

on the question of loom speed; in order to reduce the extreme 

vibration problem which these machines presented, he called for 

both balancing the shafting to minimize its vibration, and running 

alternate rows of looms at plus or minus 3 ppm to help keep them 

out of synchronization.23 The looms were the machines most 

threatening to the structure in which they ran. Each loom threw 

a shuttle and bobbin weighing a couple pounds back and forth 

across its width 135 times per minute. This action created serious 

vibrations at all times. If all the looms on a floor coincidentally 

began to perform this action simultaneously in a particular 

direction, in other words, if all the shuttles started flying first north 

and then south at the same time, the swaying action created would 

be tremendous, and mills were known to have been brought down 

by such coincidences. Cumnock’s precaution would greatly reduce 

such a danger. 

In considering any part of the mill one must keep in mind the 

omnipresence of lines of shafting running down the ceilings of most 

rooms, with belts running from the many pulleys (equal in number 

to the number of machines) to each machine. On the machine, two 

pulleys sat side by side, one the idler, loose on the shaft, the other 

the fixed pulley, fastened to the shaft. When the shafting system 
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was turning, a belt running to an idler did not operate a machine, 

but when an operative pushed a lever moving the belt over onto 

the fixed pulley, the machine started up. In most cases these levers, 

known as shipper handles, were on the machine, but in the machine 

shop the two pulleys in question were located on the overhead 

shafts and drive belts ran to fixed pulleys on the lathes and other 

machines. The machinists turned the power to their machines on 

and off by means of long wooden handles extending up to the shaft 

above their heads. It is indicative of the pervasiveness of this power 

system and its presence in the mill that these handles created the 

appearance of such a forest that the machine shop foreman was 

invariable known as “The Bull of the Woods.” Even the general 

language of the time, outside the factory, shared in such common 

usage, and a person without full occupation was said “to be on the 

loose pulley.” 

The shafts, pulleys, and belts, along with the groups of machines 

described earlier, made Mill #6 one great machine, interconnected 

by purpose as well as literally, by metal and leather. Its collection 

of carding machines, drawing frames, speeders, mules and ring 

spinners made yarn for the looms, which made cloth. When 

it began operation, it became one mill among many of a similar 

configuration in Lowell. 

At the same time, it was an integral part of one complex, the Boott. 

Other sectors of the mill served #6, providing picked cotton, power, 

heat, and other services. Mill No. 6 served the rest of the complex in 

turn, through its several shops for machining, painting, carpentry, 

belting, and blacksmithing. 

The planning of the production line and the selection of its 

components revealed careful and informed thought. Given the 

mill’s goals, determined by the investors and Treasurer, the 

machinery selected indicated full awareness of the equipment’s 

capabilities. The openness of the exchange of information which 

led to the choices described reflected operating conditions 

and revealed the limited nature of competition among the 

manufacturers there. Only one note, the fact that while the LMS 

assumed, correctly, that it would equip these mills, technological 

innovations were coming from people outside its employ, on the 

floors of the mills, introduced a discordant sound to an otherwise 

harmonious situation. Complacency, on the part of either the mill 

or the Machine Shop, carried the threat of relative decline if others 

worked more assiduously to advance. Whether or not such a threat 

could be met by the combined strength of these textile giants 

remained to be seen.
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2. Technological Change 

While, as noted, the mill’s production revolved around the 

particular machinery purchased for #6, the situation did not stand 

still from 1871 to 1904, and the changes in equipment provide a 

good indication of the intentions and performance of the mill’ s 

managers. While it is axiomatic in certain schools of architecture that 

form follows function, in a textile mill function follows equipment, 

and they must change together. As time passed the Boott could 

choose to continue with existing equipment, replace it with newer 

versions of the same general type, or purchase machinery with new 

capabilities, signaling new intentions. All these things happened in 

Mill #6, and in various ways they both suggested management’s 

plans and redefined general operations and workers’ practices 

within it. In fact, the changes demonstrate a furthering of long-time 

practice, the search for automaticity, and a new goal, the capacity 

for complex production. 

During the first dozen years of the building’s use few changes 

appear to have been made. An 1882 Barlow Insurance Survey 

described the activity of #6 as nearly unchanged since its erection. 

Some looms now ran on 6-1, in the south part of the main section 

and in the ell, but functions had not changed elsewhere: 

Communicates with wing of dressing mill in second, third and 

fourth stories by tinned door. A 16 inch brick division wall, about 

30 feet from north end, rises to third story; tinned doors. First story: 

division at north end, blacksmith shop; main portion, machine shop; 

south part and wing, weaving. Second story, north end, paint room; 

main portion, carpenter shop; balance of this floor, weaving. Third 

story, weaving and mule spinning. Fourth story, frame and mule 

spinning. Fifth story, card room.24

Thus for a dozen years or more, operations in #6 apparently 

changed little. In 1879 Boott Cotton Mills had spent over $50,000 

at the LMS for new equipment,25 including 192 looms (at least 156 

of which ran in 6-3 east in 1914, although that was apparently not 

their original location).26 In any case, this purchase indicated only 

an effort to maintain production, not to initiate anything new. 

However, more significant changes were made in machinery 

and production, as will be seen from an analysis of Parker’s 1904 

accounting of the equipment of #6: 

No. 6 Mill.

One row of race looms on each weaving floor.

1st Story Weaving, 287 Draper Looms
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2nd Story 350 Crompton and Knowles Fancy Looms

3rd Story 156 Crompton Fancy Looms 

6 Pair Lowell Mules = 7968 spindles

4th Story 4 Pair Lowell Mules = 5184 spindles 

Ring Spinning = 12096 spindles

5th Story 152 Lowell Cards - 1 Lap Head 

8 Railway Heads 

54 Deliveries Drawing 

4 Lowell Slubbers = 160 spindles 

25 Roving frames 27 = 3018 spindles.27

Reviewing these machines in process order, starting with the 

fifth floor, it appears that management had not replaced the 152 

top flat cards despite the fact that they have been made very 

outmoded by the introduction of revolving flat cards. The eight 

railway heads, equally dated, probably also represented original 

equipment. Drawing heads had increased from 48 deliveries to 

54. These may indicate that some of those purchased by Boott in 

1896 went into #6 as replacements.28 They could suggest increased 

drawing to produce some of the finer yarns the mill produced by 

this time. The Lowell slubbers (identical or similar to speeders) do 

not match the 96 spindles of the original coarse speeders, nor do 

they correlate with any of the modern fly-frames (see below) the 

mill had purchased. Apparently they were some of the replacement 

speeders introduced between 1872 and 1875.29 While they would 

not have brought significant technological change, and in fact by 

their untimely purchase probably delayed such change, they would 

have increased production. What all this meant is that cotton laps 

brought to #6 were still processed through the original carding 

machines despite the advent of the greatly superior revolving-flat 

cards well before this time. The result was at least a loss of efficiency 

relative to competing mills, and likely of quality as well, particularly 

regarding the higher quality production now being attempted 

(described below). Railway heads and drawing frames, as well as 

the slubbers, or coarse speeders, were also original or little different 

and similarly limited the quality of these early preparatory stages 

of production. 

The roving 25 frames, which combine numbers of intermediate 

and fine frames, represent a doubling in capacity over the original 

1296 spindles. While there exists no way to determine which of the 

many frames of different sizes purchased between 1873 and 1904 

operated in Mill #6, most of these spindles had to be on fly-frames, 

since only 800 spindles of the old speeders remained by this time. 

This new machinery represented both modernization of equipment 

and improvement in quality and flexibility regarding the mill’s 

product. 
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The new English fly-frames served particularly well in producing 

the finer yarns toward which Boott moved in this period. Unlike 

the speeders used previously, which could only be changed from 

one count to another through “intricate adjustment of bobbin and 

spindle,”30 the new machines offered truly flexible operation. An 

awareness of the greater ability of these frames to produce finer 

yarn was indicated by the original 1872 purchase of three-stage 

speeders, but that stop- gap attempt by American machine- builders 

to parallel the English advance did not equal the performance of 

the fly- frame. George Sweet Gibb described the situation: 

Not only did the speeder require intricate adjustments, but it 

failed to impart enough twist to the roving. On coarse work this 

latter deficiency was not important, because the roving was strong 

enough to be processed, even with little twist. On finer numbers 

twist had to be imparted to give the roving sufficient strength to 

hold together under subsequent processing. At the time the various 

speeders were being used in America, a new system was being 

evolved in England which grew out of the improvements effected by 

Houldsworth in 1826. This system usually involved the use of three 

roving frames, designated the slubber, the intermediate, and the 

fine roving or jack frame, all of which incorporated Houldsworth’s 

basic improvement... The essence of the improved English roving 

process, which eventually displaced the American speeder, was 

the subdivision of that process -- the use of three (sometimes four) 

machines, instead of one or two... Realizing that the system of 

working roving down to the requisite fineness on three or four 

highly specialized machines was superior to the existing practice 

of achieving that same fineness by repeated doublings through 

one machine, or even by processing through two machines., these 

manufacturers (among them the Lowell Machine Shop) began to 

build three varieties of speeders. This remedy postponed, but did not 

prevent, the triumph of the English fly frames. The basic mechanical 

superiority of the latter over the speeder could not be overcome by 

this rather transparent modification of the American system.31

Thus the Boott seems to have belatedly adopted the English system 

available since long before the equipping of Mill #6. One cannot tell, 

now, whether the original decision and later change were related 

primarily to shifting from coarser to finer production, or from a 

loosening reliance on the offerings of the Lowell Machine Shop. 

Parker’s report underlines Cumnock’s astuteness in choosing the 

Sawyer-spindle ring frames originally, for it appears that up to 29 

of the original frames still ran in #6. More spindles of ring spinning 

(with similar Rabbeth spindles) had been added, however. In 1875 

six new frames for spinning warp yarns had been installed in 6-4, 

along with three in 1885 and 53 frames in 6-5 in 1886. None of these 
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additions and rearrangement s required changes in the building’s 

structure. 

The capacity for mule-spinning in Mill #6 had also increased, again 

reflecting the move toward increased quality and flexibility, the 

mule’s forte. Eight of the twelve originally installed remained, 

and twelve newer 664-spindle mules had been added. Capable 

of producing finer yards as well as being more easily changed 

from one weight and twist to another than spinning frames, these 

machines were eminently suited to a mill interested in producing 

varied, fine products. In fact, altering the amount of twist inserted 

by the mule into the yarn, and the amount of draft, required only 

the relocation of two indicator pins, a change so easily made that 

the pins were protected by locked covers in order to prevent the 

attendants, mulespinners, from changing the settings to suit their 

own fancies (which had more to do with achieving high production 

and thus high piecework wages than matching predetermined 

standards). 

The looms present the technology most of ten and thoroughly altered 

during this period, and the reasons stem from both technological 

change and revised production goals. None of the original Lowell 

Machine Shop looms remained. They had been replaced twice by 

this time, first with LMS looms which incorporated some of the 

technical advances of the 1870s and 1880s such as the Bartlett let 

off (on the warp beam), the Estes, Amoskeag, or Boott take-ups 

(on the cloth roll), and the Stearns parallel motion (on the picking 

motion).32 In each of these cases, the new machines displayed the 

results of continuing effort to make power weaving more consistent, 

by improving the regularity of the let-off and take-up motions, and 

smoother and more efficient, by devising a picking stroke which 

sent the shuttle straight across the loom (avoiding the tendency of 

the pivoting picker-stick to direct the shuttle along an arc). These 

types of changes have been constant in loom engineering from their 

invention until the present day, and indicate the imperfection of 

all methods in the difficult task of combining the varied motions 

which go into weaving. 

The other alteration in the complement of looms in #6 represented 

a much more drastic change. The Crompton and the Crompton 

and Knowles fancy looms (the Crompton and the Knowles loombuilding companies merged), manipulated up to 20 harnesses to 

produce the complex new styles of cloth toward which the mill was 

moving. These looms represented a change, not of degree, but of 

kind in a weaving operation. Technology, labor, and product were 

all significantly changed by their introduction. 

The manner in which they accomplished ends already described 

represents a focus for the change they represent. Instead of using 
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cams turning over treadles beneath the warp to create a shed, these 

looms employed dobby heads on the side of the arch above the warp 

to control the harnesses. These mechanisms consisted of a series 

of levers to lift or depress each harness before each pick of weft. 

They were programmed by an endless chain (a loop) to produce a 

predetermined pattern. Each bar in the chain corresponded to one 

pick; each bar carried, for each harness in use, a riser or a sinker. 

The former lifted levers and caused the corresponding harness to 

be raised. The latter, by not lifting, caused the remaining levers to 

be caught by a knife moving in the other direction which lowered 

the harnesses. Not only could these mechanisms control many 

more harnesses than could cams (on the order of 20:6), but they 

could also be easily changed to produce a variety of fabrics. New 

chains, with a different arrangement of risers and sinkers, needed 

simply to be prepared, away from the loom, and exchanged at the 

time of a style change. 

These looms generally also incorporated drop-boxes which 

permitted the weaving of various weft colors. Several shuttles, 

carrying bobbins of different colors, were held in boxes on either 

side of the loom, with one box always empty to receive the shuttle 

thrown last. Thus a 4 x 4 loom included four shuttle boxes on each 

end of the lay and could weave with up to seven weft colors. If 

one color predominated in the pattern, then several shuttles would 

carry that color and serve a filling- mixing purpose. While all yarn 

may look pretty much the same to the untrained eye, even identical 

counts of yarn spun on different machines or from different batches 

of cotton varied slightly; by intermixing several bobbins of yarn in 

the filling these differences were minimized (compared to the effect 

which would be produced if one bobbin traveled back and forth 

until it was empty in one section of the cloth). 

The drop-boxes were controlled by the same type of chain as the 

harnesses. Before each pick the chain indicated to the boxes, through 

a series of cams, gears, levers and chains, which shuttle was to be 

thrown. On many of these looms, known as “Pick and Pick” looms, 

the picking motion operated simultaneously on each side of the 

loom at every pick, presenting the opportunity to throw a shuttle 

from either side at any time. The operation of these box motions, of 

course, had to be very sure and precise. Any misalignment of the 

box and the race plate would result in the shuttle being thrown out 

of the loom at great speed and considerable danger.

 These looms, by their combination of complex and easily 

changeable warp and weft control, permitted the introduction of 

new styles and shorter production runs. These changes increased 

both the variety of materials and of production problems of all sorts 

which the mill had to face. 
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As the density of the above description of these looms’ operation 

suggests, they presented new situations to everyone associated with 

their operation. Managers had to provide quality yarns; weavers 

had to bring greater skills; loom-fixers had to learn new and more 

precise techniques; even the marketing of the mill’s output had to 

shift. The struggle to make all these changes while maintaining 

production will represent a connecting thread between descriptions 

of those various aspects of the mill’s operation, not only in this 

period, but later in its history as well. These looms, more than any 

other single change in the machinery of Mill #6, suggest the extent 

of the changes going on at this time. They were not installed because 

they could run faster and produce more cloth, but rather because 

they could make a more complex cloth, as well as a wider variety, 

and thus a more valuable product. In other words, they offered the 

hope of increasing profits not by speeding up production of the 

traditional coarse and unchanging materials, but by generating 

smaller amounts of changing and more highly valued cloth. 

The nearly 300 new Draper looms were cam looms (Photograph 13), 

like LMS models they replaced. That similarity serves far better, 

however, to mislead than it does to elucidate the significance they 

represent. For one thing, these looms were weaving corduroy, the 

familiar fabric with certain weft threads manipulated to form the 

loops of a pile, while other wefts create the ground filling to hold 

the fabric together. The loops were later cut to create the brushy, 

soft surface associated with this cloth. So, to begin with, the new 

Drapers introduced a new and complex material, much as did the 

fancy looms. 

Yet the change to corduroy pales in comparison to the real impact 

of these machines. Because of one major change in how they 

operated, these machines were known as “Automatic” looms from 

the moment of their introduction. In weaving on all earlier looms, 

replacing the nearly spent bobbin in the shuttle represented a 

major part of the weaver’s work and set the limit on the number 

of looms one could tend. Since weaving entailed roughly half the 

cost of making cloth, continual efforts had been made to overcome 

this limitation through new technologies capable of replenishing 

the weft without the weaver’s assistance. Most of these involved 

shuttle-changing mechanisms; none was successfully marketed. 

James H. Northrop greatly affected the development of textile 

history when he invented a series of mechanisms which would 

automatically change the bobbin, rather than the shuttle, while the 

loom ran. 

The three key features of these looms, introduced in 1895, included 

a circular hopper, or “battery” (like a Gatling gun) mounted on 

one end of the loom and holding a supply of full bobbins; a filling 

detection system; and a warp stop-motion. Each time the shuttle 

reached the right side of the loom, a filling fork reached in through 
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a hole in the side of the shuttle and felt the amount on filling left at 

the base of the bobbin. If the supply of weft had run out, or nearly so, 

the empty bobbin was knocked out through a hole in the bottom of 

the shuttle and a new bobbin inserted from the battery, all without 

any stopping of the loom or any intervention by the weaver. If for 

some reason the shuttle returned on the next throw without filling, 

the same mechanism stopped the loom. Because this mechanism 

took over such an important part of the weaver’s work, a worker 

could tend many more looms. Since the person’s oversight of the 

larger number of machines could not be so close as it had been 

before, warp stop- motions were required. When a warp thread 

broke, it not only began to produce a defect in the cloth, but would 

soon become entangled with neighboring threads and lead to an 

irreparable fault. Therefore, these looms also carried a mechanism 

which included “drop-wires,” small pieces of metal through which 

each warp thread was drawn; if the thread broke, the drop-wire 

fell, activating a mechanism which stopped the loom. 

In addition to these features which made the loom more “automatic,” 

certain other advances played a part in the novelty of the machines. 

In order that the bobbins when inserted would begin to trail their 

yarn across the loom, the yarn on each was attached to a part of the 

battery. Rather than leave these ends trailing along the cloth, the 

temple on the right side was equipped with a pair of blades which 

cut off these ends. The take-up roll was also altered. Instead of the 

cloth passing over the breast beam and then down onto the takeup, a high take-up roll behind the breast beam guided the material 

to a cloth roller directly beneath. This set-up left more room for a 

fixer to work and also kept the cloth at a more consistent width 

by locating the take- up closer to the fell of the cloth. The Draper 

automatics were also unusual in that they were always made onehanded, with the shipper handle on the left and the battery on the 

right. 

These looms represented a quantum jump in weaving technology, 

and the Boott was very quick to seize upon this opportunity to 

significantly improve a part of its equipment. In fact, it was one of 

the first mills in New England to use these looms. 

Hindsight permits a judgment that Boott management adopted the 

ideal weaving technology more quickly than most other operations 

of its time in buying Draper automatics in the first years of the 

century. Their move toward greater complexity of production, 

along with the increased variety it entailed, also set them apart 

from other mills in the area which operated on their scale. In these 

ways they were leaders and innovators. 

One can, on the other hand, question the wisdom of the 

incompleteness of their changes, the continuance of outmoded 
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carding and drawing practices, in conjunction with the demands 

of the new materials being made. However, little can be said with 

certainty; conceivably, they no longer used these machines and 

brought roving from another of the mills in the complex to feed 

their new fly-frames in #6. But if that were the case, they occupied 

a good deal of space with idle obsolete equipment. 

It can be said with certainty that the new operations presented new 

challenges to all people involved in production, from the office to 

the mill floor. The difficulty of planning and operating under these 

conditions made new demands on everyone, demands for which 

their previous work at the Boott had not prepared them. These 

new demands and the responses to them will be treated in the next 

section, and, indeed, throughout the report. 

D. Activities, the Interaction of People

and Machines

1. Introduction 

People played diverse roles in Boott Mill #6. The machines with 

which they worked have been described, but just as the system of 

shafting brought power to the machines, the workers brought the 

machines to life through their attendance at them. They changed 

the scene from one of hardware to one of activity, and the intensity 

of this activity was fierce. 

Each floor had its own varieties of work, with a predominant mode 

as well as a plethora of associated tasks. Understanding of what 

went on will develop during the course of this report as details 

about the work and the changes in it accumulate, and as the data 

from which to base such interpretation of activities improves. Still, 

knowledge of the machinery installed permits general accounts of 

the human side of the operation. 

In the Card Room workers carried or trucked the large laps of 

cotton, about four feet long and some two feet in diameter, wrapped 

around protruding shafts, from their entry point to the feed of 

the breaker cards, then from that card’s delivery to the feed of a 

finisher. The sliver from the finisher was carried by the mechanism 

to the railway head without assistance. There it was accumulated 

in a tall (3‘-4’) tin can which had to be removed when full and taken 

to the drawing frame. This task was repeated to get the fiber to the 

coarse speeder, after which the roving was wound onto bobbins 

as it progressed. At the intermediate and fine speeders, a worker 

would doff, or remove, bobbins as they became full and replace 

them with empty ones. The full bobbins would be placed in trucks 
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which other workers would roll to the elevators and take to the 

Spinning Department. 

The work described moved the cotton through the first department 

of Mill #6, but it only begins to account for the activity there. 

Different workers cleaned the carding machines, oiled them, 

repaired and re-clothed (with the wiry card clothing) them. They 

ground, or sharpened, the teeth of the card clothing as it became 

dull, mounting emery wheels on the card frame to do so. At the 

opposite ends of the scale, there were Sweepers and Scrubbers who 

worked beneath (very far beneath), the Second Hand and Overseer 

who directed the others and planned production. The contributions 

of all these people were immediately necessary to make the room 

work. 

Work in this room was the dirtiest in the building. The air was 

constantly full of “fly,” loose cotton and dust which is now 

recognized as the cause of the debilitating byssinosis, or “brown 

lung” disease which permanently diminishes the breathing 

capacity of many cotton mill workers. Because of the dirt and the 

heavy lifting involving laps most of the carding employees were 

male. 

The hierarchy in ring-spinning paralleled that in carding. Workers 

doffed and replaced full bobbins, reattached broken ends, and 

picked off threads errantly winding around the drafting rolls. 

Others maintained and repaired these frames, trucked the product, 

cleaned and supervised. Work was less dirty than in carding, 

less heavy, but fatiguing from the constant nature and the stress 

of piecework employment. Women generally tended the frames, 

their jobs defined by the number of “sides” tended: they moved 

up and down the alley made between several frames rather than 

moving around fewer (half as many) machines, thus sides, rather 

than frames, tended. 

The situation in the Mule Room was different. There the chief 

attendant for each pair of machines, the mulespinner, enjoyed 

considerable status. He controlled his helpers, piecers, who helped 

reconnect broken ends (yarns) as the machine ran and doff it, 

stopped, when the bobbins filled up. Despite the fact that these 

machines were said to be automatic, or “self-acting,” mules, his skill 

remained considerable. He was hard to replace, the prime measure 

of worth in the mill’s account books, and therefore well- paid. 

Work here was male, somewhat controlled by the power of these 

men who found their own assistants and regulated admittance to 

their trade. It was also hot and humid, as was ring- spinning, so 

that the yarns could be formed most efficiently. The mulespinners 

generally wore their pants rolled up, wore light shirts or none, 

and worked barefoot. Boys not only brought fresh roving to the 
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machine’s creel, but also moved underneath the yarn to pick up 

broken ends and clean up the fly accumulating there. The machine 

was stopped for this operation; a failure of communication (the boy 

threw up his hand as he emerged) or inattention would result in 

the long carriage running in before the boy was out, catching and 

crushing him against the back beam. Danger from byssinosis and 

other occupational hazards also persisted here, as they did, in fact, 

throughout the building. 

The inexorable process of the cotton directed the bobbins from the 

mules to the weaverooms, where they would be placed in shuttles 

and provide the weft for the various cloths. Work there followed 

the same pattern as on the floors above: all the supervisors and 

more skilled jobs, such as loom-fixer, the province of males, women 

in machine-tending and cleaning roles. The hierarchies of work 

within areas will become more clear as the tale unfolds. Since the 

work of the Weave Room was greatly affected by the changes 

during this chronological period, detailed discussion of it will 

appear in conjunction with the technological causes. 

2. Effects of Technological Change 

In most aspects of the work experience for those in Mill #6, 

technological change had little impact during the period 1871-1904. 

Card room employees operated the same machines at the end of the 

period they had at the start. Some roving machinery had changed, 

but its differences applied more to the quality of its production 

than the difficulty of its operation. The work of the overseers and 

fixers in changing from one weight of roving to another would 

have been simplified by the new fly-frames where change-gears 

easily accomplished this task. Inserting a gear with a given number 

of teeth into the drive train of these machines gave a particular 

ratio between the weight of input and output. Racks of these gears 

offered a wide choice and easy adjustment. 

In spinning, little had changed regarding ring-spinning work. For 

the mulespinners, there were simply more spindles to tend, thus 

more help to oversee and greater distances to walk while running 

the longer machines. The work itself had altered little. 

The weavers’ work bore the brunt of technological change. In 

addition to the innovations already mentioned regarding the 

Draper loom, it also required a new self-threading shuttle. In these 

a clamp grasped the base of the bobbin; when the bobbin emptied, 

it was forced out through a hole in the bottom of the shuttle and a 

full bobbin was pushed down into the clamp; the yarn on the full 

bobbin, attached to the battery, slid down into a self-threading slot 

near the nose of the shuttle. The significance of this aspect of the 

new loom lay in the realm of worker health. The fastest way to 
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draw the thread through the ceramic eye in the side of the old-style 

shuttle was with a quick, sucking “kiss” on the eye. If the person 

who performed this operation previously had a communicable 

disease, such as tuberculosis, the second weaver was in line to 

contract it. In any case, lint, dyestuffs, and other foreign matter were 

inhaled, hence the name “kiss- of- death” shuttle. It is no wonder 

then that 70 percent of textile operatives died of respiratory disease 

at a time when only 4 percent of Massachusetts farmers died from 

this cause.33

The new Draper looms altered a weaver’s work in many other 

ways, as well. While accounts of a weaver’s job assignment at the 

Boott do not survive for this time, a contemporary description is 

available which provides a detailed, blow-by-blow description of 

the sequence of tasks involved in just one part of the job, maintaining 

the filling-, or weft-supply. The Draper Company’s advertising 

described a weaver’s work on both the old and new looms: 

To appreciate the great saving introduced by the filling-changer, 

it may be well to note the operations gone through by a weaver 

on a plain loom, when the filling is exhausted. They follow in 

the sequence now recorded, the weaver performing the following 

functions: 

1. Releases the shipper brake. 

2. Pushes the lay back. 

3. Withdraws the shuttle. 

4. Puts the reserve shuttle in the shuttle box on the l ay. 

5. Pulls the shipper handle to start the loom. 

6. Rubs the cloth below the breast beam to prevent a thin place, i f 

light goods are being woven. 

7. Picks up the discarded shuttle again. 

8. Pulls the shuttle spindle out on an angle. 

9. Removes the empty bobbin or cop tube. 

10. Puts in a new bobbin or cop. 

11. Pulls off a sufficient length of filling. 

12. Snaps the shuttle spindle back into place. 

13. Holds the filling over the shuttle eye entrance. 

14. Sucks the filling through the eye. 

15. Places the shuttle in its holder, where it remains until needed. 

Now, this series of performances must be gone through with every 

time the filling is exhausted. On one loom, the filling may run 

from one minute to twenty minutes, according to the size of the 

yarn and the amount of yarn in the shuttle. The average time is 

perhaps six minutes, especially if we count the number of times that 

the weaver must come to the loom to start it up when the filling 

breaks. With a loom having an average of six minutes between such 
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stops, the weaver must come to the loom once every six minutes. If 

running eight looms, he would have such a duty oftener than once 

a minute. With the Northrop loom, on the contrary, the weaver can 

fill a hopper containing 25 bobbins, which, with the same average of 

running time, would last two hours and a half, without requiring 

attendance. A co-operating feature of great advantage with the 

Northrop loom is the fact that the weaver can fill the hoppers at 

convenient intervals, rather than be forced to come to the looms 

with irritating regularity.34

This description suggests the magnitude of the change this new 

equipment represented. 

One can also infer, something of the tedium and strain associated 

with this aspect of the work. The stress involved in trying to keep 

a full assignment of looms operating, whether eight or twentyfive, can be pictured as the weaver moves from loom to loom 

either because they have shut off or because they are about to, with 

the knowledge that every idle moment of loom time represents a 

diminution of the weaver’s pay. 

Data on other day- to- day operations in this period is thin. However, 

William Burke, a former Boott Agent, did comment in a general way 

on the comparison between work and workers between 1838 and 

1876. At the latter date, 32 weavers tended 194 looms, or just over 

six apiece. Overall, each operative in the mill produced 3.33 lbs. 

per hour. He also noted that whereas in 1838 11 percent signed the 

payroll with marks, in 1876 25 percent did. Health had improved 

since the change from 76 hours a week to the 60 hours of this 

time; the incidence of “bowel complaints, dysentery, typhoid, and 

fevers” particularly during August and September had declined, 

perhaps because the operatives were able to eat breakfast before 

going to work.35 Technological change had enabled the mills to 

reduce hours, increase production, and anticipate healthier, if less 

educated, workers. 

While job descriptions do not survive for the Boott in this period, 

areas in which management was investing its time can sometimes 

be determined. In 1875 F. A. Leigh gave a presentation on “Repairs 

in Cotton Mills” to the New England Cotton Manufacturers 

Association. He noted: 

Seeing that most of the movements in cotton machinery are made by 

friction, and the loss of speed for want of proper cleaning or oiling 

causes breakage and irregularity of work, we can understand how 

necessary it is to keep all the parts clean and perfectly oiled. 

Most of the breakage will be caused by neglect, and nearly all could 
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be avoided by cleanliness, proper oiling, and keeping machinery 

level, so that the shafts, rollers, and bearings are not bent down by 

untrue floor, caused generally by the settling or overweighting of 

buildings.36

Burke describes the necessary conjunction of labor and management 

efforts required to maintain machines and buildings alike.

The performance of the Boott with regard to these last issues will 

emerge over time. As to the oiling, however, there is a carefully 

prepared account for the early part of this period. A. G. Cumnock 

in 1868 described the system devised at a mill in Nashua, New 

Hampshire and adopted by the Boott under Burke, his predecessor 

as agent. Instead of placing a ten-gallon can in each room for the 

workers to draw from, they used one 1500- and one 600- gallon 

tank in a separate room: 

We have a man in charge of this room, who has under his care two 

sets of Oilers,--one set in the Mill and one set in this room. Except 

for the Weaving and Dressing Rooms, which are serviced once 

each week, it is his daily practice to fill the set of Oilers in the “Oil 

Room,” weigh the amount of oil put in the Oilers that belong to 

each department, try the Oilers to see that they are in good running 

order and are not leaky, and then carry them into the department 

that they are charged to. Here he passes to each hand his or her Oiler 

and receives the Oiler that has been in use the previous day.37

This system kept leaking oil cans out of the mill, monitored use, 

and insured that the workers were prepared for necessary oiling 

every day. The importance of this seemingly minor aspect of the 

mill’s operation was indicated by Cumnock’s 1879 comment that 

after tests at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that 

his oil had excess “gum” in it, he switched to another with equal 

resistance to evaporation and as high a flash point and gained 8 

percent in power.38 This attention to detail offers partial explanation 

of his high reputation: 

“When we personally first knew Mr. Cumnock he was agent of the 

Boott Mills in Lowell, and the Boott for a great many years, under 

Mr. Cumnock, seemed a great success. Mr. Cumnock went out, and 

almost immediately the Boott became close to being a disastrous 

failure, recovering its high position in later years under Treasurer 

Flather. When Mr. Cumnock left the Boott he went into the 

Appleton, which wasn’t then a great success, but Cumnock made it 

a tremendous profit maker.”39
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Given the innumerable opportunities for variation in the 

performance of people and machinery in a cotton mill, the 

importance of intelligent over sight seems clear. 

Cumnock’s attention to the oil’s “flash point” raises the issue of 

fire protection at the mill. The danger of fire in cotton mills had 

been recognized soon after they began operating and American 

operators had been devising precautions against the threat since 

shortly after they began to build mills. Since they had initiated 

mutual fire protection insurance in those days, all their knowledge 

had been pooled for decades and the shared knowledge led to strict 

rules for construction and fire prevention, rules which an individual 

owner broke at risk of his insurance. 

The basic reason for the concern stemmed from the fact that cotton 

dispersed in the air has almost the same tendency to combust as 

grain in the air at the grain elevator, the only difference being that 

cotton requires a spark. The potential for sparks was plentiful, 

however. Picking represented the most obvious process-associated 

fire danger, with volumes of cotton dispersed in the enclosed space 

and rapidly moving metal parts available to strike a spark on any 

foreign matter. Picking houses separated this process from the 

rest of the mill structurally early in the industry’s development. 

However, the cotton throughout the mill offered a ready source of 

fuel should a fire begin. Danger from oil-soaked floors, overheated 

bearings, accumulations of waste, and oil or gas lamps meant that 

the threat of a fire capable of consuming a mill with great rapidity 

was constant. 

In connection with fire protection, outside attention was regularly 

applied to the Boott. Both the Proprietors of Locks and Canals 

and the Associated Factory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies 

conducted quarterly inspections of the buildings and yard to check 

the condition of sprinklers, hydrants, extinguishing apparatus, 

and the rooms themselves, as well as certain employee conduct. 

James Francis, as acting Agent of the Proprietors, wrote in 1882 

to complain that during one such inspection, Overseer “J. Henry 

Traver was not present as required.”40 It should be noted that most 

of Francis’ reports on the Boott contained no major complaints. 

The 1878 regulations to which Francis referred spelled out the 

duties of the people involved throughout the mill and yard: 

WATCH RULES. 

Duties of Overseer of the Watch.

1. To sleep in the yard, or in the immediate vicinity thereof. 
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2. If absent from the yard, to go there on every alarm of fire given 

in the yard or in the neighborhood. 

3. To remain in the yard during dinner time of the Mill Hands. 

4. To see that hose and other fire apparatus are always in good 

order. 

5. To see that the Sprinkler Gates be kept lighted up at night; or 

that a lighted lantern be kept near them. 

6. To accompany the men employed by the Locks and Canals 

Company to make the quarterly inspections of the fire apparatus; 

and to have with him at the time, all of the Watchmen then on 

duty. 

7. To take the management of fires occurring in the yard, in the 

absence of the Agent or Superintendent; unless someone else be 

appointed for this duty. 

8. To keep every watchman thoroughly instructed in the use of the 

fire apparatus. 

9. To send promptly for the Agent, Superintendent, and Fire 

Brigade, in case of fire in the yard or upon the corporation. 

10. To see that the ladders, platforms, and doors of hydrant 

and sprinkler houses, be kept clear of ice, snow and other 

obstructions. 

11. To see that the Yard Gates be kept closed in case of fire in the 

yard; and to appoint a man to tend the gates in case of fire and 

admit only such persons as may be useful. 

12. To see that one axe and one bar are near each entrance upon the 

main or first floor; and two blankets and two pails of water at 

each entrance of each room. 

This description is noteworthy not only for its account of procedures, 

but also for the specificity regarding conduct in this regard which it 

reveals. The responsibilities and duties of watchmen and overseers 

were similarly defined. Watchmen not only had to be present, but 

also had to “drive watch-clock pins” hourly from “ringing out” at 

night until work resumed, and at any other time the mill was idle, 

whether lunchtime or holidays. This practice involved carrying a 

clock to a series of stations around the mill and using the pins, or 

keys, at those locations to mark a recording paper in the clock, thus 

proving that the circuit was being made, and at the times set. If 

they found a fire, they were to fight it, but as soon as it appeared 

impossible to overcome, the watchman had to sound the alarm and 

immediately turn on the sprinklers on the floor involved. All iron 

and tinned doors were to be kept closed and there were to be no 

gaslights in the idle mill except where repairs were being made. 
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Overseers were supposed to be always in their rooms when they 

were “lighted up” and to turn out the lights and shut off the gas 

when leaving. They were responsible for seeing that wet dirty 

waste not be left in the room (it might spontaneously combust), 

keep steam pipes free from waste or lint, prevent belts from coming 

into contact with wood, where friction might start a fire, and see 

that fire-pails and barrels were kept full of water. Each room was 

required to have between one and three full pails per 1,000 square 

feet of space, according to the fire hazard there: Card Room, 3 

pails/1,000 square feet; Ring Spinning, two; Mule Room, three; 

Weaving, one. Friction matches were barred from the complex, with 

the exception of the Counting Room, and lighted cigars and pipes 

were forbidden not only in the mills, as cigarettes were, but also in 

the yard.41 The threat of fire hung over the mill like a pall. Everyone 

connected with the mill was aware of the possibility of plant, and 

jobs, disappearing, if not in a puff of smoke then in a billow. The full 

force, intellectual and coercive, of the mighty Lowell corporations 

was continually brought to bear against this danger. 

These “Regulations” are significant for what they say about what 

was expected of workers and by way of fire-fighting equipment 

in the various parts of the mill, and also for the amount of effort 

they demonstrate being directed by this mutual company of 

manufacturers to minimize losses despite the persistent fire danger 

associated with loose cotton, potential for sparks, over-heating of 

machines through friction, and numerous other sources mentioned 

or implied. They reflect the careful study applied to mutual 

problems and the extent to which the Lowell corporations operated 

as one huge unit on such concerns. 

3. Courtyard 

The regulations noted above suggest some of the activities 

associated with the Courtyard at this time. Hose and hydrant 

houses figure prominently there, as the attention given to them 

would suggest. The yard appears a nearly closed world featuring 

ordered plantings and walkways, a place for mingling on the way 

to or from work or during breaks (Photograph 22). Later in the 

period, it became a sparer scene, with plantings and most houses 

removed (Photographs 23 and 24). 

Railroad tracks entered the yard from the south on the west end to 

bring cotton into the complex. Another set came around the end of 

#3 Mill and served the #8 Mill at the 2nd story level. These rail lines 

represented the only freight traffic in and out of the yard. All other 

movement came across the bridge adjacent to the Counting House. 

Workers moved in and out of the mills, and horses brought smaller 

items to the loading docks at various buildings. 
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These activities which can be grouped around the concept of 

technological change display the inter-connectedness of the efforts 

of management and labor, the rippling affects of any changes, and 

at times unforeseen consequences associated with technological 

change. Working to prolong the life of the machinery involved 

structural issues such as the levelness of floors, not addressable 

by workers, as well as oiling and cleanliness, which could not 

be accomplished without the workers’ active cooperation. When 

decisions were made to produce different and less coarse materials, 

machines changed, as did the work associated with them. 

Sometimes, as in the elimination of the “kiss- of- death shuttle,” 

changes initiated for one reason had unforeseen consequences 

(beneficial to the employees in this case). At the same time, although 

hours had been reduced over decades, all evidence suggests that 

the work became more stressful as the machinery ran faster and 

an employee tended more machines, an issue which will recur 

throughout the report. 

4. Working Conditions 

While the “powers that were” continually patrolled the mills 

inspecting conditions relative to fire danger, they took no collective 

note of other general conditions there. Simply put, plants were 

expensive to replace and mutually insured, while effects of other 

conditions were of concern only to those involved in a given mill, 

they believed. The disparity between their attitudes towards 

buildings and toward workers was made clear by the fact that 

the Commonwealth of Massachusetts felt compelled to inspect 

the mills’ premises to protect the employees against too harsh an 

implementation of the system which equated minimum expenses 

with maximum profit. The state’s experience with the cotton 

industry had shown that management was not to be trusted in 

matters regarding safety, sanitation, age laws, or even in meeting 

their agreement to pay fairly the low wages they offered. Rufus C. 

Wade, Chief of the Massachusetts District Police, Chief Inspector 

of Factories, Workshops, and Public Buildings, and Fire Marshall, 

noted 26 inspections exclusively for textile factories: 

“To see that machinery is properly fenced, to look after the safety 

of the elevators, to inspect the sanitary arrangements of the mill, to 

see that the means of egress in case of fire are adequate, and that all 

young persons under twenty-one years of age employed in the mill 

have had or are receiving a proper elementary education, to prevent 

time-cribbing, and to see that the particulars clause (modelled on 

our [England’s] own) is complied with, so that every weaver may 

be able to check the amount of his or her wages. “42

T. M. Young, the Englishman who cited Wade, points out the 

difference between the two countries’ regulation: “The ’particulars 
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clause’ which I have mentioned differs from ours in allowing the 

employer a margin of 5 percent in the length of the cuts; that is, the 

employer may agree to pay 20 cents per cut of 50 yards, and require 

the weaver to weave 5-1/2 yards for 20 cents.” The prospect for a 

5 percent extra profit is not overlooked.43 The trend toward rising 

regulation in Massachusetts will reappear, as will the struggle 

over who does what for how much, and how the production 

gets measured. Even when things are running smoothly there is 

continual evidence of mistrust on the parts of both management 

and labor of the other side’s intention and practice. The role the 

Commonwealth took lends credence to labor’s complaints of unfair 

treatment. 

The inspections by the Commonwealth indicated mistrust of the 

operators of textile mills in general, but Parker raised questions 

about the attitudes of the Boott owners in particular as revealed by 

conditions in their mill. He noted the unpleasant conditions in the 

Boott, then commented on the type of employees who would come 

to work in these dark and gloomy buildings: 

Operatives are not attracted to such rooms, seek employment there 

only because they cannot get it elsewhere, and are constantly 

discouraged in an honest effort to do good work. The best of 

machinery cannot be arranged or operated to the fullest advantage 

in such mills. The alleys in No. 6 and other mills are very poor, 

especially in the weaving... Excessive vibration of floors, and rocking 

of whole buildings is a common complaint throughout the yard, and 

it is unnecessary to say that machinery, however well made, set up 

and cared for, is soon injured more or less by such conditions.44

These handicaps on employee performance represent an on-going 

aspect of the Boott story. 

While there exist few accounts of the precise operations within 

the mill at this time, Young’s description of an operation of the 

“tackler,” or loom fixer, and a “room girl,” in the Merrimack Mill, 

literally next door and in all ways a very similar mill, suggests the 

nature of their work: 

I could never understand how one tackler could attend to so many 

looms until I saw one of the Merrimack tacklers change the beams 

of a loom and ‘gait’ it up. Before the old warp had run out the new 

warp was brought in from the sizing-room on a trolley which carried 

four beams held vertically. As soon as the last cut was finished the 

tackler and a woman specially employed for such work took the loom 

over from the weaver. The woman helped the tackler to ‘gait’ each 

beam, and in fifteen minutes the whole job was done and the loom 

running again. The weaver had nothing to do with the new warp 
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until the loom had been started and was working smoothly. 

Nor had the weaver to take the woven cloth out of the loom. The 

whole roll was lifted out (not pulled off) and examined by a ‘roomgirl’ in the room in which it was woven. If any serious faults were 

discovered in the piece, the room-girl would report them to the 

overseer, and the weaver would be’ called up’ before the whole room. 

This ’calling-up’ is felt by the weavers to be something of a disgrace, 

and the superintendent assured me that its disciplinary effect was 

even greater than that of the fines.45

The descriptions, and Young’s surprise at the procedures, underline 

the extreme subdivision of work and the careful manipulation 

of labor in the Lowell system to produce the desired effect: cost 

efficiency. The weaver had no part in this work, it not being a part of 

the job in which weavers received training. The loom-fixer, a more 

skilled worker (and one of the first to organize successfully, in the 

powerful Lowell Loom-Fixers Club) played his limited role assisted 

wherever possible by cheaper help; to this was added a system 

to embarrass a weaver with “serious faults” in a piece. Each part 

minimized the role of any individual in order that no one person 

could exert much influence over production. The mill’s need for 

the knowledge of the fixers combined with the fixers’ organization 

to make them among the most able to resist the pressures of the 

system. The lesser skill of the weavers subjugated them to a style of 

operation which not only paid by the piece in an effort to maximize 

control, but also worked to ridicule people in front of their peers in 

an effort to squeeze a last bit of production out of them. 

These aspects of conditions at the mill, as revealed by the attitudes 

of the Commonwealth and the owners, mark elements of the 

ways in which these mills worked. The issues they raise represent 

constant elements in the story of the Boott Mills. 

5. Wages 

The record of wages paid to Boott workers offers a view of daily 

earnings, indirectly of annual income, of management’s idea of 

the relative importance or difficulty of replacing certain skills, and 

provides accounts of numbers of workers of different types in the 

mill’s departments. Payroll records for this period are far from 

complete. However, wages for most of the jobs associated with #6 

have been uncovered, permitting assessment of the employees’ 

income and their changes during the years 1873- 1904. 

In 1874 one can connect pay-rates and overall income for one 

month. A payroll entitled “Five Weeks Ending Saturday Evening, 

November 7th 1874” gave Names, Time, Rate and Amount for the 
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workers in one of the Card Rooms. It did not indicate the location of 

the room, but such work would not vary significantly from room to 

room, as spinning or weaving might, so this payroll can represent 

6-5 (and in fact could well be for 6-5). The payroll also gave hours 

worked each day during the period for each worker. The standard 

week consisted of five days of 10 hr. days and 8 3/4 hr. on Saturday. 

First, second, and third hands, the room supervisors on 

corresponding shifts, worked in the vicinity of 300 hours at rates 

ranging from 17.5c to 28.2c per hour, accumulating $52-$72 for the 

five week period. Card Grinders, men who sharpened the teeth of 

the card clothing with emery rollers, earned 15.5c an hour, worked 

about 290 hours, for income of $43-$46. Oilers and Elevators, men 

who oiled the cards and ran the elevators, earned 12.7c, worked 

nearly 300 hours and got $38. Most of the 26 Card Room employees 

fell under the heading “Roving and Strippers,” those who tended 

the roving frames and those who stripped, or cleaned, the cards 

periodically as dirt and waste clogged their teeth. While the hourly 

rate varied only from 12.5c-12.2c, hours worked ranged from 300, 

in the cases of four men, to as few as 1 1/2, with 17 people working 

24 hours or less, essentially an hour a day when they workd at all. 

Pay for these people, all of them women, was listed as roughly $20, 

2/3 that of the men while the women worked more than ten times 

as long. Whether they were drawing on past or future earnings, or 

if there was another explanation, cannot be determined. Last were 

4 women listed as Sweepers earning 7.5c- 6.0c, again generally 

for 24 hours, for a total of $14-$18. These amounts are similarly 

inexplicable. The fact that many workers put in less than a full 

week reflected the widely recognized custom of running the mills 

only as market conditions demanded; many workers therefore 

were employed just 9 months per year, a factor to be borne in mind 

when considering the already low hourly or piece rates. 

This payroll presents other interesting information, as well. A 

perusal of the names in each category not only injects real working 

people into the history, unusual in itself at this date, but also enables 

a reader to witness the shifting ethnic composition of the group, 

with the English males concentrated in the top jobs, and increasing 

numbers of the presumably more recent immigrants with Irish and 

occasionally French surnames, and increasing numbers of women, 

in the lower-paid positions: 
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1st, 2nd and 3rd Hands 

Ruel J. Walker 

Alonzo M. Bartlett 

Solon R. Henderson 

Frank Caverly 

Patrick Callahan 

Grinders 

James Casey 

Martin Sexton 

John Kenyon 

Patrick Riley 

J. Irving Forbes 

Oilers and Elevators 

Hugh Golden 

James F. Kenyon 

Hiram Gilman 

Anson S. Miller 

Roving and Strippers 

Michael Riley 

John Magee 

Thomas McCarty 

Lewis LaCross 

Michal Lalley 

Charles Ragan 

Richard Gray 

William Cahill 

George McEwan

Roving and Strippers 

Maggie Lynch 

Elizabeth Kennedy 

Mary McVey 

Sarah Boyle 

Sarah Leach 

Alzina Lord 

Mary Sullivan 

Mary Ells 

Harriet Jay 

Elizabeth Adams 

Julia Roach 

Rose Boyle 

Kate Dorothys 

Bridget Hart 

Emma Sheldon 

Ann Ward 

Bridget Costello 

Sweepers 

Mary Fitzsimonds 

Margaret Murphy 

Mary Keefe 

Mary Sullivan46

Later pay records from the period do not include names, but one 

can assume the ethnic breakdown would be more similar than 

different from that of the Card Room. 

Although the other payrolls do less in terms of individualizing 

workers, they describe not only the pay scales, but often provide 

indications of the ways the jobs were divided by task and the 

number of employees working in a given room. A September, 1875 

pay scale for the Card Room in #6 gives numbers of workers and 

tasks while detailing a pay-cut relative to the 1874 rate, for most: 

1875 Sept 29. Card Room #6. 

The present price paid to the Overseer, 2nd hand, 3rd hand and 

grinders will remain as now - viz

Overseer 28. 2 Second hand 

21.2

Third hand 16.5
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Grinders 15.5 Elevator 12. Oiler 12.

One stripper will 

strip

76 breakers @ 12. per hour

One stripper will 

strip

76 finishers @ 11. 8 per hour

Two lap boys 76 cards each @ 6.0 per hour

Ally hands 4 in all @ 4. 5

Lap head man 10 per hour

Railway and Drawing6.5 per hour

Last head front side 7.5 per hour

Int 

Fine 

All day sweeper 6. 5 per hour

Scrub 9 per hour

Coarse Speeder per hank 3 7/8c

Int Speeder per hank 3 3/4c

Fine Speeder per hank 4 3/8c 47

While the positions described here do not correspond exactly to 

those used in 1874, they do reflect a lowering of wages in most 

jobs, as suggested by the initial reference to the “present price,” 

as well as a shift from hourly to piece rates for speeder tenders, 

previously lumped under Roving and Strippers. This payroll also 

more carefully indicates the number of positions with very low 

pay, as in the case of lap boys and ally (alley) hands. 

In January, 1876, just 4 months later, pay scales were either the 

same or lower for each job, and those on the speeders had been 

switched from piece rates, paid for hanks in 1875, back to hourly. 

Fifty-seven workers were noted, with numbers in several positions 

not indicated. Later that year, wages were further cut in the same 

room. This pay list also gives daily rates and seems to indicate 

a slightly shorter day than had been the case in 1874, perhaps 

reflecting the impact of the new Massachusetts’ 10-hour law for 

women and children. 

Salaries in the Spinning Departments followed a similar course. 

Work in the new mill coincided with a wage cut in mule spinning 

as indicated by the figures to the right in the chart below for those 

associated with this work throughout the mill: 
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1873 Mule Room

Dec. 5.

Three 2nd hands 2. 25

Two 2nd hands present price 2.12 1/2

Three 3rd hands $2.00 1.90

Two 3rd hands 1.95 1.85

1.12 = 1.05 = 90 = 84 = 65

Doffers 1.04 = 96 = 84 = 78 = 60 =

58 =

Back Boys 54 =

Roving hands 1.56 at present 

1.42

Sweepers, .65

# now

Plattes 1800 spindles 33 yarn 10 1/4 to 9 1/2 

mills

Plattes 1560 spindles 33 yarn 10 1/4 to 10 1/3 

mills

Plattes 1248 spindles 33 yarn 12 1/2 to 11 1/2 

mills

Plattes 1200 spindles 38 yarn 14 1/2 to 13 1/4 

mills 

Sharpes 1296 spindles 29 yarn 12 to 11 mills

Sharpes 1296 spindles 33 yarn 14 1/4 to 13 mills 

Sharpes 1104 spindles 33 yarn 14 1/2 to 13 1/4 

mills

Smiths 1180 spindles 29 yarn 12 to 11 mills

Smiths 1180 spindles 33 yarn 14 1/4 to 13 mills

Smiths 512 spindles 29 yarn 17 to 16 mills

These lists lay out wages for all mule-related work, throughout 

the Boott complex. In some cases, different people doing the same 

work were paid different rates, as in the two groups of second 

hands making $2.25 and $2.12-1/2 per day. Aside from these five 

men, everyone was taking a cut. Most of the rates indicated are per 

day, and the contrasts between them are striking: back boys get half 

what doffers earn, and doffers make half or less what third hands 

earn. The mulespinners are paid in mills per pound according to the 

number, or weight, of the yarn they are making on the two mules 

(thus 1800 spindles, for example) they tend. Finer yarn required 

the same amount of time to spin and might break more often, so it 

commanded a higher price per pound. 
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A continuation of the list describes the staff of the Mule Room in 

No. 6: one second and one third hand, 2 doffers, 7 back boys, in 

addition to one mulespinner for each pair of mules, 6 men. Wages 

in No. 6 Spinning declined in 1873, 1875, and twice in 1876. These 

figures indicate that No. 6 started up in time to experience the first 

pay- cut along with the rest of the Boott. The mules’ importance to 

the mill had not diminished, however. In 1895, Mill #6 supplied 

filling, primarily if not entirely spun on mules, to looms in Mills #l, 

#2, #3, #6, and #7, 882 looms in all, according to the memorandum 

of V[ictor] I. Cumnock, Superintendent.48 

Pay for the No. 6 Weaving first appears for July 17th, 1876; parallel 

schedules for other rooms on that date represented a pay-cut, so 

these may also be presumed to mark a reduction (strike- overs 

represent pay before the markdown): 

Overseer 27.5 per hour & .75 1.00 per day additional at the end of 

every three months 

Second Hand 20¢ 18.5¢ per hour 

Third Hand 16¢ 15¢ per hour 

Bobbin Boy 11¢ 9¢ per hour

Room Girl 10¢ 9¢ per hour

Scrub 8¢ 7¢ per hour

Weaving “M” 24¢ per cut 18* 

 “D” 25¢ per cut 19* 

May 2, 1878 C 19 1/4* 

 K 17 3/4* 

 Argyle 16 3/4* 

The asterisked figures indicate the 1878 reduction of the 1876 

reduction, a third cut.49 These pay-cuts were not restricted to the 

Boott, or even to Lowell. They were reflections of the declining 

economy nationally during the decade. Their significance lies in the 

degree to which the owners were able to pass along the effects of 

such economic difficulties to be borne by the workers. 
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After these cuts, weaving prices climbed steadily, although it would 

be some time before they equalled the level before the 1876 cuts. 

While the change in rates is clear, total earnings cannot be since 

the weavers’ piece work wages were susceptible to influence by 

changes in loom speeds, the machines’ downtime, and the amount 

of repairs the weaver had to make because of faulty yarn. 

Furthermore, the disparity between prices for 1st and 2nd quality 

goods was often about a 50% penalty. In addition to calling people 

up in front of their fellow weavers when their cloth had faults, there 

was also this economic penalty. Since the faults could be avoided 

when the cloth was cut for use, these “fines” were in effect more 

incentives than real reflections of damage.50

As fancy weaving appeared in the mills, piece rates skyrocketed. 

In fancy goods, faults did lower the value of the material more, 

providing part of an explanation for the extreme difference 

between rates for 1st and 2nd quality. Since they required much 

more supervision from the weaver, fewer looms could be tended, 

so prices per unit woven had to be much higher. When instituting 

production of a new material, setting prices was speculative, 

thus a sudden early revision often occurred. As the mill’s entire 

production process became geared to the new product, problems 

diminished and weavers produced more cloth and rates gradually 

fell, theoretically without a loss of total pay. 

Average daily earnings in the New England cotton industry in 

general declined through 1879, recovered somewhat to mid-1883, 

declined again through 1884 and 1885, before rising through the 

end of 1890. After 1893 the slide resumed as employers continued 

to use wages, and hours worked, as a buffer against any factor from 

market softness to increases in the price of cotton. Earnings declined 

steadily from 1895-1899. The national boom and bust economy was 

continually revealed in textile wages.

In addition to these cuts, the cotton workers’ position relative to 

those employed in other industries also worsened. Both before and 

for 45 years after the Civil War, cotton mill operatives’ real earnings 

declined relative to those in other industries.51 According to Fidelia 

O. Brown, writing in Cotton Was King: “The depression of 1893 

cut back work to half-time at all the mills for several years; many 

operatives who formerly would have protested now felt fortunate 

to have even starvation level pay.”52 When the entire economy was 

in trouble, the workers had little hope for improvement. 

Average pay per worker per year at the Boott had risen slightly by 

1902, to $7.8064/week, or $398.13 per a year of 51 weeks. Average 

1900 Massachusetts cotton mill employee income was $351.06, 

placing the Boott slightly above average (in cotton, not relative 
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to industry in general), as would be expected for a mill making 

increasingly fine products. According to Robert G. Layer, however, 

Lowell workers averaged just under 38 weeks of work in 1902, 

which would have meant less than $300 earned. 

In terms of efficiency, Parker calculated that Boott operations were 

wasteful and over-expensive, utilizing 11.42 hands per thousand 

spindles, despite its complement of Draper looms, whereas the 

work should require but 8 3/4 to 9 hands per thousand spindles.53

Poor pay, perhaps similar to other Lowell companies, and inefficient 

utilization of people, a bad combination from anyone’s perspective. 

6. Labor-Management Relations 

The paucity of direct evidence in this period requires that most 

information for assessing labor-management relations comes from 

reading between the lines in the data. When Agent Cumnock 

observed in 1875 that in the time from January to April he had 

more complaints regarding tender yarn than in the three years 

previous, one hears the faint echoes of innumerable complaints 

from spinners, weavers, and everyone else working with the yarn 

because it made their work harder, less remunerative, and of lower 

quality and came at a time of falling pay, as well. However, there 

exists no other record of the complaints, in part because there was 

no grievance mechanism. Cumnock blamed the bad cotton crop. 

At the same time and place, the meeting of the New England 

Cotton Manufacturers Association, Cumnock and others noted and 

objected to the description by George E. McNeill, a Deputy State 

Constable, of conditions relating to education and factory children. 

McNeill quoted a mulespinner: 

“Am English born, and have been a spinner since ten years of 

age; have a wife and two children; herself and child, 12 years old, 

work in the mill, both weaving; the wife, with girl’s help, tends ten 

looms, running 156 picks per minute; some tend eight, some seven, 

if without child help. Wife and child leave the house four days of the 

week at 6.20 in the morning, and do not return till about 7.30 at 

night. Wednesdays and Saturdays they leave home at 5.30 A.M., 

and on Saturdays go home at about 4.15 P.M., so that they are 

absent from home on four days of each week thirteen hours, ten 

minutes; Wednesday of each week fourteen hours; Saturday of each 

week, ten hours, forty- five minutes, making for absence from home 

each week, seventy-seven hours and twenty-five minutes. Of this 

time they occupy about three hours going and returning, and four 

and one-half in eating dinner at the mill, as they never go home to 

do that. 
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“For breakfast we manage thus: I get up at 5 o’ clock, and wife and 

children lie till I get the meal ready, then they get up, we eat and 

start for the mill. Question. Do you mean to say that you get the 

breakfast? Answer. Yes, sir. Q. Who gets the dinner? A. We make 

it and put it in the pails over night, because we have no time in the 

morning. * * * * * “Q. Is this the common way in which operatives 

in your city live? A. Yes, sir. Q. All of them A. Yes, sir; those that 

have wives that go to the mill. Q. They all live pretty much as you 

now describe A. Yes, sir; all the difference will be, that some of them 

put up their dinners in the morning, and we put up ours at night. “ 

I do not know of any city in the State of Massachusetts where all the 

operatives live in this way. [Cumnock] 

Speaking of the manner in which they get their breakfasts, and how 

they manage their children who go to school, he says: 

“I have my youngest child at home; she is ten years old; she gets 

her own breakfast from what we leave for her on the table. Then she 

washes herself, or comes to the mill, and we wash her.” 

Mr. Cumnock: Gentlemen, that is a public document of the State of 

Massachusetts. 

Mr. Sawyer: This shows the bias of the man who is employed by the 

State of Massachusetts to attend to these matters. Referring to the 

times, some thirty years ago, when “the agent and the spinner sat 

in the same church, belonged, perhaps, to the same Masonic lodge, 

when the deacons of the church were overseers,” he says – 

“The hands (workmen) were expected to vote as the head (agent) 

directed, but as both were generally more truly united in interest, it 

was in most cases less hardship than now. 

“Then, the spinner might leave, and become carpenter, teamster, 

blacksmith or grocer. Now, we have that dreadful thing, a fixed 

factory population,--not fixed as to locality, but as to handicraft. 

A hand!! A hind!! An operative!! Brought up in the mill from 

childhood; lulled to sleep by buzz of the spindles, or the incessant 

thud of the loom; short of stature, mostly without beard, narrow 

chested; somewhat stooped; a walk not like the sailor’s, but equally 

characteristic; not muscular, but tough; flesh with a tinge as though 

often greased; cheeks thin, eyes sharp, --a man pretty quick to 

observe, and quick to act, impulsive and generous, with a good deal 

of inward rebellion and outward submission. A lover of freedom, 
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but not to be humbugged with non-interference theories unless it 

touches his beer; an advocate of short hours by instinct. Except to 

obey, the agent and overseer are nothing to him.”54

McNeill’s accounts cannot be overlooked, nor can these men’s 

reaction. They describe the confrontation between the regulatory 

government and a defensive management. 

Work in the cotton mills in this period was not attractive, particularly 

for the operatives in non-supervisory positions. The work was 

monotonous, dirty, often hard. Pay was low and pay- cuts routine. 

Workers in the Boott were handicapped by old and insubstantial 

buildings badly laid out for their current use. The machinery varied 

from state-of- the- art to archaic. Yet management also suffered 

from some of these problems, and their remedies lay beyond the 

reach of those who worked in Lowell. Only the Treasurer and 

the Directors, from their Boston offices, could remedy these ills. 

Cumnock obviously thought “his” mulespinners did not share the 

difficulties of the one quoted. His feelings tell a good deal about 

his belief, and deserve consideration. The case cited could be an 

extreme one. But on the other hand, the quote is likely to be a t least 

suggestive of a way of life of which we have few glimpses. 

The second part of McNeill’s account noted a clear- cut change from 

the early days of Lowell, when workers were seen as an impermanent 

part of the production process. He saw little opportunity for them to 

move from one occupation to another. It is significant that the mill 

managers who saw little truth, apparently, in the mulespinner’s 

tale, did not deny the second story by calling the existence of a fixed 

factory population untrue. It seems they objected to the description 

of the person but did not call into question his existence. In any 

case, their personal indignation appeared clearly: they did not want 

to believe that they were party to a system which degraded those 

who worked under their direction. 

Despite these men’s concern for the employees, important 

interactions with them take place out of their control. Letters from 

the insurance company to the Treasurer provide an example: 

We acknowledge your letter of this day notifying us of an injury to 

your employee William Winters on Mch. 24, 1888. 

We approve your course in removing him to the Lowell Hospital, 

and shall be ready to reimburse you for all reasonable expenses 

incurred in his behalf. Please obtain the affidavits of the witnesses 

of the injury as to the cause and manner of its occurrence.55
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The Boott provided medical care, and with the other major Lowell 

corporations supported the hospital, but the relationship was 

plainly a legalistic one and a search for useful testimony began 

immediately. Another letter provided a further view: 

We are in receipt of your notification of today of injury occurring to 

employee John Cox on Aug. 17th 1888. 

From your account we should think no liability could attach to 

the Boott Cotton Mills, the only question being whether the hatch 

ought to have been closed. We shall be ready to reimburse you for 

reasonable expenses for doctor’s services. 

If Cox threatens to make trouble we should prefer to have your agent 

do something moderate for him, if a suit can be avoided in that way. 

Please keep us advised of any developments.56

The question of liability was paramount, and though liability was 

denied, the denial seems weak, both in its concern about the hatch 

and in the company’s willingness to pay small amounts through 

the agent to avoid the risk and expense of a suit. This willingness 

appeared commonly in these letters. In effect, it routinely used 

small pay-offs to prevent suits for damages or continuing claims. 

It indicated a careful and distant relationship between employer 

and worker, one in which the power was concentrated on the side 

of management, for its protection, and in which the worker had 

few rights beyond immediate care for injuries stemming from a 

workplace accident. 

The power and organization of the owners also appeared in a letter 

to the Boott Treasurer in 1888 from the Associated Textile Industries. 

This letter announced an assessment on members “to pay for aid on 

account of strikes during the year ending April 13, 1888.” The Boott 

owed $133.47 of the $5994.23 total, based on its payroll.57 In an era 

which was virtually pre-union for textile employees, employers 

already confronted them from a position of organized mutual 

support. Unorganized workers faced not only giant corporations, 

but also found the companies in league against them. 

Strikes during this period were occasional and generally restricted 

to the members of one of the few craft organizations in the mill. 

Mulespinners, a predominantly English group known for their skill 

and the independence that it enabled them to demonstrate, figured 

in occasional organized disagreements with management. Parker’s 

report cast an interesting light on the resulting conflict and its 

relationship to technology: “Have estimated for 45,600 new Mule 

spindles, and specify mules for three reasons: Fine filling yarn 
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can be made cheaper and better on mules; they take less power; 

and are cheaper per spindle. You may object to mules on account 

of the possible trouble with Spinners Unions, and this factor will 

probably have a bearing on your decision.”58 Despite what appear 

to be four factors favoring the mule on the basis of both quality of 

product and price, reservations about their use were anticipated. 

There had been a strike by Lowell mulespinners during the wagecuts of the 1870s. The owners had responded with a lock- out of the 

mulespinners and won the strike. Many of the spinners left the city 

and those who returned to work could only do so on the condition 

that they sign “ yellow-dog” contracts, a promise not to strike in the 

future.59 The overwhelming power of the owners, particularly in a 

community such as Lowell where they wielded enormous power 

over the local economy and politics, was not enough to make them 

comfortable with any group, or individual, which could interfere in 

any way with their control. So thorough was their opposition to any 

sharing of power, no matter how slight, that they could be expected 

to abandon a technology which was full of advantages, except for 

the skill of those who operated it. That the owners could, and did, 

organize indicates the degree to which they saw themselves as the 

rightful arbitors of all interests. 

The contrast between the power of the owners and that of the 

workers was made clear in the attempted strike of 1903. Despite 

the long hours and low pay, operatives had not drawn together to 

resist except in the cases of a few craft unions: “These unions were 

represented by the Lowell Textile Council which as a federation 

helped coordinate the activities of the craft locals. Its president was 

Robert Conroy of the Beamers’ union, and its fifty- six members 

represented the unions of the carders, weavers, beamers, mule 

spinners, loom-fixers, knappers, and knitters.”60 The predominantly 

Irish- American unions included a few French-Canadians but 

virtually none of the Poles, Portuguese, and Greeks who had come 

to play a major role in the Lowell mills. 

Claiming a 25 percent cost-of-living increase since 1899, the Council 

sought a 10 percent wage increase, comparable to that won by Fall 

River workers the previous year. The agents responded collectively, 

using William S. Southworth, Agent of the Massachusetts Mills, 

as their spokesman and rejected the request. When the unions 

threatened to strike on March 28, 1903, the mills locked everybody 

out. Management later admitted that the high price of cotton and 

large inventories of goods would have caused them to close the 

mills anyway. The workers could not have chosen a worse time. By 

May, people were hungry, at best, despite efforts at mutual support 

among the strikers. The mills announced that they would reopen 

June 1 and re-hire anyone who returned within a week. Boott 

Cotton Mills claimed a 45 percent return on the first day. Soon 

most of those who did not belong to a craft union returned and 

the mills were operating. Many unionists, who held out beyond 
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the one week period, were never rehired and the craft unions were 

permanently damaged. The workers who replaced them, in many 

cases the newer immigrants, received promotions to better jobs as 

a result, further damaging the union cause in Lowell in the years 

to come. 

The relationship between Lowell workers and the real power in 

the corporations, the treasurer and investors, was one of extreme 

distance, geographically and ideologically. Management felt 

justified in assigning all discretionary judgment to itself, indicating 

its views of the workers’ rights and, presumably, abilities. While it 

had been able to inflict national economic fluctuations on pay rates, 

to act from a position of strength and organization while denying 

that right to labor, in addition to controlling the course of the mill’s 

production, its power would gradually find itself confronted by 

others who also felt they had a right to a role, as had already been 

the case with the Commonwealth. The ability to deal with new 

relationships would be a major factor in the mill’s future. 

7. Conclusion

Mill #6 went up at a time of new hope after the lost opportunity 

of the Civil War era. One suspects that the forces behind Lowell 

operations were anxious to put that hiatus in production, and 

the mistake it represented, behind them. Their continued faith in 

their overall pattern of operation and their ability to continue their 

success was embodied in the new building, its equipment, and 

labor. 

At the time of its erection, they readied new steam and water power 

to provide the motive force for their increased production. In the 

purchase and installation of a Swain turbine they demonstrated 

their ability to call upon local knowledge and production to acquire 

an efficient new technology. 

In equipping the new mill they similarly relied on the offerings of 

the Lowell Machine Shop and filled the floors with the standard 

parts of a standard Lowell factory. Where choices were to be made, 

the agent carefully weighed alternatives, applying the best science 

of the time to his evaluations. He picked a modern spindle, and 

new technology, and thus demonstrated the correctness of the faith 

placed in him. During the course of his tenure he would continue to 

apply his expertise, studying oil and oiling, determining ideal loomspeeds, and in other innumerable ways examining production in 

the interest of maximum efficiency. 

Given the interlocking nature of the Lowell corporations’ 

directorates, the agent could call upon the expertise of his age in 
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making his determinations. He did not need to act secretly or to 

protect his knowledge, the results of his expertise, from the eyes of 

his compatriots. 

The vertical assembly line he created was well prepared to perform 

the task assigned, the manufacture of a limited number of materials 

in great runs. High quality and rapid changes were factors to be 

considered in the production of other mills. Within these limitations 

the cards, speeders, ring- and mulespinners would churn out 

adequate yarn to be woven into plain cloth by the simple looms on 

the floors below. 

At the same time that the new mill became one more of a group 

of similar cogs within, first, the Boott Cotton Mills, and then 

Lowell (and even many other New England cities), it also serviced 

the buildings and equipment of the mill complex. Its machine, 

blacksmith, paint, carpentry, and belt shops worked as steadily as 

the textile operation in their effort to keep everything running. 

As the decades passed, however, the idea of the mill’s goal began 

to change. Fly-frames were introduced and improved the ability 

to manufacture higher quality roving. Fancy looms better able to 

take advantage of this new capability appeared and wove more 

complex and varied cloth. New demands were made on the mill’s 

workers and managers in the effort to maximize the efficiency of 

the new equipment. 

Automatic looms were also purchased and were significant for 

their demonstration of speed in adopting a radical new technology. 

From another point of view, they were significant for their impact 

on the work of those who tended their operation. 

The new looms represented the latest in a long line of developments 

aimed at minimizing the role of an individual worker while 

maximizing the number of machines a person could run, and 

thereby the amount of cloth he or she could produce. The new 

Drapers’ potential along these lines was quickly recognized, but 

their arrival at the time of a shift toward more varied and complex 

production offered a source of potential conflict between different 

goals of management. 

Work in general did not change drastically. The usual movement 

toward faster machine speed, the speed-up, and increasing 

machines per operator, the stretch-out, continued as usual, and 

only changed more suddenly than usual with the advent of the 

Drapers. Hot and humid working conditions, dangerous exposed 

gear teeth and belts, errant shuttles and other dangers were the 

constant of the textile worker’s lot in these times. The air full of fly 
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endangered everyone’s health and led to the characteristic term for 

cotton worker: “lint head.” 

The endemic nature of such conditions, and the mill’s apparent 

unwillingness to alter them, led to increasing inspection by the 

Commonwealth to protect the workers from the effects of the 

operation of the Lowell system. Efforts were made to police the 

wages, safety, and ages of the employees. 

Wages, while always low, fluctuated as a function of the national 

economy as the workers buffered the owners from those effects. 

In addition, production and employment rose and fell with the 

market; low pay and intermittent work ensured the poverty of the 

work force. 

The economy in which they operated was less subject to analysis 

than were issues susceptible to engineers’ management; if dividends 

were to be maintained, leeway had to be discovered elsewhere. 

As has been shown, pay-rates offered a prime opportunity, as did 

reinvestment in plant and equipment. Both fluctuated wildly. As a 

result, machinery did not remain current, and working conditions 

and wages were susceptible to decline. 

At the same time, the lack of alternative employment maintained 

the dependency of the employees on these jobs. Management 

had long resisted the entry into Lowell of other major employers, 

and their power as a group was overwhelming. Through their 

own organization, they were able to prevent their workers from 

organizing successfully. From the point of view associated with 

their paternalistic outlook, only they had the capability and right to 

make the decisions by which the mills, and the lives of the workers, 

would be run. 

This period, 1871 to 1904, thus displays the currents and the 

tensions according to which the mill’s history will continue to be 

played out. Automaticity versus flexibility, maximum efficiency 

versus minimum cost, management’s interest versus labor’s desires 

will continue to not only contest one another but also intertwine 

with one another throughout the course of this history. 
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 ENDNOTES 

1. Cultural Resources Inventory: Research Report, Boott Cotton Mills (here after referred to as BCM), 

p. 18. 

2. Lowell Machine Shop records (LMS), Baker Library, HB-2, pp. 1-26. 

3. 1882 Barlow Insurance Survey of the BCM, Museum of American Textile History (M.A.T.H.); 

attached: Illustration #1 (I-1). 

4. Samuel Webber, Manual of Power for Machine, Shafts, and Belts, with the History of Cotton 

Manufacture in the United States (New York: D. Appleton and Co., rev. ed., 1879) 

5. “ Lowell and Vicinity of Today,” Lowell Daily Citizen, 1893 (the source also gives other, conflicting 

evidence) Flather Collection (F.C.). 

6. BCM Correspondence with American Trading Company, 1888, FC. 

7. Walter E. Parker, “Report on the Condition of the BCM, Lowell, Mass., 1902” (n. p., 10/1902), FC, 

pp. 25- 26. 

8. Ibid., pp. 33-35. 

9. George Sweet Gibb. The Saco-Lowell Shops: Textile Machinery Building in New England, 1813-1949 

(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950), p. 757n. 

10. Gibb, p. 757n. 

11. A.G. Cumnock, “Proceedings,” New England Cotton Manufacturers Association, (hereinafter 

NECMA), XV (10/15/1873), pp. 31- 34. 

12. Thomas R. Navin, The Whitin Machine Works Since 1831: A Textile Machinery Company in as an 

Industrial Village (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950), pp. 182-184. 

13. Webber, Manual, pp. 66- 67. 

14. Navin, Whitin, p. 109. 

15. Webber, p. 54, Part II. 

16. International Library of Technology, (Scranton: International Textbook Company, c.1906), LXXVIII, 

Section 89, pp. 25-31. 

17. [Capt. S.K. Hutchinson], Valuation of Lowell Mills for Mutual Insurance MS (1873, n. p.), FC. 

18. James Geldard, Handbook of Cotton Manufacture; or, A Guide to Machine Building. Spinning and 

Weaving (New York: John Wiley & Son, 186 7), p. 11. 

19. Webber, pp. 88- 90. 

20. Channing Whittaker, Notebook: Boott, MS (n.p.), Lambert Collection, Lowell University (hereinafter 

LC). 

21. Whittaker, Notebook, Merrimack, Tremont, Suffolk, Boott, LC. 
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22. A.G. Cumnock, “Proceedings,” New England Cotton Manufacturers Association, XXVII (10/29/79), 

p. 60. 

23. Barlow, Survey. 

24. Gibb, Shops, p. 652. 

25. LMS, OH-1. 

26. Parker, Report, p. 6. 

27. LMS, OG-2, p. 47. 

28. Parker, Report, p. 18. 

29. Gibb, Shops, p. 193. 

30. Ibid., p. 758. 

31. LMS, OH-1. 

32. David Cole, Immigrant City, p. 235. 

33. George Otis Draper, Labor Saving Looms, pp. 42- 43. 

34. William A. Burke, “Proceedings,” NECMA, XXI,10/25/1876, pp. 15-16. 

35. F.A. Leigh, “Repairs in Cotton Mills,” NECMA, XIX, 10/27/1875, p. 31. 

36. Cumnock, “Proceedings,” NECMA, V, 10/20/1868, pp. 23-24. 

37. Cumnock, “Proceedings,” NECMA, XXVI, 4/30/1879, pp. 15-16. 

38. From The American Wool and Cotton Reporter, quoted in Cotton and Rayon Textile Companys: 

An Analysis of Comparative Investment Values and Opportunities, FC. 

39. James B. Francis letter, Proprietors of Locks and Canals Collection (PLCC), DC-2. 

40. ‘’Fire Regulations,” PLCC, inside front cover, DC-2. 

41. T.M. Young, The American Cotton Industry, p. 4. 

42. Ibid., p. 5. 

43. Parker, Report, p. 10. 

44. Young, Cotton, p. 32. 

45. Five Weeks Ending Saturday Evening, November 7, 1874, FC. 

46. Boott Cotton Mill Wages and Prices, FC (as are all ensuing figures until noted). 

47. V. I. Cumnock, BCM memorandum, 189S, FC. 

48. BCM Notebook, FC, p. 97. 
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49. E.G. Young, Cotton, p. 32. 

50. Robert G. Tayer, Earnings of Cotton Mill Operatives, 1825-1914, p. 45. 

51. Fidelia 0. Brown, “Decline and Fall: The End of the Dream,” in Cotton Was King, p. 148. 

52. Tayer, Earnings, p. 38f. 

53. Cumnock, “Proceedings, “ NECMA, XVIII (4/21/187S), pp. 21- 22. 

54. Letter from American Mutual Liability Insurance Co. of Boston, Mass., to BCM, 3/27/1888, FC. 

55. Ibid., 8/18/1888. 

56. Letters from Associated Textile Industries to BCM, 4/12/1888, and 3/24/1887, FC. 

57. Parker, Report, p. 40. 

58. Carol Polizotti Webb, “The Lowell Mulespinners Strike of 1875,” in Surviving Hard Times (SHT), 

pp. 11-20. 

59. Shirley Zebroski, “The 1903 Strike in the Lowell Cotton Mills,” SHT, p. 45; my description draws 

heavily on the above account. 
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VII. PHYSICAL HISTORY 1871- 1904 

A. The Counting House

There are no documented changes to the Counting House for the 

period 1871- 1904, nor are there any obvious alternations that may 

be attributed to this time frame based on architectural inspection.*

B. Mill #6 

Construction of Mill #6 was initiated by Locks and Canals in 1872 

(Photograph 14). As only a small number of relatively unimportant 

drawings and little other documentary evidence has been found 

detailing the original construction, the following discussion 

describes existing conditions unaltered from the initial building 

phase (or in specified instances, documented changes that took 

place between 1871 and 1904). 

C. Exterior

1. General Description 

Situated along the northern edge of the Eastern Canal, Mill #6 was 

built as an “L”-shaped plan, five-story structure measuring 311’-2” 

x 113’-8” at its longest dimensions. The west section was oriented 

on a north-south axis, parallel to the canal and measured 237’-

9” (29 bays) by 48’-2” (an equivalent of 6 bays). The east section 

(Photograph 15), perpendicular to the canal and bordering on 

Bridge Street was put up 113’-8” (14 bays) by 73’-5” (8 bays).1

 The 

exterior bearing walls were laid without buttresses or pilasters, 

and rested on granite foundations. The virtually flat roof was 

surrounded by a low parapet wall. Access to the mill was limited 

to two octagonal stair towers, one at the northwest corner of each 

section. The newest section of Mill #6 enclosed 56,491 square feet of 

floor space, the east section 42,044. 

2. Foundations 

The foundations at the east, north and west walls were constructed 

of solid granite blocks. The south foundation sat on the north wall 

of the canal, bearing on a series of granite capped brick barrel vaults 

resting on solid granite walls that enclosed the penstocks running 

* The drawing file that contained the records concerning the Counting 

House, stored at the Boott Mills by Locks and Canals, has been misplaced and 

therefore was unavailable for research and documentation.
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Photo 15. "Bridge Street Looking Toward Merrimack River, February 5, 1930" Note blind arcade of Bridge Street elevation of Mill Number 6

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8786
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under Mill #6, from the third bay from the west end through the 19th 

bay. Individual three foot square granite piers were constructed 

(the top course consisting of a single massive stone) to support the 

first floor framing. The foundations enclosed a crawl space, with 

access provided to service the penstocks through the floor above 

(see Appendix A for a description of existing conditions of the 

crawl space). 

3. Walls 

The exterior load-bearing masonry walls were laid in “American” 

(or common) bond, 7:1 (stretchers to header course) using medium 

density machine made 2-1/4” x 4” x 8” (nominal size) salmon to 

dark red brick. Mortar joints were struck flush.

2

 Wall thicknesses 

are recorded on a section prepared in the 1870s3 as 24” for the first 

two floors, 20” at the third and 16” for the fourth and fifth floors in 

the east part, 20” at the first two floors and 16” for the third through 

fifth floors in the west.

†

The walls were solid masonry, unplastered but painted at the 

interior. As mentioned, there were no strengthening wall pilasters 

or buttresses inside or out, and no belt courses in the main blocks. 

However, the mill was enriched by a simple corbeled three- course, 

projecting, brick continuous cornice that surrounded the eaves, 

supported by six-course, deep corbeled pendant-like brackets that 

terminated at a two-course brick string course. 

4. Fenestration 

All windows in the east and west sections were set into 4’-0” x 8’-

7” segmental arched openings, the openings trimmed at the head 

by projecting brick hoods and closed by rock-faced granite lug 

sills. The hoods were constructed with a row of standing stretchers 

alternating with stacked headers below a projecting cap of headers 

laid flat. The ends were trimmed with pendants that dropped 

three courses below the lower chord of the segmental hood. A full 

stretcher in width, the pendants terminated with a centered header 

over a queen closer. The hoods at the second and fourth floor 

windows were visually accented by setting the lower course of the 

arch face flush with the wall surface and toothing the upper course 

at 45 degrees. The granite sills were described and sketched by 

Whitaker (Figure 17) in 1872 while the mill was under construction: 

“sills for windows 52” long... granite sills 4-1/2” deep, 8” wide, 

52” in length.”

4

 The 12/12 wood double hung sash measured 3’-8” 

in width, with the upper section 4’-1/2” high, the lower sash 4’-1-

3/4”. The lites were 10” x 15”, and of clear glass. The timber casing † Field measurements made in 1984 show that the only discrepancy from 

this section was that the walls at the first and second floor in the east section 

were only 23” thick.
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had a heavy ovolo mold at the jambs and head, with the segmental 

head returned to the horizontal to accept the rectangular sash. 

Whitaker describes the location of the windows in the south 

elevation as: “7’-6” from Bridge Street wall to middle of 1st window, 

8’2-1/2” to centre of each succeeding window...”4

 and for the east 

wall, “Beginning at Bridge St. Side at the Canal End the 1st middle 

of window is 4’-4” and the succeeding ones each 8 feet from center 

to center, the last being 4’-4” from centre to outside edge of wall.”5 

The blind arcade at the first floor of this east facade is an unexplained 

anomaly (Photograph 16). Consisting of full height openings with 

the typical corbeled brick hoods and rock- faced sills, they are 

bricked in, recessed 4”, with no indication of the infill being later. 

As they occur in the wall that runs along the coal pocket, they may 

be the original condition. 

The north facade fenestration or “windows in the yard” were 

spaced, “4’, 11’-11”, 19’-10”, 27’-9”, 35’- 8”, 43’-7”.” 

Figure 17. Detail of window sills for Mill Number 6, from Channing 

Whitaker's sketchbook, undated, but pre-construction

Source: UML, CLH, Lambert Collection (Channing Whitaker’s 

Sketchbook), undated.
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Photo 16. Bridge Street facade of Number 6 with blind arcade, June 1985

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8786, HAER, MA 16, 1985
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5. Roof 

While the original roof covering is not documented, a five-ply tar 

and gravel roof was uncovered during the 1980 reroofing. This roof 

conforms to specifications for similar construction at the turn of 

the 20th century (Appendix B) and in all probability is either the 

original roofing or a replacement made before 1904 (Photograph 

26). 

The six-course, corbeled, brick roof cornice described above was 

surmounted by a pressed metal cornice (cyma-recta crown on a 

square fillet and a cavetto bed mold) which projected 6” ± above 

the finished roof. 

6. Coal Pocket 

The extreme easterly two bays of the first floor in the south 

elevation was occupied by an entrance to the coal pocket, a facility 

that permitted the off-loading of coal from railroad cars at the 

rear of Mill #6 to fire the boilers located to the north. Entry was 

provided through a rectangular opening, 11’- 0” wide by 8’-11” 

high6 with a segmental arch hood (header, standing stretcher, and 

header laid flat as a cap), with the tympanum bricked in to the 

horizontal (Photograph 17). The second bay of the first floor was 

partially taken over by this opening, therefore the window was 

omitted. The large rectangular door was clad in metal (to retard the 

spread of fire) and slid to the west (left) on an iron channel that was 

secured to the edge of the window in the third bay (Photograph 18). 

The coal pocket was served by a spur from the Boston and Maine 

Railroad line along the south edge of the canal, over an iron framed 

bridge that had a timber plank floor and wood picket fences, 

approximately three feet tall.7

7. Stairwells 

The exterior of the stair towers located at the northwest corner of 

both sections of the mill were identical in design. Octagonal in plan, 

17’-3” along the north and south walls, 19’-2” along the entrance or 

west facade, the towers were built of the same salmon to dark red 

brick as used in the mill proper, with flush joints, but the coursing 

varied from 7:1 to 9:1. The foundations were rock faced granite. 

The entrance to the mill were at the first floor of each tower, centered 

in the west wall and protected by bracketed hoods (Photograph 19). 

They were served by three granite steps which reached the height 

of the stone foundation course. The entrance hood spanned the 

entire west wall area, from inside edge of the full height pilasters 

that formed the corners of the octagonal plan to inside edge. A 
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Photo 17. "Bridge and Coal Pocket at Mill No. 6 (1912)." Note wood picket fence and sliding door

Source: LNHP, L&C, LOWE 7638
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Photo 18. Side Track and Bridge to Coal Pocket of Boott Mill, Sept. 3, 1926" showing original design of Coal Pocket and sliding door

Source: LNHP, L&C, LOWE 8514
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sheet metal cornice at each hood had a cyma-recta crown mold on a 

rectangular fillet and flat fascia. A segmental architrave panel had 

an ovolo on cavetto crown under the soffit of the projecting cornice. 

The entire construction was supported by large sawn and paneled 

scrolled consoles. 

Windows occurred only in the north, south and west wall of the 

towers, from the second through the fifth floor--the first floor was 

blind. All windows were set in recessed panels at each floor level, 

the panel at the second floor rectangular with a single corbel at 

the top edge, the panels at the third and fourth, segmental. The 

third floor had a granite belt course above the panel that swelled 

over the segmental opening and returned across the entire tower, 

while the fourth floor had toothed corbeling at the top of the ached 

opening. The fifth floor panel was enriched with four-course deep 

drops set flush with the outer wall surface. The wall surfaces in the 

angled pat of the tower were recessed but blind, all with horizontal 

tops. The fifth floor repeated the pendant drops and granite string 

courses that lugged into the walls at the bottoms of the panels. The 

window openings at the second through the fifth of the floors were 

detailed the same as the windows in the corresponding floors o he 

mill proper, and had rock-faced granite sills, described by Whitaker 

as: “tower windows make 2’-7”, 6 more wanted for tower windows 

[sketch] 4-1/2” x 8” x 31”.”

8

 Sash at the second and third floors of 

the towers were double hung, 1’-11-1/4” x 8’-7”, while those in the 

fourth and fifth were shortened to 6’-7”. All sash was 6/6 wood. 

In addition to the rock- faced belt course at the fourth floor level, 

there were granite bands at the bottom edge of the other recessed 

panels, at the floor lines. The sixth (top) floor of each tower projected 

slightly from the wall surface below, resting on an 8” bank of rockfaced granite that returned around the corner pilaster strips. The 

band projected 5” from the wall surface, with two courses of brick 

above, and was supported on seven course deep pendant brackets 

below course a single course of brick. The drops consisted of two 

stretchers at the top, followed by four courses of stretcher/header, 

a single stretcher, and a centered header. 

Unlike the first five floors, the top level of each tower had a window 

in each of the eight walls, with a round opening and a projecting 

corbeled cap resting on drop pendants. The 1/1 sash is roundheaded. The recessed panels at each wall surface of his level had a 

horizontal top edge with corbeled drops, the panel enclosed by the 

corner pilasters. The corbel band at the sixth floor line was repeated 

at the roof line, with a projecting pressed metal cornice consisting 

of a cyma-recta crown, rectangular fillet, and flat fascia terminating 

the tower structure. Both tower roofs were enclosed with a cast 

and wrought-iron balustrade, which are documented by numerous 

photographs and prints made pre-1950 (Figure 14 and Photographs 

14, 23, 24 and 26). 
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8. Fire Escapes 

Records of the Lowell Machine Shop (LMS) on file at Baker Library, 

Harvard University, document the installation of fire escapes, 

$1719.49... sent Sept. 1” 

D. Interior

1. Floor System

Paired 6” x 12 “ Southern yellow pine timbers were used as the 

transverse beams to support the first floor of Mill #6. They rested on 

9” deep, 16” wide by 30” tall brick piers along the north and south 

walls, the piers sitting on a corbeled shelf of the granite foundation. 

The beams ran from the exterior wall to a row of granite blocks at 

the middle of the west section, and at the third points in the east 

part. Cast-iron columns passed through the beams to rest on the 

supporting piers, with the composite floor beam notched to accept 

them. The first floor beams were bolted together in three places, 

but unlike the beams in the floors above, were not attached to the 

exterior load-bearing masonry walls with anchor bolts. The span of 

the beams at the first floor was 22’-4”, 24’-0”, 8’-4” from the west 

wall of the east part to the columns that define the three bays. The 

narrow spacing at the east reflected the introduction of a masonry 

wall to close off the coal pocket from the mill itself. Column and 

beam spacing was 8’-0” in the west, 7’-10” in the east. 

The floor beams at the second through the fifth floors were also 

of a composite design, of a slightly larger section (6” x 13” each) 

and of Southern yellow pine. Unlike the first floor beams, these 

were constructed with a 1” to 1-1/2” space between the individual 

members, a common practice recommended by many millwrights 

of the period (Appendix C).

The spacing of the beams at the upper floors was constant, 8’-0” in 

the west section, 7’-10” in the east, the dimensions agreeing with 

statements in an 1882 Boston Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance 

Company (BMMFIC) report: 

The beams may be either 8 feet apart, 9’-6” or 9’-8” apart, or 10’-

6” to 10’-8” apart. In the latter case, nothing less than plank of 4 

inches thickness should be used for the under floor, unless girders 

and intermediate beams are supplied. With respect to the details, the 

preference may perhaps be given to bays 8 feet only in width, for the 

reason that a floor constructed of 3-inch plank and 1-inch top floor, 

over 8-foot bays, is amply strong as compared to one of 4-inch plank 

and 1-inch top floor, over a bay of 10 feet 8 inches, and planks of 16 
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feet in length form a part of the common stock.

9

The paired timber beams were let into pickets at the exterior walls, 

with additional support at the east section provided by five course 

corbeling at the top of the east and west longitudinal walls. The 

pockets had narrow open spaces along the vertical sides: Where 

beams pass through the walls, ventilation should be assured by 

placing a board each side of the beam while the walls are being 

built up, and afterward withdrawing it” and rested on iron 

plates.10 The ends of each of the beams at the second through the 

fifth floors were secured by tie bolts through the walls, contrary to 

recommendations published in 1885: 

In mills, where the amount of vibration is great, Woodbury advises 

to securely bind the beam to the wall by embedding in the masonry 

a flat cast iron plate with a transverse fin upon each side near the 

end.... Under no consideration should the old-fashioned anchorage 

of fastening the girder on the outside of the wall with a large anchor 

plate be used, as when the beams burn through, the leverage brought 

to bear on the wall will overturn it.11

The anchor bolts used at Mill #6 were wrought iron, 3/4” in diameter, 

40” long with a 2-1/2” threaded end that was bolted at the exterior 

face of the load-bearing exterior wall using a diamond shaped cast 

iron plate. The end of the anchor bolt toward the interior had a 

1-3/4” long hook that wrapped around the first of the three bolts 

that fastened each part of the composite beam together. The beams 

were treated with whitewash, as explained in recommendations of 

1885: “Ordinary whitewash is a cheap and excellent coating against 

fire. It adheres tightly to the wood, impregnating it to a certain 

depth, and, when frequently replenished will form an excellent 

protective coating.”12 This probably reflected an early awareness 

of potential problems addressed in an English article published 

in 1884, quoting the Boston Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance 

Company: “Wherever and whenever solid beams or heavy timbers 

are made use of in the construction of a factory or warehouse, 

they should not be painted, varnished, oiled, filled, or incased in 

impervious concrete air-proof plastering or metal, for at least three 

years, lest fermentation should destroy them by what is called dry 

rot.”13

The length of the beams varied slightly, becoming longer from 

the first floor to the fifth, reflecting the decreased thickness of the 

exterior walls as the structure rose. Lengths in the west section 

increased from 27’-4” in the north bay of the second floor to 27’-

9” at the fifth, and from 27’-5” in the south bay to 22’-10”. At the 

east part, they varied from 23’-0-1/2” in the west bay, and 23’-9” in 

the center bay of the second floor to 23’-8” and 23’-11” respectively 

at the fifth floor. The span from the east row of columns and the 
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Bridge Street wall at the third floor (over the coal pocket) is 23’-6”, 

increased to 23’-9” at the fourth and fifth floors. 

2. Floors 

The floor system was of slow-burn construction, with 2-3/4” to 3” x 

8 to 12” spruce planking, splined and nailed directly to the beams. 

Typical slow-burn construction is described as: “three inch plank, 

planed on one side and grooved on both edges, laid planed side 

down,... the hardwood splines are inserted into the grooves before 

the planks are pressed up and spiked to the beams.”14

Similarly, the use of splines, and the suggested length of the 

planking was detailed in a report printed in 1902 and followed here: 

Splined planks have a groove cut in each edge into which a spline 

is driven. Thus they serve the same purpose as though tongued and 

grooved, and are cheaper because there is not so much timber wasted 

in cutting them. They should be planed on one side and should be 

long enough to span two bays; that is, 16, 20 or 21 feet, as the 

case may be. By this means the joints can be broken on the timbers 

and the strength greatly increased when laying them. About 6-inch 

spikes should be used in fastening them to the timbers; one keg of 

100 pounds will lay about 1,400 square feet of floor.15

Two layers of additional flooring were applied to the planking, 

each 7/8” thick, with enough remaining in situ at the second and 

fourth floors to indicate that the sub-flooring throughout the mill 

was 4” wide, laid diagonally. The finish floor was laid in the same 

direction as the planking, as suggested by the BMNFIC: 

Usually a top floor of birch or maple is laid at right angles to the 

planking, but the best mills have a doubletop floor, the lower one 

of soft wood laid diagonally upon the plank, the upper one laid 

lengthwise. This later method allows boards in alleys to be easily 

replaced when worn, and the diagonal boards brace the floors, 

reduce vibration and distribute the floor load even better than the 

former method.16

As also recommended in another BMMFIC report of 1902, the layers 

of flooring were separated by the application of tar paper: “To 

protect the content of the floors below, three thicknesses of tarred 

paper should be placed between the floor plank and top floor, each 

layer to be mopped with tar, asphalt or similar material...”17 This 

same report recommends that “The edges of the floor plank should 

be kept clear of the faces of the brick walls by about half an inch, in 
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order to obviate the danger of cracking the walls, which sometimes 

occurs from the swelling of the plank when laid close against them.” 

The floors at No. 6 included this 1/2” space, and as further 

recommended, the granite thresholds at the stair tower entrances 

to the mill at all floors were raised 1-1/2” above the finish floor 

level to contain water in the event of fire, the flooding to prevent 

the floor from igniting (Appendix D). 

The space between the floor beams was sheathed with 9/16” 

tongue and groove boarding, creating a ceiling-like finish to the 

space below. 

3. Columns 

The floor beams were supported in the west section by a centered 

row of cast- iron columns, 8’-0” on center, and in the east part by 

two parallel rows, located at the third points of the flood plan 

(Photograph 20). The columns were “grey cast iron” and had a wall 

thickness of 13/16”. The diameter of the pipe-like columns varied 

from 6-3/8” at the lower three floors to 5-1/2” at the fourth and 

5” at the fifth. Room heights, from finished floor to the underside 

of the beams were 12’-0” at the first in both sections, 12’-2” at both 

parts of the second floor,18 12’-0” at the west part of the third, 11’-

9” at the east and 14’-4” at the fifth (where the beam was actually 

a girder that ran parallel to the long axis of each part, exposing the 

low gable profile of the roof). 

An “Extract from Daybook No. 17, 18 71-1876” prepared by James B. 

Francis, Engineer of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, describes 

his calculations for “pillars for the No. 6 Boott Mills: 

June 3, 1926

Extract from Daybook No. 17, 1871 - 1876

Pillars for No. 6 Boott Mill

March 25, 

1872

Area of Floor supported by one pillar 23-1/2 x 8 = 188 sq. ft.

Size Reduced 

to Col. 2 page 

22, my book 

on pillars 

Reduced 

weight 

2.62 tons 

4” x 1/2”

5th Story. Pillars supporting roof - 14 ft. long

Weight of roof called same as floor or 21 

Snow on roof, say 24” = 4” water = 21 lbs. per sq. ft.

Total weight per sq. foot 42 lbs.

Weight supported by pillar 42 x 188 7896 lbs. = 3.95 tons

14 ft. long say 4-1/2 inches diam. 5/8 inch thick
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4th Story. Weight of 5th floor 21 lbs. per sq. ft.

Weight of cards, taken same as Atlantic 24 lbs. per sq. ft.

45 lbs. per sq. ft.

Weight to be supported by one pillar 45 x 188 = 8460 = 4.23 tons

Total weight to be supported by pillar in 4th story = 8.18 tons

4-1/2 x 5/8” 13 ft. long, say 5 inches diam. 5/8” thick

3rd Story. Weight of 4th floor 21 lbs. per sq. ft.

Weight of cards as above 24 lbs. per sq. ft.

45 lbs. per sq. ft.

Weight 45 x 188 = 8460 lbs. = 4.23 tons

Total weight to be supported by pillar in 3rd story = 12.41 tons

5” x 5/8” 13 ft. long, say 5-3/4 inches diam. 3⁄4” thick

2nd Story. Weight of 3rd floor 21 lbs. per sq. ft.

Weight of ring spinning frames as Atlantic 25 lbs. per sq. ft.

46 lbs. per sq. ft.

Weight 188 x 46 = 8648 lbs. = 4.32 tons

Total weight 16.73 tons

5-1/2 x 3/4 13 ft. long 6-1/2 inches diam. 3⁄4” thick

5-3/4 x 5/ 8

1st Story. Weight of second floor 21 lbs. per sq. ft.

Weight of looms 22 lbs. per sq. ft.

43 lbs. per sq. ft.

Weight 43 x 188 = 8084 lbs. = 4.04 tons

20.77 tons

6- 1/2 x 5/8 13 ft. long 6-3/4 diam. 7/8” thick

Copy of above sent to Mr. Cumnock March 25, 1872

The columns were cylindrical (not tapered) and were provided with 

a cast, foliated cushioned cap that incorporated a flat, rectangular 

cast iron plate that supported the ends of the floor beams (or in 

the case of the top floor, the roof girders). A round, cast pintle 

was centered in the top face of the cap plate, used to align the 

column from the floor above, which bears directly on the plate. 

The composite beams, as mentioned, were adzed out to accept the 

columns and were fastened together with horizontal flitch plates, 

secured with four iron bolts. The use of the pintle and cap plate is 

condoned by millwrights of the late 19th century: “At the points 

of support in a line of columns, the beams should be free from 

all compressive stress, transmitted through the lines of columns 

from floors above, by means of iron pintles between the cap of one 

column and the floors of the next one carrying this load.”19
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The use of cast-iron columns at Mill #6 continued a tradition 

that lasted until 1880 when with the construction of Mill #9 (and 

subsequent mills), Locks and Canals finally heeded the advice of 

a number of engineers and turned to the use of timber columns 

(Appendix E). 

4. Roof Structure 

The roof in the east section of the mill was supported by 3” x 11” 

spruce rafters that rested on a four- course brick corbel at the top 

of the east and west fifth floor walls, and two roof beams, (more 

properly termed girders) that ran parallel to the north-south axis 

of this section, seated on the parallel rows of cast iron columns. 

This divided the open roof area, as was the case with the floor 

beams below, into three 112’ ± long bays, with the underside of the 

entire roof structure exposed. The parallel beams were 10” x 12”, 

of a single piece rather than paired like the floor beams, and were 

put up in five sections, all with bolted iron plates at the joints. The 

roof framing in the west part was identical except there was only 

a single 10” x 12” beam along the center line of the east-west axis. 

The roof was planked using 1-5/8” x 12” boarding. The ceiling area 

between the joists was finished with 3/4” beaded edge boarding 

similar to the ceiling in the floors below. 

5. Interior Walls and Partitions 

The interior face of the load-bearing peripheral walls were painted 

(probably whitewash originally, no paint analysis having been 

completed to date). The double row-lock (standing header on 

standing header) window openings had splayed jambs (2” at each 

side), and brick stools without wood trim that vary in depth from 

10-1/2” at the first floor in the west part to 6” at the fifth, with the 

deepest being 14-1/2” at the second floor of the east part. Sill heights 

varied from 2’-8” at the lower floors to 2’-4” at the fourth floors of 

both sections. The windows were set high in the wall surface, the 

top row of the row-lock arch only three courses below the finished 

ceiling, reflecting current thinking: “The top of the window should 

be as near the ceiling as practical, because light entering the upper 

portion of a room illuminates it more evenly, and with less sharply 

marked shadows, than where the windows are lower down.”20

a. Interior Doors 

Entrance to the individual mill floors was provided at each level of 

the stair towers through paired doors. Based on the literature of the 

period and the use of similar construction elsewhere at the Boott 

Mills, the doors were likely to have been metal clad wood doors rat 

her than rolled iron: 
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Experience with iron doors of various forms of construction show 

that they have been utterly unreliable in resisting the heat of even a 

small fire. They will warp and buckle so as to open the passageway 

and allow the fire to pass through the doorway into the next room. 

A door made of wood, completely enveloped by sheets of tinned iron, 

and strongly fastened to the wall, has proved to resist fire better 

than any door which can be applied to general use. The door should 

be made of two thicknesses of matched pine boards of well dried 

stock, and thoroughly fastened with clinched nails. It should be 

covered with heavy tin, secured by hanging strips, and the sheets 

lock-jointed to each other...21

The doors were 8’-0” tall, with each leaf 2’-6” wide, and were hung 

on butt-hinges attached to the 4” beaded casings that framed the 

double row-lock openings. The use of double-leafed, hinged doors 

would later be discarded. 

Sliding doors are preferable to swinging doors for many reasons, 

especially because they cannot be interfered with by objects on the 

floor. But, if swinging doors are used, care should be taken that the 

hinges and latches are very strong, and securely fastened directly 

to the walls and not to furring or anything in turn attached to the 

walls.22

A further description of the construction of such doors and their 

value was published in England in 1894: 

The American door is made of two thicknesses of matchboards, not 

more than 4 in. wide, laid at right angles and nailed together. They 

are covered by tinned plates, lock-jointed and nailed under the joint, 

the sheets being bent round the door, so as to have no seams on 

the edges. The doors are hung on sloping rails, and are kept open 

by fusible solder attachments which melt at a temperature of 162 

degrees F. Doors so formed and protected have been shown to be 

practically indestructible with ordinary fires.23

The use of so called fire proof doors at Mill #6 is substantiated in a 

letter written in 1883 by James Francis to A. G. Cumnock, the Agent 

at Boott Mills, mentioning “the fire proof doors in the partition wall 

of the 3rd and 4th floors of No. 6...”24 Iron lintels above the double, 

row-lock, arches of the entrance doors, at the mill room side of the 

tower-mill connection, may or may not be of original construction. 

Material handling was accomplished by the use of hoists (see 

discussion on the interior of the stair towers below) served by 

dumb-waiter like openings set into the wall area just to the north 

of the door openings in each tower. The service openings were 42” 
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wide and ran from the floor to a double, row-lock, arch set one 

course below the entrance door openings. The hoists had iron-clad 

doors set on a cable and slide arrangements, opening vertically into 

the recessed opening. The opening was framed with an iron lintel 

at the mill side, with the area above this to the arch infilled with 

brick. An original door remains in situ at the fifth floor east tower. 

Also of apparently original construction but of an unknown use is 

a 2’ x 3’-6” rectangular opening centered above the entrance doors 

at the fifth floor of the east tower. A 1’-0” x 4’-6” brick stack was 

centered in the west end wall of the west section, from the first floor 

through the roof where it terminated at the chimney. 

b. Masonry Partition Wall 

A load-bearing masonry partition (Photograph 21) was constructed 

at the intersection of the east and west sections of Mill #6. Running 

on a north-south axis, the wall was 1’-11” thick at the first two 

floors, 1’-8” at the third through fifth floors, with communication 

between the two sections provided by two large triple row-lock 

arched openings (headers on edge). The south opening measures 

14’- 2” wide, the north 18’-0-1/2”. The arches were strengthened 

by 2” diameter iron tension rods set at the spring of the arch. The 

easterly pair of floor beams in the west section, at all floors, are 

through- bolted to the west side of this wall with additional support 

given by corbeled brackets. The opposite side of the partition has a 

continuous corbel table to support the ends of the floor beams that 

span the east part on an east-west axis. 

6. The Paint Shop and the Blacksmith Shop 

When built, the first two floors of Mill #6 housed four workshops; 

the paint, carpenter, blacksmith and machine repair shops. The 1882 

Barlow Insurance Survey locates these shops: “First story, division 

at north [actually the west] end, blacksmith shop... second story, 

north [west] end paint room; main portion, carpenter shop.”25 The 

blacksmith shop at the first floor and the paint shop at the second 

floor of the west end of the west section of the mill were enclosed 

in a fireproof construction consisting of a concrete floor at grade 

and barrel vaulted brick ceilings at both levels, set off from the 

remainder of the mill by a solid masonry wall, two wythes of brick 

thick (16”) that extended from the first to the underside of the third 

floor. The resulting space was three bays wide, 24’-0” with each bay 

incorporating a single vault. The beams to support the brick vaults 

were ordered in 1872: “Wrought iron beams for the fire proof floor 

over the smithy & paint shop at the Boott Cotton Mills, length of 

beams between bearing, 23’.”26
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Photo 20. Cast iron columns at first floor of Boott Mill Number 6, June 1985

Source: HAER, NPS MA-16, 1985
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Photo 21. Connecting wall between east and west sections of Boott Mill Number 6, third floor. June 1985

Source: HAER, NPS, MA-16, 1985
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The range of vaults at both levels terminated at the west end wall 

and at a masonry fire wall thirty feet to the east. The vaults rested 

on three course brick corbels. (The 3/4” iron tie rods used during 

construction remain, but they were superfluous after the barrel 

vault had been keyed.) The iron beams in the second and third bays 

were supported by cast-iron columns, part of the centered row that 

supported the timber floor beams in the adjoining areas of the west 

section of the mill. 

The purpose of this type of construction is obvious: 

Fire-walls are brick interior walls arranged to separate portions of 

the mill in which processes involving a greater risk of fire are carried 

on, from other portions of the mill. They should be carried down 

to secure foundations like the other walls of the mill and carried 

up through the roof, so as absolutely to intercept the progress of 

a fire and prevent its spreading and destroying the entire plant. 

They should contain as few openings as possible, and these should 

be thoroughly protected with automatic fire-doors, the construction 

of which will be explained later.27

7. The Coal Pocket 

A solid masonry wall was constructed at the east end of the east 

section to separate the mill itself from the enclosed entrance to 

the coal pocket at the rear of Mill #6. This passageway between 

the Bridge Street end wall and the first floor of the mill was 11’ 

wide28 and enclosed a track that consisted of “two 9 inch street-car 

rails supported on 18”, #55 I-beams spaced about 11-1/2’ apart.”29 

Access was provided by “bridge No. 345 across the canal”: 

This bridge consists of two Pratt trusses, between which are crossties (8” by 14” average) which rest on the lower chords of the 

trusses. There are wooden stringers on top of these cross ties, with 

4” planking above the stringers. The rails rest directly on the 4” 

planking. One truss is at right angles to the canal, while the other 

crosses diagonally in order to take care of the curve in the track. 

This means the ties on the Amory Street end 3 of the bridge are 

something over 27’ in length between the trusses.30

The paired timber beams spanned the full width of the coal pocket 

at the second floor, tying into the east wall where they were secured 

with the typical wrought iron tie rods. (Presumably the underside 

of the second floor would have been whitewashed to retard fire, 

but nothing remains of the original construction except the infilled 

pockets for the beams.)
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8. Interiors of the Stair Towers 

The interior of the octagonal stair towers located at the northwest 

corners of both the east and west sections of Mill #6 were finished 

in much the same manner as the mill itself. Walls were exposed, 

painted brick, the floors were framed with timber beams let into 

pockets at the north and south walls and sheathed with 3-1/2” 

plank and a finished floor, and the windows were set in splayed 

openings with row-lock arches and brick stools. The paired ironclad wood doors leading to each floor of the mill were secured to 

4” timber casings in the segmental row- lock arched doorways. 

The hoists previously mentioned were located contiguous to the 

doorways, separated by a 16” segment of the wall to the north. Set 

into the northeast corner, the hoists were accessible from both the 

tower and the mill side for loading and unloading. 

Records of the LMS dated 1/29/73 provide the only known 

description of the hoists: “2-3 1/2 f. x 5 1/2 xf. Elevators, ready for 

service without line weights or Ropes for 5 floors ea. for #6 Mill... 

$2,079. 85.”31

Stairs were located in the southern one-third of each tower, running 

in an elongated oval plan from the east wall to the west where they 

exited at the next floor. Each floor was reached by 20 treads and 21 

risers at 7 3/4” in height. The construction spiraled around an open 

6’ 6” wide well, the ends semicircular in plan. The length of the 

treads was uniform at 4’0”. The location of the stairs was consistent 

with the thinking of millwrights in this country since the start of the 

19th century, but the choice of an oval plan without landings had 

been discouraged: 

...the stairways should be placed outside the building. Such 

stairways should not be spiral stairways, but should be made in 

short, straight runs with square landings, because in the spiral 

stairway the portion of the stair near the center is of so much steeper 

pitch that it renders them dangerous when the help are crowding 

out of the mill.32

And:

The best method of making stairways is to divide the flight by 

making a landing half way up. This construction makes short, 

straight flights and there is much less danger of crowding in the 

case of fire, while at the same time they will be found convenient 

on all occasions. In cases where spiral stair cases must be used, 

although they are not to be recommended, care should be taken to 

have the central pier large enough to insure a proper width of tread 

on the inside of the stairs.33
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The stair treads were protected with cast iron plates, with Boott 

Cotton Mills cast into the face. Manufactured by American Safety 

Tread (Lowell) and used in many of the other mills on the site, the 

plates were installed because: “The wear of stairs from the tread of 

many feet presents a difficult problem. A very common practice 

consists in covering each tread with a thin piece of cast iron marked 

with diagonal scores, and generally showing the name of the mill.”34

The stair construction ran from the ground floor to the sixth, with 

access to the balustraded roof of the tower of unknown design--

probably a simple ladder stair to minimize the roof opening. 

The stairwell was sheathed inside and out with beaded tongue 

and groove matched boarding and had a molded rail cap and an 

excellent, heavy, turned starting newel. The enclosure rose as a 

continuous well for its entire height. 

9. Mechanical Systems 

a. Heating 

Mill #6 was warmed by a central steam heating system fed by 

boilers located in a boiler house north of Mills 1 and 2. A pair of 

30” x 60” twin35 Corliss steam engines were installed in 1874-75, 

replacing earlier models. (There were 30 steam engines generating 

3690 steam horsepower at the mills in Lowell in 1870.)36

Steam heat had been in use in British Mills since the first decade of 

the 19th century and had been adapted by almost all textile mills in 

America by the decade preceding the construction of Mill #6.37 An 

article “Statistics of Cotton Manufactures in New England 1866” 

stated that of 47 New England mills surveyed in that year, 43 were 

heated by steam, two by wood stove and one by coal stove.38

While steam was the accepted source of heat, the location of the 

required piping was to be debated for the next 40 years. At Mill 

#6, however, the original steam heat pipes were fixed to the lower 

section of the exterior walls, below the window stools on wood 

blocks. Rows of 2” x 7-1/2” vertical wood nailers were inserted 

in the brick walls between each bay at all floors, set three courses 

below the window stool line. Many mills initially selected the 

location of pipes as suspended from the ceiling, yet the use of the 

peripheral walls found considerable favor during this period for a 

number of reasons: 

I wish to say one word in reference to the wording of the notice in 

your circular. It seems to imply that something new is to be said 

upon this subject, or that the plan of overhead heating is new. Now, 

that plan was in vogue twenty years ago almost universally; but it 
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gave a great deal of trouble, on account of the kind of pipes used. 

These were large cast iron-pipes, and expansion and contraction 

caused the joints to leak, and water continually falling from the 

overhead was a great nuisance in almost any manufacturing 

establishment. Perhaps that, as much as any other one reason, led 

to bringing the pipes down to a lower level.39

Despite the remarks of “Mr. Grinnell of Providence” that he would 

place the pipes “within six or eight inches of the ceiling,” J. W. 

Cumnock, agent for Boott Cotton Mills at this time, adamantly 

disputed the ceiling location, primarily because of problems 

associated with a potential conflict between the belting and shafting 

and the pipes: 

If those pipes are put in the center of the mill (at the ceiling), running 

lengthwise, I must go over them, through them, or under them with 

the belting. Everyone knows that when belting goes under a pipe, if 

it strikes it, it is apt to make a leak. If you run six or eight lines of 

pipe through a mill, and then belt over it, as you would have to do 

by this system, I think you will find it impractical.... In the mills I 

mentioned, where I am agent, the machinery has been altered over 

five or six times. If the gentleman put up his pipes the first time, 

they might not be right five or six years hence, and consequently 

they would all be taken out.... My men put up pipe more quickly on 

the wall than they can on the ceiling. So far as the piping goes, it is 

entirely out of place for me [at the ceiling].40 

This article, published in 1880, documents the location of the steam 

heating pipes at the walls at the Boott complex, which is confirmed 

in the 1882 Barlow Insurance Survey of Boott “Heating: Steam pipes 

around the sides of rooms.”41 

b. Ventilation 

Despite dire warnings promulgated by the likes of Lewis Leeds 

in a series of lectures presented in 1866-67 and published in trade 

journals in 1871, the problem of “vitiated air” was not addressed 

at Mill #6, except through the traditional procedure of opening the 

double hung sash. A report submitted to the Boott Mills in 1916, in 

addition to commenting on “the antiquated steam heating system” 

states that there was “no artificial ventilating system.”42

c. Sanitary Facilities 

While no records were discovered dealing with the provision of 

sanitary facilities at Mill #6, prior to 1906, it is obvious that such did 

exist from the time of the opening of the mills. It is speculated that 

the toilet and washroom facilities were clustered at the masonry 
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party-wall that links the east and west parts of the mill, along 

the south wall, providing convenient access to the Eastern Canal 

directly below. It is not known if separate facilities for men and 

women were provided at each floor--if this was the case, as it was 

in later years, the spaces were probably set off from each other by 

the brick wall, using it is a convenient partition and anchor for the 

disposal drains. 

d. Lighting 

While lighting at the Boott Mills prior to the construction of Mill 

#6 was provided initially by oil (animal, vegetable, or whale) or 

kerosine (made popular after 1853 when the ready availability of 

petroleum made the refining of kerosine practical) Mill #6 was 

provided with gas lighting‡

 consisting of simple vertical pipes 

dropping from overhead lines along the exterior walls and provided 

with stop-cocks at a height convenient to light the work areas. 

The Merrimack Manufacturing Company had experimented with 

electric lighting as early as December, 1878.43 The Lowell Electric 

Light Company was organized in January, 1881 and had sixteen 

street lights in service a year later. However, Mill #6 continued to 

use gas lighting (supplemented by electric) as late as 1908. A report 

prepared for the mills indicates “1072 gas jets on property [all of 

the Boott] ... burned about 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at 

night.”44

Gas lighting lines remain in situ on the third floor (between the 9- 

0th, 16-17th and 19-20th bays on the north wall, between the 9-10th 

and 20-21st bays at the south) of the west section of Mill #6, and at 

the fifth floor (15th bay, both walls) of the west section, and at the 

east wall of the fourth and fifth floors in the east part. 

10. Lockers and Coatrooms 

No documentary evidence has been found to substantiate the 

presence of either lockers or coatrooms during the initial phase of 

Mill #6. To the contrary, a report made in 1911 leads to speculation 

that such facilities did not exist at the mill until well into the 20th 

century: 

The other matter of perhaps slight comment is the question of 

lockers for the operatives clothes. In almost all the rooms of the 

Boott Mills, the common practice was to hang the outer garments 

‡ Hill states that gas was first introduced to Lowell on January 1, 1850, 

(Frank B. Hill, Lowell Illustrated, Lowell, 1884, p. 9) and gas lighting had been 

used in England by 1792, while the first American patent was issued in 1810 for 

use in Newport, followed in 1816 when Baltimore became the first city to extensively use gas lighting (see Peterson, p. 196).
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on a nail or hook, nearby the machine on which they were engaged. 

The odors arising from these clothes’ especially on a damp morning 

is considerable...”45

11. Interior Drainage 

As was the case with Mill #6: “In many instances mills are built 

with brick cornices without any of the wood projection from the 

side; and in other buildings the walls are carried above the roof, 

which slopes toward the center, and all water falling on it or melted 

from the snow is conducted from it by pipes leading down through 

the middle of the mill.” 

The roof of Mill #6 was drained with interior downspouts, 5” cast 

iron pipes located between the 4th and 5th and the 15th and 16th 

bays in the south wall of the west part, at the east corner of the 

brick party wall that connects the two parts of the mill, and at the 

southeast corner of the east part, all of which run from the roof 

through the first floor to the canal below. Additional drains were 

located at the northeast corner of the east part, from the fifth floor to 

the fourth where it exited through the north wall, and between the 

15th and 16th bays of the east wall of the east part, exiting through 

the coal pocket.

12. Fire Protection 

The 1888 Barlow Insurance Survey states “Sprinklers§ in No. 6 mill 

each floor, and in paint and black-smith rooms.”46

Existing sprinkler pipes in Mill #6 are probably replacements of 

the original, in the same locations. Most likely they extended 

from a supply line that was suspended from the ceiling along the 

north wall of the west part and along the west wall in the east part 

of the first four floors of the mill. The actual spinkler lines ran 

perpendicular to the supply at each bay, between the floor beams, 

stopping just short of the opposite wall (or at the first two floors 

§ Cowley states, “The corporations also have an elaborate system of 

’sprinklers,’ which enables them in an instant to wet down the whole or any part 

of a room, or all their rooms, so that fires are arrested at once. This admirable machinery of sprinklers, however, was not introduced until after the establishment 

of the reservoir at Lynde’s Hill in 1850.” (Charles Cowley, Illustrated History of 

Lowell, revised edition, Boston and Lowell, 1868, p. 60). The use of sprinklers 

at the Boott in the 1850’s is corroborated by a letter from James B. Francis, CE, 

acting agent of the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals to the editor of the Insurance Monitor dated July, 1877: “Inspected in 1874 [sprinklers]... even pipes that 

had been up twenty years or more.” (Records of the Proprietors of the Locks and 

Canals, Vol H-1866-79 of Boott Mills Office, p. 145.)
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in the east part, short of the wall that set off the entrance to the 

coal pocket). The sprinkler heads in the west part of the fifth floor 

were supplied by mains located between the 3-4th and the 26-27th 

bays of the north wall, with the feeds perpendicular and extending 

almost to the south wall. The sprinklers were parallel to the north 

and south walls, two lines at either side of the central east-west 

girder that supported the roof rafters. The east section of the fifth 

floor had a single supply at the underside of the roof, running eastwest from a vertical pipe at the north edge of an opening made for 

the 1917 elevator (see next section). Two north-south lines ran in 

each of the three roof bays. 

Supplementing the sprinkler system for the prevention of the 

spread of fire in the mills were: “Vertical Pipes-Two or more in each 

set of mills, with short lengths of hose attached at each story...”47

Vertical stand pipes with valves and hose connections were 

installed next to the south edge of the stair tower entrances at 

all floors in both sections of the mill. The blacksmith shop at the 

first floor and the paint shop above it at the west end of the west 

section were serviced by these standpipes. The area to the east 

of the masonry fire wall that separated these uses from the mill 

proper was provided with a pipe that fed down from a lead along 

the ceiling of the first floor, and fed up to the second floor where it 

terminated in a hydrant and hose connection at waist level. All of 

the original standpipe system remains, and is in service today.

E. Changes to the Original Fabric Prior

to 1904 

1. Mill No. 6 

The above discussion summarizes Boott Mill #6 as built in 1872-73 

by the engineers of Locks and Canals. One major and a number of 

minor changes were made to the original fabric prior to 1904. 

The major alteration concerns the changing of what were windows 

in the east bays of the north wall of the east section, to provide 

access to the connector constructed between 1876-78 linking Mill 

#6 with the dressing mill and boiler room to the north. Initially 

the connector was only two stories high and access was limited to 

a door (or doors) at the second level, since the passage to the coal 

pocket ran through the lower level. No record of this door or doors 

remains, and all architectural evidence was lost in the expansion of 

the coal pocket in 1927-28. However, the existence of a door at this 
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level, as well as other floors by 1882 is documented in the Barlow 

Survey of that date: “Dressing Mill and Boiler House communicated 

with... No. 6 mill by connecting wing and tinned doors in second, 

third and fourth stories.”48

The mention of doors at the third and fourth stories reflects the 

addition to the connector of the third through fifth floors in 1882.49 

The unfinished condition of the fifth floor may account for the fact 

that there is no mention in the records of this period of a connecting 

door at the top floor, although the architectural evidence suggests 

that the existing door is contemporary with those at the lower 

floors. The connector was served by the rebuilding of two window 

openings in the eastern-most bays of the north wall as doors at the 

third and fourth floors in 1882. James Francis, in a letter to A. G. 

Cumnock dated June 17, 1883 mentions the doors: “The fire proof 

doors in the partition wall of the 3rd and 4th stories, between Mill 

No. 6 and the Building over the Coal Pockets should have holes in 

them, through which hose can be passed.”50 No mention is made of 

the doors at the second or fifth floors.

Windows in the third bay west of Bridge Street at the second, third 

and fourth floors were altered to doors when enclosed bridges were 

added along the west side of the five story connector, sometime 

between 188951 (based on architectural details and the bridge at the 

second floor) and 191152 (the third and fourth floor bridges were 

not built until 1930). 

The floors of Mill #6 have been patched and repaired a great 

number of times, with the result, that coupled with a total lack 

of documentation from this time frame, (the repairs would have 

been recorded under maintenance) it is impossible to precisely 

locate pre-1904 changes. However, given the frequency of shifting 

machinery in the first 25 years of operation at this mill (156 looms 

were moved in 1879, a number of drawing heads installed in 1896... 

etc.) a good deal of the original flooring may have been repaired or 

replaced if for no other reason than to level and balance the new 

machinery. Certainly, the shafting and belting, as mentioned by 

Cumnock when he defended the wall mounted steam pipes (see 

above), was changed many times, which would require holes to 

be cut into the floors and ceilings. Records documenting changes 

to the mechanical systems made during this period are also sparse 

and appear to be limited to repairing sprinkler gates in 1886, 1887 

and 1888.53

2. Facades of Mills #1 and #2 

The facades of Mill Nos. 1 and 2 and the connector between them 

were materially altered with the addition of a fifth floor. While 

not precisely dated, Hill’s Lowell lllustrated54 published in 1884 
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reproduces a view of the Boott Cotton Mills (Figure 14) that has the 

top floor in place, and the 1882 Barlow Survey lists the mills and 

connector as five stories and basement. Based on the above and 

similar material, the date of construction for the fifth floor has been 

placed by various historians as c. 1880. 

The new fifth floor caused the removal of the gable roofs and 

monitor units from Mills Nos. 1 and 2, and the penthouse from 

the connector, between them, along with the original cornices and 

rake boards. The c.1880 addition continues the fenestration pattern 

that evolved with the construction of the existing stair towers 

and connector in 1865, retained the towers at their original height 

and kept the corbeled cornice at the fourth level of the connector. 

Fifth floor windows are all 12/12, wood, double-hung, sash set in 

segmental openings. The window caps are similar to those at the 

second and fourth floors of Mill #6, with a toothed lower chord of 

the row-lock and corbeled pendant drops. A new cornice spanned 

the entire composition, with a shallow cyma-recta on a fillet pressed 

metal crown that rests on a series of four course corbeled brackets, 

again, similar in design to Mill #6. The fifth floor walls were laid 

with machine made brick, common bond, 7:1 with flush joints. 

With this important exception, it appears that the facades of Mill 

Nos. 1 and 2 and the connector were otherwise unaltered during 

this period other than a probable replacement of sash to the 9/9 

and 6/6 that is present today. None of these window changes are 

documented. 

3. Connector at Mills #7 to #6 

The connector at Mill #7 to Mill #6 was initially built two stories 

high when built in 1876-78, 21 feet wide, with walls laid with 

machine-made brick in common bond, 7:1 like virtually all of the 

construction carried out during this period. In 1882 an addition 

of the three upper levels was made. Entrance to the first floor of 

the connector was provided through a segmental arched, doubledoor width opening in the south bay of the west wall. (The opening 

has been infilled, but an early vertical board door, hung on iron 

straps and drive pintles, may have been reused from the 1876- 78 

construction.) 

The frame bridge at the second floor level has been altered with the 

application of corrugated siding and three, six-lite steel casements. 

The fourth level bridge is frame, board and batten, with six, six-lite 

inoperable wood sash. It has been strengthened by the addition of a 

steel beam at the underside. This bridge projects out over the third 

floor bridge (built in 1930, see Part III, this chapter) and second 

floor bridge and runs decidedly downhill to Mill No. 6. There is no 

bridge at the upper level of the connector. The wall surface here has 
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four segmental window openings. The detailing of the windows, 

and the brick cornice, repeats the detailing found in Mill #6. 

4. The Courtyard 

Documents indicate that changes to the courtyard (Photograph 22) 

made during this period included repairs to the existing sprinkler 

gate house (letter to A. G. Cumnock from James Francis, May 10, 

1886) and hydrant houses (similar letter dated December 1883). 

Photographs show that the courtyard ceased to be the planted, 

treelined space that appeared on various views of the 1870’s 

(Photographs 23 and 24). 
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Photo 22. View of Boott Mills, c.1865-1880. Mills Number 1 and 2 and their connector is at the right. Note 

House and structure at stair tower

Source: UML, CLH B6456 CN 01
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Photo 23. Boott Mill Yard, c.1895

Source: LNHP, Library Collections, Illustrated History of Lowell, 1897, P. 261
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Photo 24. "Yard of Boott Mills" Note removal of house houses and fenced lawn areaSource: UML, CLH, LHS, LM, Pin 4111
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ENDNOTES 

1. All field measurements are taken from preliminary HAER drawings prepared in 1983 and 

substantiated by drawings prepared by Earl Flansburgh and Associates in 1984. 

2. Mortar analysis indicates that the original formula was 1 part cement, 2.54 parts lime, 9.31 parts 

sand. See Appendix of Structural Report of Mill 6 Boott Mill in Lowell, Brown, Rona, Inc., Boston, 1984 

(hereafter referred to as Brown, Rona). 

3. Chandler Whittaker, Record Notebooks, Merrimack, Tremont, Suffolk, Boot (Mills), undated booklet 

at U of L Spec. Col. np. (References to years 1872- 1873 at contiguous pages). 

4. Ibid.

 5. Ibid. 

6. Locks and Canals File 1009 (L&C Office, Boott Mills), Summary memo dated September 13, 1926. 

7. Locks and Canals Photos #1460 (7/18/1912) and #2720 (9/13/1924). 

8. Whittaker Notebooks, unpaged. 

9. Boston Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company (BMMFIC) Special Report #10, p. 5 and 8. 

10. Scientific American, (Supplement 648), May 26, 1888, p. 10330. 

11. C. John Hexamer, Mill Architecture, article appearing in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol 

CXX, July 1885, No. 1. 

12. Ibid., p. 5. 

13. Joseph Nasmith, Recent Cotton Mill Construction and Engineering, D. Van Nostrand Co., New 

York, 1894, Flather Collection, U of L Spec. Col. 

14. Scientific American, June 2, 1888, p. 10347. 

15. BMMFIC Report 115, 1902, p. 60. 

16. BMMFIC, Modern Mill Building, May 1908. 

17. BMMFIC, Standard Mill Construction, November 1902. 

18. Extract from Day Book No. 17, 1871 - 1876, Locks and Canals file, L&C Office, Boott Mills. 

19. Scientific American, (Supplement No. 648), May 26, 1888, p. 10345. 

20. Ibid. 

21. Ibid. 

22. Ibid. 

23. Nasmith 

24. Boott Mill File 1883, Baker Library, Harvard University. 
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25. Barlow Insurance Survey (1882) No. 7379, Flather Collection, U of L Spec. Col. 

26. Daybook 13, Locks and Canals, pp. 105- 107. 

27. Hexamer, p. 9. 

28. Locks and Canals File 1009. 

29. Ibid. 

30. Ibid. 

31. Treasurer’s Report to the Director s of the Boot t Mills (Hexamer D. R. ), 1920. 

32. Scientific American (Supplement 648), p. 10330. 

33. Mill Engineering, NMAH, published by the International Library of Technology, 1902~ p. 68. 

34. Scientific American, (Supplement 648) p. 10330. 

35. Walter E. Parker, Report on the condition of the Boott Cotton Mills, Lowell, Mass., 1902, p. 23. 

36. Patrick M. Malone, Canals and Industry, Lowell Museum, Lowell, 1983, p. 21. 

37. Charles E. Peterson, ed., Building Early America, The Carpenters’ Company of the City and County 

of Philadelphia, Chilton Book Company, Radnor, Pennsylvania, 1976, p. 67. 

38. “Statistics of Cotton Manufactures in New England, 1866” Proceedings of the New England Cotton 

Manufacturer’s Association 1 (Boston, Wright & Potter, 1872, pp. 22- 23. 

39. Frederick Grinnell, “Heating by Overhead Steam Pipes”, Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual 

Meeting Held at Boston, April 28, 1880, 28, Boston, Franklin Press and Rand Avery & Co., 1880, p. 38. 

40. Ibid., p. 48. 

41. Barlow Insurance Survey, 1882 (Locks and Canals Files, B. M. ). 

42. “The Industrial Audit of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts”, Valentine, Tead & Gregg, 

Industrial Counselors, 1916, FC, p. 41. 

43. Frank B. Hill, Lowell lllustrated, Lowell, 1884, p. 9. 

44. Report, John A. Stevens, Consulting Engineer, to Frederick A. Flather, June 4, 1908, p. 45. 

45. L. A. Hackett, “Report on the Boot t Mills”, 1/9/1911 (Flather Collection). 

46. Barlow Insurance Survey, 1888, p. 2. 

47. Barlow Insurance Survey, 1888, p. 2. 

48. Ibid. 

49. 1883 Lowell Yearbook, p. 124. 

50. Files of L&C, op cit, Vol I, 1883 np. 
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51. Insurance Survey of 1878 updated to 1880. 

52. Insurance Survey of 1911. 

53. Letters, James B. Francis to A. G. Cumnock, May 9, 10, 18, 1808, File 1009, Locks and Canals (Boott 

Mills Office). 

54. Hill, p. 9. 
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VIII. 1905-1930 OCCUPATION AND 

USE 

A. Introduction

In the period following the turn of the century, the Boott operated in 

a new era, the confluence of old traditions and new circumstances, 

old practices and novel situations. Looking back, one finds a 

mingling of the modern and the archaic which taxes the historian 

and makes demands on the reader’s attention in order to assess the 

ways in which the times were like and unlike those of recent years. 

William Wood was in the process of putting together a great woolenmill conglomerate at the same time that Draper automatic looms, 

the standard in the field until after 1960, were being delivered by 

horse-drawn wagon. A person could travel from Lowell to any 

other eastern city without leaving the trolley lines, but if something 

were to be moved around the millyard, horsepower moved it. 

Waves of immigration were inundating the country, the city, and 

the Boott, but potential cosmopolitanism was stifled by nativist 

sentiment. Even as the immigrants swelled the population, their 

labor served the demands associated with the coming Great War. 

For textile mills, the war effort of this and friendly nations spelled 

prosperity so great that it could carry the industry, and even the 

American Woolen Company of Wood, a dinosaur that needed no 

anti-trust legislation to bring it down but would collapse of its own 

weight in the 1920s. 

The Boott rolled on amidst this turmoil, experiencing its ups and 

downs, faltering once, but responding to outward circumstances 

more in the degree of its activity than in its kind. New management 

appeared with the arrival of the Flather family which would oversee 

its course from 1905 until 1954. 

This period also represented the time of a new thoroughness of 

information about the mill, its operations, and its tasks. Identifiable 

individuals more of ten entered the story, and the activities of all the 

people associated with the mill took on a new clarity, a heightened 

definition. 

It was a time when it was believed that the study of management 

and the scientific analysis of production would lead to increased 

worker productivity without increased worker exertion. Partly 

because of this view, Boott management repeatedly hired 

consultants, both textile engineers and management advisers, men 

who reported on the quality of the building, the machinery, the 
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employees, and the administration of all of them. Their evaluations 

and recommendations for change offer a rare opportunity to 

study mill operations in detail for a period, after the Civil War, to 

which little attention has been given despite the importance of this 

period in American history. Not only was industrial production 

an important aspect of the great events of the time, but during the 

period 1905- 1930 events and decisions took place which ultimately 

led to the textile industry’s wholesale relocation to the South. 

In addition to revealing the inner workings of the mill, the 

consultants’ reports also enable one to identify and consider the 

daily roles of the workers in the Boott. Such specificity of data 

permits detailed descriptions of workers’ activities, providing a 

more direct view of events than is ordinarily possible. Rather than 

the generality of “textile work,” one finds descriptions which bring 

the jobs and work spaces involved in the report to life. 

Based on the records mentioned and numerous other sources, this 

chapter will recount the story of the failure of the Boott Cotton Mills 

and the birth of the Boott Mills in its stead. It includes the coming of 

a new management and a battle for control between it and the mill’s 

selling agents. A series of agents provides a look at administrative 

thinking, training, and background, and the activities of the 

Counting House become more detailed. Day-to-day operations 

there and the relationships between employees in the offices and in 

the mill clarify these important aspects of the operation. 

The complement of machinery to perform the textile operations 

continues as a presence in the account, along with its changes and, 

most interestingly, its condition, another example of the precision 

with which activities can be described. Unusual as it is to be able 

to know just what ran in a mill at a given time, adding the allimportant factor of its condition over time presents a rare degree 

of insight. 

The work environment also takes shape. The condition of the work 

place in #6, the activities in the Courtyard, the definitions of jobs, 

the relation of wages to the cost of living, and the oversight of the 

work combine to bring the mill to life. Finally, labor-management 

relations offer insight into ways of thinking about the work, the 

mill, and life in general in this period. 

B. Purposes, Operations, andProcedures

The purpose of the Boott Cotton Mills had always been simple: to 

make money. After the difficult economic times of the final quarter 

of the nineteenth century, it came as less than a surprise when 

things came to a head in 1905: 
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The affairs of the old company have been complicated for some time, 

and the final crash came on Feb. 4, [1905], when it was announced 

that the company must cease operating its plant. On that date the 

mills were closed and it was stated that unless a complete new 

corporation could be organized and new capital introduced the 

mills would have to be sold and further operations suspended. 

At this point Frank E. Dunbar put together a group of investors 

to buy the plant and equipment. Although he had hoped to raise 

the necessary money in Lowell, and had reported assurances of 

support, when the time came only about 1/4 of the total capital 

came from local residents, the rest primarily from Boston interests.

1

Those investors authorized Dunbar to pay no more than $300,000 for 

the plant and assets and to organize a new company with a capital 

stock not to exceed $600,000, of which they had already pledged 

$500,000, including the purchase price. Previous stockholders 

would be given the first opportunity to buy remaining shares. 

The failed hope expressed for local participation indicated the 

extent to which Lowell industry remained the captive of outside 

interests, separated not only from the city itself, but remaining 

part of a financial/investment market without allegiance to that 

which local residents might perceive as the city’s best interest. 

This situation had been in place when the city was founded. Its 

operation over time had continued to draw the profits of the mills 

away from their locale in the self-perpetuating manner which led 

to difficulties in finding Lowell money for investment in a project 

judged potentially profitable. 

Also from the time of the mills’ origins, they had utilized selling 

houses in Boston or New York to market their cloth in return for 

a small percentage of its value. The flow of marketing advice from 

the selling house, cloth from the mill, and intertwined financial 

dealings of several sorts (such as investments in the mill), had long 

made these relations complex and at times difficult. 

Wellington, Sears, & Company, the selling house, took half of the 

1905 subscription. Though most of the money came from outside 

Lowell, Frederick Ayer, heavily involved in the patent medicine 

business in Lowell in earlier years and now significant in the 

American Woolen Company run by his son, Wood, invested $75,000 

and was the second largest stockholder.

2

The Lowell Daily Mail announced that the mill would re-open 

at once: “It is understood that only a small proportion of the old 

operatives of the Boott have left town, so that when the gates are reopened and the help summoned to take their old places, the mill will 

be able to resume operations with practically a full complement of 

operatives.”

3

 Ariel C. Thomas, the previous Agent, would resume 
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his post. Thus rebirth followed catastrophe, and there was new 

hope for future accomplishment and profit for the newly named 

Boott Mills (without the “Cotton” in the title). 

First as part of the decision to reorganize, and in a series of analytic 

efforts thereafter, a steady stream of consultants arrived over the 

following years to attempt to prescribe to the ailing operation. 

Their commentary must have injected a note of caution, to say the 

least, into the discussions of the new owners. 

These advisers were drawn from a substantial pool of experts on 

textile and mill engineering, administration, personnel management 

and related fields. From Boston, Providence, Lawrence, Fall River, 

and New York they brought decades of tradition and significant 

experience and knowledge of factory operations. Hired by the 

Directors, usually at the recommendation of the Treasurer, they 

offered both expertise, objectivity, and neutrality in case of an 

internal conflict. They represented, in part, another manifestation 

of the nature of a situation in which mills were run by financiers 

rather than production experts. 

Lockwood- Greene and Company, a well-known and respected 

firm of consulting engineers (founded by Stephen Greene, the 

famous “mill doctor”), inspected the plant and operations during 

1906-1907. Its assessment presented a litany which would continue 

throughout the mill’s active life to 1954: 

We consider that when your Company took this property over 

it secured a manufacturing plant which was both as regards the 

style and construction of the buildings and the arrangement 

of the machinery and the relation of the processes to each other, 

a very poorly constructed and arranged plant, judged by modern 

standards. Mills 45’ and 50’ in width and six stories high cannot 

be considered good buildings for any department of a modern mill. 

They felt that the operation would be best served by rebuilding 

elsewhere, and if it was to continue on the present site, “all of the 

buildings with the exception of the storehouses and the No. 7 Mill 

should be destroyed and new buildings erected in their places.”4 

These characterizations were encountered repeatedly, and one 

must assume that they persisted in the minds of those making 

decisions as to the operations and investment policies of the mill. 

Another well-known textile engineering consultant, F. P. Sheldon 

of Providence, Rhode Island, also reported on the mill in 1907. 

He made comments similar to those quoted above and, moving 

to an aspect just slightly less pervasive than the buildings, he 

characterized operations and prospects: 
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The power equipment of the mills is outrageous--the worst I have 

ever seen, as you doubtless know well. I think you must be losing 

fully 40% of all your power by friction losses on account of the 

arrangement of the driving. It would cost a very large amount of 

money, indeed, to reorganize this equipment, and I should hate to 

spend such a large amount on this equipment as well as on the 

machinery to adapt it to these old buildings. It could be made a little 

better, but it can never be made as good as it ought to be. There can 

be no doubt at all that the cost of producing goods in these mills 

must be very much higher than it is in good mills, and while it may 

not cause loss in years like the present one, still, when margins 

come down close as they have been in past years, it might be very 

hard to earn a profit which would warrant a large expenditure to be 

made on machinery and power. 

Like the buildings of which it was an integral part, the shafting 

system had worn out. Sheldon despaired of making the mill into a 

going proposition in any but the best, most favorable years, such as 

the industry was experiencing as he wrote. The types of problems 

he noted applied not only to the driving of the equipment, but to 

nearly all aspects of the mill’s operation: 

As the machinery is now arranged, there is in the total mass, quite 

a large amount of unnecessary machinery, the result of which is 

that it is not driven to fullest capacity, because it is not needed; and 

still the help are in the mill and being paid, and I can see that this 

condition is almost unavoidable. In other words, the arrangement of 

the mill is not such that the labor can be trimmed down exactly as it 

is in the mill that is properly built and kept with all the departments 

in balance, or somewhere near it. 

And again, these buildings contain an immense amount of surplus 

floor space--more than is necessary for the production, and all this 

space has to be heated and lighted and kept in repair and looked 

after. Besides, which, it is impossible for machinery in so many 

scattered departments, covering so much floor space, to receive 

from overlookers that close attention which is necessary for the 

best results, so that the first obstacle which comes up in attempting 

to layout any reorganization, is the buildings. Of course, the 

machinery is the most important item and ought to be changed and 

improved, and a large saving can be effected by doing that even, but 

after spending this large amount of money the mill will still not be 

in condition to compete with a modern mill. The general expenses 

must run high, necessarily. The division of labor cannot be made 

to the best advantage. If the property were mine, I would rather 

run a smaller number of spindles compactly situated and properly 

balanced, and then eliminate from operation temporarily a large 

amount of surplus floor space which has to be maintained and taken 

care of now, involving loss of labor without a proportionate return.5 
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Sheldon’s diatribe became increasingly specific and focused, 

moving from power to machinery, to its lay-out, and culminating 

in oversight and labor, all of which will be themes of this chapter. 

In general ways he spoke to the issues of the mill’s operation, and 

found them wanting on all counts. He painted a picture of the new 

owners and managers starting with severe handicaps; their efforts 

to overcome them represent an underlying theme at all points in 

this account. 

Moving to the program and purposes of the buildings under 

consideration, the Counting House and Building No. 6, along with 

the Mill Yard, did not differ in 1905 from its status at the end of the 

previous period. By 1910, and through 1930, however, it adopted 

a new pattern of occupation: the 5th floor of No. 6 became Ring 

Spinning, the 4th both Ring and Mule Spinning, the 3rd combined 

Mule Spinning and Weaving, and Weaving filled nearly the lower 

2 floors. On the 2nd floor a Recreation Room abutted the Counting 

House; beneath it lay a Repair Shop, and at the other end of 6-1 the 

railroad passed through to the Coal Pocket. In the Counting House 

one finds Vacant Attic on the top floor, Office Rooms on the second, 

and in the basement, Supplies and a Belt Shop.

6

The production during this period was the wide and varied 

assortment of materials which worried the advisers. The range 

encompassed heavy ducks, fine lawns, and “even veiling with silk 

filling of equivalent cotton count of 350’s.”

7

 The ducks themselves 

included a number of materials of varying weight, while woven bags, 

toweling, corduroys, and numerous other materials, eventually 

even including sewn products such as curtains, contributed to 

the output at one time or another. Production of 40 different warp 

yarns and 50 filling yarns, combed and uncombed, appears to have 

been typical. 

During the period 1905- 1930, #6 was in the process in becoming the 

‘’Fine Hill” of the Boott complex, specializing in the production of 

the finer, or lighter-weight, yarns and cloths. Weavers in #6 made 

45 different styles of cloth in 1923. Moleskin, repp, velvet, scrim, 

and duck came off the looms, each in endless varieties. The first 

three represented fabrics with raised surfaces of different types; the 

thin strong scrim served as linings for upholstery; duck was much 

like canvas, but lighter. 

Despite the deficiencies noted in plant, power, lay- out, machinery, 

and oversight, the new mill moved rapidly into finer materials 

which taxed everyone and everything involved. They were seen as 

the response to market forces making them increasingly valuable 

at the time when Southern mills’ competition for coarse goods 

business mounted steadily. Market forces were seen as exerting 

more pressure in one direction than mill conditions presented in 
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the other. Obviously, tension resulted, and the accounting of it will 

proceed throughout this chapter. 

C. Activities: The Counting House

1. The Treasurer 

The takeover Dunbar engineered early in 1905 marked the advent of 

a new direction for the Boott, despite the fact that most of the staff, 

including the Agent, continued in their slots. Frederick A. Flather 

was named Treasurer, a move of great significance. Unlike most 

current corporations, the major textile mills had always made the 

Treasurer the officer of greatest power, particularly on a day-to-day 

(even month-to- month) basis. This tradition had its origin in the 

merchant backgrounds of its New England initiators, the Lowells, 

Appletons, Jacksons, and others. Because of the great extent of 

their influence in the region’s economic circles, this position came 

to be the location of power in many businesses and continued thus 

until recent times. Flather’s installation, therefore, represented a 

much more noteworthy event than simply the arrival of one new 

officer: the reins of power had shifted. According to the rules of the 

corporation, the Treasurer, under the direction of the Board, could 

...receive and disburse all moneys, and have custody of all funds, 

books of account, deeds and papers of the corporation. He shall 

sign all notes, bills, checks and drafts issued in the name of the 

corporation, but the same shall not be valid unless countersigned by 

the clerk or any two directors.... The Treasurer shall, in all matters 

pertaining to the operation of the manufacturing plant, property 

and business of the Company, and its purchase and sale of materials 

and merchandise, and its employment and discharge of servants 

and agents, and in all matters of finance and credit (save as by these 

By-Laws otherwise provided) have full power and authority subject 

only to the control of the Board of Directors and until they shall by 

vote otherwise specifically order and provide.”8

Between the meetings of the board, and within their overall 

plan, Flather had great control of the mill, its employees, and its 

operations. From this position, he bore general responsibility for 

the success or failure of the factory. 

The background of this man chosen to run a cotton mill in Lowell 

offers interesting commentary on what were seen as the demands 

of the position. Flather’s experience lay in the machine-tool 

industry. He had worked at Flather and Company, the family firm 

founded by his father in Nashua, New Hampshire, then served 

as Superintendent of the Pettee Machine Works, a major builder 
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of textile machines in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts. From 

there he went to the Lowell Machine Shop [LMS], traditionally the 

source of machinery for the Lowell mills (and which ultimately 

merged with Pettee) as Assistant to the Manager. In 1901 he became 

Superintendent at the McCormick Harvester Company, in Chicago, 

and then Manager of the Works for the International Harvester 

Company there until coming back to Lowell and the Boott.

9

Flather’s early career was marked by intelligence, innovation, and 

ambition. When he went to Pettee in 1887 he brought “not only 

some practical knowledge of machine designing, but a keen feeling 

for change which was not always found in the experienced and 

seasoned machinist” (which he was not). After doing well there, 

but finding himself blocked from rapid advancement beyond the 

position of Superintendent, he went to the Lowell Machine Shop 

in 1893 to help with design and production problems, particularly 

with the revolving-flat card. He made progress there not only 

with the immediate problems, but also with the overall operation 

and equipment of the plant, bringing in new machine tools “‘by 

the freight car load.’” His contributions related to both machine 

design and mass-production techniques.10 What he brought from 

his previous experience to the Boott, then, was not knowledge of 

cotton textile manufacturing, but experience in managing men, 

planning operations, and introducing innovation, In addition, he 

had knowledge of textile machinery and had dealt with cotton 

manufacturers while promoting the machines with which he had 

worked. 

Obviously, Flather was hired for executive ability, not textile 

knowledge. The Agent, Superintendents, Overseers, and Secondand Third-hands provided that kind of supervision of the plant’s 

operations and the employees’ skills. But neither was Flather a 

Treasurer of the old style, managing the mill from Boston with only 

occasional contact with activities in Lowell. On the contrary, he 

lived in Lowell and visited the mill nearly every morning, arriving 

early and then going to Boston on a mid-morning train to conduct 

related affairs (cotton buying, relations with other mills, Directors, 

bankers, etc.). His Diaries give an idea of how his time at the mill 

was spent, particularly during the early years of his reign. 

One aspect of his style appeared in his Diary in 1910 when he 

noted he had told the Agent “that the tearing out of the old engine 

room did not look safe and that I had plenty of money to spend 

for safety.”11 His factory experience made him cognizant of the 

potential danger of work done incorrectly and enabled him to 

recognize such a situation when it occurred. The comment, and his 

note, reveal an attention to detail, ability to size up an operation, 

and a respectfulness toward the workers reflected in his concern 

for their safety. 
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Managing the people involved on all levels of the mill’s operation 

was also a primary concern for him. For a period in 1917 the Agent, 

E. W. Thomas, was in poor health and Flather advised him not to 

be too hasty in returning north (to work), fearing that too sudden a 

change in climate might produce a shock to his weakened system. At 

the other end of the spectrum, on the same day he “sent word...that 

idle men in 6-2 tower cost money and is result of poorly instructed 

and placed supervisor.” As the boss, he did not want to see idleness 

and wanted others to make sure it did not happen. Nor were the 

help in the Counting House free from problems: “Holgate was 

anxious about his health if he remains in his room, which vibrates 

and is noisy. Told him we all had to put up with something and I 

was not interested in that question (his real reason I think is that 

he wants Thomas’ office).”12 The vibration of the Weave Rooms 

in No. 6, of which the consultants often spoke, was transmitted 

to adjacent offices. Flather’s preemptory and suspicious response 

to Holgate revealed an aspect of his character, a lack of felicity in 

human relations. 

On other days Flather discussed the weaving in 6-4 in preparation 

for moving the machinery to #5, making sure everything was in 

readiness.13 When there were labor troubles anticipated or ongoing 

he discussed the situation with those on the spot. And when, in July, 

he felt that Agent Thomas could return to his responsibilities fulltime, he had the Directors approve a letter outlining the situation 

and returning responsibility for the future to Thomas. With the 

Directors’ approval he gave the letter to him and then, in Thomas’ 

presence, he was careful to note, informed each of the man’s 

primary subordinates of the situation so that the chain of command 

would be clear, responsibility undisputed. When Thomas tried to 

stray from this carefully prepared agenda, “He tried to tell me about 

his troubles,” it appeared that he had no success.14 In each case 

Flather was attentive to detail, dealt directly with the subordinates 

involved, yet maintained an aloof posture befitting his station. 

The picture that emerges from Flather’ s commentary reveals a man 

of meticulous manner, devotion to his task, ability to play a role 

of power on the one hand (when at the mill) and subservience on 

the other (when reporting to the Directors). Competence, but not 

tact, appears. This opinion gains reinforcement from a note of his 

upon receiving the news that the elite Union Club had determined 

not to grant him membership on account of a reputation of “not 

getting on well with people.” Evidence from as far back as his time 

at the Pettee Works apparently played a role. “To me,” he wrote, 

“it is praise. I do not use my position for self [his emphasis].” He 

went on, “[I am] proud of the things that I have suffered in doing 

for my employers.”15 Self-righteousness, combined with ability and 

ambition, had not won friends among all of those he had met along 

his way up. 
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The Directors had installed a man of dignity and executive 

reputation who would represent their interests faithfully. His 

view of his position combined with his temperament to leave him 

personally isolated but thoroughly dedicated to his mission. 

2. The Agents 

Less survives to describe the men who served directly beneath 

Flather: the Agents. During the early Flather years, one finds A. 

C. Thomas (1905-1908), John Whitten (1908-1910), E. W. Thomas 

(1910-1920), Fred Lacey (1920-21), and Benjamin Holgate (1921-

?) serving in the position. The brevity of the terms of these men, 

several of whom died in office, suggests that this stressful position 

carried its own occupational hazards. 

The Agent represented the summit of cotton mill expertise in the 

administration. He supervised the daily operation of the mill, both 

in the factory and the offices. He executed the Treasurer’s orders 

and directed the compilation of information from which he would 

evaluate and report production. 

A letter from A. C. Thomas to Flather on June 30, 1905, some months 

after the mill had been taken over and Thomas continued in his 

position, indicated the nature of their relationship and the location 

of manufacturing knowledge. He defined the terms generally 

used in accounting the mill’s weaving operation and described the 

manner in which the calculations behind the terms were made: 

Average Number is obtained by the sum of the percent of each kind of 

yarn multiplied by its number.

Production per Day means 1/6 of the weekly production of 58 hours. This 

is based on the picks per inch, speed of looms per 

minute, and a given percent of the possible production.

Price per Yard is the weaver’s standard weekly earnings, divided by 

his total weekly production in yards.

Percent of Yarns is obtained by multiplying the weight of each kind of 

yarns in one yard by the yards per pound.

Oversight per Loom 

(Per Week)

includes all day help not on piece work, in the weaving department.

General Expense per 

Loom 

(Per Week)

includes the dressing room, cloth room, all repairs, 

supplies, power, mill office, Boston office.

Labor is the cost per pound for labor of WARP delivered to 

the dressing department, and FILLING delivered to 

the weaving department.

Weaving is composed of the cost of oversight per pound, plus 

the price per yard for weaving expressed in pounds, 

both based on the production in pounds, per loom, 

per week.
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General Expense is the cost per pound, based on the production in 

pounds, per loom, per week.

Thomas conscientiously explained these simplest of calculations, 

the most rudimentary accounting, several months after Flather’s 

arrival, under lining the extent to which a Treasurer could operate 

while divorced from the on-site analysis of the mill. The importance 

of the Agent’s knowledge was emphasized. 

One is reminded of the statement cited in the previous chapter 

regarding Agent Cumnock’s importance to the operation of the 

Boott. While investors might discern opportunity for profit, and 

the Treasurer might manage the finances, in many ways the buck 

stopped with the Agent. If he could not coordinate, direct, evaluate, 

and communicate his findings effectively, the others could not hope 

to succeed. Conversely, he did not have the power to overcome 

errors on the part of his superiors. 

After the death of E. W. Thomas in 1920, Flather recommended the 

appointment of Fred Lacey to replace him. His description of the 

Bradford (England) born Lacey as coming from “mill people” led 

into a remarkable account of the background of such a man, as well 

as something of the opportunities open to him and the machinations 

which could lead to promotion or stagnation in the small world of 

top administrators: 

Nine years in Lawrence and Lowell, mostly in Pacific Mills, although 

two years out of nine were spent at Merrimack Manufacturing, Co. 

Nine years with Renfrew Mfg. Co. of Adams, Mass., until that mill 

burned down. 

Five years at Greylock Mills of North Adams:- 600 looms, 15,000 

spindles. 

Four years Superintendent Montreal Cotton Co., Valley Field, 

P.Q.:- 2,350 looms, 80,000 spindles, dye house and bleachery, on 

shirtings, coat linings, l dies’ linings and toweling. 

General Manager (Agent) for 5 years of Montreal Cotton Co., 

Valley Field, P.Q. 

Lacey remained neutral and attended to his work during contest 

for control of Montreal Cotton Co., and in the end was relieved by 

those in control. In his nine years the mill grew to 4,500 looms and 
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180,000 spindles. 

He was offered superintendency at Boott, superintendency at 

Lancaster Mills, Clinton, and charge of Shenandoah Cotton Mills, 

Utica, N.Y.; also district managership of three southern mills under 

E. W. Thomas, General Manager Consolidated Duck. He accepted 

the last but I afterwards assisted him in obtaining his release 

amicably. 

He came to Boott in 1906 as Superintendent under Ariel Thomas, 

Agent. Then Lancaster Mills offered him Agency, but he was square 

and remained with Boott. 

We intended to make him Agent but the rapid increase in business 

caused us to keep Ariel Thomas on. Lacey served him faithfully. 

Wellington, Sears having a man, John Whitten, under contract but 

on the loose pulley, made him Agent of Boott. He divided his time 

between Manchester, where he lived, a desk in Wellington-Sears 

office, Suncook Mills and Boott Mills. He broke down and at end of 

his second year died. Lacey served him faithfully. 

E. W. Thomas applied to Wellington-Sears for position of Agent 

and in 1910 was appointed. Lacey was faithful to Thomas, as he was 

to predecessors, and loyal to Boott Mills. 

He owns his home, is a respected citizen, a clean liver, and his heart is 

in the Boott Mills. He does not run to experiments, knows the Boott 

Mills and cotton manufacturing. He has always been Assistant 

Agent in fact. ln Mr. Thomas’ absences, by mutual arrangement 

with Mr. Thomas and myself, Lacey has been Acting Agent, in 

which position he is now officially regarded by those connected with 

the Boott Mills.17

Flather’s evaluation said much about his attitude, the state 

of American textile knowledge, and factors influencing the 

Booth’s direction. Furthermore, if resumes were available for 

the mill’s previous agents, they would display numerous similar 

characteristics. 

Although the cotton textile industry had operated on a large scale in 

this country since the 1820s and reached maturity long before 1905, 

England still stood as the land of experts, the place where agents 

were made. While Lacey’s training occurred in the U. S. and Canada, 

his lineage was still worth mentioning. And his cotton education 
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had taken place in the mills. While his jobs were not detailed, they 

are likely to have been many and varied. By moving from mill to 

mill, he could match his talent to his ambition as he moved to slots 

of increasing authority, and he could learn from the comparisons 

between each of the mills at which he worked. Although mobile, 

both geographically and upwardly, he maintained a reputation for 

reliability and neutrality: he knew his place and did not interfere 

or take sides with the disputes of his superiors. Once educated and 

recognized as one of the select group which could be trusted to 

run a major enterprise, many opportunities opened to him. His 

path crossed that of the other members of this club, such as E. W. 

Thomas, and his fate was influenced by many things other than 

his proven ability, but he remained loyal and steadfast. When 

the pressure of expanding operations made the Directors fearful 

of a change in command, he was patient. When the selling house, 

Wellington, Sears, used its great influence to install its own man, 

he served him, as he did when they gave the job to E. W. Thomas, 

despite the fact that he seems to have been the Treasurer’s choice 

for the job for some time. 

Lacey’s path represented one typical for nineteenth-century mill 

agents. His understanding of the processes was based on experience 

at performing the tasks associated with them. His allegiance was to 

the mill and its administrators, but his knowledge was tied to the 

work experience. 

Like Whitten and Thomas, Lacey did not long survive the job; he 

died July30, 1921. Flather’s recommendation to the Directors for 

Lacey’ s successor-to-be indicated the extent to which the mill’s 

management had been rationalized during his administration, 

particularly as to succession of oversight, and the changing nature 

of Agent’s training or experience at this time. Holgate’s career 

provides excellent insight into Counting House activities and 

signals a new era in mill management: 

We have had in our organization for 15 years (since 1906) a man 

named Benjamin Holgate, age about 47, now Acting Agent, and at 

the next meeting of the Directors I expect to report his appointment 

as Agent, subject to a vote of approval by the Directors. 

Holgate went to work early as operative in an English cotton mill 

of which his father was manager; then served, still in England, as 

office assistant, bookkeeper; then in charge of office. He came next to 

America, where he worked for his brother, an overseer in Hamilton 

Mills, Lowell; here he learned loom fixing and worked at it for a 

period. 

He then joined the staff of Lowell Textile School, worked part time 
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and studied part time until he passed all the courses they then 

taught there, as follows: - Cotton Yarn, Manufacturing, Weaving, 

Designing. At the age of about 32, in 1906, he came to the Boott, 

established and successfully operated a cost system. 

In 1910 he took up the maintenance of manufacturing schedules, 

made the promises of deliveries to selling house and made the 

estimates upon which selling prices were based. He has designed, or 

analyzed, and organized the fabrics that we have made since 1910, 

has handled the complaints from customer, selling house, or from 

our departments, and stuck to them until satisfactorily disposed 

of.18

Holgate shared his predecessor’s English background but little 

of his experience, there or in this country. The new man was 

experienced in office work, only slightly in shop- floor activity. 

He had learned analysis while working, studied the cotton 

process in school, and proven himself in areas connected to sales 

and customer relations. He had demonstrated abilities to handle 

the “customers’ peculiarities,” as well as capturing the valuable 

Woolworth towelling account despite the selling house’s failure to 

do so. Holgate’s proofs lay in accounting practice and sales, areas 

substantially different from the skills of a Lacey or a Cumnock. 

The new Agent was fitted to a growing trend in management to 

rely on careful analysis of figures to plan and evaluate a mill’s 

program, work assignments, and sales plans. His installation 

reflected Flather’s allegiance to this new school. The operations of 

this approach would be followed throughout the mill’s lifespan. 

Counting House operations in this period did not always run 

according to the expectation set forth by an organizational chart 

for relations between the Directors, Selling House, and Treasurer. 

At several points in the above accounts of Flather’s activities one 

notes intrusions by the Selling House, Wellington, Sears, into 

areas normally the purview of the Treasurer. Since they were also 

a major stockholder, their interventions must have been difficult 

for Flather to protest, impossible to resist. Eventually the conflict 

between the two sides and their somewhat different interests came 

to a head. The ensuing disagreement revealed considerable material 

of interest about the situation among the mill’s hierarchy and the 

Counting House’s operations. 

The disagreement over power and direction which had simmered 

since 1905 became unavoidable in 1914 when the Directors 

considered plans to inc rease investment in the mill. In pondering 

how to improve the Boott’s operation and competitive position, 

some of the Board favored raising $600,000 through a stock issue to 
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underwrite past and future improvements to both machinery and 

plant.19 Wellington, Sears, on the other hand, touched off a bitter and 

often personal dispute when they charged that Flather should be 

ousted on account of his “extravagant” management. They claimed 

that he was to blame for the fact that “the goods were costing so 

high that they were almost prohibitive to go into the market to sell 

and make a profit for the mill.”20 The mill could not continue until 

the responsibility for its difficulties could be placed. 

The composition of the Board of Directors had changed somewhat 

since 1905. Wellington, Sears, still held the largest single block of 

shares, 2300, but Albert F. Bemis, who also held substantial cotton 

mill investment elsewhere, had become second with 1992, dropping 

Ayer to third with 1656. Flather owned 250. Bemis and Ayer, who 

together exceeded Wellington, Sears, in power, had been supporters 

of Flather, but Bemis had played his role by proxy while he spent 

most of his time in China. When he returned in 1914 the possibility 

arose of his shifting his support to the Selling House faction.21

To settle the dispute over the mill’s management the Director s 

appointed Cumnock, the previous Agent and now Treasurer of the 

Appleton Company, to examine the running of the mill. Flather’s 

responses to a letter of questions from Bemis in June described 

Cumnock’s examination and some of the manner of the mill’s 

administration. 

Cumnock visited the mill four times and examined the Boott’s 

records both there and in Boston. An effort was made to speed the 

inquiry in order that the conflict could be settled before Ayer sailed 

for the Mediterranean. 

Flather’s letter first gave his version of the mill’s direction: 

Before January 1, 1907, all orders and inquiries were passed upon by 

me. Beginning with January 1, 1907, and during his incumbency, 

orders were passed upon exclusively by Mr. Whitten [Wellington, 

Sears’ man], if at all by any direct representative of the Mill. 

This practice developed as the result of a policy which Messrs. 

Wellington, Sears & Company wished enforced. Since January 1, 

1910, and until a comparatively recent date the same policy has 

been continued by the Selling Agents with Mr. Thomas with rare 

and spasmodic exceptions... I have not approved of the character of 

the business, (with exceptions), furnished the Boott Mills, and have 

as often as seemed practicable made this fact known to Wellington, 

Sears & Company. By my direct and amicable dealings with them 

I hoped we could mutually solve our selling and manufacturing 

problems.22
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From the Treasurer’s point of view, the direction of the mill had 

been taken from him by the Selling House and without regard to 

types, capacities, and conditions of machines. In effect, the primary 

stockholder was acting independently and causing conditions at 

the mill to deteriorate. As a final economy measure, a massive 

layoff stripped the plant of every expendable employee. 

Cumnock’s report supported Flather and was quoted at the pivotal 

Director’s Meeting: 

“These policies have been determined by the selling house and not 

by the mill treasurer, and if it is true and the selling house has 

been directing the manufacture of certain goods and a great many 

varieties of a great many kinds of goods and sizes and threads, with 

the result that now there is on hand some $450,000 worth of those 

goods manufactured according to the directions of the selling house 

which are not sold and apparently cannot be sold immediately, why 

you may put two and two together and find out where the shoe has 

pinched.”

 It was to the selling houses that the mills had traditionally looked 

for advice on coming styles or market trends, advice on what sort 

of production seemed to offer the best return. The unsold inventory 

stood as a condemnation not only of the advice given the Boott, but 

also of the temerity which had led Wellington, Sears to take over 

its direction. 

Further use of Cumnock completed Flather’s vindication, but it 

carried within it a warning about the mill’s future course: 

“My complete report will show that the mill physically has been 

well maintained and much benefited by large amounts of new 

machinery and other improvements... I think the Mill can make to 

best advantage an average of 24s yarn, and that it should promptly 

greatly reduce its present variety of upwards of thirty different 

warp numbers ranging from 7s to 68s, and twenty- six different 

numbers of filling yarns ranging from 9s to 55s. Such a large 

number and wide range of yarns as you are now making means 

a high manufacturing cost and must make it hard to get and hold 

an established business. It is also one of the principal causes which 

lowers the productive capacity of the Mill which during the past 

year I have proved was only 64.72%. Except, perhaps, for your 

’Duck’ product, I find that you regularly produce no large lines 

for wide distribution, although the mill is making in quite large 

quantities both corduroys and velveteens, but in each of these two 

cases the distribution is limited to one buyer. In my judgment as 

large lines as possible which the mill is best adapted to make should 

be produced and widely distributed and under the Company’s own 
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brands as far as possible.”23

Cumnock appears here at length in order to present his defense of 

Flather and also his warnings about the desirability of producing 

fairly heavy yarns and thereby increasing productivity while 

seeking wide distribution under the company’s name. His view 

endorsed the course followed by Flather and the Board in regard 

to the physical plant, criticized production choices apparently 

made by the selling house, and offered suggestions based on 

a combination of productivity through management planning 

and success through marketing. His testimony was instrumental 

in saving Flather (and indirectly initiating the new investment 

program). It offered one more example of the lack of competition 

between the Lowell corporations which permitted the Treasurer 

of one to evaluate and advise his counterpart at another. It also 

stands as a benchmark against which to judge the mill’s responses 

in coming years to his predictions. 

3. General Operations 

While events in the Counting House were seldom as dramatic as 

the conducting of an inquiry to decide the fate of the Treasurer, 

its operations were of dramatic importance for the direction of 

the factory. The complexity of the operation, involving, as it did, 

several inter-related production steps taking place continuously in 

the many rooms of the several buildings, the interplay of a people, 

machines, cotton, and markets, required precise measurement, 

analysis, and direction. The office workers provided the basis for 

the necessary coordination for this system. 

A 1907 list of Office employees and their titles provided a preview 

of these roles:

Willard W. Morrison, Office 

H. P. Hunter, Supt. 

Fred Lacey, Supt. 

Victor E. Pihl, Mechanical Supt. 

Edward L. Kirby, Paymaster 

Benjamin Holgate, Cost Clerk 

Gavin Holt, Clerk 

Henry Howard, Clerk 

Squire Moss, Belt-man.24 

The last, a Secondhand, worked in the basement. 

First Lacey and then Holgate would rise from these positions to 

that of Agent. The simple structure suggested by the list indicated 

the rudimentary nature of the analysis taking place at this time in 

comparison to what it would soon become. 
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Seven years later Flather offered an abbreviated list of types of 

jobs in the Counting House; only “Stenographers” and “Telephone 

Operator” indicated new positions.25 Consultants had already 

begun to recommend changes in administrative structure and 

additions to the staff, however. 

When L. A. Hackett, another outside expert, reviewed operations in 

1911, he criticized the practice of the Treasurer in keeping his office 

in Boston rather than at the mill, contrasting that with “modern 

mill” practice; using a selling agent rather than selling direct also 

appeared unwise to him. Beneath the Treasurer, the Agent dealt with 

every department of the mill and supervised a Superintendent of the 

Works, the Master Mechanic, and the Office Manager to oversee the 

three main divisions of the operation. In turn, the Master Mechanic 

directed “Yard Men, Machine Shop, Power House, Carpenter Shop, 

and Supply Room.” The Office Manager oversaw the “Paymaster, 

Cost Man, Bookkeepers, Messenger, and Stenographers;” beneath 

the Superintendent one found separate departments designated as 

“Cloth, Picking, Carding, Ring Spinning, Mule Spinning, Spooling, 

Twisting, Dressing, and Weaving.” Hackett described the operation 

of this structure and found little of which to approve: 

With respect to line and staff, the organization of the Boott is 

noticeably imperfect... Each overseer is in charge of a department, 

for which in a general way he is responsible in its operation. The 

payrolls are kept separate for the departments and even divided 

so as to show the cost of manufacture of many operations and a 

small part of the burden expenses, is obtained from them as well. 

The supplies consumed are chargeable on requisition orders where 

used, but this applies only to the smaller items. Over the control of 

stock of material, the overseer has no very comprehensible method 

of knowing whether the weight which was received into the room, 

with the weight leaving the room, plus the customary amount of 

waste, will check up or not. He is in no way brought face to face 

every month with an accounting with what has been accomplished 

in his room, except oftener than every six months, and this is too 

long a period to become any incentive for him to keep bettering his 

previous record.26

Accounting for power consumed, supplies used, or other aspects 

of the “burden expense,” the costs associated with production in a 

given room, appeared speculative at best. Clearly the Office could 

not make the assignments, analysis, and predictions which were 

needed, nor could the Overseers measure the degree of success in 

their own rooms. 

The office was the source of all the detailed information needed 

by those in any way related to activities in the mill, information 

that those involved in the process, whether Overseers or Treasurer, 
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could not determine without the calculations of the Counting 

House. If no system existed to control and measure the flow of 

material, however, no one could determine this needed data. 

Hackett indicated the lack of coordination within and between the 

various levels, and this in an operation where each part had to act 

in precise relationship to the others. 

In 1916 the firm of Valentine, Tead & Gregg, Industrial Counselors, 

of New York studied the Boott’s operation and produced yet another 

set of descriptions and recommendations (hereinafter identified as 

the Valentine Report). This report provided further development 

of and explanation for the shortcomings in the operation of the 

Counting House. Its description of the organization suggests that 

some changes had been made in the five years since Hackett’s visit, 

but still found conditions in disarray. 

This report, one of the prime sources for study of the Boott operation, 

is noteworthy for its attention to the role of the human element in 

the operation of the mill, reflecting as it did the movement toward 

“humanist” labor management popular at the time, a belief that 

heightened productivity could result from improved treatment of 

the workers and more attention to their relationship to one another 

and the physical structure. 

This study faulted the decentralization of power on the level of 

both Treasurer and Agent for creating “confusion, constant shifting 

of policy, and delay.’’ Its comments on relationships between 

employees in the Counting House said a great deal about what 

conditions there were like and gave its view of their implications 

for the mill as a whole: 

There is friction between the sales and accounting departments, 

between the superintendent and efficiency man. The superintendent 

wants control over the master mechanic and hasn’t got it. The 

superintendent has no clear cut conception of his duties. The 

purchasing agent is uncertain as to his authority in regard to 

stores. There is a slight conflict of authority between him and 

the accountant in regard to the payroll clerks. The office clerical 

force is discontented with the frequent shifting of responsibilities. 

They do not know from whom they are to get final directions. The 

coordination between day and night overseers is not good. 

All this results in friction, lost time, lost energy, dulled initiative, 

indifference, impatience and discouragement. The tone of the main 

office force is lax. It is reflected in the tone of the whole mill. The 

workers suffer in morale, wages and poor working conditions.27
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This report reflected a new sensitivity to the issues mentioned and 

represented a far cry from the traditional management attitude 

toward the workers in these mills. In essence, it described a result 

of poor organization in terms of worker performance as well as 

management control. 

In addition to those purposes already indicated as being served by 

the Counting House, it also held a planning department and had to 

respond to the sales department: 

Scheduling is rendered very difficult by the frequent changes in 

orders received from the sales department. Overseers are occasionally 

asked by the planning staff to deliver quantities that are beyond the 

capacity of the equipment at their disposal. This is unfortunate and 

causes some resentment.28

Not to belabor the point, but scheduling represented the sole 

opportunity for creating and maintaining the necessary balance 

between the production of the many departments in order that they 

have the needed materials in the proper quantities for uninterrupted 

work. The sales department worked with a advertising agents and 

on other sales promotion work.29 

The Valentine Report also faulted the number and location of 

clerical help. The Superintendent worked without benefit of a clerk 

to “handle routine papers, keep records, and answer the telephone.” 

Clerks for the Overseers of the various departments, on the other 

hand, generally were found in the Counting House: “Overseers 

wanting to give them work have to leave their rooms and go to the 

office.”30 Further complicating the Overseers’ relationship to the 

Office and to their tasks were difficulties in their relationship to the 

Accountant and his functions: 

The accountant has shown cost figures to the overseers, but little 

interest was created. He has now begun plotting cost curves. The 

overseers understand these more readily. Cost curves give a sense 

of movement and proportion wholly lacking to figures. Any method 

that will give vividness and meaning to costs in the eyes of the 

overseers will be of great value.31

The Overseers’ difficulties in dealing with the figures involved 

becomes easier to understand, the accountant’s work easier to 

appreciate, and the process for figuring costs more meaningful 

if weaving cost may serve as an example. First, hours came from 

the loom hours book, production from the cloth room account, 

and then related payroll amount s were calculated. Indirect labor 

included the “supervisor, inspector, hurlers, fixers, oilers, bobbin 

boys, filling carriers, truckers, room girls, battery hands, scrubbers, 
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sweepers, cleaners, supply man, elevator men, and misc.” Direct 

labor included loom changers assigned to the style. Pounds (of 

cloth made) or picks (of the shuttle) were added to payroll and 

calculated according to the style. Pounds were estimated on styles 

where piecework rates were based on picks by dividing picks per 

yard to get total yards, then dividing by weight to get pounds. 

These results were then posted to labor distribution sheets at the 

end of the month.32 The overwhelming complexity and occasional 

nature of this process made careful control over the many styles 

of cloth difficult, if not impossible. The directions noted dealt only 

with one aspect, labor, of one operation, weaving, and had to be 

repeated for every process, material, and style in order for the mill 

to know how to price the cloth and whether or not to continue to 

make it. 

Other areas were similarly imprecise. The Treasurer purchased 

cotton, burlap, machinery, and coal, while routine supplies and 

parts were the provenance of the Purchasing Agent, who was 

responsible to the Treasurer, not the Agent or the Superintendent. 

Lacking a good system of keeping track of supplies on hand or of 

reporting same to the Purchasing Agent, his work must have been 

somewhat hit or miss.33

One reason for the lack of accountability regarding supplies was the 

state of the Store Room in the basement of the Counting House. Too 

small and not centrally located, it also had no inventory control. In 

addition to materials there, “many cams and gears are piled in the 

various rooms, passageways and stairways throughout the plant.”34

The inability to keep track of gears and other supplies, like most 

of the items in these reports, was of limited importance in its own 

right, but the accumulation of such inabilities led to significant 

uncertainties. 

For more basic accounting, the Office moved into the mechanical 

age by 1913, when tabulating machines such as the “Millionaire” 

were purchased.35 For some time thereafter the new technology 

seemed to lag behind earlier practice: “Calculating machines 

break down and delay of getting them repaired at once suggests 

impracticability of their use for us. Our girls actually went through 

pay-roll faster by hand then with change machines.”36 Old methods 

and expectations did not always move gracefully aside in the 

Counting House operation. 

Overall, the period from 1905 to 1930 did see the passing of certain 

traditions and expectation in the Office. The most basic shift was from 

direction by an Agent knowledgeable about cotton mill practice, as 

had been the case for nearly a century, to a desire for accounting, 

marketing, and sales-related skills at the top of the organization. 
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Movement in this direction contributed to the situation in which 

the Selling House/Stockholder could confuse its two roles and take 

over direction of the plant for what it perceived as its own, rather 

than the mill’s, best interest. This potential for conflict was not a 

new one, and had arisen in various guises at many mills over time, 

but at this moment in history the potential for misdirection was 

accentuated by the new faith in marketing expertise as the hope of 

salvation for troubled plants. 

Similarly, successive consultants provided increasing analysis of 

office procedures as key ingredients for the Boott’s future success, 

and their advice was the more welcome in the light of other 

comments indicating that nothing could save the plant itself. If new 

practices, rather than new machines and/or buildings, were the key 

to success, it might be accomplished without great expenditures. 

In any case, little expenditure was made on the Counting House 

itself. In keeping with Flather’s self- denying or frugal nature, 

the offices appeared plain: “The office would greatly benefit by 

fresh paint and calcimine. At present it is unnecessarily cheerless. 

To callers at the mill it gives an appearance of indifference to 

appearance and lack of prosperity that is most unfortunate.”37 Even 

for those whose work was most like his own, Flather offered little 

in the way of comforts, or “window dressing,” as such things had 

traditionally been seen. If there were to be any display, it would be 

in Boston. 

In any case, the first part of the twentieth-century was a great 

time to make money in textiles, particularly during and just after 

World War I. None of the difficulties the consultants found at the 

Boott could prevent it from making money, nor could faulty office 

machines prevent them from recognizing the fact. As presented to 

the Board of Directors, the profits before depreciation amounted to: 

1915 342,648. 44 

1916 463,241.14 

1917 652,785. 34 

1918 565, 48. 03 

1919 674,183.26 

1920 1,716,741.13 38

The Boston investors who had seen continuing prospects for 

profit in the old mill were being proven correct despite all the dire 

predictions of the experts. 

D. Activities: Courtyard

Any items entering or leaving the mill passed through the 

Courtyard, either on tracks or on horse-drawn wagon. People 
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coming to the mill, unless they stopped at the Counting House, also 

moved through the yard. 

Trolley tracks remained in the yard until at least 1927, probably 

later. Cloth appears to have left via rail, and machinery, parts and 

supplies also presumably entered the mill by this route. 

Workers entered the mills through the yard after crossing the 

bridge by the Counting House, the only access other than rail. 

Bell-time crowds thronged this entranceway, and throughout the 

day a mixture of horse-drawn vehicles and people would have 

moved back and forth through the area on a variety of errands. The 

mill itself maintained horses, including the one purchased from 

Wheeler, McElveen & Co. in 1914 for $350.49. Regular charges for 

veterinary fees indicated continuing care for the animals. 

A 1919 list of “Help for Yard-Mechanical and Power Departments” 

offered an indication of many of the workers whose jobs did not 

tie them to a particular spot and many of whom could have been 

expected to have appeared in the yard from time to time: 

PER HOUR WEEKLY WAGE

1 Second hand .6325 30.36

13

4

Carpenters

Painters

.35 to .5802

.4771 to .5339

16.80 to 27.85

22.90 to 25.63

1 Mason .703 33.75

1

1

1

1

Helper

Sweeper

Supply man

Second hand

.4483

.3306

.4439

.6325

21.52

15.87

21.31

30.36

12 Machinists .3407 to .6162 16.35 to 29.58

1

3

1

1

Sweeper

Pipers

Helper

Blacksmith

.3833

.4483 to .5964

.3646

.667

18.40

21.52 to 28.63

17.50

32.02

1

3

Helper

Beltmen

.4194

.4194 to .5280

20.13

20.13 to 25.34

1 Tinsmith .5923 28.40

1

77

Helper

Elevator men

.5384

.3728

25.84

17.88

1

5

Oiler- Night

Oilers

.3726

.3726 to .4485

19.28

17.88 to 21.53

51 3/4 hrs

2

1

Wheelmen

Wheelmen

.4612

.4612

23.41

22.14

50 3/4 hrs

48 hrs

1 Watchman .3664 30.78 84 hrs

6 Watchman - Night .3281 to .3418 27.56 to 28.71 84 hrs
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2 Draft men

1@ .5511 26.45

1@ Flat 25.00

6 Electricians .4801 to .6924 25.69 to 37.04 53 3/4 hrs

1 Electricians .4762 24.17 50 3/4 hrs

1 Welder .64 30.72

2 Mechanical helpers .4483 21.52

1 Water wheel tender 

N.

.461 26.05 52 1/2 hrs

1 Second hand Flat 22.77

12 Yardmen .3780 18.14

2 Teamsters .3729 to .4681 17.90 to 22.47

1 Assistant Engineer .6505 38.55 59 1/4 hrs

1 Oiler .461 27.26 59 1/4 hrs

40.00 66 hrs

1 Fireman .553 36.49 66 hrs

1 Fireman – Night .553 36.49 66 hrs

1 Coal passer .378 24.94 66 hrs

1 Coal passer – Night .378 24.94 66 hrs 39

This list indicated some of the many tasks not associated directly 

with cotton-making necessary for the mill’s operation. Craftsmen 

to maintain the buildings, the machines, plumbing, and belts, 

twelve men to work in the yard itself, teamsters to handle the horse 

and wagon work, a whole series of skills continuously available 

for the mills. These positions help put the scale of the operation in 

perspective. The skills and numbers of people involved were t hose 

of a New England village. 

By 1916 a Smoking Shed for the workers in the yard appeared 

in an insurance plan, and by 1928 a Shipping Shed stood against 

the side of #6 in the yard. Fire danger led to a ban on smoking in 

the mills, and the general lack of space there made the removal 

of any peripheral functions, such as shipping, from the mill floors 

desirable. 

As had been the case in the nineteenth century, watchmen still 

patrolled the yard to watch for fire, horses and trains moved in and 

out with necessary goods, and people flowed through the mill’s 

gates on a regular basis. Little had changed amid the neatly planted 

and ordered Court Yard of the Boott Mills. 
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E. Activities: Building #6 

1. Technological Change and Its Effects 

The new Boott Mills began business with the equipment of the 

old Boott Cotton Mills corporation, but the program for Mill #6 

changed very quickly. In order to best follow these developments, 

changes will be treated chronologically rather than by process. 

During the first six months of 1906, workers moved the Carpenter 

Shop, the Blacksmith Shop, the Paint Shop, as well as the Machine 

and Wood Shops to other locations in the complex.40 All consultants 

had recommended consolidating the shops at a more appropriate 

location, and the new managers were quick to act on this advice. 

No. 6, as noted, was in the process of becoming part of the Fine 

Mill, producing the lighter weight yarns and fabrics, including 

corduroy. Other buildings produced the heavy ducks and bags 

made in part from the waste from this operation. Furthermore, it 

was being converted to a spinning and weaving mill. 

The fixed-flat cards installed in #6 when it was first equipped, along 

with the railway heads accompanying them, were on the verge 

of obsolescence when installed and had been thoroughly out of 

date for decades by 1905. Recognizing this situation, management 

bought the next generation of equipment, revolving-flat cards; none 

of these went to the old Card Room in #6, however. Instead, there 

were notations on several occasions of labor expense for breaking 

up the old cards in the 5th floor Card Room of #6. Rearrangement 

of machines into a more coherent pattern of distribution, another 

constant recommendation, was also taking place. 

While nothing on the order of the introduction of automatic looms 

occurred in weaving, the Boott was quick to see the advantages of 

two new inventions. During 1906 they were buying Barber knottying machines: 

This little machine, invented by an American in 1900, is a small 

affair, worn on the hand of the girl who tends the spooler. When 

a thread breaks, the two ends are put together in the machine, and 

by pressure of the thumb the ends are tied and the loose pieces cut 

off. The knotter saves at least ten percent in the time of spooling. 

Moreover its economies do not stop there, since it ties the ends 

better than they are tied by hand. Consequently in warping the 

yarn of its tying, there are fewer breaks, and less time is lost in 

piecing. In weaving, its effects are no less apparent, since bad knots 

are very likely to cause imperfections in the cloth. The percentage 
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of “seconds” in weaving is cut down by its use. Last but not least, 

the knotter not only reduces the labor cost by saving time, but also 

makes possible the employment of less skilled labor by doing the 

work which required most skill on the part of the operative. 

These hand-held devices followed the usual trend, and goal, of 

textile innovations by utilizing less of a person’s capability and thus 

permitting the hiring of less expensive, more easily replaceable, 

labor. They were also typical in their pyramiding effects, as 

improvement in the accomplishment of one task led to better 

quality work at succeeding stages of production, permitting the 

speeding up of work there as well. The draw-back to this progress 

lies in the fact that the work became less skilled, more monotonous, 

and more stressful, because of the new pace. 

The Boott also quickly adopted the new Barber warp typing 

machines, first available in 1904. These machines connected the tail 

of one warp, still in the loom’s harnesses, to the beginning of a new 

one: 

When it is desired to weave another piece of cloth of the same pattern, 

the harness, with these ends still in it, is brought to the tying 

machine, which ties together, one by one, the ends of the old warp 

and those of the new.... It ties about two hundred and fifty knots 

per minute, and does the work of twenty girls. Drawing in by hand 

had always been a relatively heavy expense to the manufacturer: by 

the use of this machine the labor cost is cut down two-thirds... The 

machine cannot distinguish colors. Hence it can be used only on 

plain work. But those mills which make only three or four styles of 

plain cloth are not hindered by these disadvantages. 

These machines also speeded production while eliminating skill 

and jobs at considerable savings to the owners. The increasing 

number of styles produced in #6 diminished but did not eliminate 

its usefulness. 

The drawing-in machine represented the third of the new Barber 

developments to come to the Boott early in the reign of the new 

administration. These machines actually pulled the individual warp 

threads through the eyes of the individual heddles which were 

manipulated by the harnesses to form the pattern or construction 

of the cloth. They, too, represented significant savings in labor - 

costs and jobs: 

Yet it does effect a marked saving over hand labor, since one man 

operating a drawing-in machine will draw in about six times as 

many warps per day as a girl can draw in by hand on the same 

grade of goods.... Like the tying machine, the drawing-in machine 
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cannot detect differences in color. Hence it, too, can be used only for 

plain work. Girls are still employed for drawing in the warps where 

there are threads of different colors. 

These drawing- in machines eliminated six jobs apiece, jobs that 

Melvin T. Copeland, the source of the above quotations, described 

as “a severe strain upon the mill workers.”41 Drawing-in had 

long been known as work to which the operatives tried to move 

on account of the clean, quiet, even calm atmosphere of the job in 

comparison to others in the mill (see, for example, Henry Miles’ 

description of the work in Lowell As It Is and As It Was.)42 In any 

case, a source of employment had been displaced by a machine 

which ran less expensively, and with less likelihood of resisting 

direction, than people. 

Minor changes also went on steadily. In 1908 nearly $2000 went to 

changing over spinning frames from Sawyer spindles to Rabbeth, 

following consultant Sheldon’s recommendation.43 These types of 

alterations could improve performance slightly without a heavy 

outlay f or new equipment and appealed to those trying to increase 

efficiency with a limited capital investment. During a time of little 

innovation in a particular branch of textile technology, as the early 

years of this period were for spinning, such a plan could maintain 

competitiveness. 

In another move responding to the consultants’ recommendations, 

humidifiers from the American Moistening Company were being 

installed in #6 during 1907.44 Steady and high relative humidity 

was essential to good spinning and weaving operations, yet the 

Boott had never maintained adequate levels. Increasingly fine 

production accentuated this need. 

In the years 1912- 1913 significant new machinery relating to the 

conversion to a spinning and weaving mill for fine counts began 

to be installed in Mill #6. In 6-5, the one-time Card Room, 42 old 

spinning frames were scrapped and removed (likely in pieces, out 

the window); these frames presumably had been installed as part 

of the reorganization of spaces after 1907 when the cards there 

were scrapped. In their place workers installed 40 new frames from 

Howard and Bullough (H&B), part of an order of 48 frames costing 

$31,912.45 H&B, an English machine builder, had recently set up a 

U.S. branch, Howard and Bullough American Machine Company, 

Ltd., in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. On the floor below, 6-4, 8 mules 

went out as scrap, to be replaced by looms. But mule spinning did 

not end then. On 6-3, 2 pairs were started up, installed along with 

shafting, pulleys, and hangers for about $150, apparently with 

available parts. No record exists of a purchase at this time, so these 

mules must have come from another building. Eventually 12 mules 

ran in this space. While spinning yarn on the mules for the coarse 
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mill did not recommend itself, using the best of the mules still made 

sense for the Fine Mill.46

The years 1912-1913 saw comparable replacement and upgrading 

of machinery in the mill’s weave rooms. Incomplete information 

indicates that in 1911 there were 294 Draper 40” looms on 6-1; 356 

LMS looms, all but 40 of them dobbies, on 6-2; 156 LMS looms 

on 6-3, along with 12 mules totalling 7968 spindles; 6- 4 held 55 

spinning frames.47 

While not all records permit interpretation with regard to the 

placement of new looms, purchases at both the Lowell Machine 

Shop and the Draper Company brought new machinery for the 

production of fine goods and some certainly went to #6. In 1913, 108 

Model K Draper looms, along with the requisite shafting, went into 

6-4.48 These looms were similar to the “E” Model, standard for the 

time, but could accommodate a 24-harness dobby head. The more 

intricate patterns they were capable of weaving was in accordance 

with needs of a fine mill. 

On 6-3 sixty- four new dobbies were added to looms already in 

place, increasing their capacity. New 44” looms also arrived there, 

possibly from LMS. The Boott also bought and installed dobbies 

in 6-1 (105) and 6-2 (40). One hundred forty-inch Drapers went 

into 6-2. One hundred twelve dobbies went onto Draper looms on 

6-1, along with new temples, take-ups, and adjustable warp beam 

heads, all for velvet production in 6-1 West.49 All these changes 

indicate continuing upgrading but relate to only a portion of the 

equipment on each floor. Still, the mill’s capacity to produce finer 

and more varied materials was being steadily augmented (despite 

the advice of various consultants to stick to a few simple materials). 

Another significant technological change at this time was the 

installation of a time clock from International Time Recording Co., 

along with 2500 time cards.50 No longer would time-keeping be a 

responsibility of a person. Instead, precise and centrally located 

information would be available to payroll and costing personnel. 

Even more significant was the installation of Veeder 3-shift pick 

counters on the looms. These devices recorded every throw of the 

shuttle across the loom during each shift. Measuring a weaver’s 

production now became easy and precise, as did determination 

of a loom’s downtime, for whatever cause, mechanical or human, 

during each shift. The time clock gained an important ally.51

The time clock and the pick counters substantially increased the 

management’s ability to measure the performance of the workers 

and to tie their pay to their production. Installing these devices was 

of a piece with the overall movement toward productivity through 
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measurement which had been part of the heritage of the textile 

industry and which was gaining currency throughout American 

industry through the efforts of Frederick W. Taylor’s espousal 

of “scientific management” and by his many followers (some of 

whom will appear among the Boott’s consultants, below). 

A 1914 equipment summary permits a recapitulation and appraisal 

of numbers and ages of machines on each floor of No. 6. It also 

underlined the thoroughness of the transition of the building’s 

program to spinning and weaving: 

WEAVING DEPARTMENT

Kind of 

Machine Make Units Mill Floor

Years in 

Operation

Year 

Installed

Looms 32” Draper 108 6 4 2 1912

Looms 40” Draper 278 6 1 12 1902

40” Draper 229 6 2 13 16 1901

11 16 1903

2 100 1912

1 97 1913

Looms 44” 96 6 3 2 1912

Looms 40” Lowell 156 6 3E 35 1879

RING SPINNING DEPARTMENT

Warp Frames

46 2 1⁄2” 

Gauge

Lowell 10560 6 2 41 1873

3 2 1⁄2” 

Gauge

Lowell 528 6 4 29 1885

53 2 1⁄2” 

Gauge

Lowell 11872 6 5 28 1886

6 2 3⁄4” 

Gauge

Lowell 1536 6 4 39 1875

40 3” 

Gauge

H & B 11040 6 5 2 1912 52

Although the summary omitted mules, others indicated they were 

still present. Most of the looms appear acceptable, even current, 

with the exception of the 156 LMS looms occupying space on the 

third floor east. LMS looms built in 1879 had no place there, nor 

did spinning frames from 1873, 1875, 1885, and 1886; one assumes 

these frames account for much of the ring frames listed in average 

and poor condition in another 1914 report. Since it claimed the 156 

Lowell looms deserved an average rating, one suspects the agent 

who prepared the latter report, E. W. Thomas, was lenient in his 

appraisal of the equipment for which he had been responsible for 

maintenance.53 The 593 Draper dobbies in #6 in 1914 produced 
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corduroys, moleskins, scrims with leno borders, and velvet.54 By 

1919 the LMS looms had disappeared from reports, and 593 Draper 

dobbies ran on the first three floors of #6; 252 plain looms by the 

same maker ran on 6-2 and 6-3. The Lowell looms no longer ran, 

nor was there weaving on 6-4 at that time.55

A 1920 machinery report indicated that 6-4 contained only ring 

spinning, as did 6-5. 

Mill Floor Frames Size Gauge No. Spindles Make

6 4 36 224 2 1⁄2 1 1⁄2 8064 Lowell

35 276 3 2 9660 Saco-Lowell

1 240 3 2 72 240 17964 Saco-Lowell

6 5 40 276 3 1 3⁄4 11040 H & B

2 176 2 1⁄2 1 5/8 352 Lowell

1 192 2 1⁄2 1 5/8 192 Lowell

1 208 2 1⁄2 1 5/8 208 Lowell

39 224 2 1⁄2 1 5/8 83 8736 20528 Lowell

Of the 154 frames listed, approximately equal numbers were built 

before and after 1912. All told they turned 38,392 spindles.56

Alterations in the power system began in the pre-war period. 

Electrification of the drive system for #6 had begun in 1912. Motors 

did not drive individual machines; instead they powered the 

existing shafting and machines continued to be driven by pulleys 

and belts in most cases (Photograph 25). In this way electric power 

could be used to supplement water and steam power without 

changing machinery over to direct motor drive. When waterpower 

was plentiful, it could still be used. On the other hand, large electric 

motors on each floor provided dependable power. 

A new Testing Department was also installed on 6-3 and held a full 

set of equipment: 

1 Emerson conditioning oven #139 Emerson Apparatus Co.

1 Cloth breaking machine - elect. power H. L. Scott

1 Cloth breaking machine - hand power Riehle

1 Yarn Testing mach. power H. L. Scott

1 Yarn reel Brown & Sharpe57

Both yarn and cloth from around the mill came here for testing of 

tensile strength, consistency, and conformity to standards. 

Attempting to make the most of the equipment and space available 

meant a constant juggling of machinery from one place to another, 
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Photo 25. Electric motor powering belt drive for ring spinning in #5-4 east, 1911

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, LM, Flather Collection, Box 30, F-49
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purchase of new technology in bits and pieces, which perpetuated 

the problems it was intended to solve, and installation of various 

parts of machines to bring advantageous new developments to the 

mill without acquiring expensive new machines. For example, in 

one short period of 1923 workers moved looms from one building 

to another, brought new equipment to 6-3, installed new 16-harness 

dobbies in 6-2 and 6-3 (both Stafford and Crompton and Knowles 

dobbies were applied during the teens and twenties), inserted new 

feelers, or sensors to trigger bobbin changes, into the looms, and 

plumbed new humidifiers.58 Constant installations and adjustments 

to changes taxed all concerned. 

The Treasurer continually approached the Directors with 

proposals for improvements, but either from inate caution, limited 

expectations, or belief that the plant itself did not merit thorough 

re-equipping, he moved timidly, as in this modest proposal: 

We are running 2,138 looms, mostly Draper 

There are idle 359 plain looms 

 2, 497- total number of looms. 

We require more Draper looms in order to use idle carding and 

spinning. 

We have no Draper looms wider than 44”, although the goods 

market requires such. The market also calls for goods that would 

occupy additional looms of our present widths. 

We need 112 Draper looms to replace 48-40” and 64-30” Lowell 

looms. 112 Draper looms would require 11 weavers, in place of 

22 weavers at present. The looms produce about 22,400 yards per 

week. The cost of weaving could be reduced 1c per yard, or $11, 000 

per year. 

The Treasurer does not advise the purchase of 700 looms to balance 

the mill, which might cost $250,000. For the present authorization 

is desired to purchase not more than 200 looms, either new or 

second-hand involving not over $70,000, if and when market seems 

to demand them.59
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F. A. Flather stressed the limited nature of his proposal, its 

advantages, and contrasted it with the far more costly alternative 

recommended by consultants. 

The combination of foresight and hesitancy, insight hampered by 

partial implementation, appeared again near the end of the period 

under consideration. In 1927 the Boott experimented with a new 

technology, which indicated an ability to recognize the potential of 

such advances, but at the same time called attention to an inability 

to come to terms with them or really get the plant working properly 

with regard to known, long-term difficulties. In November they 

equipped “One Ring Spin. Frame with V.T.R. System of Longdraft.” 

Long draft spinning represented one of the major advances of the 

era, the first major change in spinning since the introduction of ring 

spinning itself: 

It has been said that the development of long-draft cotton spinning 

was one of the only three important advances in the art of cotton 

manufacturing made in the last hundred years--the other two 

being the high-speed spindle of the 1870s and the automatic loom 

of the 1890s. (Some might add to the list the high-speed spooler and 

warper and the tying-in machine developed by the Barber-Colman 

Company.... Long-draft spinning and roving was nothing more nor 

less than realization of an ancient ambition to reduce the number 

of steps through which yarn was processed to reach its final size 

and strength. If the drafting capacity of the spinning frame could 

be increased, one or more of the roving frames employed in the 

processing which preceded spinning might be eliminated.60

Problems associated with dealing with a natural fiber such as cotton 

made the attempts to produce greater drafting very difficult to 

solve while maintaining quality. The fibers, while passing through 

the drafting rolls, had to be under control in order to maintain a 

given weight of product, but they could not be drafted more rapidly 

unless they were sufficiently free from control to accept the greater 

attenuation, a seeming contradiction. Fernando Casablancas, a 

cotton mill superintendent working near Barcelona, Spain in 1913 

devised a system which would better control the fibers while 

permitting greater drafting, so much so that the final of the three 

roving frames could be completely eliminated while higher quality 

yarn was produced. Although World War I delayed the spread of 

this invention, its merits were immediately recognized and various 

machine builders worked to develop their own versions. 

Casablancas’ and others’ technique was to use short endless belts 

in conjunction with three sets of drafting rolls. It appears that the 

Boott experimented with the Howard and Bullough approach, 

presumably on one of their new H & B frames, rather than the SacoLowell technique which parallelled Casablancas’. New “middle 
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fluted rolls” they ordered would have been used in conjunction 

with the three sets normally present to produce the four-roll system 

H & B adopted. The result of all systems was the same. 

Instituting such a novel device in 1927 in this country was a 

progressive step, well ahead of its general adoption. It parallels the 

prompt experimentation with the other major inventions. On the 

other hand, this experiment was hampered by existing conditions 

in #6. It led to two attempts, one in November and one in February, 

1928, to install a humidification regulation system to facilitate the 

operation of the trial going on in 6-4. All spinning required high 

relative humidity, and previous installations should have provided 

it. To need a new humidification system for this experiment 

indicated that the room did not function as it should have. In fact, 

a 1928 report showed that relative humidity in 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3 

ranged from 42 to 82 percent relative humidity (RH) on a given 

day.61 Humidification in weave rooms ranked a close second in 

importance to that of spinning, so it becomes apparent that the mill 

as a whole was not atmospherically controlled to the degree that it 

had to be to make the best use of existing equipment, let alone new 

inventions. 

Similar problems persisted regarding the use of the advanced 

Draper automatic looms purchased during the early part of the 

century. While the Boott had been quick to adopt them in the 

beginning, in 1928 they all still ran off belts and at speeds of just 

142 to 152 picks per minute, well below acceptable levels.62

The final factor relating to the capability of installed technology 

related to the condition of the equipment. This area underlines the 

inter-related nature of the operation, since the efforts of managers, 

fixers, and operators all affected the state of the equipment. Both 

employees and consultants addressed these questions regularly 

and efforts were made to mitigate the effects of noted inadequacies. 

Every loom received scrutiny as to its condition in terms of a 

41-point checklist in 1928. Some representative samples: 

The loom brakes were in fairly good mechanical condition but were 

not set properly. All brakes should be set so that the shuttle will not 

stop in the shed...

The driving gears should be greased with medium grease weekly. 

Many of the gears were dry... 

The feelers were in good mechanical condition, and fairly well set... 
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The warp stop motions were in good mechanical condition and well 

set... 

The bobbins were in fairly good mechanical condition. The 

green bobbins were not as good as they should be, which caused 

considerable trouble in the Weave Room. Many were worn short, 

causing them to fall out of the battery. Throughout the mill, many 

bobbins had a slight difference in diameter; many loom stops are 

caused by this condition as all that filling runs off the bobbin. The 

feelers are set to a bobbin of a certain diameter. If some of the bobbins 

are of different diameters all the filling runs off, or a greater amount 

than is necessary is left on, causing excessive waste.63

The loom-fixers’ practice and performance varied, as did 

management’s in acquiring the bobbins, with a result of excess waste 

and unnecessary difficulties for the weavers. The performance of 

each party affected the work of others. 

This review of machinery and conditions also considered the 

condition of every spinning frame in the mill and critiqued 

them individually. Some general comments on possible gains in 

efficiency: 

Correcting of machine conditions, especially steel rolls, spindles, 

cap bar nebs, thread guides, builder cams, rings, front saddles, and 

the same driving pulleys for the same yarn number... 

The frames appeared to be fairly well in line and level. Due to the 

vibration and uneven floors in some of the rooms, it is felt that the 

machines should be watched closely to see that they do not get out 

of line and level... 

Belts that are dirty cause slippage which results in variation of 

speeds and loss of production. 

Belts should be cleaned at least once a week when running days, 

and twice a week when running night and day. They should also be 

dressed when necessary.64

 These consultants had found every sort of difficulty, real and 

potential, from worn parts to mismatched gears and conflicting 

shop-floor practices. Their advice admonished all levels of 

those involved by pointing out the ways their practice could be 

improved, whether that meant buying repair parts, adjusting 

frames consistently, or caring for the power system. 
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The condition of the machines also related to the degree of danger 

involved in working with them. One employee noted that one 

group of spinning frames was “open head and dangerous” because 

of their exposed gearing. Those were thrown out later in 1926, the 

year of the report.65

Efforts were being made in other ways to eliminated danger at 

this time, as well. The Valentine Report had drawn attention to the 

hazards of both exposed gearing and belt drives in 1916, noting 

that the latter “adds to the workers’ sense of insecurity and hence 

decreases their liking for the work,” on account of the ease with 

which a person or a person’ s clothing might be caugh t in the 

belts.66 Throughout the twenties some looms and other machinery 

in #6 were being converted to individual electric drive. 

During 1929-30, management worked to implement a number 

of the recommendations of this and earlier reports. Individual 

electrification of machines received priority: “Modernizing 6-5 

spinning room by removal of all large motors, pulleys, shafting, and 

bearings to install individual motor drives.... Modernizing weave 

rooms,--re-arranging looms to improve quality of the weaving and 

increase safety of the belts.” These efforts were in part stop- gap, as 

was indicated by the continuing effort to make belts less dangerous, 

rather than eliminating them. Motorizing machines, as was done 

with the looms in 6-2 and 6-3, both improved these operations and 

increased safety.67

Individual motors also facilitated the rearrangements of looms 

and spinning frames which improved transportation of materials 

and work in all the rooms, fulfilling a recommendation that had 

appeared repeatedly in nearly every consultant’s report. Wider 

aisles had been needed in most of the rooms. The aisles affected 

the workers greatly: besides preventing the free flow of work, lack 

of space made cleaning and repairing difficult and interfered with 

proper lighting. Wider aisles improved trucking, changing and 

repairing machines, doffing and cleaning.68 Without individual 

motors, such rearrangement had posed difficulties, required major 

reorganization of not only machines, but also the system of shafting 

and pulleys which drove them. Suddenly, individual electric 

motors made it easy, and it began to be accomplished. 

The adoption of certain new technologies, and experimentation 

with others makes it clear that the mill’s managers were aware of 

current trends and pursued them selectively. The inability of the 

mill to make wholesale changes, or in some cases to fully utilize the 

benefits offered by changes introduced revealed a limited approach 

to the problems involved, primarily related to amounts of investment 

they were willing to make, but also part of a management problem 

which tended toward stop-gap measures rather than thorough 
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solutions. Even where labor costs were highest, in weaving, the 

automatic looms were only partially adopted and, belt driven, only 

partially utilized. Inexpensive knot-tyers were quickly purchased, 

but long-draft spinning was an experiment, and mill conditions 

blunted its effect. Similarly, electrification meant driving shafts 

with big motors for many years before individual motors were 

attached to the machines. One cannot fault past management for 

what they did not know, but one cannot help but note the occasions 

when they failed to make use of significant opportunities with 

which they were closely acquainted. 

2. Work Environment: The Building 

When the new owners took over the Boott Mills in 1905, they 

inherited a situation which included buildings, machines, their 

arrangement, and existing relationships between workers, 

management, machines, and buildings. None of these elements 

was created altogether consciously. The buildings had grown 

incrementally, work had developed in relation to changing 

machinery and traditions, and the overall organization was not 

only the product of management choices, but also an accretion of 

innumerable events, a product of the history of the mill and of the 

industry, including the long-time interaction of management and 

labor. 

Many of these elements were not susceptible to quick change. 

All involved could resist alteration of relationships, some more 

strongly than others. Consultants called to the mill investigated 

many aspects of this situation and both described it and offered 

advice about how to improve it. Their commentary suggests that 

management was neither particularly sensitive to nor quick to 

change basic working conditions. 

In 1911 Hackett wrote: 

The other matter of perhaps slight comment is the question of 

lockers for the operatives’ clothes. In almost all the rooms of the 

Boott Mills, the common practice was to hang the outer garments 

on a nail or hook, nearby the machine on which they were engaged. 

The odors arising from these clothes, especially of a damp morning 

is considerable, if allowed to hang in the work room unprotected, 

and it is anything but sanitary. 

Factors like the above with those of light, heat and washing 

facilities, all have their influence toward elevating or depressing the 

attractiveness of employment at the mill, and so the better - operative 

relegates the dingy shops to their distant foreign relations.69 
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Advisors continually related the general work experience to the 

quality of workers who would be attracted to and held by the Boott. 

Later consultants found similar conditions, however, which implies 

that little had been done to alter them. 

Valentine’s Industrial Audit of the mill 5 years later produced a 

continuation of these complaints. It noted that the ramps connecting 

the floors of the mills and their different levels were oil-soaked, 

slippery, and “offer an excellent chance for a fall.” Warp beams, 

empty and full, scattered about the floors of the weave rooms also 

invited falls, particularly those left in unlighted entrance ways 

on the lower floors. Windows in such poor condition that panes 

fell out, particularly when they were opened or shut, posed a 

danger and led to frequent cuts. The knives worn by workers in 

the spooling and spinning rooms for cutting away yarn and roving 

from the bobbins also produced numerous such injuries, and the 

old and scarred flooring put splinters into the feet of those who 

went barefoot, a tradition (born of heat and fear of sparks from 

hobnails) among the mulespinners. These conditions represented 

more than the apparent sum of their parts: 

These dangers are obvious to one who goes through the mill only 

occasionally. Those who are there constantly lose the sense of risk. 

Habituation to dangerous surroundings dulls the natural spirit of 

caution. When fatigue sets in the nervous tension of carefulness is 

not maintained. 

For these reasons we believe that although a large portion of 

accidents in cotton mills are due to carelessness of workers, this 

does not relieve the management from all responsibility nor make 

its interest in preventing accidents any less. The fact that the 

insurance company under the state accident compensation law 

takes care of the financial liability insured has tended, we fear, to 

lessen the care taken by the management in this respect. 

In the six months prior to October 27, 1916, 1029 days of work 

were lost because of accident. One man died from injuries received 

at the mill. There were numerous injuries mostly in the nature of 

cuts, lacerations and bruises of varying seriousness. When people 

are living on a narrow margin eventhough protected by accident 

insurance, such risks have a more serious aspect than they would 

under other circumstances. The result is that the most foresighted 

ones, whom the industry can least afford to lose, gradually tend to 

turn to other less risky occupations.70

The report indicated some of the dangers and implied that 

they should be still more obvious and of more urgency to those 

habitually in the mill. That they awaited a consultant’s visit to 
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receive attention carried unsettling implications about the mill 

management’s priorities. The suggestion that state regulations, 

initiated in response to overly exploitive conduct on the part of 

industry, might have led to reduced concern for worker safety on 

the part of management carried a heavy irony. The accident toll, 

as indicated by the days lost, not to mention the death (which one 

hopes was more exceptional than the injury toll was likely to have 

been), implicated the operation as one significantly more dangerous 

than were others at this time. One can only assume the correctness 

of the consultant in anticipating a continuing flight of workers to 

find other opportunities. 

These hazards were increased by the poor lighting which 

heightened danger and lowered spirits. Quality and speed of work 

suffered. Dark interior walls minimized the light admitted by the 

small windows. Most of the machines were arranged lengthwise 

in the rooms, blocking natural light, whereas aisles and machines 

arrayed across the rooms would have admitted it. The windows’ 

once-yearly washing did not adequately address the problem, and 

“light reflectors are rarely cleaned.”71

Artificial lighting was not used to remedy these difficulties to the 

extent which it might have been: “In most rooms the lights are 

hung too high or too low and have either deep bell shaped shades, 

flat shades or no shades at all. Tungsten lamps predominate but 

there are a good many old type carbon filament bulbs. The result is 

a combination of glare and shadows that is very trying to the eye.”72 

Available equipment which management failed to apply to the mill 

offered solutions to these deficiencies. 

Ventilation of the rooms was equally poor. No artificial ventilation 

system brought fresh air into the low studded rooms. Cotton dust 

and “fly” in the spinning rooms of #6 permeated the air. Although 

there was comparatively little understanding of the extent of the 

danger at the time, a general deleterious effect was recognized. 

Now its connection to byssinosis, or “brown lung,” has been amply 

demonstrated. 

Cotton fly, among other things, made smoking in these mills 

expressly forbidden. At the same time, habit and the dust (and 

accompanying dry throats) led to very widespread tobaccochewing, creating further problems: “The lack of cuspidors 

increases the number of bacteria stirred up in the air from dried 

floor dust.”73 The effects of the constant tobacco spitting must have 

been appalling. 

The antiquated steam heating system did little to improve 

conditions: “Room No. 6-1 is reported cold in winter, the 

thermometer sometimes reading 45°.... All spinning rooms tend to 
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become too warm. At the east end of No. 6-1 weave room there is a 

blank wall. Without windows it is dark and hot. The second hand 

finds it difficult to keep weavers there.”74 Hardly surprising, but on 

the other hand hardly new, as these problems persisted for many 

years. 

Humidity, which played an important role in cotton processing as 

well as in working conditions, varied widely, as noted. Mechanisms 

to produce and regulate humidity functioned badly: 

Humidity is produced crudely by a type of atomizing apparatus 

known as a drosophore, also by live steam. There is a hygrometer 

in each room which is supposed to be read several times daily. 

The hygrometers are cared for by a man in the master mechanic 

department and filled with water by him on request. They are 

supposed to be read by someone in the planning department. This 

division of control seems unfortunate. Most of the hygrometers 

inspected were dry and one was broken. Hygrometer records, such 

as they are, are saved for the State inspector as required by law but 

do not seem to be used in regulating the action of the drosophores. 

The drosophores frequently get clogged and refuse to work. When 

running they are manipulated usually at the will of the overseer. It 

is a very rough and ready attempt at control.75

Despite awareness of the importance of maintaining a high relative 

humidity, appropriate steps were not taken, and the effect on cotton 

processing and on factory labor were significantly detrimental. 

Energy of workers was sapped, discomfort increased, and 

motivation to perform the hard work at hand greatly diminished. 

Along with the excessive fluctuations in temperature, respiration 

became congested, and mucous membranes became increasingly 

sensitive to the dust and dirt in the air. Workers were left “more 

liable to colds, catarrh and grippe infections. If these conditions 

are prolonged the appetite diminishes. The result is undoubtedly 

a decrease in vitality and energy of the workers and a substantial 

amount of lost time from illness.” Proper conditions facilitated 

processing, generated more work, and attracted and retained the 

best workers: 

With improved ventilation, less dust and well controlled heat and 

humidity the workers would be much happier, more comfortable 

and would turn off much more and better work. The improvement 

would more than pay for the maintenance, depreciation, increased 

taxes and interest on the cost of a better system of air control.76 

The managers, for reasons which cannot be determined, were slow 

to implement the alterations suggested. In fact, they never fully 

treated these glaring deficiencies. 
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Chilled water from “bubblers” throughout the mill supplied one 

want, but even there no attempt had been made to apportion the 

drinking water according to the number of people in various rooms. 

The lack of planning in such regards does not seem reasonable and 

again shows little foresight by management.77

Similarly, no attention had been given the problem of changing 

clothes for work (despite the five years intervening since its citation 

in a previous report) and little attention to the related topic of 

proper toilet facilities: 

There are no dressing rooms for either men or women. Work in 

most rooms is dirty and often hot so that a change of at least outer 

clothing is necessary. At present employees make rather extensive 

changes of clothing in the work rooms. Human decency requires 

better accommodations than this. Such conditions drive away good 

workers. 

There are a few cupboards on walls which serve as lockers, but most 

workers have to resort to hanging their clothes under strips of cloth 

on the wall wherever space can be found. This is hard on clothes and 

women’s hats. It makes the temptation to stealing too great. Privacy 

and security of one’s clothing is appreciated by everyone.

In this connection it seems probable that Chapter 115 of the Acts of 

1916 applies to at least certain rooms in this mill. If so, lockers in 

such rooms are required by law. 

TOILETS: 

Most of the toilets are in fair condition. The number of urinals in 

men’s toilets is wholly insufficient... The ratio between the number 

of toilet conveniences and the number of people using them as 

required by law is not lived up to in all rooms. Toilets are all marked 

for men or for women. Such signs would be more useful if printed in 

other languages as well as English. 

In each toilet alcove there is a long sink for washing. Basins are 

few. Neither soap nor towels are provided by the mill. There is no 

provision of warm water. 

Until the mill provides dressing accommodations, thoroughly 

satisfactory toilets and ample washing facilities it cannot hope to 

attract a much better grade of workers nor can it expect that they 

keep themselves, the work and the mill as clean as right working 
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standards require.78

The existence of such conditions despite the obviousness of their 

effects on worker dignity, as well as performance, speaks poorly 

of the management’s attitude toward the labor force. As such an 

indicator, it gains more significance than one might initially accord 

a factor in some ways peripheral to the plant’s purpose. However, 

an employee had every reason to expect more respectful treatment 

than this in a mill of this period. 

Well before this time (1916), many companies had become aware 

of the significance of providing amenities for their workers. 

Many new work places, including textile mills, evidenced careful 

consideration of employee comfort through their attention to 

lockers, clean, pleasant toilet facilities, and much more, and in older 

factories, particularly of this scale, better met standards of decency. 

The Boott lagged behind the times and certainly its workers noted 

that. 

Seventeen years after Hackett’s comments, twelve after the 

Valentine Report, a 1928 evaluation characterized the situation and 

the attitude on the part of the mill’s management which would 

permit it to continue: 

There are several laws which are not fully carried out by the mill. 

The laws forbidding excessive humidity in certain rooms cannot be 

enforced because the hygrometers are not properly cared for, nor are 

the drosophores kept in good working order or so controlled as to 

maintain right conditions. Just recently the State inspector found 

that records of the number of minors at work in the mill were not 

being kept up. Regulations of the State Board of Labor relating to 

toilets are not lived up to, as hitherto pointed out. Notices required 

to be posted in the rooms and still in force are often found covered up 

with other notices. lf, as seems probable, Chap. 115, Massachusetts 

Acts of 1916, relating to a place for operatives to change their 

clothes applies to this mill, no steps have been taken to follow it out. 

These instances are cited merely to reinforce our belief that the mill 

needs more positive action from the management in regard to the 

administration of labor laws. The management will gain much 

goodwill among the workers if it not merely carries out the law to 

the letter but also carries out suggestions of inspectors and acts in 

harmony with the whole spirit of the law. No mill management can 

afford by such omissions to provoke private or public resentment. 

Industrial legislation in this Commonwealth represents minimum 

community standards below which we may safely say it is poor 
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business policy to operate. Sometimes legislation is unwise and may 

even not express the will of the permanently effective majority of the 

community. Yet there are many instances where legislation at first 

seemed unwise to businessmen and then turned out to be sound. 

A generous and thorough trial is surely the best business policy.79

Citing the same conditions, the same law, and indicating that the 

same attitudes continue to shape conditions at the mill, the reports 

demonstrate that consistent disinterest. Humidity laws, child 

labor laws, changing room, toilet, and other regulations, all were 

being ignored. Not only had work on the humidity system shown 

little effect, the consulting firm looked for a novel way to appeal 

to management while recommending a trial of fulfilling the mill’s 

legal obligation. 

This negligence, which suggested both disrespect for the workers 

and lack of insight into mill management, was also apparent in the 

area of cleaning and caring for conditions in the mill. Valentine laid 

out a chain of circumstances in 1916 which illuminated this point: 

Although floors in the mill are swept at least once and often more 

times a day, dust, lint and waste of processes gathers faster than it 

is taken away. The mill floors are washed once a week, but they are 

so old and full of cracks that very little water can be used. If used 

with any liberality it drips through and spoils the work in the room 

below. As a result scrubbing is exceedingly superficial... 

Cuspidors are rare. In several rooms signs are posted threatening 

the person who spits on the floor with a lawful fine of twenty 

dollars; but as the signs are printed in English and most workers 

in those rooms are Greeks, Portuguese and Poles, and there are no 

cuspidors in sight, the whole thing is absurd as well as dangerous. 

All this greatly increases the risks of colds, grippe, pneumonia and 

tuberculosis. 

The importance of cleaning is greatly underestimated. Dust and 

dirt causes machine bearings to wear out more rapidly, results in 

an increased use of oil, increases the fire risk, makes more bad yarn 

and imperfections in the cloth, increases the chances of staining 

and spotting yarn and cloth, increases the chances for disease and 

consequent hardships and loss of time, drives away the best workers, 

makes those who remain uncomfortable and disgusted with their 

jobs, makes it necessary to pay them more as a recompense for the 

disagreeable parts of their jobs. 

An interesting example of how this works out is this. The looms in 

most of the rooms are so close together that they are difficult to get at 
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for cleaning or repairing. It is difficult to get enough cleaners of the 

right sort on account of the low wage paid. There are no cuspidors 

near the looms and loom fixers have to kneel down,--often lie down 

on the dirty floors in order to make the necessary changes in the 

still dirtier machines. The superintendent complains that the loom 

fixers shirk their jobs and want more money!80

It seems more surprising they could find fixers than that they 

sought raises. A deteriorating building made cleaning more 

difficult, which led directly and indirectly to waste, of labor health, 

yarn and cloth, of machines; it cost money. None of these factors 

led to efforts at correction. 

Passages such as those of the consultant, above, are particularly 

important in keeping before the modern examiner of industrial 

history the importance of the fact that so much of the extant record 

was created by the managers and owners. The filth in which the 

loom- fixers worked never appeared in their accounts, while their 

“intransigence” and “uncooperativeness” were recurrent themes. 

Typical sources, products of management’s point of view, carry a 

particular prejudice. 

Not only did the Boott’s operators fail to alleviate known 

conditions detrimental to people, cloth, and machinery, they took 

steps which added to these environmental problems. As the mill’s 

machinery became faster during this period, noise and vibration 

also increased, particularly in the weave rooms. Conditions there 

were literally deafening, a cacophony causing hearing damage to 

any who worked in the area. Furthermore, these conditions were 

“irritating and fatiguing.” While the earmuffs of modern weave 

rooms were not available, rest periods, which were not permitted, 

could have eased conditions noticeably. The noise of the shafting 

system could have been eliminated by individual electric motors 

for the looms.81

Higher speeds also increased vibration. While Flather belittled its 

effects, Valentine did not: 

Vibration is a factor to be considered in respect to the well being of 

workers as well as machines. Floor vibration is excessive in rooms 

2-2, 2-3, 5-3 and 6-5. It causes power losses, bad adjustment of 

shafting, increased repairs, liability to maladjustment in machines, 

probable crystallization of metal with decrease in life of the 

machines, and lowered quality and quantity of work. It causes 

discomfort, fatigue and occasional timidity among the operatives. 

It may have a bad effect on certain organs of the body similar to the 

kidney affections among street car motormen and conductors. These 

results tend to increase labor turnover. In this connection we call 

attention to a pamphlet on the subject of vibration recently issued 
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by the Aberthaw Construction Company which brings out more 

fully foregoing points with many special references to textile mills.

The consultant, in fact, specifically noted the difficulty in working 

in the rear office room of which Holgate had complained.82 Both 

the comment itself and the pamphlet cited provided evidence 

that such complaints were not novel, but were very much a part 

of the awareness of the time. The demand was not for innovative 

treatments, but for the type of conditions being provided by other 

companies. 

In fact, the Boott’s situation made it less able to absorb the 

disadvantages associated with such conditions than many mills. 

The plant’s lay-out accentuated the problems. Transportation of 

materials represented continual difficulty for management and 

labor, the former in planning and controlling work, the latter in 

accomplishing it. Narrow aisles impeded transport, impinged 

on cleaning, and hampered repairing. Poor transportation routes 

delayed delivery of the supplies needed for work to proceed whether 

in spinning or weaving and caused loss of wages and discontent to 

the employees attempting to earn a living on piecework in those 

rooms.83

While the original Lowell mills had gone to great lengths to 

separate themselves from the image of English factories in order to 

be able to draw workers, the Boott had indeed become a dark and 

dangerous place to work, like the dark satanic mills of the romantic 

poets to which earlier investors had contrasted their buildings. 

The conditions reflected badly on owner intent, hampered and 

discouraged workers effort, and generally hindered the mill’s 

operation. All associated, from top to bottom, suffered from these 

effects. 

3. Work Environment: Job Descriptions 

Within the environment described, each worker pursued a 

prescribed set of tasks. Inter- relationships between departments, 

and between workers, remained of utmost importance at all times. 

Efforts by management to define individual roles more precisely in 

the period 1905- 1930 enables one to assess with increasing precision 

the particular activities of the people laboring in #6. 

Time spent in the mill had not changed much from earlier days. The 

hours of work in 1916 added up to 54 hours of straight time, 6:45 

A.M. to 12:00, with an hour’s stop for lunch, then 1:00 to 5:30 P.M., 

with work ending at noon on Saturday. Also, much overtime was 

expected, with no break between regular time and extra. Employees 

ate supper at their machines. The night shift ran a 60- hour week 
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beginning at 5:30 A.M.84 This schedule did not differ from that of 

other Lowell mills in outline (contrasts in the mills’ regularity of 

employment will be considered in relation to wages, below). 

American industries at the turn of the century were in the process 

of attempting to apply the time spent at work more efficiently to 

the tasks at hand. Taylor’ s popular “scientific management,” made 

famous in his experiments in steel mills and machine shops, utilized 

concepts long part of the textile mill mentality: division of labor 

(specialization), measurement of work, piecework or incentive 

wages, and job analysis by management intended to enable it to 

understand and define tasks and workloads. Textile mills were 

hardly immune to the new fervor with which these ideas were 

being applied. 

The Valentine Report in 1916 described another view of the 

importance of attention to the role of labor in efficient production: 

Considering what a tremendous amount of capital is tied up in... 

machines and the number of people in the industry in... [shop floor] 

jobs, it is surely a problem of importance. The operating efficiency 

of a spinning frame or loom depends in large measure upon the 

frequency and length of stops. These in turn depend largely on the 

efficiency of the person tending the machine. The problem of what 

is the most efficient ratio of the number of machines to a worker 

is one containing many variables. It is capable, however, of much 

more nearly accurate solution than that hitherto attained. There is 

evidence tending to show that perhaps too many for efficient work 

are imposed on one worker. One of the overseers, for instance, 

stated that English speaking weavers are very reluctant to work 

on Draper automatic looms where they are asked to tend as high as 

twenty looms. They flock to Lowell looms where one person tends 

six machines. That is, in his opinion, the most intelligent weavers 

consider tending Draper looms too hard. Clearly the capital 

investment here is linked up closely with human questions such as 

source of labor supply, selection, training, fatigue, physical working 

conditions, speed of work, etc. The existing attempt to work out the 

problem contains too much guess work.85

The consultant s suggested that only careful study and analysis, not 

guesswork or tradition, could properly apportion the application 

of labor to technology in the mill and ensure efficient use of 

expensive machinery. The “many variables” involved in making 

such determinations indicated the need for objective analysis of 

conditions in order that workloads could be set rationally at the 

optimum level, theoretically without causing more s train on the 

workers than that to which they were accustomed. A major tenet of 

these engineers was that proper conditions, and loads, as determined 

by increased management understanding of conditions, permitted 
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increased assignments (stretch- outs) without increased effort by 

labor. Labor tended to disagree and resist, for reasons associated 

with its different outlook, workplace traditions, and ideas of which 

aspects of the work made it more or less satisfying, stressful, and 

remunerative. 

4. Weave Room Labor 

a. Weavers 

A weaver’s work was defined primarily by the number of looms to 

be tended, along with the range of tasks associated with weaving 

assigned to the weaver or to other employees. As the previous 

quotation from Valentine indicated, weavers did not always readily 

accept new technology and its changing requirements. In part 

because of the traditional ideas about what formed an acceptable 

load, experienced weavers resisted the new type of loom-tending 

demanded by the new Drapers. They resisted the “stretch- out,” 

the textile industry’s continual tactic of devising ways whereby 

one operative could tend increasing numbers of machines and 

thus lower labor costs. The Draper automatic looms offered one 

of the most notable opportunities for such change in the history 

of the industry. While defenders of the new technology argued 

its ease of operation, the weavers disagreed with the idea of more 

work without more strain, as evidenced by their effort to remain 

with the old Lowell looms, without bobbin-changers. Despite the 

various ways in which the new looms were more automatic and 

therefore easier to run, the workers avoided them. One assumes 

they found work on the “Automatics” more stressful. Similarly, 

work at increasing numbers of looms reduced a person’ s sense of 

actually making cloth, of producing something rather than simply 

being another cog in an overwhelming operation unaffected by a 

worker’s input. 

Looms per worker varied not only according to the type of loom 

operated, but also the variety of cloth being woven. As noted 

above, the Boott produced moleskin, repp, velvet, scrim, and duck 

simultaneously during this period. Weavers tended 18 looms on 

moleskin, from 6 to 12 on scrims, 20 to 22 on velvet, and between 

6 and 20 on duck, the lower numbers in each case representing 

assignments on Lowell looms. Battery hands, replenishing the 

bobbins in the Draper automatic looms’ magazines, served between 

22 and 65 looms, depending on the speed with which the weft was 

used up, a product of the loom’s speed and the weight of the yarn. 

Ideally, the battery hand would find each battery 3/4 empty each 

time he/she reached it.86 The level of difficulty of these tasks cannot 

accurately be assessed from this distance. However, the contrast 

between assignments on the two types of looms, as much as 6:20, 

underlines the extent of the difference made by the new machines 
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and suggests the degree to which they must have altered the work. 

As much as the technology had taken the actual making of cloth 

away from the individual during the near century of Lowell’s 

operation, these looms caused a quantum change in work, as they 

had in technology. 

But the new looms did not define jobs, and equipment could not 

dictate conditions to the overall operation. In 1928 the Textile 

Development Corporation Report, the latest in the long series of 

such documents, indicated an overload on weavers: 

The stops per loom per hour as shown by the actual tests taken during 

the survey would indicate clearly that under the present conditions 

the weavers have too much work to insure a high production, 

and good quality. However, by following the recommendations 

throughout the mill, the stops per loom per hour should be quickly 

reduced, not only to the point where the weavers can run their 

looms well, but it is reasonable to expect that it should be reduced 

sufficiently to allow a weaver to run more looms with less work 

than they are doing at present. 

Because conditions in the mill’s production before weaving in the 

process were below standard, and because the looms were not 

maintained as well as they might have been ideally, weaving errors 

stopped the looms too often to give the weaver full benefit of the 

machine’s technological capability and thus blocked the mill from 

taking advantage of their full potential. If broken warp threads or 

minor machine malfunctions led to the loom’s stop-motions halting 

its production, the “stops” prevented efficiency on the part of worker 

and machine alike. It was typical of these reports to anticipate 

increased production without increased effort by labor, implying 

an expectation of calm labor acceptance of the planned stretch-out. 

The contrast between current excessive loads and the generally 

higher proposed loads under improved conditions underlined the 

connections between conditions and work throughout the mill. 

Weavers’ duties varied according to the numbers of looms tended. 

In some instances they were their own battery hands, some “picked 

out” or corrected, errors and doffed the cloth made, while those 

with more looms only drew in broken warp ends and doffed 

cloth. Weavers on the automatic looms would respond to a loom 

stop, indicated by one of the stop motions (rather than detecting it 

themselves), repair the problem, such as a broken weft, and restart 

the loom.87

Weavers, regardless of the type of loom operated, had to guard 

against many of the causes of seconds, or imperfect cloth, for which 

they were paid much less, although only a part of the causes of 

seconds were their fault. The mill made some distinction between 
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the different departments responsible for problems. A description 

of a few of the types of defects found in the material once it reached 

the Cloth Room indicated the potential for error and the number of 

sources from which seconds flowed: 

1. Filling Bunches 

Many of the filling bunches were caused from the dirty 

condition of the loom. Lint had accumulated around 

the filling forks, racks, and shuttle boxes; the batteries 

were dirty also. 

When the shuttle leaves the shuttle box, the filling 

slackens somewhat, and jerks up dirty lint, which caus-

es bunches. 

2. Mispicks 

Many of the mispicks are caused by the weaver not 

finding the pick properly, when the filling breaks. 

3. Thin Places 

Many of the thin places are caused by faulty loom 

fixing. When rocker shafts and boxes are badly worn, 

it is very difficult to set a loom so it will change filling 

correctly; this causes thin places. The crank arms were 

found loose on many of the looms; this s a defect that 

causes the lay to run unsteady. When the lay runs 

unsteady, the filling fork will not stop the loom as it 

should when the filling breaks. 

4. Oily Spots 

Many of the oily spots are caused by oil dropping from 

the hanger, or shafting. The oil runs along the shafts, 

and drops on the warp. The loom cleaners make con-

siderable oily places, when cleaning the looms. 

5. Wrong Draws 

Generally the wrong draws are made by the weavers, 

and they should be held responsible for this defect. 

These five problems are indicative of the variety of a much longer 

list which defined defects and assigned the fault for different 

types, some of which were traced back to the Card and Spinning 

Rooms. Here again, the interactions, between departments of the 

mill, people in the departments, people and the machines and even 

the structure itself (as when floors leaked scrub water onto cloth 

or shaft hangers dripped oil) comes to the fore. The extent of this 

list is impressive not simply because of its size, but also because 

defective cuts, or pieces, of cloth were incredibly common, ranging 

from 24% of the corduroy, 39% of the moleskin, 36% of the scrim, 

and an astounding 80% of the velvet, 88 or velveteen as it should be 

known (velvet actually being a silk material, though the term was 

often used for cotton and is often found used that way in the Boott 

records). 

An efficient mill did not produce or tolerate such levels of failure. 

Such a performance makes it clear that no part of the operation, 
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no group within it, achieved the levels of production, whether in 

terms of efficiency, wages, or profit, that a mil l expected at this (or 

any) time. 

b. Loom Fixers 

The other people primarily involved in weave room work were the 

loom fixers. Their work also was significantly affected by the new 

Drapers being installed throughout this period and the continual 

application of improvements to them. Draper noted some effects 

and claimed they meant “fewer calls for the fixer on these new 

mechanisms”: 

The new brake with cork inserts was made to stop the loom with the 

shuttle in a certain position. To do this it had to be a good brake, one 

that does not get out of condition. The corks outlast a dozen of the 

old leather linings. Oil does not lessen their effectiveness. 

Boxes for the two main loom shafts were formerly bolted horizontally 

to the loomsides. They are now set in pockets on the loomside, resting 

on special shelves, to which they are vertically bolted with 9/16” 

bolts and lock washers. They do not loosen up, do not tip up on a 

bang-off and need little attention from the fixer. They “stay put.” 

The new replaceable bushings in the Rocker Shaft Boxes prevent 

wear on the rocker shaft and eliminate the fixer’s old troublesome 

job of shimming up the Lay.89

Specific improvements made the loom a stronger, more precise 

machine as its speeds increased and its automatic functions grew 

more numerous. As the number of looms assignable to a weaver 

increased, so should those per fixer. Even small improvements such 

as the new warp stop-motion, the Stafford thread cutter (which 

clipped off the trailing end when the bobbin was changed), and the 

Midget Feeler (which sensed the amount of yarn remaining on a 

bobbin, triggering a change) adopted at the Boott during this time 

improved operating circumstances for weavers and fixers. 

Given the innumerable variables in operating conditions involved, 

in addition to the steadily shifting technology, fixer workloads 

were a continual area of disagreement between these skilled men 

and management. In the weave rooms on 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3 a loom 

fixer took care of 98 Draper looms or 89 Lowell looms in one case, 

just 78 in another.90

Given the obvious skill and importance of the fixers, the industry’s 

efforts to make their jobs more measurable, more susceptible to 
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management analysis, understanding, and, therefore, control and 

assignment, was readily predictable. Despite the effort to make each 

job in a textile mill as simple as possible, these men still dealt with 

a wide range of problems, the difficulty of which was indicated by 

the fact that the loom had some seven separate but inter- connected 

motions, each one of which had to be not only correctly adjusted 

but also timed in accordance with its relationship to the other six. 

Altering one aspect of the loom’s operation affected its interaction 

with all the others. 

The diversity of tasks, further complicated by varieties of looms 

and cloth, made the elimination of skill difficult, and the fixers’ 

performance remained a major factor in this significant and laborintensive portion of a mill’s operation. 

Loom Fixers at the Boott did not receive high ratings from the 

consultants who visited. Their work, given the number of looms 

they were responsible for, did not meet the expectations of the 

1928 study. In general, they were faulted for only reacting to loom 

malfunctions, rather than inspecting and maintaining the looms on 

a regular basis. A brief extract from a lengthy inspection schedule 

provided by the consultants suggested the number of concerns 

facing a fixer: 

Parts to be 

Inspected

How Often to 

Inspect It What to Look For

Batteries “ 3 “ Clearance of shuttle box, bobbin support, feed 

pawl, bobbin disc, thread guide hold back 

pawl, and top holder; does battery turn freely, 

and does it need the eccentric bolt back stud.

Filling feeler Weekly Too close setting; not set close enough; knock-

ing out too many bobbins; is it centering slot, 

and not touching shuttle; general condition.

Shuttle Weekly Loose and crooked grip; loose and dull point; 

rivet cutting reed; loose or rough eye; rough 

or rounded shuttle; condition of bristle.

Transferrers Every 2 weeks General condition of transferrers; does bobbin 

go deep enough or is it going too deep; does 

it center the shuttle, and is shuttle in position 

to receive bobbins; undue strain, and timed 

correctly; latch finger.91

These four, of thirty-eight, items begin to show the extent to which 

reliance was upon judgment rather than definition, feel rather than 

measurement. The number of things which had to be checked, 

often in several ways, indicated the complexity of maintenance and 

repair. The recurrence of such terms as “general condition, general 

examination, too large, worn enough, freely, too much lost motion” 

revealed the necessity of experienced eyes, ears, hands, and minds 

in these jobs. Both individually and through their organization, the 

Lowell Loom-Fixers Club, these workers remained figures to be 

reckoned with. 
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b. Cleaners and Oilers

Working closely with the Weavers and Fixers, but in very limited 

roles, were the Weave Room’s Cleaners and Oilers. The cleaner in 

the weave room kept the machinery free of lint, dust, and other dirt. 

Each day, every loom was cleaned with compressed air. Whenever 

a warp ran out, extra cleaning was performed and oil and grease 

wiped off. The cleaner had to use care in “blowing off” or dirt 

would be pushed onto the cloth or yarn and damage it. The looms 

also needed regular oiling, daily for some parts, weekly for others.92

Because of the number of moving parts and the speed at which 

they turned, hour after hour, lubrication could make the difference 

between early or late replacement of machines. 

The Weave Room stood as a microcosm of the mill as a whole, with 

management and workers dependent on one another in complex 

ways, responsibilities difficult to sort out with finality. Levels of 

skill were diverse, and efforts to minimize them continual. 

5. Spinning Room Labor 

a. Section Men 

Work in the spinning rooms of #6 received detailed study which 

offers precise information on activity there. Section Men generally 

oversaw the spinning frames’ operation, kept them in good running 

condition, changed the tapes, or bands, which turned the spindles, 

oiled them, and changed travelers and top rolls as needed. Each man 

tended a fixed group of frames: in #6-4 and #6- 5, two tended 25 

frames, or 6900 spindles each, and one had 26 frames, 7140 spindles 

to mind, higher loads than found in other mills in the complex.93 

This load indicated better machine condition, better arrangement, 

or both in #6 in comparison to the other mills. 

b. Spinners 

Spinners tending the warp spinning in #6 minded ten sides of 

frames on 24s to 50s yarns, 138 spindles per side, 1380 per spinner. 

Spinners tended the creel by putting a new supply of roving on 

bobbins onto skewers in the top of the frame to be drafted and spun; 

they were criticized for removing roving bobbins before they were 

empty and cutting off the remaining roving, wasting processed 

material, ruining the bobbins, and endangering themselves. Since 

they worked by the piece, the Spinners cared primarily to maximize 

production and did not share the mill’s concern for the waste or 

the bobbins. They also did some oiling on the frames, cleaned the 

creels, and picked the top clearers three times a day, removing 

cotton errantly winding itself around these cleaning rolls.94
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c. Doffers 

Doffers worked in pairs, removing bobbins full of yarn from the 

spindles and replacing them with empty ones and piecing up the 

broken ends resulting in order to continue spinning on the fresh 

bobbins. On frames in 6-4 on 23s yarn, a doffer tended 18 frames 

and doffed each one 7 times a week, lifting and replacing 34,776 

bobbins in that time. On the finer 30s yarn (30 hanks per pound) 

on 6-5, the bobbins filled up less quickly and a doffer t ended 

more frames, 22, doffed each 5.75 times per week, and lifted 34,914 

bobbins. On 60s yarn on 6-5 they doffed forty-two frames each, 3 

doffs per week, 34,776 bobbins.95 Regardless of the yarn weight, 

all doffers lifted about the same number of bobbins, although they 

covered widely varying numbers of frames to do so. 

d. Associated Help 

A chart prepared for the Boott in 1928 described the numbers of 

people involved with spinning in #6, their tasks, and the numbers 

of workers in each position. It enables one to determine the 

complement of workers assigned to the rooms for all purposes, not 

only the obvious tasks of spinning and doffing: 

Mill Position Rate

Rate 

per 

Week Duties

1 Overseer Has charge of spooling & 

twisting also.

1 Supervisor 36.00 Has charge of Mills #6-4, #6-5, 

and twisting in #7-5. These are 

assistant overseers, and watch 

the help in their rooms.

4 Front bobbin cleaners

$.0608 per 

1000 bobbins

14.00 Clean the filling bobbins.

2 Back bobbin cleaners$.0304 per 

1000 bobbins

14.00 Clean the filling bobbins.

4 Pulling-off 

yarn

.14 per 1000 

bobs. old 

feeler 

.105 per 1000 

new feeler

16.50 Pull yarn off filling bobbins by 

hand.

6-4 1 Third hand* $.506 per 

hour

24.89 Does third hand’s work in Mill 

#6-5 also.

6-4 1 Fixer $.545 per 

hour

26.16 Fixes frames, bands, and oils.

6-4 1 Roving 

man

$.4006 per 

hour

19.23 Lays up roving, and takes 

down empties.
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6-4 1 Trucker $.4006 per 

hour

19.23 Takes yarn to Spooling 

Department of Mill #1-5, and 

trucks empty bobbins back.

6-4 3 Sweepers & 

cleaners*

$.308 per 

hour

14.78 Sweep floors, clean frames.

6-4 2 Roll pickers $.3375 per 

hour

16.20 Clean top and bottom rolls and 

oil them; help in changing.

6-4 1 Scrubber* $.285 per 

hour

11.12 Scrubs in Mill #6-5 also. Works 

only 39 hours per week.

6-4 1 Oiler-waste 

man*

$.336 per 

hour

16.13 Picks up the waste. cleans 

overhead, fills fire pails, also 

sorts the waste and carries it 

out.

6-4 2 Doffers 24.00

6-5 1 Fixer $.545 per 

hour

26.16 Duties same as other fixers.

6-5 1 Roving 

man

$.4006 per 

hour

19.23 Duties same as other roving 

men.

6-5 1 Trucker $.4006 per 

hour

19.23 Trucks yarn to Spooling 

Department of Mill #1-5, and 

trucks back empty bobbins.

6-5 3 Sweepers & 

cleaners*

$.308 per 

hour

14.78 Duties same as other sweepers 

and cleaners.

6-5 2 Roll pickers $.3375 per 

hour

16.20 Duties same as other roll 

pickers.

6-5 1 Shaftman - 

oiler*

$.336 per 

hour

16.13 Picks up waste, sorts and 

weighs it, then carries it out, 

also fills fire pails and brushes 

down overhead.

6-5 2 Doffers 22.00

* B rate, all others A rate. 
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Twenty- four workers, in addition to spinners, were assigned to 

the two Spinning Rooms in #6; their endeavor was supplemented 

from above by an Overseer and a Supervisor; hierarchically and 

monetarily beneath the other workers toiled bobbin cleaners and 

yarn pullers removing tail ends of yarn from bobbins ejected from 

the automatic looms. Their pay varied according to which type of 

feeler was being utilized to determine when to eject the bobbins, 

the new Midget feelers presumable signaling the change nearer the 

end of the yarn supply on a bobbin; thus did technological change 

affect even the lowest worker on the mill’s employment ladder. 

The chart presents the full range of input and allows one to picture 

activity within the mill’s top two floors. The Roving Man received 

carts of full roving bobbins from Carding Rooms elsewhere via the 

elevator and moved through the room piling them on top of the 

frames, on a shelf above the creel, and removing the empties in carts 

filled by the Spinners as they creeled the roving. Doffers placed full 

bobbins of yarn in hand trucks for the Trucker to push into the 

elevator and then to #1-5. Other “specialists” swept, scrubbed, and 

oiled and cleaned the frames. 

While the work of these places was spinning, there were more 

people attending to the spinning than actually doing it. The amount 

of oiling and cleaning was particularly noticeable. Top rolls were 

cleaned with a brush every two hours, as were the thread boards, 

the roller beam twice a day, and top clearers picked three times 

a day. Other parts required daily or weekly cleaning. Several of 

the workers in the room had some cleaning responsibilities. Oiling 

similarly proceeded on a daily schedule for certain bearings, for 

other parts less often but regularly. Here, as in the Weave Room, 

inspection of the operation was no simple task and a checklist for 

inspection listed 58 separate items to be checked.96

In any account of the work in a given room, there is a tendency to 

omit the incidental and indirect labor that is required. Cleaning and 

oiling represented a part of this work. But much more such work 

went on routinely at the Boott while leaving little record. A list of 

parts purchased during six months in 1913 suggested some of this 

activity. 

Machinery parts were needed for every class of equipment in the 

mill. Looms, for example, while receiving no major new parts 

during the time in question, required temples, shuttles, picker 

sticks, binders, and crank shafts. New pulleys, hangers, bushings 

and bearings helped maintain the power transmission system. 

The spinning rooms needed new separators (to keep the yarn 

being spun on one spindle from becoming entangled with that 

on the next), cutter blades, chain, top roll springs, bolsters, nails 

and bolts, brackets, studs, spindles, and filling cutters. Kew piping 
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and valves were installed, the adding machine and the two-horse 

truck repaired, new parts for the steamers and elevators purchased, 

a new die bought, sprinklers fixed, among other things, and at 

the same time unlisted items of less than $2.00 value purchased 

amounted to $7696.83, indicating that a great deal more than can 

now be itemized also took place during this period.97 

6. Testing 

The final type of work going on in #6 in the 1905-1930 was carried 

out in the Testing Room on 6-3. Albert A. Abbott presided there in 

the early twenties, assisted by Mrs. Laird and Willie Adams. They 

tested both yarn and cloth and compared samples brought from the 

weave rooms to the customer’s sample the mill attempted to match. 

In one case, 60, 000 yards produced to match a small sample resulted 

in the return by the customer of 30,000 yards as unacceptable. 

Microscopic examination, strength testers, twist counters and 

related instruments enabled these workers to determine precisely 

what the mill was turning out.98

Their work varied from testing tensile strength of both yarn and 

cloth in a machine that pulled until the material broke, to counting 

the number of twists in a given length of yarn, to weighing samples 

of roving and yarn on precise gram scales to insure that production 

met prescribed standards. This meticulous, at times microscopic, 

work stood in stark contrast to the mill’s general mechanical 

operations, but at the same time in its manner demonstrated the 

preciseness of results which the mill needed to strive for if it were 

to achieve the production it aimed for. In other words, while the 

machines were not always as precise as desired, while they appear 

somewhat primitive according to modern computerized standards 

(and eyes accustomed to such), they produced results at a level of 

preciseness that required minute analysis to determine the extent to 

which a standard had been achieved or missed. This great hulking 

machine of a mill aimed for and attained production of precisely 

defined and measured products. 

7. Oversight 

Just as the combination of job definitions, position charts, and 

parts lists can combine to suggest the workers’ roles and activities 

in Spinning and Weaving, so can accounts of their supervision on 

the floor illuminate these areas. Particularly, descriptions of the 

oversight and its relation to employee performance help bridge the 

gap between definitions of work and its conduct. 

At the early part of this period, and century, the Overseers in 

#6 were Robert W. McAllister in Weaving and Samuel Worth in 
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Spinning.99 They would have been found on the stairs a good deal 

of the time, since their departments were divided between floors in 

just the way the consultants were wont to decry. 

Working to control and direct operations in #6 after World War 

I were Overseers Drew, Joubert, and Verville. In a 1924 ranking 

they rated Good or Average in both Appearance and Management 

of Idle Stock, and Good in Cooperation in Curtailing Problems.100 

These people worked in the forefront of the interaction between 

capital and labor, employees themselves, but representing the 

point of view of those in charge. Their jobs are described, in a sense, 

by considering those beneath them. A consideration of their place 

within the factory organization, however, can illuminate the nature 

of their work. 

While they reached their positions through seniority and knowledge, 

much of what they did, and of what they managed, was also the 

product of experience and tradition rather than the product of study 

and analysis. While their knowledge of the processes they oversaw 

was likely to be based on long experience and understanding of 

that part of the cotton process beneath them, they were subject 

to management direction and followed orders originating in the 

Treasurer’s Office and the Counting House. When the higher-ups 

failed to perform well, the Overseers bore the brunt of the effect 

mistakes had on worker-management relations. Furthermore, in 

addition to working at the front lines of the ongoing confrontation 

between work and its direction in these mills, the men in charge 

of Weaving and Spinning in #6 worked at or near the top of the 

mill’s production line, placing them at the top of the pyramid of 

accumulating effects from errors made anywhere in the cotton 

process. 

Regarding the first area, relations with the workers, the Valentine 

Report described time-keeping, the most basic aspect of the 

relationship: 

There is no uniform method of adequately informing the workers as 

to the time of stopping work at noon and night. There are fifty-one 

rooms with several ways of egress in each. We found much laxity 

in the matter of going and coming, especially at night. In many of 

the rooms there is so much noise that the sound of the mill bell is 

inaudible. We found no written rules in any of the rooms nor are 

there any oral rules except as to the time of starting and s topping 

work. There is much hanging around the doors, waiting for the bell 

to ring at noon and night. 

The problem of securing prompt attendance, steady application to 

work, avoidance of quarrels and frictions, cannot be solved by setting 
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arbitrary and inflexible rules. The worker’s attitude is inevitably 

influenced by evidences of inadequate management to the extent 

that more definite standards of control must in a measure wait 

upon improvements in operating methods. If workers find that lax 

management puts obstacles in the way of regular work in the form 

of poor transportation and all the other difficulties, if the company’s 

disposal of waste is careless, if work is not ready for workers when 

they arrive in the morning, if the work day with the addition of 

overtime is too long to make it possible to sustain effort throughout 

the working period - it is impossible to expect workers to maintain 

a rigid system in all these matters.101

With no control over the operation of bells or overall procedure, 

it was still the Overseers who had to cope with the effects on the 

workers. Despite their best efforts, the mill’s practices spoke louder 

than their works (or its bells). Bad conditions begat bad habits. The 

fact that the noise of the rooms was so loud as to drown out the mill 

bells serves to remind one of a constant, overwhelming aspect of 

the situation in the mills. 

Relative to the other aspect of their burden, the cumulative nature 

of mistakes made in the mill, one finds that the mill initiated its 

efforts to prepare the help poorly. Its general lack of attention 

to the workers extended to the problem of training them to do 

their jobs. While some workers came with experience, others had 

none, and the mill’s conditions did not tend to draw the more 

knowledgeable. Because they were poorly trained, they produced 

disproportionate amounts of waste and seconds. Frequent changes 

in style combined with lack of skill to produce between 6% and 9% 

seconds in the weave rooms. Overall, waste accounted for 15% of 

the cotton entering the mill, or 4 /7 of the total profit for 1916. This 

performance represented a level 50 percent beyond the “acceptable.” 

Bobbins dropped on the floor where they became greasy, or doffed 

before they were empty (wasting the remaining yarn), dirty hands 

handling the yarn or cloth, bobbins run empty in the looms, bobbins 

roughly handled so that the yarn become tangled; innumerable 

little mistakes multiplied as the errors made in one place passed 

along and contaminated further work. Carelessly tended machines, 

indifference to detail, mix-ups of different types of yarn, errors in 

spinning leading to difficulties in the warping department, over 

and over the same types of mistakes took an enormous toll on the 

work and the workers: 

Slovenly cleaning leaves dirt which forms into webs. These get 

stirred up in the air and fall on the roving, yarn or cloth. Poor 

oiling causes dust to accumulate. Feelers in Draper looms if poorly 

adjusted cause much waste of yarn on bobbins. Careless handling 

on greasy floors in the weave room makes grease spots on rolls 

of cloth. Oil cans put in waste boxes makes oily waste. Work by 
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untrained operatives is slower, spoils more, is less adaptable, causes 

more machine repairs, causes interference with transportation and 

lowers production.102

In nearly every case, mistakes negated the effect of labor previously 

expended on the cotton, and in many instances they persisted and 

damaged further work before they were discovered or because they 

could not be overcome. When things went badly because of these 

failings, everyone suffered, demoralization set in, wages were lost 

on piecework, and a vicious circle was created. 

The Overseers must have felt at times that they were at the 

center of this circle, helpless to affect its course. Because of the 

many uncorrected problems and the poor attitude on the part of 

management they bespoke: 

Tightening of discipline is not the remedy at present. Until physical 

working conditions and wages are improved and greater managerial 

efficiency is introduced an attempt to enforce strict discipline in 

wholesale fashion would be apt to drive away many workers - - more 

than the mill could afford to lose. Until workers surely know good 

methods from bad methods, it is unfair to treat them as if the mistakes 

were intentional. One of the weaving overseers stated, for instance, 

that the weavers feel that under present conditions they have done 

their best and that merely showing them the seconds they make is 

sufficient to cause them to walk out. Under the circumstances they 

resent a call down. 

The workers reacted to the conditions they observed being created, 

the environment in which they were expected to play their roles. 

They were knowledgeable about what conditions were supposed 

to be and responded to the situation as they found it. Given poor 

conditions, they did not feel they could be called to account for 

errors they could not prevent. The Weaving Overseer was advised, 

in effect, to await a general improvement before he could expect 

one on the part of labor. 

So restricted had the situation made their power, in fact, that they 

did not even believe they could justifiably dismiss an employee 

in any but the most extreme situations: “Drunkenness, stealing, 

insubordination, flagrant vice, fighting, physical violence, 

continued quarrelsomeness and cheating” were cited by them as 

the only sufficient causes for firing a worker.103 Reflection upon 

these terms gives rise to a picture of a mill with conditions, as have 

been described, of general unpleasantness punctuated by incidents 

of truly abhorent character. The difficult position of the Overseer 

stands as a metaphor for all workers’ situation and must be kept in 

mind relative to all aspects of the Boott’s operation. 
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F. Wages

All the work at the Boott, regardless of job-description, hierarchical 

position, or working conditions shared a common goal: pay. 

The bottom line for everyone’s work, wages, continued to show 

dramatic changes during this period. While Boott wages formed 

part of a Lowell and New England continuum, they did vary in 

some ways from those at other mills, and both the general pattern, 

as exemplified by the Boott, and its place in the region deserve 

consideration. 

The first indications of wages in the Boott for this period come in a 

listing of current terms and an advance to be made in June, 1907.104 

Wages in carding, on 6-5, showed increases from $11.25 to $11.80 

per week for a Fixer, up fifty cents to $11 for the two Grinders, with 

most of the other 18 carding workers earning between $5.35 and 

$6.75 after raises of about $.25. Workers tending the speeders and 

roving frames also in 6-5 received piece rates which were likely to 

be comparable to the general pay level noted. All workers served a 

58-hour week. 

Ring Spinners on the 4th floor gained similar increases: 

Old Rate New Rate

1 Fixer 13.50 14.00

1 Band man 6.60 7.00

1 Roving man 6.60 7.00

2 Cleaners 5.50 5.75

1 Scrubber 5.25 5.50

2 Doffers 8.00 8.40

Spinners # 65 Warp 0.76 .80 per 100 Spindles

58 hours

Spinners here produced 65s warp yarn, light by Boott standards, 

and received 80 cents per 100 spindles run. 

Wages in Mule Spinning on the 3rd and 4th floors indicated the 

great range of wages in that department, with back boys (who 

placed roving into the mules creel from the back) among the lower 

paid workers in the mill while the mule spinners were some of the 

better paid: 

Old Rate New Rate

Overseer No change

1 Fixer 13.50 15.00
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1 Fixer 13.25 13.90

Filling Carrier 7.50 7.85

1 Roving man 6.60 6.90

5 Back Boys 6.00 6.30

2 Doffers 8.10 8.50

1 Doffer 7.60 8.00

1 Roving boy 7.85 8.50

All this help assisted the room as a whole, not particular 

mulespinners. The Roving Man brought the product of the Card 

Room to be spun and the Filling Carrier transported the yarn to the 

Weave Rooms where it was used as “filling,” or weft. 

Boys in the Mule Room had traditionally hoped to move up 

to mulespinner positions in time. By the early 1900s, such an 

advancement had been made unlikely by the imminence of the 

mule’s abandonment. 

Rates for mulespinners indicated a range of piece rates proportional 

to a production of from 7s yarn (made from waste) to 90s, an 

indication of the versatility of these machines. They also showed 

that on only the 1100- spindle mules (2200-spindle pairs) were 

spinners and piecers (two levels of assistant) employed to assist 

Mulespinners in the task of reconnecting broken ends; elsewhere a 

Mulespinner minded two machines alone. Prices per hank varied 

according to both the size of the mules and the yarn weight and 

aimed at providing comparable wages to all members of each 

classification. 

Raises in the weave rooms in 1907 paralleled those elsewhere in 

#6. The great disparity in different weavers’ rates according to 

style suggested the varying degree of difficulty in producing the 

different fabrics and, presumably, reflected the contrast in amounts 

of cloth produced on the Lowell looms and the Draper automatics 

(highest rates would have been for complex, fine cloth made on 

one of the slower Lowell looms, lowest for the pieces made on a 

weaver’s larger number of Drapers rapidly producing a coarse 

material): 

#6 Mill 1st Floor Weaving

Old Rate New Rate

1 Overseer same same

Second Hand $16.50 $17.00

Scrubber 6.50 6.80

3 Fixers 13.55 14.20

1 Bobbin Man 8.00 8.40
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2 Cleaners 6.50 6.80

1 Room Girl 9.00 9.50

Weavers

 

Style

9 .30

151 .40

145 .47

#6 Mill 2nd Floor Weaving

Old Rate New Rate

4 Fixers $13.55 $14.20

1 Room Girl 9.00 9.50

1 Filling Man 7.70 8.00

Weavers

 

Style

1 .22

9 .55

330 1.25

252 1.53

8 .36

151 .73

328 .36

#6 Mill 3rd Floor Weaving

Old Rate New Rate

1 Room Girl $9.00 $9.50

#6 Mill 3rd Floor Duck

Old Rate New Rate

2 Fixers $13.55 $14.20

Room Girl 9.00 9.50

Filling Man 7.00 7.35

Weavers

 

Style

381 2.54

265 .68

The intention of all these rates was to pay comparable amounts 

for work at machines capable of producing cloth at very different 

speeds, particularly where weavers tended markedly different 

numbers of looms. 
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Individual weavers could have a significant impact on their earnings 

through their effort, assuming rates were fair and machinery 

conditions equal. 

Less than a year after these increases, on March 30, 1908, wages 

were cut to levels lower than before the 1907 increase. Reductions 

of more than 10% appeared throughout the mill, and city, as the 

workers absorbed the effect of yet another economic downturn. 

By September, 1910, wages still had not recovered their early 1907 

level.105

Slowly increases came, but significant improvement had to await 

further developments distant from the mill. By 1916 war work had 

brought changes to the mill. Work was plentiful (particularly on 

duck for the military), workers scarce, and wages advanced twice, 

10% in January and 8% in the spring. Because of the narrower range 

of goods and increased production, the first wage increase was 

overcome, or canceled out in terms of cost, quickly. In management’s 

terms, it had not cost them anything. Had more help been available, 

still further production could have been sold. 

Because of the increases for hourly workers, 21⁄2 percent of profits 

were appropriated for distribution to about 50 employees who did 

not get the wage advances. $5000 was distributed in amounts of $15 

to $500, with the latter presumably going to Agent E.W. Thomas 

who was making nearly $135 a week, $7000 a year, in marked 

contrast to hourly workers earning between $6 and $35 a week.106 

A 1916 report broke down earnings in another manner and 

indicated the numbers of people, male and female, who worked at 

the different pay levels at the Boott: 

Earnings Number of Workers

Males day Males night Females Total 

$ 6. - $ 7. 99 incl. 103 -- 194 297

$ 8. - $11.99 incl. 487 167 373 1027

$12. - $14.99 incl. 231 112 65 408

$15. - $17. 99 incl. 155 62 7 224

$18. - $35. 36 35 -- 71

Totals 1012 376 639 2027107

The lowest-paid group of males appeared to be boys (“males day” ) 

unable by law to work at night, as were the women, the only others 

to earn so little. Women’s wages showed marked concentration 

in the lowest groups. Even among men, earning over $15 a week 
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occurred rarely, and the $35 maximum lies $100 per week below 

the pay of Thomas. 

Overtime work added to the pay levels of adult males, particularly 

for those in carding and weaving. Four hours a night for five nights 

a week occurred regularly for some of the employees. Protective 

legislation written in sex-specific ways thus limited the earning 

capacity of those it aimed to protect. Those working overtime 

increased their pay by about a third.108 The differences in earnings 

between those at the lower end of the scale and the overseers, foreman 

and second hands were accentuated by overtime and occasional 

bonuses for the latter, as well as by the fact that those doing piece 

work suffered because of the delays in production occasioned by 

frequent style changes and transportation delays related to the 

mill’s lay-out. In other words, several factors in addition to the wage 

rates themselves combined to heighten the disparities in income 

between the male and female workers. Skill, access, independence 

from the moment-to-moment flow of materials, and legislation all 

perpetuated the male advantage which had its origin, here, in the 

plans according to which the city had been erected. 

The problem of maintaining the separation of the male elite, the 

salaried, who did not share in the hourly raises, from the other 

men, led to a rare recorded disagreement between the Treasurer 

and his Board. F.A. Flather, who was not enthused about the 

across-the-board bonuses at times resorted to, gave discretionary 

bonuses of $25 to $100 to various personnel, for example when 

certain production goals had been reached. In one instance, when 

“a man made a supreme effort in straightening out a strike based on 

ignorance and misunderstanding and I gave him $100.”109 Doling 

out the money this way gave Flather personal credit for the largesse 

as well as enabling him to reward individuals rather than classes 

of employees. 

In 1917, however, the Directors voted: 

That the Treasurer be authorized to offer and to pay salaried officers 

continuing with the Boott Mills, whose compensation is on a 

monthly salary basis, additional compensation contingent upon 

any declaration of a cash dividend on the Common Stock of the 

Company from September 2, 1917, to September 2, 1918, inclusive, 

the amount of such additional compensation to be determined by 

multiplying the present annual salary or regular compensation 

by three times the percentum rate of the dividend declared, and 

such additional compensation to be payed on the same date as the 

dividend is payable to the stockholders. 

This profit-sharing plan for salaried employees was repeated in 

1918, but not the next three years, and resumed in late 1921, when 
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$3447 was divided between 19 employees. Apparently Bemis, the 

primary stockholder, supported and led efforts to institute this 

plan. The supervisors’ raises insured that they were paid at least 

10% more than previously and also 10% more than those they 

supervised.110

The May 14, 1917 wage increase had represented the culmination of 

a series beginning in 1912, which, according to Flather: “Counting 

the I.W.W. strike [discussed below], we have raised wages 10 

plus 10 plus 8 plus 10 plus 10 percent” (from 1912 to 1917). At the 

same time they had eliminated overtime and other “subterfuges” 

previously used to pay more than the alleged scale in areas where 

“labor difficulties” had made it necessary.111

A Schedule of Number of People Employed with Rates Per Hour, 

along with a Schedule of Piece Rate Prices, both corrected to indicate 

a September 20, 1919 wage increase, gave a good indication of the 

situation at the end of World War I at the Boott. It revealed not only 

the pay, and the new 48-hour week, but also a substantial increase 

in personnel involved, particularly in cleaning. Presumably part of 

the change reflected the lesser ability of some of the wartime help 

available, but greater attention to the problem appears to have been 

a factor as well. 

The overall increases in numbers of workers may also have 

reflected a decline in skills, although added Fixers could have 

been a response to aging equipment run hard to take advantage of 

government orders. Replacement would await post-war shifting of 

machine builders back to making textile equipment. The situation 

in Weaving closely paralleled that in Spinning. Loom speeds had 

not increased, and workloads were comparatively low, indicating 

a lack of skilled weavers, and perhaps the close inspection of 

government work tending to reduce the load in order to reduce 

seconds. 

The 15 fabrics listed represented the product of Mill #6, the Fine 

Goods mill. The increases in numbers of fixers, cleaners and oilers 

indicated a redistribution of available skills to keep things going 

despite the disruption of standard job distribution such changes 

represented and the problems they might (and did) pose in the 

future.112

May, 1920 saw another raise, 15%, for a total of 229% since 1912.113 

Intense competition for labor during the war, and steady inflation 

along with a steady flow of government contracts, had necessitated 

these wage increases. Later that same year, as the national 

economy once again struggled, the Directors implemented a 22-

1/2% reduction in pay across the board and wages reverted to the 

November, 1919 level. 
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ln April, 1923 all the Lowell mills agreed to a 12-1/2% wage increase 

at the end of the month. The Boott had not joined a January, 1922 

wage reduction attempt of some New England mills, a cut foiled, 

ultimately, by the refusal of the giant American Woolen Company 

and the Fall River and New Bedford mills to participate.114 By the 

end of 1924 weekly rates for Spinners were projected as $21.63, 

Doffers $25.42, Weavers $22.42-$25.20, and Loom-Fixers $32.81.115

These rates would result from full weeks with sufficient production, 

one assumes, and the many possible causes for interruptions to 

production already discussed must be considered in evaluating 

these wages. In 1925, time and a quarter for overtime appeared. G. Earnings and Costs

In addition to the rise and fall of wages which occurred at all the 

Lowell mills and generally followed the national economy, several 

other factors must be considered in evaluating the pay of the Boott 

Mill workers: work available, cost of living, and type of pay system. 

Earnings were not a function simply of wages, but also of hours 

worked. For example, in 1920 the Boott operated on a three day week 

for a time, closed for a period in 1921, and in the spring of 1924 ran 

1 or 2 days a week while business was dull.116 No unemployment 

insurance compensated Boott workers when business trends made 

it more economical to suspend than to operate. Savings or earnings 

from family members working elsewhere had to be relied upon 

while the workers carried the weight of the economy’s difficulties, 

whether expensive cotton, a weak market for cloth, or poor 

management of the mill. 

Living costs rose dramatically during the war years and the ability 

of wage increases to keep pace are, and were, hard to determine. 

Contemporary estimates offer intriguing views of the estimators. 

For a couple with three children, F.A. Flather believed the 

minimum cost of living to be $1000 a year; Thomas guessed $600; 

both the Superintendent and Mrs. Gilman, who had been working 

in the office on payrolls for 25 years, handled accident and sickness 

cases, and had a familiarity with the workers home situations, 

suggested $750. Scott Nearing’s 1911 Financing a Wage Earner’s 

Family assumed a $750-$1000 income was needed for a decent 

living, whereas U.S. government estimates called for $691 to $732 

minimums in 1911, depending on the nationality of the families! 

Price increases for the five years before 1916 amounted to 19 percent, 

with a 13 percent increase for the year preceding August, 1916, with 

staples such as beans, onions, and potatoes rising over 60%. Other 

prices advanced accordingly. In 1913 the average income of cotton 

mill employees in Lowell was $454, middling compared to cotton 

workers in other Massachusetts cities, but well below the $625 of 

boot and shoe workers or the $692 of machine-shop employees, 

and well below the amounts needed for subsistence for a family. 
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Since individual employees did not, in fact, earn enough to support 

one person, the Valentine Report noted that “the mill is making 

heavy drafts on the physical reserves of a large proportion of its 

workers.”117 Wages at this level of deprivation offered a strong 

stimulus to the perpetuation of the extended family since smaller 

units had trouble making ends meet. The distance between incomes 

and cost estimates, even by Management, demonstrates a startling 

consciousness on its part of the insufficiency of the pay it offered.

Furthermore, the Boott’s position relative to other Lowell textile 

mills (not to mention other wartime employers such as U.S. 

Cartridge, a major competitor for local labor) heightened its 

employees’ difficulties: “Since the work is more irregular at the 

Boott than at several of the other Lowell cotton mills, this mill is 

at this added disadvantage.” The mills as a whole attracted only 

the “poorest grade of workers.” None of these workers could 

“maintain what could seriously be called an American standard of 

living.” While doing little to alter this situation in any general way, 

the owners did vote in 1917 “to fix the minimum compensation of 

girls who are paid by the week at $10, unless they are learners.” No 

change in piecework wages nor any minimum for those receiving 

them accompanied this wage floor. On the contrary, at the same 

meeting the Directors voted raises for supervisors, to match the 

recent wage advance, and bonuses for department heads ‘’by 

reason of the company’s exceeding goal established by a Director; 

[and] to change conditional portion of department heads’ salaries 

into part fixed and part conditional”118 (based on the production of 

those they supervised). 

Paying labor on a piecework basis had long been resorted to in 

Lowell in an attempt to maximize production while minimizing 

labor cost. It reflected several areas of weakness on the part of 

management, indicating that they could not convince labor of 

a shared interest in production (thus inspiring them to exert full 

effort for hourly wages), that they could not adequately measure an 

acceptable performance and then expect or demand it, ultimately 

that they could not control the production process fully and could 

only attempt to coerce an acceptable level of effort through low 

wages tied to attainment of minimum goals. Workers retained some 

control over their activity on the shop floor through their ability to 

affect the rates set for jobs and then through the degree to which 

they would attempt to attain the hoped-for goals in a given day, 

hour, or week. These are weak and negative elements, obviously, 

but they indicated that management had not taken complete control 

of the situation. 

The practice of paying, in effect, piecework rates to supervisory 

personnel dated from the mid- nineteenth century in Lowell and 

marked one of the major steps in the increasing subjugation of the 

textile worker for which that period is infamous. Income based 
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on the production of the people whose labor supervisors directed 

was known to significantly increase the pressure on the workers 

to maximize speed, even at the expense of working conditions or 

safety. The institution of such a system in the 1840s represented 

shifting in the owners’ attitude toward labor or a revelation of 

the nature of the operation of the Lowell system, according to 

one’s attitude toward the owners. To continue this approach of 

conditional wages for supervisors indicated a readiness to pay for 

production despite inherent drawbacks, a willingness to employ 

every tactic to coerce, rather than inspire, effort. 

During 1928 and 1929 production increased, with two and even 

three shifts running. However, working conditions remained 

poor and losses in income because of changes in machines and the 

conditions noted (above) depressed earnings to a level below other 

Lowell mills, to which Boott workers continued to go whenever 

possible.119

A final note on wages gives perspective on the relative position of 

some of the players. In August, 1923, John Rogers Flather (JRF), 

son of the Treasurer and recent Harvard graduate, went to work in 

the Office of the Boott Mills. For the first month he served without 

pay, presumably learning the ropes. After that month, he began to 

receive $24 per week, or the pay of a worker with significant skill 

and experience. While his starting salary was not as lofty as that 

of a few men who had spent many years attaining their positions, 

neither was it subject to the irregularities of shop floor work. 

Whatever the relative amount of justice involved in this situation, the 

arrival of the young Flather signaled the initiation of a voluminous 

daily record of mill operations kept by him; a rare diary of daily 

events which contributes greatly to the ability of a modern student 

to discover the story of the operation of Flather had become a part. 

In this way he made a significant, unique contribution to modern 

textile history. 

H. Labor-ManagementRelations

The conflict, in the largest sense, between labor and management 

in this mill was so dramatic that throughout this period labor’s 

ability to perform in these mills was called into question. The 

basic working conditions at the Boott exemplified the extent of 

the conflict. Sheldon described the burden the mill’s lay-out and 

condition placed even on management: 

It takes a great deal better talent to run a mill like yours with these 

handicaps to overcome than a modern mill. It means constant and 

close scrutiny everywhere all the time, and this makes it hard work, 
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even for a man who is especially adapted for this kind of a mill. In 

other words, I think it is more difficult to procure the kind of talent 

that is needed for this kind of a mill than it is for a modern mill, 

and I think there are few men who would like to undertake the job, 

because it means hard work, and even then not the best of results.120

These cautions applied as well to the work force which had to deal 

directly with the mill’s inconveniences and the loss in production 

and wages they entailed. 

But given such a warning, did the management provide the scrutiny 

and planning called for? For nearly ten years after the takeover the 

selling house, Wellington, Sears, controlled a majority of the stock 

and seems to have run the mill to suit its fancy, to facilitate its sales, 

without regard to the internal problems inherent in the operation 

and which their policies of short runs of many styles exacerbated. 

The report Hackett made on operations in 1910 suggested little 

had been done by the “new” owners of over five years to improve 

operating conditions. In spinning, various antiquated machines of 

different makes ran side by side; they fit together poorly, prevented 

proper aisles for transportation and work, required duplication of 

change gears, repair parts and the like, and through their variety 

presented an obstacle to the dexterity to be acquired by the 

employees. Consequently, “those tending them did not appear as 

industrious or careful as they might have been.” The toilet rooms 

there were “small, dark and dirty,” supplies lay about the machines, 

lighting was poor, and finally, “The spinning room as a whole did 

not anywhere but give indications of unfavorable management.” 

Some weave rooms offered similar conditions, where looms 25-

30 years old ran without any modern attachments, lacking even 

warp stop motions and temples. On the other hand, in the rooms of 

Draper looms the equipment (but not the room) was up to date.121 

Hackett was as free as Sheldon in his characterization of the nature 

of management thinking at the Boott: 

For a long time and today the mills have been inclined to belittle 

the matter of the human element of the employees, as a factor in 

organization, and undoubtedly many causes have conspired to bring 

this about. The cause may be perhaps largely due to the jealousies 

by which positions of influence are guarded so carefully in cotton 

manufacturing, not only in this country but in Great Britain as 

well. The spirit of monarchy rule rather than that of democracy has 

for many years engendered a feeling of this kind, the consequence 

is the new methods of scientific management has still had to give 

way on account of the hereditary line of advancement which has so 

long held sway and at the expense, too, OF what might otherwise be 

accomplished in more economical methods.122
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Arbitrary authoritarianism had left little room for consideration of 

the employees, even though such efforts could have served both 

the people and the production. 

E.W. Thomas, the Agent, admitted the importance of considering 

employee welfare but found it impractical to give any attention to 

it. At the same time, he asserted that the “class of operatives... was 

drifting from bad to worse, and even the worst were becoming hard 

to retain.” Instead of the American, Irish, or French Canadian of the 

past, the class of workers “has degenerated so that only the Poles, 

Italians, Portuguese and Greeks are being attracted.” Ironically, 

the complaint was that these “degenerate people” recognized 

the nature of their situation: improved machinery requiring 

diminished skill was being used to minimize wages amidst poor 

working conditions, with little opportunity to increase income 

through harder work, and only slight chances for advancement; all 

in all, a lack of incentive for trying.123 Dingy rooms, poor lighting, 

and foul air combined with the rest of the conditions to make this a 

recognizably poor place to work. 

In keeping with the “racist” nationalism of the time, attention to 

the nationality of the Boott’s workers appeared repeatedly. Thomas 

provided the fullest study in a 1912 letter to Flather. His figures, 

which also divided the employees by sex and occupation, are 

of interest in tracing movement of immigrants into the mill and 

its various departments. They must be used with care, not only 

because their reliability is unknown, the prejudice which produced 

them certain, but also because rooms of employment may be 

misleading as to the quality of jobs held. For example, the Poles and 

Portuguese in the Mule Spinning may be expected to have been 

found more often in the low-paying jobs of Back Boy rather than in 

the prestigious and independent Mule Spinners’ slots. Similarly, in 

the Weave Rooms one would find Weavers of both sexes, but all of 

the better jobs, such as Fixer, were held by males. Still, the statistics 

are of interest because they were compiled, and for their content: 
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Nationality Males Females Total %

American & English 123 114 237 15.3

Irish 85 189 274 17.69

French 238 172 410 26.46

Greek 228 91 319 20.59

Polish 104 76 180 11.62

Portuguese 72 21 93 6.00

Belgians 2 0 2 .13

Italians 4 0 4 .26

Lithuanians 1 0 1 .06

Turks 13 3 16 1.04

Russians 3 0 3 .19

Germans 1 1 2 .13

Swede 6 0 6 .40

Syrians 2 0 2 .13

882 667 1549 100.

Percent Males 56.94

Percent Females 43.06

SUMMARY BY OCCUPATION & NATIONALITY American & English Irish French Greek Polish Portuguese Belgians Italians Lithuanians Turks Russians Germans

SwedeSyriansTotal

Picking 5 1 1 1 5 13 1 27

Carding 34 28 27 49 61 33 1 4 237

Ring Spin. 12 13 98 111 5 1 3 1 2 246

Mule 

Spin. 8 14 6 4 10 42

Spooling 8 9 56 32 5 2 112

Warping 8 8 9 25

Draw-In 5 10 5 4 1 4 29

Slash & c. 4 4 4 2 4 1 19

Quilling 1 2 6 0 9

Twisting 16 11 27 26 1 81

Winding 2 3 5

Weaving 79 105 150 86 81 28 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 538

Cloth Rm. 10 60 5 10 2 3 2 2 94

Yard & c. 46 7 20 2 3 6 1 85

237 274 410 319 180 93 2 4 1 16 3 2 6 2 1549
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SUMMARY OF MALES AND FEMALES BY OCCUPATION

Department Males Females Total

Picking 27 0 27

Carding 120 117 237

Ring Spinning 138 109 247

Mule Spinning 40 2 42

Spooling 17 95 112

Warping 4 21 25

Draw-In 11 18 29

Slash & Beaming 19 0 19

Quilling 9 0 9

Winding 0 5 5

Twisting 39 42 81

Weaving 324 214 538

Cloth Room 49 45 94

Miscellaneous 85 0 85

882 667 1549 124

Objectively considered, the nationality of the employee could 

have had some effect on operations since about a third of the 2066 

workers in 1916 were said not to speak English and the mill had no 

interpreters. A partial breakdown by national background at that 

time listed 637 Greeks, 194 Portuguese, 204 Poles, 370 French and 

30 Turks, thus indicating the rapid influx of the newer immigrants, 

as well as the French, to meet war-time production demands. 

Instructing those who do not speak English, then, would have 

to have been done by a country-person, tending to concentrate 

nationalities by trade. Furthermore, textile mills generally 

segregated workers by nationality in order to place another 

obstacle in the way of organization. Since signs regarding hours of 

employment of women and children, liability insurance, and other 

notices were posted in English only, communication with many of 

the employees was limited and little was done to alter the fact.125 

In part because of the lack of effort on anyone’s part to teach English 

to the new and large waves of immigrants which arrived up until 

1914, they also learned little of the details of cotton mill operations. 

Perhaps the disregard for their understanding of the process which 

this neglect suggests was intentional, born of the belief inherent 

in the industry that workers who knew only the limited task 

they performed would be less able in any way to influence the 

production of the mill. On the other hand, “It is unfortunate that 

a false notion of the slight amount of ability required to operate 

cotton machinery has been so dominant.” Trained help suddenly 

becoming unavailable at the time of W.W.I., the mill had none to fall 

back on, and its value became apparent. Because of the low wages 
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offered by the Boott, they competed for workers at a disadvantage, 

creating a shortage of labor, inefficiency, high turnover, and lack of 

interest in production.126

Compounding this difficulty was the attitude on the part of 

management that the role of capital outweighed that of labor in 

production. Significant improvements in machinery accentuated 

this type of thinking. As a result, there was little of the reciprocity 

in dealings with workers that was seen in other industries. The 

importance of payment for capital outweighed that of payment 

for labor. Technology seemed to offer solutions for all problems, 

and dividends came before other considerations. However, as the 

consultants pointed out to Boott management, payment for labor 

had to be sufficient to maintain its physical and mental well-being 

throughout the year, or the business was insolvent: 

The workers are in reality far more in need of regularly assured 

income than most capital holders. Workers are able to save little 

if any out of present wages. They have no property to fall back on. 

Rents and grocery bills must be met within the week or month. Most 

unskilled wage earners are not over four weeks from destitution if 

employment is suspended. These reserves of health, strength and 

energy constitute the workers’ investment precisely as the capital 

reserves constitute the capital holders “investment.”127

The Boott workers, obviously, existed in a tenuous position. Their 

pay was low, far from assured, and offered little leeway to allow for 

the risks of sickness, unemployment, and reduced capacity in later 

years. Furthermore, since textile wages were not “family wages,” 

but assumed that all members of a family would work and pool 

their income to “eke out an adequate family income,” the impact on 

the quality of life of the family and its future had to be considered as 

well.128 The degree of the subjugation of these workers to a system 

which did not work efficiently and which they could not correct 

through their efforts is striking. 

One indication of the dissatisfaction among workers at the Boott 

came in information about the numbers of employees who left the 

mill. While figures were not kept, estimates made in 1916 were 

suggestive: 

One weave foreman estimated that he had lost from his room twenty 

to thirty workers in the last six months out of a normal working 

force of forty-three. An overseer in charge of spinning and spooling 

estimated that he had lost two hundred and fifty in the past six 

months. The overseer formerly in charge of carding estimated his 

last year’s loss at one hundred out of a force of approximately four 

hundred. Most of the overseers declared that they could not estimate 
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the amount of turnover among workers in their rooms. 

From our observations we are convinced that the number of manual 

workers going and coming must be very large. We learned definitely 

that among the group of office clerks varying from thirty-six to 

forty-two, twenty-four left in the year previous of Oct. 1, 1916. 

Since Jan. 1, 1914 forty-one overseers, foremen or second hands 

have left. The normal number in that group is indefinite on account 

of night work and changing methods of supervision.129

These accounts, reflected an extreme situation. Since the most 

qualified workers were the ones most able to find work opportunities 

elsewhere and exercise choice, the extent of loss became enormous. 

The numbers of office help leaving cannot be ignored, and the flight 

of supervisory personnel must came close to total turnover in that 

extremely important area. 

Training workers represented an obvious cost of turnovers, and 

training supervisors cost a great deal more than training laborers. 

Included in these costs were time spent training, record-keeping, 

accidents, errors, production losses, damage to equipment, and 

idle machinery. Causes of the unusually high turnover at the Boott 

included “irregularity of work, poor physical working conditions, 

and low wages.” Style changes, inadequate transportation of 

material, and poor coordination between departments aggravated 

the situation and caused workers to be laid-off temporarily or to 

loose money on piecework, leading to discontent and relocation. 

Management acted at times as if there was no relationship between 

these problems and labor, no need to consider that factor. Higher 

earnings available at other Lowell cotton mills and the much higher 

pay at the U.S. Cartridge Company there, encouraged this costly 

migration.130

Despite these conditions, the impoverished and slightly skilled 

workers had little ability to combat management. Unions existed 

among the Spinners, Slashers, Weavers, Loom-Fixers, Machinists, 

Carpenters, and Firemen (tending boilers, not extinguishing fires). 

The heavy turnover and arrival of inexperienced workers held 

down the percentages of members in each area involved, but the 

Slashers and Firemen were entirely union, the Spinners (that is the 

Mule Spinners, not the Ring Spinners) perhaps a third, with the 

Loom Fixers the strongest. 

According to the Agent, the unions had raised members wages 

(the superintendent doubted it), reduced the numbers of looms per 

fixer, insisted upon sobriety among members, demanded strong 

evidence from a member to initiate a grievance, and steadied 

the output of the mill. The agent dealt cordially with the unions, 
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though only when they initiated contact, advised them to organize 

more classes of workers, and knew personally the Secretaries of 

the Loom Fixers’ and Weavers’ Unions, the latter affiliated with 

the American Federation of Labor.131 Unimpressed by certain 

advantages to management itself, continued to resist organization. 

Despite the poor working conditions and low pay, and probably 

because of the high turnover, strikes seldom occurred. A notable 

exception took place in 1912 as an aftermath to the famous Lawrence 

strike led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), advocates 

of one union of the working class and also known as Wobblies. 

It began in January, 1912, after yet another wage reduction, this 

one occasioned by the limitation of women’s and children’s hours 

to 54 per week, a reduction of 2 hours. When the new law went 

into effect shifts were shortened and wages cut. The resulting 

strike, with its famous battle cry of “Bread and Roses,” caught the 

attention of workers and others around the world. Lowell papers 

followed its developments, approving the cause but not the tactics. 

Lowell’s police and militia assisted in Lawrence’s efforts to prevent 

labor action.132 

IWW organizing in Lowell increased dramatically at this time; 1525 

Portuguese workers were said to have joined. William “Big Bill” 

Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, IWW leaders, encouraged 

strike talk in the city. 

In March, 1912, after the strike’s successful conclusion in Lawrence 

the Lowell mills announced a wage advance to equalize Lowell and 

Lawrence’s standards, but it was readily apparent that they offered 

significantly less than the 10 percent increase won in Lawrence 

and elsewhere in New England. The IWW moved first against 

the management of the Appleton Mills, where a majority of the 

employees were members of the union. The Appleton responded 

with a lockout, closing the mill. Workers then drew enough 

employees out from the other mills to lead their owners to extend 

the lockout to all the major corporations on March 26. 

The IWW immediately called in Haywood, Flynn, and William E. 

Trautmann from Lawrence, set up picket lines, and organized a 

strike committee along ethnic lines, as had been done with success 

in Lawrence. Demands included 15 percent wage increase, double 

pay for overtime, the right of Weavers to weigh their own cloth, and 

reinstatement of all workers without discrimination. Committees 

made of the employees of each mill presented these demands 

to the agents of the mill at which they worked. E. W. Thomas of 

the Boott refused to meet his workers’ committee. The agents 

announced they would instead meet with the craft unions, Mule 

Spinners, Loom Fixers, and Weavers affiliated with the United 

Textile Workers (UTW). This devisive strategy had been attempted 
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in Lawrence, and UTW President John Golden came from there 

to Lowell with AFL organizer Carl Wyatt. They contacted their 

1903 ally, the Lowell Textile Council, now merged with the Lowell 

Trades and Labor Council, and together they condemned the IWW 

while issuing demands similar to the Wobblies’. The two groups 

represented about 25 percent of the mill workers. 

IWW members picketed and paraded. On one occasion they 

marched through the Belvidere section of Lowell, where J.R. 

Flather later remembered watching as the family’s chauffeur direct 

the workers away from the Flather house. 

Other textile cities had granted the 10 percent raise won in Lawrence, 

returning to the pay of 1907. The New England Association of Textile 

Manufacturers censured Lowell for not joining in the increase. On 

April 13, after Flather met with representatives of the other mills in 

Boston, a 10 percent hike was announced for an April 22 reopening. 

The UTW and the Greek community, which had been allied with 

the IWW, announced acceptance. The IWW had little choice but 

to go along, but did so with the reservation that other issues must 

be settled between the employees and management of each mill 

before the return. Shop committees formed at each mill to act as 

go-betweens in disputes between management and labor. The 

confrontation had been successful for the workers, who achieved a 

degree of recognition from the owners for the first time. 

The ensuing period saw occasional outcroppings of protests over 

wages and conditions. Some involved the whole city, others only 

the Boott, as far as can be determined. In January, 1917, Flather 

referred to demands by the Loom Fixers, but no action seems to 

have been taken. In March of that year he reported on a conference 

involving a Greek interpreter “in view of settling the strike. Gregg 

[a consultant in the Valentine Company] turned around from the 

telephone and said the Greeks have joined the union which I am 

glad to hear.”133 The Greeks had traditionally acted independently 

from other organizations, though often in concert with them, and 

this incident could either indicate an independent strike on their 

part or just a simplification of the situation with which Flather had 

to deal. 

When the Boott’s machinists threatened to strike during the war, 

Federal intervention settled it: 

The Government Industrial Relations Department... because of 

goods urgently required have requested Boott to avoid an impending 

strike by settling with machinists, and warn us that we shall 

otherwise be taken over by the Government. Do directors advise 

settling before to avoid being taken over, or to let the taking over 

proceed and settle afterwards?134
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No record of the takeover emerging, it appears they settled. 

Heavy government production during the war meant high profits, 

enabling the mill to meet demanded pay increases brought on by a 

skyrocketing cost of living and higher wages elsewhere. 

In June of that year, skilled workers affiliated with the UTW 

demanded a 15 percent wage increase and struck when the mills 

agreed to only 10 percent. While 30 percent of the workers struck on 

July 1, increased support from less skilled workers led to a 70 percent 

walk-out the next day. Soon both sides agreed to arbitration by the 

State Arbitration Board which considered cost-of- living increases, 

which more or less equalled pay increases, and the fact that Lowell 

workers earned less than textile workers in other Massachusetts 

cities and granted the 15 percent, with the debilitating proviso that 

strikes were forbidden for the duration of the war.135 For a 5 percent 

raise the owners took away labor’s bargaining chip. 

While evidence suggests that in many ways the Boott’s situation 

represented a typical standoff, with management trying to get the 

most work for the lowest cost and workers resisting, believing 

they shared little of management’s goals, management made 

certain efforts which it interpreted as demonstrations of concern 

for employee well-being. Along with other major corporations 

it supported the local hospital where low- cost treatment was 

available to employees and their families. They also, in the years 

around 1912, rented Boott Camp on a pond near Lowell where 

female employees could go for a week’s vacation or a weekend 

during the summer. Some learned to cook and to, 

care for bedrooms in a way which they never knew before... Mothers 

who work at the mill were allowed to come and bring their children, 

and many of the English speaking women of the Carding and 

Weaving departments took advantage of that... We cannot tell how 

much good has been done through this “fresh air” home as yet, but 

many women and girls who are steady reliable workers at the Mill 

were exceedingly sorry when the season ended.136

The letter, by Mrs. Gilman of the office staff, raised questions as fast 

as it answered others: how had these people cared for bedrooms 

before, and how had they gotten along without Mrs. Gilman’s 

methods? What did the non-English speaking women do during 

their idle hours with their children, and why? Just what “good” 

was expected, and how did the unreliable workers feel about the 

season’s ending? While the camp reportedly was occupied to 

capacity, it does not appear that great numbers of employees were 

able to enjoy it. 

Mrs. Gilman also played a role in the Working Girls Club, a Boott 

Mill organization which in 1911 thanked Flather for a new piano in 
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the Recreation Room in 6-2: “It will furnish us a great deal of pleasure 

during the noon hours and can be used for our entertainments in 

the future.”137 The Club, which seems to have had the same officers 

as the camp, used the Rec Room for Annual Meetings featuring 

entertainment, lunch, and remarks by several speakers, including 

Flather and Thomas. They also had a Christmas party, and put on 

a play, “Rebecca’s Triumph,” there. Names suggest its members 

were largely of English and Irish extraction. What role all this 

played in the life of the mill’s employees cannot be determined, but 

it must have helped keep alive among some the ideal of the famous 

“Lowell mill girls” who combined work and intellectual or artistic 

expression. 

In terms of more fundamental contributions to the labormanagement relationship, a number of factors presented obstacles 

to management initiatives. High indebtedness resulting from 

the takeover, infrequent dividends, and “the wide discrepancy 

between capital and assets” presented obstacles which even the 

$716,534 profit of two years from 1914-1916 (before the best war 

years) could not overcome: 

The result of all this on the workers has been unfortunate. The 

management has deferred many improvements in physical working 

conditions, the desirability of which it was perfectly aware of. Needed 

improvements in plant and equipment have been postponed. Faulty 

accounting methods have made knowledge of waste less effective 

and created a slight feeling of insecurity in the management. Wages 

of workers, supervisors and office staff have been kept as low as 

possible. Management, staff and supervisors have all been worried 

and spent too little time on improvements in methods and forms of 

organization. The Treasurer has hesitated to enlarge the size and 

functions of the office staff as he wished to. Slackening of initiative, 

inefficiency, discontent, and high labor turnover have resulted. 

The next year, 1917, the Treasurer sought authority to carry out 

the recommendations of the Valentine Report for “lockers, toilet 

rooms, wash rooms, dressing rooms, lunch room, filter, sanitation, 

hospital (first aid room) cost $25,000.” Yet every consultant’s 

report thereafter repeated the same type of comments on the mill’s 

condition, and after another such report a painting project was 

described to the Directors: “A systematic effort is being made by 

painting the interior of the mill to improve the surroundings and 

thereby the morale of our people and the quality of our work. This 

work may be considered also as maintenance for by keeping our 

property clean and well painted it lessens the tendency toward 

depreciation and obsolescence.”138 These efforts presented constant 

examples of too little too late, and failed to come to grips with the 

nature and extent of the difficulties, whether in terms of physical 

conditions, machinery, wages, or general relations. 
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Consultants did not find demonstrated a great deal of skill in 

dealing with employees at any level and a 1916 recommendation 

for an Employment Office quickly met approval. This office, it was 

hoped, would give employee relations more importance, know and 

deal cordially with all sources of labor supply, direct hiring and 

training, transfer, promotion, and discharge. “In order to avoid 

resentment, jealousy and opposition among the overseers it is 

planned at the start not to interfere with their securing and hiring 

workers just as formerly.” In 1920 a woman was added to deal 

with employment issues with women. A 1923 letter implied that 

weaning the overseers of exercising their prerogatives in hiring did 

not proceed with ease.139

Another item from that year suggested the need for the new 

office. J.R. Flather, in notes obviously kept for himself, described 

an incident: “Secured a bunch of keys for Jim Doherty (5-1-W) 

which he lost and were found in a bag of waste at the Merrimack 

Utilization. I was glad to help him out. The smile of gratitude on 

his face was worth it and showed that the laborers are as human 

as anyone else.”140 The comment revealed both distance and lack of 

understanding, at best. 

The Lowell mills, the vociferous opponents of labor unions which 

preferred the lockout to dealing with organized labor, held no such 

reservations about organized action on their part. The Treasurers 

belonged to the Arkwright Club, along with their counterparts across 

New England, “’to promote good understanding and united action 

upon affairs of general interest’” such as cotton buying, tariffs, and 

other legislation. They also meet as occasioned to discuss and act 

upon wages and politics. In 1919 the Associated Textile Industries 

was revived, and the Boott joined at a maximum liability of $16,000 

per year. The Boott’s contribution to this organization after a strike 

in 1888 was noted, above. And the Agents of the Lowell mills meet 

monthly as Trustees of the Corporation Hospital, and 

after discussing hospital matters, the mill agents confer in regard 

to wages. There is a long standing “gentlemen’s agreement” 

between them as to the maximum rates to be paid to certain classes 

of operatives in lines of work in which the different cotton mills 

compete. This agents’ association also hires a detective who works 

in all the different mills in an endeavor to suppress stealing.141

The use of a detective, or labor spy was not unusual among the 

anti-union cotton industry.142 Given the indignant rejection by 

these mills over the decades of the idea of labor organization, 

their conduct in these regards not only gave new meaning to the 

term “gentlemen’s agreement,” but also disclosed the arrogance 

which permitted them to define their rights in a manner so totally 

different from those they granted labor. It revealed the extent to 
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which paternalism reduced its “beneficiary” to a less than fully 

human status. 

I. Conclusion

This period which saw new beginnings, particularly in the Boott’s 

ownership and management, also saw the continuation of the 

old in many ways, from horse-drawn conveyances to antiquated 

equipment, from inefficient use of space to incomplete efforts at 

modernization, from paternalism to organized opposition to labor 

organizing, from worn-out outmoded facilities to operation with 

an eye only for the bottom line (and that considered primarily in 

the short term, as well). Workers continued to be the last aspect of 

the operation to be considered, except as a problem. 

There were new things, and the many consultants fell under that 

heading. That they were consistently ignored, particularly with 

regard to working conditions and employee treatment, represented 

a continuation of the long-time Lowell attitude, however. Workers 

had been intended to be the most easily replaceable part of the 

system there and were still assumed to be. 

In part, the situation at the Boott was part of the Lowell pattern 

of cheap labor and plain cloth. But at the same time that the Boott 

was diverging from the original idea of long runs of a few simple 

materials, it was also diverging from the other mills in the extent of 

its mistreatment of its labor force. The consultants did not simply 

point out that conditions in the mill were dark, dirty, ill-ventilated 

and dangerous in a variety of ways, but that they were more so than 

at the mill’s counterparts elsewhere in the city and the country. The 

contrast with non-textile operations was still more striking. 

Nor was it only the physical environment that compared badly. The 

attitudes of management and, as a result, labor were also notably 

poor, and so were the earnings of the workers. Management’s 

attitude toward the workers left their interests out of most planning; 

worker response to this treatment produced little interest in 

anything more than minimal fulfillment of assignments. In addition 

to bad attitudes on both sides, the mill’s condition presented an 

obstacle to accomplishment which affected all involved. 

In such a context, the purchase of a few new machines from time to 

time had little impact on operations. If the floors were so deep with 

tobacco-spittings that Loom Fixers were reluctant to do their work, 

it made little difference whether or not the looms involved were 

current models: they were likely to be neglected. Typical of the way 

in which such problems developed through trains of effect, the poor 

condition of the floors prevented adequate scrubbing to alleviate 
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the difficulty. Any real effort at cleaning resulted in leakage of 

water through the floor onto cotton in process on the floor below 

and caused damage. In addition bad, uneven floors increased the 

rate of machine failure. The chain of difficulty also extended in 

the other direction, up the chain of command. If looms were not 

fixed promptly and adequately, scheduling became impossible, 

production lagged, and income to the mill, for both investors and 

workers, declined. 

Several answers to these problems were pursued. The ideal of 

increased production through study and analysis proved repeatedly 

tempting. Its vogue coinciding with the shifting of management’s 

background from processing expertise to accounting and marketing 

skills heightened the mill’s receptivity to outside experts when it 

came to mill operations. Given the extent to which the consultants 

came to produce a litany of continuing complaints, rather than 

revealing changing conditions, one must assume that they were not 

often heeded, that their advice was sought almost as a talisman, 

something which could cause circumstances to change, conditions 

to improve, without the expenditure of meaningful amounts of 

money. 

When new technologies became available, it was not the 

consultants who brought them to the attention of the mill. Knottyers, automatic looms, and Casablanca long- draft spinning were 

all introduced independently, by the managers. They were aware of 

current developments in their field and moved at least to examine 

them. The simplest and least demanding technologies could be 

readily adopted, and the knot-tyers appear to have presented 

only advantages to management. The automatic looms had more 

demanding requirements, and the Boott was unable to make full 

use of their potential. Dark, vibrating, unventilated, climatically 

uncontrolled work spaces in which congestion clogged traffic 

flow and the total environment impeded worker contribution 

blocked the hoped-for contribution of the partial introduction of 

the Drapers. In the case of the experiment with the Casablancas, 

the environment presented even greater problems, revealing the 

extent to which it had represented a constant difficulty hanging 

over everyone’s efforts for years. 

The worker’s efforts become defined during this period because of 

the consultants’ attention to what they should be doing and the 

various things which could hamper or affect their performance. 

Just as they listed machinery and its condition, they described 

job assignments, inspection checklists for both tasks and cloth, 

and indicated much of the work associated with but not directly 

involved in making cloth. At the same time, they took turns over 

the years repeating the continuing reasons why labor could not 

perform well at the Boott, why other mills had more attractive 

work environments, and why Boott pay was both too low and too 
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irregular to attract or hold the most able workers. Management’s lack 

of response to these complaints indicated continuing disinterest. 

In fact management’s lack of response to conditions harmful to 

worker performance made the strongest statement about its attitude 

toward labor. Even though conditions hampered oversight and 

direction, as well as the actual work, they refused to take remedial 

action. The factory environment was allowed to become physically 

and morally repulsive. 

Directly in keeping with Lowell traditions, those who controlled the 

mills united in various ways to strengthen their ability to prevent 

the workers from doing the same, to prevent them from exercising 

even the most minimal control over their work. Having thoroughly 

alienated the workforce, they could only attempt to exercise 

authority over it through coercion. In addition to the collective 

arranging of wages, mutual support against “labor unrest,” and 

organized support of mutual interests in the areas of tariffs, cotton 

prices, and such, they employed an undercover operator to keep tabs 

on labor activity in the mills. In other words, their paternalistic faith 

in their own authority to regulate the economy, and the workforce, 

in their own interests continued unchanged from Lowell’s earliest 

days. They assumed the existence of two very different codes of 

behavior, one for owners, another for workers. 

These attitudes led to the confrontations one might expect from 

so one-sided an arrangement. In general, these confrontations 

demonstrated the extent of management’s advantage, in terms 

of power, over the workers. Occasional successes by labor hinted 

at coming change, however, as if the forces arrayed against labor 

were finally beginning to produce resentment and then unity 

within a workforce which would not leave the mills, would not 

be supplanted by continuing waves of new immigrant workers, 

but would join together to work for an accommodation of interests 

which would lead to acceptable working conditions. 

The continuing of old traditions and the rise of these new factors 

in the mill’s operational equation represented the working through 

of the themes inherent in the Boott’s history. They will form the 

subject of the next section on Occupation and Use, the Boott from 

1931-1954. 
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ENDNOTES 

1. Clipping, Lowell Daily Mail, FC, 2/16/1905. 

2. Untitled document describing purchase agreement, FC. 

3. Lowell Daily Mail. 

4. Letter from Lockwood- Greene to Boott Cotton Mill (BCM), 1/29/1907, FC. 

5. F. P. Sheldon to BCM, 1907, FC, pp. 3-4. 

6. Associated Mutual Insurance Co. Insurance Survey of the BCM, FC, 1911, 1921. 

7. L. A. Hackett, “Report on the Boott Mills,” 1/9/1911, FC, p. 1. 

8. Directors Report (DR), 11/1937. 

9. R. Nicholas Olsberg, “lnventory of the Flather /Boott Mills Collection, “ FC, p. 1. 

10. George Sweet Gibb, The Saco-Lowell Shops: Textile Machinery Building in New England, 1813 - 

1949 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950), pp. 343, 264- 5, 357. 

11. Frederick A. Flather, Yearbook, 1910, FC, 5/14/1910. 

12. Flather, Yearbook, 1917, FC, 1/29/1917, 2/6/1917. 

13. Ibid., 2/8/1917. 

14. Ibid., 7/20, 24, 25/1917. 

15. Ibid., 5/17/1918. 

16. A. C. Thomas to Flather, FC, 6/30/1905. 

17. DR, FC, made regularly by the Treasurer, 11/30/1920. 

18. DR, 8/10/1921. 

19. Wellington, Sears, and Co., to Directors, FC, 3/27/1914; $600,000 Notes to Pay for Mill 

Improvements,’’ Lowell Daily Citizen, FC, 5/16/1914. 

20. Directors’ Meeting account, 191 4, FC, pp. 11, 16. 

21. “Manufacturing Shares,” American Cotton and Wool Reporter, (n. d.), FC, p. 800. 

22. Flather to A. F. Bemis, FC, 6/22/191 4. 

23. Meeting account, p. 19. 

24. Boott Mills (BM), list of top personnel, FC, ca. 1907. 

25. Flather to Bemis. 

26. Hackett, pp. 14-15, 17. 
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27. “The Industrial Audit of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts” Valentine, Tead & Gregg, Industrial 

Counselors, (1916), FC, pp. 162, 165- 66. 

28. Ibid., p. 147. 

29. DR, 4/6/1921. 30. Valentine, p. 148. 

31. Ibid., p. 155. 

32. John Rogers Flather (JRF), Notes, FC, ca. 1929, pp. 13-1 4. 

33. Valentine, p. 141. 

34. Ibid., p. 142. 

35. DR, 7/27/1918. 

36. DR, 12/28/1907. 

37. Valentine, P. 37. 

38. DR, 1/26/ 1921. 

39. “Schedule of Numbers of People Employed With Rates Per Hour and Schedule of Piece Rate Prices 

Corrected to Sept. 29, 1919,” FC, p. 37. 

40. DR, 6/30/1906. 

41. Melvin Thomas Copeland, The Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the United States, (Cambridge: 

Harvard University Press, 1923), pp. 75, 81 - 82; DR, FC, 6/30/1906. 

42. Henry A. Miles, Lowell, As It Is, and As It Was (Lowell: Powers and Bagly and N. L. Dayton, 1845), 

p. 80. 

43. DR, 6/27/1908; Sheldon, P· 2. 

44. DR, 12/28/1907. 

45. DR, 4/26/1913; Detail of New Machinery, Periods Ending Dec. 31, 1905 to Oct. 25, 1913 (inclusive), 

FC, p. 19. 

46. See Sheldon. 

47. N. J. Neal, Power Transmission at Boott Mills, FC, (11/29/191 1), p. 10 and Table 116. 

48. DR, 4/26/1913. 

49. Ibid. 

50. Ibid. 

51. Ibid. 

52. Schedule of Machinery at Boott Mills, March, 1914, FC. 
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53. E. W. Thomas to F. E. Dunbar, 3/24/1914, FC. 

54. Schedule. 

55. List of Machinery at Boott Mills, 9/20/1919, FC. 

56. List of Machinery by Mill & Floor, Power and Shop Equipment at Boott Mills, March 31, 1920, FC. 

57. Ibid. 

58. DR, 11/3/23. 

59. DR, 9/29/1923. 

60. DR for 11/27; Navin, pp. 513, 513n; Gibb, p. 558. 

61. DR for 11/1927 and 2/1928; Textile Development Corporation Report, (TDCR) 1928, FC (n.p.). 

62. Ibid. 

63. Ibid., 461-471. 

64. Ibid., pp. 334-357, 382-388. 6

65. JRF, 3/21/1924; Valentine, p. 144. 

66. Ibid. 

67. DR, 1929 and 1930; also Valentine. 

68. Valentine, p. 145. 

69. Hackett, p. 12. 

70. Valentine, p. 33-35. 

71. Ibid., pp. 36- 37. 

72. Ibid., P· 38. 

73. Ibid., p. 40. 

74. Ibid., PP · 40-41. 

75. Ibid., p. 42. 

76. Ibid., pp. 43- 44. 

77. Ibid., pp. 45-46. 

78. Ibid., pp. 46- 47. 

79. TDCR, pp. 134- 135. 

80. Valentine, pp. 48- 50. 
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81. Ibid., pp. 50-51. 

82. Ibid., pp. 51- 52. 

83. Ibid., pp. 145-146. 

84. Ibid., p. 66. 

85. Ibid., PP · 72 - 73. 

86. JRF. 

87. TDCR, pp. 492; 473. 

88. Ibid., PP · 537-539; 536. 

89. “Less Work for Fixers as Well as Weavers,” Cotton Chats, 11290 (10/1928), FC. 

90. “Payroll Schedule, Sept. 7, 1910,” FC. 

91. TDCR, pp. 516- 519. 

92. Ibid., pp. 514-515. 

93. Ibid., p. 359. 

94. Ibid., p. 360.

 95. Ib id., pp. 358-359. 

96. Ibid., PP· 391-394. 

97. DR, 10/25/1913. 

98. JRF, 9/20/23. 

99. BM, personnel. 

100. JRF. 

101. Valentine, pp. 99-100. 

102. Ibid., pp. 92-94. 

103. Ibid., p. 105. 

104. “Arrangement of Advancement of Wages Week Ending June 8, 1907,” FC. 

105. “Payroll Schedule, Sept. 7, 1910,” FC. 

106. DR, 5/10/1916. 

107. Valentine, p. 168. 

108. Ibid., p. 169. 
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109. FAF Notes for Directors Meeting, 5/25/1917. 

110. Ibid., pp. 174; 17; DR, 5/25/1917. 

111. DR, 5/25/1917; 11/2/1921. 

112. Schedule of Numbers of People Employed With Rates Per Hour and Schedule of Piece Rate Prices 

Corrected to Sept. 29, 1919, FC, pp. 19, 23, 29, 37. 

113. DR, 5/24/1920. 

114. Ibid., 4/3/1923, 9/22/1922. 

115. JRF. 

116. DR, 12/22/1920; 11/24/1920; 4/8/1921; 5/24/1924. 

117. Valentine, pp. 170-174. 

118. Ibid., pp. 174; 17; DR, 5/25/1917. 

119. TDCR, p. 98. 

120. Sheldon to BM, 1/26/07, p. 2, FC. 

121. Hackett, pp. 6-8. 

122. Ibid., pp. 8-9. 

123. Ibid., pp. 9-10. 

124. Letter from E. W. Thomas to FAF, 5/16/1912, FC. 

125. Valentine, pp. 89-90. 

126. Ibid., PP · 4-6. 

127. Ibid., pp. 7- 10. 

128. Ibid., pp. 10-11. 

129. Ibid., pp. 55-56. 

130. Ibid., pp. 56-59. 

131. Ibid., pp. 123- 124; 128. 

132. Mary T. Mulligan, “Epilogue to Lawrence: The 1912 Strike in Lowell, Massachusetts,” SHT, pp. 

82-83; my account relies heavily on this essay. 

133. FAF Notes, FC, 1/20/ 19 17, 3/15/1917. 

134. DR, 4/24/1918. 

135. Edward J. Scollan, “World War 1 and the 1918 Cotton Textile Strike,” SHT, pp. 105-114. 
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136. J. M. Gilman to FAF, FC, 10/7/1912. 

137. Working Girls’ Club to FAF, 6/7/1911. 

138. Valentine, pp. 157-158; DR, 10/24/1917; DR, for 2/1 928. 

139. Valentine, pp. 160- 162; DR, 7/28/1920; BM to Mr. Abbott, 11/28/1923, FC. 

140. JRF, 8/2/1923. 

141. Valentine, pp. 113- 114; the ATI; DR 1/22/1919. 

142. See, for example Herbert J. Lahne, The Cotton Mill Worker, p. 258, N. 103. 
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IX. PHYSICAL HISTORY 1905- 1930 

A. The Counting House

Changes made at the Counting House during the period 1905- 1930 

were primarily limited to a rearrangement of the interior. A 1911 

description identifies uses at that time as “vacant attic at the top 

floor, office rooms on the second, and in the basement, supplies 

and a belt shop.”1

 Treasurer’s reports beginning with June 1906 

and continuing through November 1909 list various improvements 

made at many of these rooms (Appendix F). The most often 

mentioned improvements occurred at the office space, which 

included the introduction of a cotton sample room in December, 

1906. 

Valentine commented in 1916 on the somewhat tawdry appearance 

and inefficiency of the Counting House: “A coat of paint on the 

mill office floor would help the cleaning problem there... the office 

would greatly benefit by fresh paint and calcimine... store room in 

basement too small, not centrally located, it had no control of parts 

removed.”2

Additional minor interior work was carried out at the Counting 

House in 1927 and 1929 but a recommended 1930 change in the 

basement calling for removal of the existing fireproof vault was not 

completed.3

Documented changes to the exterior of the Counting House are few, 

except for the important alteration to the front entrance at the west 

bay, second floor, south elevation that is reached by a footbridge 

next to the canal bridge. Prior to 1930 (Photograph 26) the entrance 

was protected with a flared metal hood and had a wood door with 

a single glass upper panel. The hood was removed, the opening 

altered and a new door installed by September 1930, as evidenced 

by the Treasurer’s Report of that date: “Part payment for supplies 

in altering masonry in office doorway $73.38.” Also, at some time 

between 1889 and 1928 (Photograph 26) four flat skylights were 

installed at the front edge of the south roof just west of Mill #6. 
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Photo 26. "Boott Mills Looking East, March 1928" Mill Number 6 is at right, with Counting House in front of it.

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8658
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B. Mill #6 

1. Exterior Changes 

a. General Conditions 

Despite the recommendation of two highly respected engineering 

firms to tear the existing Boott Mill buildings down, the first made 

in 1902: 

Your old buildings have perhaps served well their purpose in the 

past, but they were long ago out of date, and are of no value now 

even if they can be considered safe to work in. 

I therefore recommend the entire demolition of the present structures, 

or at least so much of them that are dangerous to work in, or would 

in any way interfere with the best arrangement and construction of 

a first class new mill.4

And in 1907: 

For the best results on the present site, we believe that as fast as the 

finances of the Company will admit all of the buildings with the 

exception of the storehouses and the No. 7 Mill should be destroyed 

and new buildings erected in their places.5

A report made to the Directors in 1914 by A.G. Cumnock states: 

“My report will show that the Mill (No. 6) physically has been well 

maintained.”6

Cumnock’s appraisal of the condition of the mills was apparently 

short lived, since by 1926 serious concern had been voiced by 

management and concurred with by consulting engineers regarding 

vibration at “Building #6” (Appendix I). Charles T. Main and 

Company, Engineers was asked to prepare a survey of structural 

conditions at this time, and they filed a letter report on June 11, 

1926. The report cites the need for repainting, the replacement 

of a stone lintel and two slabs in the foundation, and the need 

for underpinning of part of the wall along the canal. Boott Mills 

contracted with Locks and Canals to make the repairs suggested in 

the Main Report (Figure 17A). A letter dated August 10, 1926 from 

Locks and Canals to the Boott Mills outlines the work performed to 

that date: 

The blueprint accompanying Mr. Main’s report showed one cracked 
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Figure 17A. 1926 plan showing repairs and replacements to piers and columns at Mill Number 6

Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-076
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lintel under the wall bordering the canal and two cracked lintels in 

the second and fourth penstocks underneath the center line of the 

columns. We found that three additional lintels were cracked under 

the wall bordering the canal and put in concrete piers, 24” x 17”, in 

all cases. These concrete piers were put down to a solid foundation 

from 18” to 36” below the plank flooring. 

In the penstocks under the main columns we placed 4” Heavy Lally 

Column s, putting one in under each of the cracked slabs shown on 

the blueprint accompanying Mr. Main’s report, together with one 

in each of the other three penstocks as a precautionary measure. 

An inspection on Sunday, August 1, disclosed that a third lintel 

had cracked in the fourth penstock and a similar column was put 

underneath this on August 8. These 4” Lally Columns are about 

6- 1/2 feet long and will carry from twenty to twenty-five tons 

if centrally loaded. We also pointed up the brick work where it 

reinforces the lintels at the upper end of the penstocks.7

C. T. Main and Co. reinspected the mill in June, 1927 and reported 

that there was still some sway and vibration present. Main 

forwarded a detailed report on July 15, 1927: 

This building is about the same as we found it on our last 

examination. The conditions have been greatly improved since the 

general repairs were made, as suggested in our report of 1925, and 

the turning around of some of the looms. Tie rods at the junction of 

the west tower seem to be holding well. 

We made an examination under the 1st floor for the purposes of 

determining the “jump” in some parts of the floor. It seemed to be 

due almost wholly to the 3” planking and is not serious. The 3” 

planking is rather springy. We tried to plumb bob on the walls and 

they did not appear to have changed any recently. 

There is still some sway to the building as a whole, and eventually it 

may be advisable to stiffen the walls on the canal side anyway, with 

beams or pilasters.8

b. Foundation 

A 1928 study recommended the addition of a row of intermediate 

piers and the replacement of a rotted post to support and stiffen 

the first floor structure, thereby reducing the vibration problem, 

but the piers were not built at that time.9

 Other recommendations 

included in this study were accomplished however, as recorded in 

the Treasurer’s report of August 3, 1929: “repairs suggested by John 
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A. Stevens, for bolting, stiffening and strengthening steel plates on 

wooden beams, $72.12.”10

c. Walls and Fenestration 

The most significant alteration to the exterior walls and the 

pattern of fenestration to occur during this period was the result 

of the construction of a six-story tower to house an elevator at the 

courtyard side of the intersection of the east and west sections of 

Mill #6, described below. This caused the blocking of all windows 

in the two southern most bays of the east section and the two eastern 

bays of the west part in 1917. A second and as yet unexplained 

and undated alteration of this period occurred at the seventh 

bay of the second level of the north wall, west section, where the 

original window had been altered to a door, opening onto a fire 

escape landing and a straight run of iron stairs leading directly 

to the courtyard below. A textile lab and display room had been 

installed in this space by 1920; it has been suggested that the new 

door provided direct access to this facility. (The door was changed 

back to a window in 1978). 

d. The Coal Pocket 

Alterations to the original entrance to the Coal Pocket at the 

easterly end of Mill #6 along the canal were first contemplated in 

1917, when the treasurer requested “authorization of expenditures 

for improvements” totaling $80, 000 to “enlarge the coal pocket 

and (thereby) save rehandling of coal.”11 However, negotiations 

in earnest did not begin until September, 1926 (Appendix J), for a 

discussion of the need for the larger entrance, negotiations regarding 

the reconstruction of the railroad bridge and other correspondence). 

A memo prepared by Locks and Canals on September 13, 1926 

proposed certain alterations required to accommodate the new and 

larger coal cars and engine requested by the Boott Mills: 

The height of 10’ 10” under the timbers is sufficient for the 80000 

lbs capacity cars, leaving a clearance of about one and one half 

feet. The larger cars could not be used without a greater height. 

Furthermore the locomotive of the Massachusetts has a height of 13’ 

6”, over 3 feet more than the space available. The only feasible way 

of obtaining the clearance required for a switching engine seems to 

be to either raise or take out the second floor of the mill, preferably 

the latter. This would mean extending the brick wall between the 

passageway and No. 6 mill up through the second floor, and also 

moving two rows of looms on the second floor, as well as the store 

room in No. 6 and 7 connection. By adding the second story to 

this passageway a height of something like 24’ will be obtained, and 

the second story window openings on Bridge Street should afford 

plenty of ventilation in the passageway. If it is not feasible to include 
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the second story then either a cable and windlass would have to be 

used to haul the cars down to the coal pocket and back, or possibly 

a special gasoline driven locomotive could be obtained. A cable and 

wind lass would be fairly expensive and it is extremely doubtful it 

its operation would be fully satisfactory.12

Discussions with the Boston and Maine Rail Road (B&M) regarding 

the redesign of the new service track were finalized in December 

1926, permitting Frederick Flather, Jr. of the Boott Mills to request 

of A.T. Safford, Engineer at Locks and Canals that “ in view of our 

conversation today [December 24] we would be very glad indeed to 

have you begin work on the remodeling of our coal pocket Monday 

morning, December 27, or at your earliest convenience.”13

At the recommendation of Locks and Canals, Boott Mills requested, 

in a memo dated February 23, 1927, that the Boston and Maine lay 

the new track (Figures 18, 19, 20).14 The B&M responded in the 

affirmative on May 23, 1927. The engineers estimated the cost of 

the track work at $3700.15 Locks and Canals also contracted with 

the Hayes Appliance Company for a “Type W Bumper”16 and with 

the New England Structural Company, Everett, Massachusetts, for 

steel girders needed for the new bridge.17 Final cost estimates were 

presented on February 17, 1928: 

Estimate of Cost Boott Coal Pocket Extension 

Concrete 225 cu. yds. @ $16.00 $3600.00

Excavation 50 cu. yds. @ 2.00 100.00

Structural Steel 30,000 pounds @ .05 1500.00

Track 50 linear feet @ 8.00 per ft. 400.00

Wire lath and plaster 

partition

700 sq. ft. @ .60 420.00

Plastering ceiling 1600 sq.ft. @ 30.00 480.00

Shoring and labor putting 

in I beams

500.00

Erecting steel for track 300.00

$7300.00

Engineering, contingencies and incidentals @20% 1460.00

$8760.00

or say between $8000 and $10000.18

As a result of the above agreements, the entrance was widened to 

the west to 14’0” and raised to a height of 23’4”. This required the 

elimination of a window in the first floor and three at the second 

level (Photograph 27). The bridge girders were put in place on July 
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21, 1927. The rolling steel door (Photograph 26A), “Type C.G. 0.11, 

for the entrance to the Boott Coal Pocket” was provided by J.G. 

Wilson, Boston.19 The winch and motor at the rolling door was 

manufactured and installed by “Mead- Morrison-Boston,” patent 

date April 3, 1923. 
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Photo 26A. Boott Cotton Mills Coal Pocket Entrance

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, Lowe 8643
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Photo 27. "Boott Mills Railroad Bridge Showing Bridge Floor and Tracks, Aug 1927Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, Lowe 8581
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301 Figure 18. Layout of tracks to serve Coal Pocket of Mill Number 6, Sept. 1926 Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-070
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Figure 19. Details of Proposed Railroad Bridge over Eastern Canal, April 1927

Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-086
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303 Figure 20. Details of Plate Girder for Boott Mills RR Bridge over Eastern Canal, April 26, 1927 Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-087
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e. Stair Towers 

Reporting in a letter dated November 23, 1925, C.T. Main Co. 

remarked that: “the tower in the north west end wall continues to 

show cracks which open up after each pointing and painting of the 

surface.”20 Stevens, writing in July 1928 commented further on the 

condition of the west tower, referring once again to the vibration 

problem that would persist until 1950: 

There is an octagonal stair tower at the southwest corner of No. 6 

mill in which the upper deck is rapidly deteriorating. The planking 

of this deck has rotted badly, and the sash and window frames should 

be pointed at once. This upper room of the tower has evidently been 

out of use for some time, but the floor and floor framing acts as 

horizontal bracing. As there is considerable lateral vibration of the 

tower at this level we believe that it should be repaired.21

On the advice of Mr. Stevens, new tie rods were installed at the 

first, second, and third floors in the southwest and south walls of 

the east tower, and at the south wall, third, and fourth floors in 

the west tower. Also, large (8” x 16”) plates to secure additional 

ties were placed at the fifth floor window heads of the east tower. 

Costs associated with these repairs are noted in the Treasurer’s 

Reports: “March 1929 - - repairing mill towers 262.08; May 1929 

minor repairs to stair towers 3.44; September 1930--repairing tower 

#6 Mill 222.46.” 

f. Elevator Tower. 

The second major alteration to Mill #6 was the installation of a 

freight elevator, as recommended in the Treasurer’s Report to the 

Directors dated March 28, 1917. The elevator was housed in a sixstory tower tucked into the southeast corner of the “L” formed by 

the east and west sections of the mill, with the mechanical hoist 

in a sixth floor penthouse. Built by the Salem Elevator Works in 

1917, the elevator was a belted, four-ton capacity freight model, 

and as installed, opened into the first, second, and third floors at 

the northeast corner of the west section, and at the west wall of 

the east part at the fourth and fifth floors. The new elevator was 

probably prompted by remarks made in the 1916 Valentine Report 

concerning a hoist in one of the stair towers: “The elevator in No. 

6 Mill is too dangerous to be allowed in operation. While there are 

self-closing hatches at each floor the shaft is entirely open and there 

are no gates. The car floor measures about three feet by six. The car 

is unprotected on any side.“22

As built in 1917, the enclosed elevator tower had 12” brick walls 

with a footprint of 15’4” (east-west axis) by 16’0” (north-south 
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axis). The corner at the northwest was chamfered at 45 degrees, 

removing 4’0” at both walls. The walls were laid up with machinemade common brick, in common bond 7:1 with flush joints, and 

rested on a rock-faced granite foundation at the same level as the 

foundation of the mill itself. There were no belt courses. The eaves 

extended 12” beyond the plane of the walls, with the timber roof 

rafters used as outriggers for a pressed metal cornice consisting of 

a flat fascia on a cyma-recta bedmold, with a stepped fascia on a 

small cavetto at the face of the wall. 

Access to the elevator from the exterior was provided through an 

overhead door in the west wall (door is later) that slid on vertical 

tracks. The door was served by a concrete loading dock. Windows 

were placed in the west and north faces, as well as in the diagonal 

wall at the corner. Two windows were located in the exposed east 

wall of the sixth floor penthouse. The openings in the north and 

west walls were 5’3” wide by 8’8” high, reduced at the sixth floor to 

a height of only 6’0”. The windows in the diagonal corner were the 

same height but were 3’4” wide. All sash, including that in the top 

floor was 12/12, wood, double hung. The lug sills and flat lintels 

were rock-faced granite. 

g. Downspouts 

The final change that occurred at the exterior of Mill #6 during 

this period concerned the installation of exterior downspouts to 

supplement the original internal roof drainage system. While no 

written documentation has surfaced to precisely date downspouts, 

photographic analysis places this at c.1927, when a downspout 

is shown at the right of the yet to be expanded coal pocked 

(Photograph 18). (Early photographs examined that do not show 

any downspouts include images made in 1878 (Hill), 1880 (Badger), 

1893, 1889, and the 1911 Insurance survey.) 

2. Interior Changes 

a. Floor and Floor System 

While there certainly would have been repairs made to the existing 

floor during this period, especially with the great amount of 

relocation of machinery that was occasioned in an attempt to lessen 

vibration caused by looms and other heavy loads, no documentary 

evidence has been uncovered to actually pinpoint specific 

areas where changes were made. However, records for general 

maintenance accomplished during this period, while not specific 

to Mill #6 are indicative of the kinds of work being carried out. 

In June, 1908, $365.8523 was spent on repairing floors at the Boott 
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Mills, while in December of the same year the large sum of $2745.87 

was recorded to “general floor improvements.”24

b. Columns 

The treasurer’s report for September 1929 mentions a cost of $34.83 

for “applying plates and angle irons to brace all columns where 

they are connected with roof beams, 6-5W” (fifth floor of the west 

section of Mill #6). No other documentation was found for changes, 

additions, or removal of the original cast iron columns between 

1905-1930. 

c. Roof Structure 

No documented changes were made to the interior framing of the 

roof during this period. Stevens, writing in 1928 reported that “this 

framing [roof] is in very good condition, and needs no repairing at 

present.”25

d. Interior Walls and Partitions 

A number of alterations to the interior walls and partitions took 

place between 1905 and 1930, including the blocking of four pairs 

of windows for the 1917 freight elevator as described above. This 

elevator opened at each of the five mill floors, in the east end of the 

north wall at the first three floors in the western section, in the south 

end of the west wall of the east part at the fourth and fifth floors. 

The openings were provided with metal- clad wood doors, 5’1” x 

7’10” that slid on inclined steel guides, westward at the first three 

floors, to the north at the upper two. The interior dimensions of the 

1917 elevator shaft were 14’4” x 15’0”. The original rails, drives, and 

motor remain in situ, with the 11’0” x 13’6” cab at rest at the bottom 

of the shaft on this concrete pad. 

Other interior changes that took place between 1905 and 1930 

include the alteration of a window in the third bay from the east 

end of the north wall, third floor, east section, to provide access to 

a footbridge built alongside the #7 connector in 1930, and a frame 

partition that existed between the 8th and 9th bays from the west 

end wall of the second floor of the west section. This partition ran 

from the north wall to the south but was not full height, as there are 

no ghosts at the ceiling. A list of machinery and equipment made in 

1920 refers to a laboratory and a display room in the third floor of 

Mill #6. However, an insurance survey made in 1933 shows these 

uses at the second floor. The 1933 insurance survey, coupled with 

scars and worn spots on the second floor caused by unusually heavy 

machinery with concentrated loads, and the existence of holes in 

the floor for what appear to be a series of small sinks, suggests that 
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the laboratory was at the second floor for quite a period before the 

1930s. This could be possible, since a Treasurer’s Report of 1906 

indicated a change in use that occurred in the two-level fireproof 

area at the west end of the mill: “during first six months of 1906 

workers moved the Carpenter Shop, Blacksmith Shop, Paint Shop, 

Machine and Wood Shops.”26 Also, insurance reports filed in both 

1911 and 1921 identify the use of this area: 2nd floor, recreation 

room abbutted Counting House, beneath it lay a repair shop.27 This 

would have been in the space originally occupied by the paint shop 

and blacksmith shop, precluding the use of the fireproof rooms for 

the laboratory. 

Stevens expressed concern about the condition of the masonry 

bearing wall that connected the east and west sections of the mill: 

We find that the northerly arch at the east end of this mill has 

apparently settled, and there is a crack opened up on the north end 

in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th stories. The crack is less pronounced 

in the 5th story, where there has been installed a tie rod across the 

north and south arches at the spring line. 

It is our recommendation that these cracks be carefully pointed 

up, and periodic inspection be made. If the cracks increase tie rods 

should be installed in the lower stories as is already done in the 5th 

story.28

Boott Mills went one step further in repairing the arches at the 

fifth floor by removing the brick pier and tie rods altogether and 

replacing them with “a pair of 12 inch “I” beams, supported by a 

5 5/8 inch Lally column.” This section opened up the fifth floor to 

a clearance of 10 feet, with the beams let into the haunches of the 

arches and the space above infilled with brick. (It appears that the 

so-called tie rods may have been the tension rods used in building 

the row-lock arches-- their removal would have caused no damage 

after the beams had been constructed, and the keys were in place.) 

The cost for this work is noted in the Treasurer’s Reports on August 

3, 1929: “labor and supplies replacing pier, with column on top 

floor of No. 6 mill 523.33”, and August 31: “ labor and materials, 

replacing pier #6 mill 14.30.” 

e. Coal Pocket 

With the enlargement of the entrance to the coal pocket, the original 

interior masonry partition was relocated by Locks and Canals 

as mentioned in a letter from the Boott Mills to their insurance 

company. 
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We are starting work on the relocation of the sidetrack to the coal 

pocket of the Boott Mills. For the next few weeks we will be moving 

over the brick partition wall between the track and No. 6 mill. This 

will not affect the fire protection system in any way but it does 

require the erection on a temporary wooden partition.29 

The interior west wall or side Coal Pocket was moved so that the 

passage was 14’0” side at the rear of Mill No. 6, flaring out to 21’6” 

at the entrance beginning at a point approximately 37’ from the 

north end wall (Figure 21, Photographs 27A, 27B). There were no 

openings at the lower level initially (Photograph 28) but three fixed 

steel industrial style casements were installed at the second level. 

f. Stair Towers 

With the new freight elevator, the hoists, originally in both towers 

but by 1916, according to the Valentine Report, only in one, were 

superfluous (it is speculated that since the door remains at the fifth 

floor of the east tower, it was this hoist that remained in 1916). The 

last hoist was probably removed at this time, and all openings in 

the walls reduced to 5’ 6” by the installation of a steel lintel and 

the wall bricked in, flush with the tower side, indented at the mill 

side 12”. Ghosts of the open shaft are visible at most of the floors in 

both towers, but are not at the ceilings, suggesting that the ceilings 

were sheathed when the floors were patched to block the shaft. 

Other changes at the stair towers are few, apparently limited to 

the addition of railings above the molded wood handrails of the 

oval plan stairs. The Treasurer’s Report of October, 1914, mentions: 

“Pipe rails for stairways in towers, $567.00” The same report 

records expenditures for brick, cement, lime, and sand that may 

relate to the blocking of the original door leading from the tower 

into the third floor of the west section of the mill. 

g. Mechanical Systems 

(1) Heating 

Improvements to the mechanical systems were also many and 

varied between 1905-1930. First, the steam heating system was 

replaced in 1912. The following was proposed by the Middlesex 

Machine Company of Lowell on July 3, 1911: 
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Figure 21. Clearance for Side Track to Boott Mills Coal Pocket, Sept. 1926

Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-074
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Photo 27A. "Passageway thru Mill No. 6 to Boott Mill Coal Pocket, June 1927"

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8556
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Photo 27B. "Boott Mills Coal Pocket Trestle, June 1927"Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8558
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Photo 28. "Coal Pocket Trestle, interior, June 1927"

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8557
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Recommending Change over of Steam Heating Systems

Mill 6 First floor, 4 coils a total of 3040’, 1-1/2 pipe

Second 5 2565 

Third 4 2190

Fourth 5 2565

Fifth 5 3575

and all necessary valves, pipe, fittings, vacuum pump gauges, etc.30

Humidifiers were installed throughout this period, with major 

work completed the last part of 1907, when $2358.36 was spent at 

Hill No. 6, June, 1909 ($585. 00); May, 1910 ($622.44): March, 1923 

($1608. 86) and October, 1927 ($790. 82).31

(2) Sanitary Systems and Lockers 

Sanitary facilities also were improved, perhaps prompted by 

inspections carried out by the Massachusetts Board of Health. 

The Treasurer’s Reports for 1906 show $541.92 spent on sanitary 

improvements, with $2495.56 charged off in the first half of 1913 

and $1734.43 in the second half. In October, 1917 it appears that 

management, perhaps for the first time, was concerned with 

providing amenities for the mill workers, when the Treasurer 

included a request in his report to the directors: “The Treasurer 

desires authority to carry our recommendations by Messrs. Bemis, 

Gregg, Agent and Employment Department for lockers, toilet 

rooms, wash rooms, dressing rooms, lunch room, filter, sanitation, 

hospital; cost $25,000.00.”32

Hackett, in his 1911 report states: “In the spinning rooms also, the 

toilet rooms were small, dark and dirty... the toilet rooms were 

frequently very dirty and dingy, the sinks for washing were small 

and quite inadequate if patronized at all.”33 Valentine, writing in 

1916 did not find much improvement: “long sink for washing, basins 

are few, no provision of warm water.”34 Also, in 1928, the following 

notation appeared: “State Board of Labor regulations relating to 

toilets are not lived up to.” and “no steps taken to provide a place 

for operative to change their clothes required by Chapter 115, Acts 

of 1916”.35 It was not until 1923 that lockers were finally installed.36

3. Lighting 

Lighting was vastly improved during this period, but not without 

some confusion: “buildings are old, narrow, low studded, poorly 

constructed, and so located with regard to each other that daylight 
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is reduced one-half, while in many rooms, artificial light is an hourly 

necessity”37 This was despite efforts made between 1906 and 1910: 

June 1906 drop wire $910.00

October 1906 redistrib. light $268.25

June 1907 redistrib. light $312.44

December 1907 redistrib. light $593.13

June 1909 redistrib. light $598.42

November 1909 redistrib. light $271.36

May 1910 redistrib. light $93.7438

The Treasurer’s Report for April 1913 mentions “wiring 6-3, 6-4 for 

lights,” and, in the August 31, 1929, for the first time the use of 

mercury vapor lights “for night work” appears in the record with 

$1689.80 listed as the cost.39

Hackett comments that the “spinning room was lighted poorly” 

and “in one room there were lighted at a single time arc lamps, 

incandescent lamps and gas jets.”40

Stevens, in a report to Frederick A. Flather filed on September 4, 

1908, discussed the use of gas lighting: “1702 gas jets on property 

(all of the Boott Mills)... burned about 2 hours in the morning 

and 2 hours at night. Wiring and lamps to replace these 1702 jets, 

estimated costs for electric lighting $5106. 00”.41

By August, 1911 the following light sources were in use at Mill No. 

6: 

6 1 Carbon 135

Tungsten 50

Gas 22

6 2 Tungsten 180

Gas 102

6 3 Carbon 130

Gas 61

6 4 Carbon 149

Gas 48

6 5 Carbon 190

Gas 742
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Evidences of the early wiring remains throughout the mill, 

especially in the tower at the east section, which retains the beaded, 

cased vertical lines, fibre wrapped wires, and ceramic insulators. 

Valentine commented on “poor lighting” in 1916, and gave at least 

one reason: “lights are hung too high or too low and have either 

deep bell shaped shades, flat shades or no shades at all. Tungsten 

lamps predominate but there are a good many old type carbon 

filament bulbs.”43 Finally, on March 1, 1917, Arthur T. Safford of 

Locks and Canals wrote to Flather "that the Boott Mills is electrified 

for good.”44

4. Fire Prevention 

The vertical standpipe and sprinkler system was in place and 

fully operable before 1905, but it appears that new sprinklers were 

added and old ones replaced or repaired during the first decade of 

the 20th-century. New sprinklers are mentioned in the following 

treasurer’s reports “June, 1906....... $31.44; June, 1907....... $23.97; 

December, 1907... $610.03” and “general fire equipment” in the 

June 1908 report, costing $299.39. 

5. Painting 

While the costs and dates for painting of the Boott Mills is not broken 

down by specific building in the records, Hackett mentioned in 1913: 

“Another favorable feature at the mills as a whole was the apparent 

brightness of the rooms. These seemed newly whitewashed or 

oil painted and this was distinctly a step in the right direction”45

reflecting painting done in: 

6/1908 Painting walls in mill 395.23

“ Painting walls in mill 521.04 Materials

12/1908 Painting walls in mill 800.69 Labor

6/1909 Painting ceilings etc, 1384.83 mat 2019.59 Labor

11/1909 Painting ceilings etc, 786.68 1781.57

5/1910 Painting ceilings etc, 7.29 467.08 “

Painting continued as a high maintenance item throughout this 

period, with $5122.5246 spent between October 1927 and February, 

1930. 
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C. Facades of Mills No. 1 and 2 

With the exception of the replacement of window sash in the south 

facades of both mills and the connector between them, and the 

reinforcing of the walls, little change took place here during the 

period 1905-1930. The stair towers, however, were somewhat altered 

visually as well as at the interior as described below. Treasurer’s 

Reports for June and December of 1908 show costs for “Re-inforcing 

construction of 1 and 2 mills... 371.15 materials, 130.42 labor.” The 

December report adds $2409.95 in materials, $1398.59 for labor 

in “building towers in #1, 5 and 7 mills.” As the towers have not 

changed materially, other than the improvement discussed below, 

since their construction in 1865, it is assumed that the work on 

the tower at Mill No. 1 was limited to the rearrangement of the 

stairs and landings, which have been altered. In addition to the 

“re-inforcing work,” as yet unidentified as to location, $191.07 was 

spent between December 1906 and December 190747 for “basement 

filling, storage,” an activity that probably did not have a visual 

impact on the facades (the cellar windows were infilled at a later 

date). 

Based on photographic analysis, sash at the first floor of Mill No. 

1 was altered after 1905 from the original 12/12 to 9/9, 6/9, and 

6/6 - all of the sash at the third and fourth floors were changed to 

6/6. The first and third floors of Mill No. 2 were altered to 6/6 sash, 

the second to 6/6 and 12/6, the 12- lite upper sash being original, 

which was retained at the fourth and fifth floors. The windows in 

the connector were also altered, from the original 12/16 to 6/6 and 

12/12 at the second floor, 20/12 at the third, and 9/9 at the attic 

(the first floor was completely rebuilt in 1947, see next section). 

While no records have been found to date the replacement sash, 

they all appear to have been installed during this period. A 1927 

(Photograph 29) shows the changes at Mill No. 1. 

In April, 1929, Arthur T. Safford, Engineer of Locks and Canals 

toured the Boott Mills with Frederick Flather, Jr. and filed a memo 

that stated: “I think he will want some work done on the tower 

of No. 2 mill in the way of general repairs.”48 Locks and Canals 

forwarded an estimate and a proposal for such work to Flather on 

April 30, 1939: 

We estimate that the cost of renewing the timbers that are decayed, 

putting in tie rods, and covering the sheet iron and painting, at about 

$1000. for each tower. Some $300. to $400. of this is represented 

by the cost of sheet iron covering. The sheet iron itself costs about 

$150. for each tower, and once the staging has been put up for the 

purpose of renewing the decayed timbers, the labor of putting on 

the sheet iron and the painting is not a very heavy item. In order to 

prevent decay in the future we would strongly recommend putting 
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on the sheet iron. 

As I understand it, we are to proceed with #2 tower putting in 

the tie rods and renewing the decayed timbers. We are also to 

fix the staging so that the roofing under the weather vane can be 

repaired. As the work proceeds and we determine more definitely 

the conditions of the timbers, I understand that you will let us know 

whether you wish it covered with sheet iron, and will also determine 

at a later time as to what repairs are desired on 1 tower.49

The sheet iron, pressed in a brick patter, was applied to both towers 

(Photograph 29 shows the beaded, flush horizontal siding in place, 

dated December 1927), and the roof of the clock tower (#2) was 

repaired: “copper roof, clock and weathervane, 1420.11.”50 The roof 

work was probably based on specifications prepared by Locks and 

Canals. W. A. Mack Co. responded to an offer to bid, apparently 

after the work had been completed, on May 11, 1929. The letter 

reproduced as Appendix N has a pencil notation at the bottom 

that states “Not accepted-low bid from M (unclear) Sheet Metal.” 

The balustrades at both towers had been removed by this time 

(Photograph 23) so that only a low hipped roof that retained the 

bracketed cornice remained at the tower at Mill #1. Also, at some 

time during this period, possibly during May or June 1929 when 

scaffolding was in place at the towers (or in 1908 concurrent with 

the repairs to the towers speculated to have been limited to interior 

work) windows were altered at both towers. The east wall at the 

tower at No. 1 retained its small, narrow 1/1 windows, but the south 

or front facade was altered. The tripartite window at the second 

level was replaced with a 10/10 double-hung sash, but retained its 

flared sheet metal hood, and the 12/12 sash in the third through 

fifth floors was changed to 9/6. The west wall remained blind. The 

tower at No. 2 retained its blind east facade and the 12/12 sash in 

the fourth floor of the south wall, but the rest of the windows in 

this facade were altered like those at No. 1. The 1/1 sash in the west 

wall at the second through fourth floors was replaced with larger 

12/12 units. 

In July, 1930, Locks and Canals wrote to Flather: 

With reference to the repairs to the brick wall on the fifth floor of 

your No. 2 mill, we found that the wall at this point on the yard side 

had moved out nearly two inches, moving away from the floor above 

and causing several cracks in the wall on the end of the mill. We are 

now at work tieing this in with two sets of 1 inch tie rods, securely 

anchored with 9 inch 20 pound channel irons. We are also securing 

the end wall to the first beam at the fifth and sixth floors with single 

1 inch rods. After these tie rods are in, we will relay the brick work 

in the mill wall at the end of the bridge. 
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When I discussed this matter with you last week, I thought that 

$100 might cover the cost if we could get along without staging. 

However, after going over the job more carefully, we concluded that 

staging would be necessary in order to do the work thoroughly with 

safety and, hence, have proceeded on this basis. This will increase 

the cost to somewhere between $150 to $200.51

D. The Courtyard

The courtyard changed very little during the early part of this 

period, retaining the oval shaped grass plot separated by macadam 

walks from the 1880’s, the hose house, hydrant boxes and trees 

shown in the 1905 site plans and photographs made at the turn of 

the century. Archeologists have uncovered but not researched or 

identified a granite curb 6’6” north of the north wall of Mill No. 6. 

The trolley track through the yard remained in place at least until 

1927 (see Photograph 29). A city building permit issued in April, 

1930 includes “repairs to the tracks at Mill No. 1,” indicating possible 

use of the tracks into the 1930s.52 The 1927 photo mentioned above 

also shows, in addition to the hose house and hydrant box shed, a 

frame, gable roof open sided structure north of the Counting House. 

This building is identified as a smoking shed in a 1916 Insurance 

Plan, which also shows an ice house just south of the west end of 

Mill No. 2.53 A 1921 Insurance Plan adds a “caustic shop” east of the 

tower at Mill No. 1. By 1928, a 25’ x 16’ concrete block “shipping 

shed” had been appended to the west elevation of the 1917 elevator 

tower, butting up against the north wall of Mill #6.54 The one-story 

structure (Photograph 30) had a shallow shed roof pitched toward 

Building #6, with the upper section of the west and north walls 

consisting of steel industrial sash. The roof was surmounted by 

a single saw-tooth monitor on an east-west axis. The shed is also 

shown on the 1930 insurance map, which in addition places a small 

“condenser well” east of the caustic shed, 10- 2 feet south of the 

facade of Mill #1. 

The bridge at the #7 connector in the east end of the courtyard, 

linking 1-4 with 6-3, was constructed in August 1930: 

I am handing you herewith a blueprint showing in red the general 

layout for the proposed ramp between the fourth floor of No. 1 Mill 

and the third floor of No. 6 Mill. While some of the details will be 

different, in general this ramp follows the plan of the ramps on the 

floors directly above. However, we have made the minimum width 

5 feet instead of 3 feet which is the case with the ramp on the fourth 

floor of No. 1 Mill, and the difference in floor levels reduces the 
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Photo 30. Mill yard between Boott Mills Number 1 and 2 and Number 6, Dec. 1933. Note fire stair at west end of Number 6, accessory 

structure at elevatorSource: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8986
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grade to 5% instead of 6%.55

A drawing made on August 30, 1930 shows the corrugated metal 

sheathed bridge in plan and section.56 Part payment for “building 

bridge connection 1-4 + 6-3”was approved on September 27, 1930.57

The canal bridge at the Counting House was repaired in October 

1922 at a cost of $47.30 but by May 1924, it had deteriorated to 

a point where Boott Mills decided to explore the feasibility of 

replacing it.58 A letter from H.L. Bowman at the Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology (Appendix 0) reviewed the Boott situation 

resulting in a final proposal dated May 10 (Appendix P). Boott 

Mills contracted with Locks and Canals on June 13, 1924 to “design, 

order the material, and construct the bridge at the counting room.”59 

Safford estimated the costs at $1200 to repair the bridge; $3000-4000 

to rebuild it.60 The bridge was rebuilt as described on September 4, 

1924 (Photograph 31): 

This bridge consists of a concrete deck 7’9” wide and averaging 

about 8” in thickness supported by 2 – 15” 42 lb. I-beams. Each 

I-beam is trussed with a single 1” round rod, having a center strut 

about 3’ long. The span is not quite 43’. 

With the exception of the bottom flange, the I-beams are encased in 

concrete. This concrete together with the slab and the weight of the 

I-beam itself make a dead load of 600 lbs. per running foot for each 

I-beam, even when there is no one on the bridge. A live load of 100 

lbs. per square foot adds very nearly 400 lbs. to each running foot, 

making a total of 1000 lbs. per foot. This load is fully equal to that 

of a 20 ton truck assuming a light floor system.61
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Photo 31. "Rebuilding Boott Bridge, Aug 9, 1924." Bridge spans Eastern Canal, with Counting House shown at left.

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8399
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ENDNOTES 

1. Associated Mutual Insurance Company Survey of the Boott Mills, 1911 (F. C.). 

2. “The Industrial Audit of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts,” Valentine, Tead & Gregg, Industrial 

Counselors, 1916, p. 37 (FC). 

3. Treasurer’s report to the Directors of the Boott Mills (hereafter DR), February 1927, August and 

September 1927 (FC). 

4. Walter E. Parker, “Report on the condition of the BOOTT COTTON MILLS, 190 2, p. 35 (FC). 

5. Letter, Lockwood- Gleene Co. to Boott Mills, January 29, 1907, p. 2 (FC). 

6. DR, June 1914. 

7. Letter, L&C to BM, August 10, 1926 (File 1009 L&C). 

8. Letter, C. T. Main to BM, July 1, 1927 (FC). 

9. Report, John A. Stevens, Consulting Engineer, to Frederick A. Flather, June 4, 1928, p. 8. 

10. DR, August 3, 1929 (FC). 

11. DR, July 21, 1917 (FC). 

12. File 1009, Proprietors of the Locks and Canals, (Boott Mills Office) September 13, 1926, pp. 3-4. 

13. Letter, Frederick Flather, Jr. to A. T. Stafford, Locks and Canals, December 24, 1926 (FC). 

14. Letter to BM from L&C, February 23, 1927 (FC). 

15. BM correspondence to L&C, May 23, 1927 (FC). 

16. Letter bid proposal, Hayes Track Appliance Co. to L&C, May 25, 1927 (FC)~ 

17. Letter, L&C to B. W. Guppy, Boston and Maine Railroad, June 8, 1927 (FC). 

18. File 1009, op cit, February 17, 1928, p. 3. 

19. File 1009, July 9, 1927. 

20. Letter, C. T. Main Co. to Boott Mills, November 23, 1925 (FC). 

21. Stevens to F. Flather, Jr., July 1928 (FC). 

22. Valentine, p. 31. 

23. DR June 1908 (FC). 

24. DR December 1908 (FC). 

25. Stevens to F. Flather, Jr., July 1928 (FC). 

26. DR, June 1906 (FC). 
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27. Insurance Surveys 1911, 1921 (FC). 

28. Stevens to F. Flather, p. 9. 

29. Letter, Boott Mill to Arkwright Mutual Fire Insurance Co., Boston, December 28, 1926. 

30. Stevens to F. Flather, June 21, 1912. 

31. Dr’s for dates stated. 

32. DR November 24, 1917 (FC). 

33. L. A. Hackett “Report on the Boott Mills”, December 1913 po. 7- 10 (FC). 

34. Valentine, pp. 46-47 (FC). 

35. Textile Development Corporation Report, 1928, np. (FC). 

36. DR, March 1923. 

37. Parker, p. 10. 

38. DR’s for dates cited (FC). 

39. DR’s August 31, 1929 (FC). 

40. Hackett, p. 7, 10 (FC). 

41. Letter, Stevens to Boott Mills, Sept. 4, 1908 (FC). 

42. N. J. Neall “Report to Boott Mills”, August 19, 1911, p. 45 (FC). 

43. Valentine, p. 38 (FC). 

44. Letter, L&C to BM, March 1, 1917. 

47. Hackett, December 1913. 

48. DR, October 1927, November 1927, June 1928, March 1929, August 1929, September 1929, February 

1930. 

49. DR’s, December 1906, June 1907, December 1907 (F.C.). 

50. File 1009, (Boott Mills Office). 

51. Ibid. 

52. Lowell Building Permit 233. 

53. File 1009, July 10, 1930 (Boott Mills Office). 

54. Lowell Building Permit 233, April 30, 1924. 55. Shelf 123, Parking Lot, Locks and Canals Files (Boott 

Cotton Mills). 

56. Ibid., Envelope 25, Sheet 11. 
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57. File 1009, L&C to BM, August 15, 1930 (Boott Mills Office). 

58. Shelf 153, drawing 104, Locks and Canals files (Boott Mills Office). 

59. DR, September 27, 1930 (FC). 

60. DR, October, 1922 (FC). 

61. Letter, BM to L&C, June 13, 1924, file 1009 (Boott Mills Office). 

62. Letter, L&C to BM, June 27, 1924, file 1009 (Boott Mills Office). 

63. Ibid., September 4, 1924, file 1009 (Boott Mills Office). 
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X. OCCUPATION AND USE, 1931-1954 A. Introduction

This final period in the operation of the Boott witnessed wild swings 

of fortune for the mill, from prosperity to failure and closing. The 

operation held no immunity from the effects of the Depression 

that devastated the country’s economy, but after that, the global 

tragedy of World War II provided steady work, as had generally 

been the case for the textile industry in time of war. The collapse of 

the national economy represented not only the most recent among 

many such collapses to affect the textile industry, but also the most 

extreme in modern times. In fact, this era in its history demonstrates 

the extent to which the Boott, like other mills, was subject to factors 

both within and without its jurisdiction. Some struck suddenly 

without warning, while others were the accretion of decades of 

action or inaction. The period was rich with drama, with evidence 

of perseverance, conflict, tension and, ultimately, tragedy. 

The Boott Mills’ operation between 1931 and 1954 saw a confluence 

of all the factors which could affect an operation of this sort. 

Changes in the mill’s leadership, natural disasters, economic 

cataclysm, world war, police action, intensified competition from 

the South, combined with the continuing story of technological 

change and a new phase of labor-management relations to create 

a level of activity on all fronts which surpassed anything that had 

occurred before. The very fact of the many arenas in which the 

mill’s activities were being carried on suggested the potential for 

difficulty with which it contended and the troubles this diffusion 

of attention could portend. 

The setting, nationally, for the playing out of the Boott drama could 

hardly have been more ominous at the outset of this period. As 

much as a third of the country’s labor force was out of work, some 

fifteen million men and women. Much of the famous “alphabet 

soup,“ the innumerable agencies of the New Deal era, came into 

being in order to deal with this problem, and the labor scene in 

which the Boott operated was fundamentally altered. The National 

Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) sanctioned labor’s right to organize 

and bargain collectively, leading directly to the organization for the 

first time of numerous industries. By the time the Supreme Court 

overturned that legislation, its replacement was ready, and the 

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), backed by Senator Robert 

Wagner and often referred to as the Wagner Act, brought new rules 

and order to labor-management relations. Its enforcement agency, 

the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was charged with 

insuring that its provisions were carried out and that conflicts were 

settled fairly, according to the standards it set forth. 
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These new rules brought a new period of labor organization and 

bargaining to the American scene. Workers exercised their newfound rights in a big way, and management was blocked from 

employing many of the tactics long used to block organization or, 

failing that, to avoid serious negotiations. Rather than being the 

time of a William Wood, as the early decades of the century had 

been, the Thirties was the time of John L. Lewis and the United Mine 

Workers, Sidney Hillman of the American Clothing Workers Union, 

David Dubinsky of the International Ladies Garment Workers 

Union, and Harry Bridges of the West Coast Longshoremen. The 

steel, rubber, and meat industries were organized, and UMW, 

ACWU, ILGWU, and UAW joined the soup, along with the still 

more famous AFL and CIO. None of these developments made 

labor’s lot an easy one, let alone an exception to the pervasive 

difficulties of the Depression, but they did permit new levels of 

organization and new opportunities for strength and negotiation 

on the part of the American worker. The opportunity was not 

ignored in the textile industry, and Boott workers employed all the 

new tools government authorized, all the opportunities it created. 

While the economic storms raged across the nation, however, 

Frederick A. Flather (FAF) informed his Board of Directors that 

the Boott was not always part of that trend. When Textile Code 

Authority (TCA) figures showed a 22 percent decrease in textile 

production by comparing the first quarters of 1934 and 1935, 

the Boott’s record showed a 66 percent increase, from 3,318,000 

yards to 5,531,000 yards. Seventy-one mills had closed during this 

resurgence of the Depression, but Boott earnings were improving. 

Flather characterized the mill’s relationship to the broader situation: 

“We take the job of getting along with the New Deal seriously, but 

by ‘tending closely to our own knitting’ we feel justified in looking 

forward with confidence.”

1

Despite this opportunity for optimism, hindsight shows that this 

period presented the acting out of a drama in ways akin to Greek 

tragedy, in which a family became involved in an action with a 

tragic conclusion preordained and inescapable, brought on in part 

by a flaw in the main character, but not an altogether evil, or pure, 

actor. Before this period began, events took place which made the 

outcome certain, though for a long time they were concealed from 

most of the players involved. 

In 1926 an auditor told the mill that from an accounting standpoint, 

the Depreciation Reserve accumulated exceeded the book value 

of the plant. After that time, the reserve of $2,711,767.80 was 

continued but not increased. In 1932 the Treasurer explained the 

attitude involved: 

Not adding to the Reserve for Depreciation is satisfactory from an 
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accounting and book values standpoint, but from the standpoint of 

prolonging the life of the plant year by year, an amount equivalent 

to a fair depreciation charge should be either reserved or spent on 

the plant annually. If each year such a sum should be expended 

on the plant at Lowell, it would be only where such expenditure 

were of special usefulness. Any large expenditure for equipment of 

a general nature would better be expended in the South.

2

At this point the die was cast: the Boott Mills could not endure 

in Lowell. The profit the mill and its employees had supplied the 

shareholders and accumulated, in part in the Depreciation Reserve, 

would not be used to perpetuate this operation or the jobs of those 

who created the reserve. 

In 1937 this sentiment recurred in a discussion of tactics during a 

strike: “We didn’t carry out one of Mr. Roberts’ [a Director] favorite 

plans, which was ostensibly to go South. We may go yet, and not 

ostensibly. Whenever you are ready to give us $500,000, Frederick 

[Flather, Jr.] is ready to show you where we can make more money 

than we can by remaining here.”

3

 Clearly, no commitment to 

operation in Lowell existed, nor was there any willingness to invest 

money in further operation anywhere, since the $500,000 was not 

forthcoming. By this time, the Directors had decided to take money 

from the Boott Mills as long as it was forthcoming but not to attempt 

to continue the mill when further investment in plant or equipment 

was required. As Paul F. McGouldrick pointed out, “The durability 

of textile plant characteristic of industry technology meant that its 

owners could extract quasi-rents for decades rather than years.”

4

The series of quotations from FAF speaking in the inner sanctum 

of Board Meetings offered irrefutable evidence of the Directors’ 

intentions and their awareness of the ultimate result of their course. 

No ulterior motives concealed themselves, no audience of workers 

or city officials provided a need for purposeful, rather than honest, 

speaking, as would often prove to be the case. This was the truth 

at the heart of the situation throughout the course of the mill’s 

remaining years. 

This decision placed the mill in a curiously fatalistic position, one 

in which any successes had to be temporary and could not alter the 

course already set. Despite the nature of the situation, Flather did 

not avoid deepening family involvement in the Boott, however. 

In 1932 Frederick A. Flather, Treasurer and Director since the 

formation of the corporation in 1905, stepped down as Director to 

be replaced by his son, Frederick A. Flather, Jr. (FAF, Jr.), who also 

became Assistant Manager. John Rogers Flather (JRF), the younger 

son, rose to the position of Assistant Treasurer. The elder Flather 

remained active in the affairs of the company as Treasurer but the 
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changes recognized the current status of the mill’s management 

and pointed its future course.5 The senior Flather retained the real 

power while permitting his sons to take over more of the day to 

day operation of the mill, a conversion process which would see a 

continuing shift in the balance of power during the mill’s final years. 

Given the support of the Board, which the Flathers had enjoyed 

on all but a couple of occasions, the position of Treasurer held 

great power over the running of the mill (as has been described). 

Within the limits of the Board’s general purposes and intentions, 

the Flathers ran the mill as they saw fit. 

The extent of the family’s involvement in the Boott, and its attitude 

toward the mill, could be seen in a 1939 instance where the senior 

Flather called the Board’s attention to a facetious, but meaningful, 

description: 

The following editorial by my friend Bennett of the American Wool 

& Cotton Reporter was not inspired by us in any way. We don’t go 

in for notoriety, and this was a complete surprise. 

There is a gentle sarcasm in the article because I declined to furnish 

them the names and addresses of our overseers, from whom they 

desired to solicit subscriptions. 

The editorial as a whole is not correct of course, and is partly 

nonsense, but it is almost correct in many ways. “A little nonsense 

now and then, Is relished by the best of men.”

“There is one cotton mill in New England located in Massachusetts 

that has been remarkable for its success through recent years, and 

for its dividend payments even during the periods of depression 

and recession. Practically everyone familiar with the industry 

knows that the treasurer of this mill is tremendously busy all of 

the time in the affairs of that mill without any outside interests. 

He is at the mill every morning and at his treasurer’s office every 

afternoon, and in constant touch with the selling agents all of the 

time. We are told that this mill has no overseers, no second hands 

and no superintendents that the old-time operatives with steady 

work and with good pay, need no overseers, and act as their own 

second hands. Two of the treasurer’s own family are very active 

in the business, and are at the mill first in the morning and away 

from the mill last in the evening. They are all the overseers, and 

all the second hands, and all the superintendents. We are not sure 

that the above report as it was given to us is 100 percent correct, 

but we are definitely certain that this mill has the very lowest of 

non-productive expense, that every person on the pay roll actually 

justifies his proposition by productive ability, and that all costs are 
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remarkably well controlled.”

6

While one cannot be sure what prompted Flather to read this 

into the Board of Directors’ Minutes, speculation is irresistible. 

Indirect bragging, defense against ideas of nepotism, and 

resistance to continual consultants’ reports that the mill had too 

many employees per spindle all suggest themselves. An attitude 

of proprietary feeling about the mill, and its workers, as well as 

management’s treatment of them, comes through. In the context of 

his relationship with the Directors, as reflected in the Minutes of 

their meetings, there is a strain apparent here, something somewhat 

out of character. The times had been trying, his appointment of his 

sons could make him vulnerable, his habitual distance of manner 

made explanation difficult. Despite the stiffness of this technique 

for raising and attempting to dismiss these issues, it brought no 

response, perhaps indicating a degree of success for the ploy. More 

certainly, it reflected concerns and worries, an attempt to bypass, 

through levity, some of the serious considerations affecting, even 

threatening, the mill at this time. 

Suitably for the background of the tragic action being played out, the 

mill’s operation was buffeted by natural causes during this period. 

In 1936 Lowell’s worst flood shut down the Boott on March 14 and 

15, then again on the 19th-21st. While the water had little effect on 

#6, it filled the lower floor of the mills next to the river, stood 6” 

deep in the Courtyard, and entered the basement of the Counting 

House. Cloth cut from looms as the water rose escaped damage 

and little was lost. Refurbishing the machinery and drawing in 

new warps on the looms rearranged production workers for a short 

time but produced little lasting effect.

7

 In 1938 a hurricane struck 

in the fall, again interrupting work with a flood, but the buildings 

withstood the winds and cotton in process was moved up by 

elevators before the power went out or the water rose.

8

 Another 

hurricane shut down the mill in 1944 and management notified the 

third shift by radio that they would not be working.9 The natural 

forces involved exemplified the role of age-old forces, while the 

radio notice indicated the new age in which the Boott found itself 

operating. 

Other events also impinged on the history of the Boott. Starting in 

1938 the mill began to convert to war production and by the time 

of the War Production Board’s [WPB] 1942 order restricting the 

purposes of textile manufacture the Boott had already shifted to 

nearly complete concentration on military contracts. In that year 

the Army and Navy awarded the mill their production award 

recognizing the achievement of the men and women working 

there. In 1945, news of the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Japan 

interrupted union negotiations and four days later: 
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Sirens blowing announcing Japan had surrendered, people left the 

mill rather promptly. It came at a convenient time, during the lunch 

hour, and there was no confusion. J.R.F. visited the mill immediately 

and found everything in order, and the watchmen and supervisors 

on their toes. In accordance with the President’s proclamation, the 

mill remained closed Wednesday and Thursday, August 15th and 

16th... Notice of the mill starting up was announced by radio.10

In the ensuing years the Korean War also boosted production, 

while in its aftermath concerns were raised with preventing 

possible Communist infiltration of the factory.11 Despite the antired programs of many unions, including the Textile Workers Union 

of America, such attacks were a standard part of management’s 

diatribes against them.12 Such was the age in which the Boott would 

founder. 

B. Purposes, Operations and Procedures

A somewhat changed purpose governed the Boott’s operation at this 

time. The goal now was not to run a mill for continuing profit, but 

to extract whatever profits remained available while the business 

was allowed to crumble. This change lay behind every aspect of the 

operation until the demise of the textile operation in 1954. 

This alteration in the situation did not change the mill’s cloth 

production in an immediate way. In the late thirties products 

included damask, defined, in response to one of the Director’s 

questions, as cotton table cloth with stripes; scrim, for curtains; 

and toweling. Soon combed navy twill for dress uniforms became 

significant, occupying a good part of the mill and requiring high 

quality standards. Towels (other than terry, which they did not 

make) represented important products and were sold under the 

mill’s name. These included part linen and linen-finish towels and 

encompassed a number of styles and widths. An exclusive franchise 

for an absorbent agent, Sorbtex, was acquired to aid performance 

and marketing of them. A Treasurer’s Report described the mill’s 

principal products: 

Boott Toweling and Towels, for the thrifty, are nationally advertised, 

fit into popular price ranges and are distributed to wholesale, retail 

and chain stores, hospitals, hotels, institutions and laundry supply 

houses throughout the country. We make up towels economically in 

a modern, streamlined stitching room. 

Boott Scrim and curtains of durable type go to and are ideal for 

thrifty homes, hospitals and institutions where many launderings 

are required. We cut and sew scrim into curtains ready to hang. 
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Boott Corduroy: Boott was the first to manufacture grey corduroy 

in the United States. Recently we changed our policy by completely 

finishing cloth... You may well be proud that Boot corduroy is 

characterized in the trade as the “Tiffany” grade. We obtain top 

prices for it. The corduroy business is peculiar. The old big 4 

manufacturers (Boott, Crompton, New York Mills and Merrimack) 

will or should of course go on indefinitely, but the 10 or so newcomers are making unsatisfactory goods, which tends to weaken 

the market. Curtains and toweling were distributed through over a 

dozen of the best-known chain and mail-order stores.13

Producing products which the mill could both market on its own 

and sell on the basis of recognition of its name fulfilled long-time 

advice from various consultants. Both the toweling and corduroy 

represented materials for which they anticipated steady demand 

for an unchanging product. The only change in the situation was 

the entry into these fields of “new-comers,” by which Flather meant 

the mills in the South which were making increasingly complex 

materials and thus completing even more directly with the Boott. 

Later in this time period the war affected production and made it 

easier to reduce the number of different materials made: 

In recent months we have run out of the looms a great number of 

former styles of goods. This involved constant adjustment of the 

mill balance. We were regularly making some 200 styles of cloth; 

now we are making about 10 styles of cloth, and will soon settle 

down to it. These 10 styles will run regularly without much of any 

change throughout the year. 

Regarding the yarn numbers, we have reduced them from around 

100 numbers to 15 numbers. This simplifies our operations and 

releases important general supervisors who will be retained to 

devote themselves to duties for which they are well-qualified; so, 

we are equipped for all functions of the business. We are not so well 

covered in the lower strata of skilled and semi-skilled productive 

personnel, but that is another story, and is being provided for by 

turning to training women. 

Lines of Goods to be Run.

3 Towelings; one of which is for the Army. 

2 finished Corduroys. 

2 Scrims. 

2 Ducks; one for the Army and one for the Marine Corps. 

2 Drills; Navy.14
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Wartime production (the above was written in 1942) helped achieve 

one goal, simplifying production, as Flather pointed out, and also 

rekindled the old Lowell practice of training women for increasing 

numbers of textile jobs as replacements for workers lost to the draft 

or to better wartime jobs. Employee training represented one of the 

primary stories of the era, in fact. 

Simplified production did not guarantee profits, of course, and 

during a period of intense competition before the war, prices in 

the industry, as well as manufacturing margins, fell to new lows, 

particularly in 1932 and early 1933, and then again in 1939. Mills in 

desperate straits sold below cost in order to get business. The Boott, 

however, found itself in a strong financial position in 1939: 

Due to the wise action of previous days, we were released from 

pressure of banks and selling house, and that is why we are in such 

sound condition today and able to conduct our affairs just as the 

Directors desire, without those handicaps at least. 

Twenty-three prominent mills last year had sales of $250,000,000 

and lost $6,900,000 or 2.8 percent. The Boott on the other hand 

made a normal profit of $45,512 net, or 2.7%; i.e., the Boott made 

the same per cent as the other mills lost.15

Forboding omens ringed the horizon, but the Boott stood wellprepared, unfettered in its competition against the various forces 

threatening the industry. It operated independently from an 

overpowering selling house and paid no interest to banks, unlike 

many operations. When management desired, things were made to 

sound bright. 

However, when the City of Lowell proposed to raise the taxes 

on this profitable plant in 1944, numerous studies poured forth 

showing the disadvantages the mill faced on all sides. Between 

1929 and 1945 the ratio of active cotton spindles, North and South, 

shifted from 40:60 to 20:80, and where the Boott had once run 

151,000 spindles they now had 85,000 and only ran 75% of those;16 

all things are relative, and the high hopes for prosperity seen under 

one light vanished when viewed under another. A major contrast 

lay between the fiscal health of the corporation, on the one hand, 

and its prospects for continued manufacture in its buildings, on 

the other. Another lay in management’s different, though selfserving, interpretations of facts for different audiences. In any case, 

the problems faced were real. Given the importance of the issues 

involved for all aspects of the last decades of the plant’s operation, 
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the most succinct of the voluminous reports designed to plead the 

mill’s case for a tax reduction appears: 

Boott Mills Buildings Are Not Suitable For Post- War Competition 

In Cotton Manufacturing Nor Present Day Competition Either. 

1. When Government orders stop, Boott must return to those 

fabrics meeting the following tests: 

• Fabrics which can be made on present Boott machinery. 

• Fabrics on which Boott employees are experienced and 

accustomed. 

• Fabrics which Boott has promoted and advertised extensively 

in the pre-war period, and on which Boott has goodwill, trade 

acceptance, and therefore, is surest to find a post- war market. 

2. Competition on these items will be intense, as they are all made 

predominately or wholly in the South, now that the bulk of the 

cotton industry is in the South. 

3. Southern mills will fight just as hard to get the small remaining 

portion of the Northern business they do not now have, as they 

fought to get the 80% which they already have. 

4. In this fight to grab the small portion of the cotton industry 

which still remains in New England, Southern mills have the 

following advantages. 

• Steady running, as contrasted with ups and downs in Boott 

production, because of Boott being located in a marginal area. 

• Less changing from style to style, permitting lowest 

manufacturing cost, in contrast to Boott necessity of frequent 

changes to secure orders, resulting in highest manufacturing 

cost. 

• Newer plants, in contrast to Boott’s old plant. 

• More efficient labor, due to less labor restrictions in the South 
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than in the North.

• Higher workloads per employee, due to less labor restrictions in 

the South than in the North. 

• Northern mills are practically all organized; Southern mills 

only 15% organized...

5. Political pressure is being brought to bear on the South to build 

more and more cotton mills to absorb farm labor that will be 

stranded and without jobs, when the cotton picking machinery 

already proven satisfactory, is released after the war. 

6. Restrictive labor legislation, such as Massachusetts textile laws 

for example, has admittedly caused the loss of many cotton 

mills to the South. These restrictions will further permit the 

resumption of the downward trend of cotton manufacturing in 

Massachusetts. Massachusetts, it should be noted, is the least 

favorable of the Northern states, from a cotton manufacturing 

standpoint. Cotton mill property in Massachusetts, is 

therefore, less valuable than if it were located in a state with few 

restrictions... 

7. Most Southern mills with which Boott competes are one or two 

stories high. Machinery layout problems are less complicated in 

these relatively modern mills than in the Boott 3, 4, 5 and 6-story 

narrow buildings. Boott will find itself in a position of having 

to install new machinery in order to compete, and not being 

able to place such new machines efficiently to get the maximum 

out of them, because of its plant restrictions. Therefore, in the 

post-war period, even though Boott Management continues its 

long standing progressive policy of putting in new machinery 

whenever invented, Boott will be handicapped by being unable 

to secure the maximum benefits from new machines in its 

present 3, 4, 5, and 6- story narrow buildings. 

8. Ability to Secure Competitive Work Loads: The term work 

load in the cotton industry refers to the number of machines an 

employee tends. Layout restrictions at Boott prevent assigning 

to Boott employees as many looms, for example, as in a mill 

with large areas, fewer columns, non- vibrating floors, better 

head room for humidity and lighting. Southern mills secure 

more product per employee per machine than Boott, because of 

Boott’s building restrictions. 
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9. Inability to attract employees under the new conditions: As 

education and constantly higher wages raise people to higher 

standards of living, their desires regarding where they work 

also rise. We mention the following as just a few instances, to 

show that Boott buildings are totally unsuitable to attract this 

increasingly discriminatory type of employee: 

• Boott toilets are notably unattractive and depressing, and should 

be built over, enlarged and refitted. To do this would require 

extending the toilet room into manufacturing area, because 

our rooms are so narrow, with resultant interference with 

efficient manufacturing, removing of certain machinery would 

be required, and a consequent small number of machines for a 

given employee to look after - all as result of narrow buildings 

and small and a further lowering of efficiency manufacturing 

rooms. 

• 6 flights -- A 6- flight climb every time one enters this mill to go 

to work, is not popular.

10. Officials of the War Manpower Commission and the U. S. 

Employment Service in Lowell have sounded a solemn warning 

that the newer industries that have come into this city with their 

modern plants, their new lighting, their beautiful toilets, and so 

on, are attracting the high school graduates, and if the Boott 

Mills wishes to attract these people they need to give thought to 

eliminating those unattractive and undesirable features which 

characterize the cotton mills, and which have been improved 

upon by the newer industries with newer plants...17

Despite the length of the quote, it is included because of the 

remarkable degree to which it described the mill’s plight; at the 

same time that, a modern reading, more informed than would have 

been possible for anyone at the time of its writing, reveals much 

about the Flather strategy for dealing with the mill’s impossible 

situation. 

The first three points said little more than that the Boott operated in a 

competitive economy and must make cloth it knew how to produce 

and with which it had been successful, a fairly attractive situation. 

Starting with number 4, the account began to take every aspect 

of the situation and attempt to turn it into a pleading for special 

treatment. However, the mill’s location did not determine how 

steadily it ran, its success did. If other mills produced less variety, 

the Boott had ignored similar advice for decades. On the other hand, 

many mills, even whole areas, made careers of flexible production. 

Regarding the plant, advisers had recommended demolition of 
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the Boott throughout this century, to no effect. With regard to 

labor, most aspects of the relationship between the Boott and its 

employees were the product of its own history, its own decisions as 

to how to deal with the entire operation. Many of the inefficiencies 

of which management complained were equally troublesome to 

labor, interfering with efforts at competent work and limiting the 

earnings achievable on piecework. Even the final sections on toilets 

and building height simply reiterated the decades-old observations 

of consultants. These problems had not arrived unannounced, but 

were a part of the mill’ s history, an avoidable part, but one which 

had never been treated and which certainly was not going to be 

treated after the 1920s decision not to reinvest. 

This presentation gave a dismal picture in order to fight a tax 

increase, but it also reflected the thinking according to which 

decisions affecting the mill’s future were being made at this time. 

While this report discussed the negative, it ignored solutions and 

mitigating circumstances. It presented problems of which the 

owners have been aware for decades and which they had chosen 

not to treat. It also ignored both assets of the mill, including its 

waterpower rights and holdings in other corporations, and its 

investment policy. 

The mill’s purposes were new, its operations little changed, and its 

procedures only superficially altered: while it’s entrenched policy 

of exacting dividends without serious investment in buildings or 

equipment had created the situation the above account decried, 

the only change at this time was to intensify the past policy. This 

chapter of the story represents the unfolding of that development. 

C. Activities

1. Counting House 

Operations in the Counting House had changed little during this 

period. The Employment Office recommended earlier operated 

from these offices, and a First Aid Room also continued to share the 

space. In general, Accounting, Sales, and overall mill management 

operated here. Modernization was represented by ditto machines, 

and an Addressograph, payroll, adding, check-writing, and 

bookkeeping machines. 

2. Courtyard 

Several changes made the mill’s interior Courtyard more an area of 

traffic and less an oasis of ordered plantings and comparative calm 

within the hustle and bustle of the city. A used dump truck and a 
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used stake- body truck were purchased in 1942 and presumably 

made regular appearances in the millyard.18

During this period the trolley tracks were removed from the yard. 

Trucks, entering over the John Street bridge, replaced the railroad 

and trolley as the transportation system for moving materials in and 

out of the mills. At the same time, new lighting and park benches 

were installed to enhance the usability of the space for employees. 

After a history of disputes over the use of the Smoking Room 

(formerly the Recreation Room) and whether or not workers could 

repair to it while on the payroll, a new Smoking House was built 

in the Yard in 1950 (Photograph 34). Management was initially 

surprised to find that only the males were using it, then appalled to 

learn that they gambled in it. Watchmen were instructed to break 

up any gambling games on the property.19

C. Building #6 

1. Technological Change and Its Effects 

Discussion of technological change between 1931 and 1954 often 

turns on questions of conditions: those of the machinery, the 

process, and the times. Both equipment and the structure were 

deteriorating, and the economic situation nationally made new 

demands on the mills. 

George Sweet Gibb emphasized this aspect of the situation with 

regard to new inventions for roving and spinning machinery and 

their relationship to the Depression: 

The importance of this development [long-draft roving] and of the 

comparable introduction of long-draft spinning can scarcely be 

over-emphasized. Long-draft roving, which secured the necessary 

cohesion of fibers by the folding or condensing rather than twisting 

of the sliver, represented a basic change in those supposedly 

unalterable principles established by inventors in eighteenthcentury England. The impact of long-draft roving and spinning 

upon the textile industry was forcible. Coming at a time when lowcost operation was essential for survival and when labor rates in 

the textile industry were being boosted by political action, these 

developments could not be ignored... 

The Saco-Lowell advertising department made certain that these 

developments were not ignored. The “New Deal” inspired this 

editorial comment in the January-February, 1934, issue of the 
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Saco-Lowell Bulletin: “We firmly believe that the principles of the 

new deal having to do with wages and working conditions have 

practically prohibited the further use of much obsolete machinery 

and have made the question of mechanical efficiency one of the most 

important confronting mill executives at this time.”20

Both Gibb and Saco-Lowell, the machine-builders, referred to the 

federal legislation giving new rights in the areas of organizing and 

negotiating to labor and its impact on the workplace. Machinery 

offering a quantum jump forward in cotton processing technology 

could not help but be significant, though at this time of rising wages 

and demands for better, safer, working conditions its adoption 

held added importance. The historian’s hindsight and the builder’s 

promotional view coincided and signaled a perception of changed 

conditions, a perception that machine replacement had become 

even more important than before. While the Boott had been early 

to begin experimenting with long-draft spinning, as shown above, 

their continued innovation or lack thereof would be of crucial 

importance to the survival of the mill. 

In light of the Boott’s stand on reinvestment, it comes as little 

surprise that machinery changes in this period were more often 

relocations than purchases. An Insurance Appraisal made in 1933 

described the building’s contents, by floor, and provided maker and 

age for the equipment. It established a benchmark for evaluation of 

the machinery during this period.21

On 6-5 they ran forty ring-spinning frames made by Howard and 

Bullough American Machine Company [H+B] in 1902 and 1913, 

individually motorized in 1929. Spoolers and cone winders (packagechanging machinery) from 1913 continued to be belt-driven from 

large electric motors. Individually controlled humidifiers attempted 

to cope with the moistening problems inherent in the building. To 

call this grouping unimpressive understates the case. Operations 

seriously interested in competing effectively with the South would 

not, and were not, utilizing this sort of antiquated machinery. 

Even without the pressure of new technological developments 

such as long-draft spinning, and the expectation of imminent labor 

pressures, this machinery had outlived its usefulness. 

On the fourth-floor 52 Saco-Lowell ring frames from 1917 ran, 

along with five spoolers, with all the frames still belt-driven. One 

automatic regulator controlled fifty- five humidifiers. As was the 

case on the floor above, this equipment was seriously out of date, 

worn out, and of little value to a competitive mill. The southern 

mills of which the Falthers complained did not generally run such 

antiquated machines, nor did they rely on the inefficient belt-drive 

system found here. 
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The Weave Rooms on 6-3 and 6-2 held 404 Draper looms, 353 with 

dobbies operating 16 to 20 harnesses. The “old” looms had been 

made in 1901, the “new” ones in 1913. The Weave Room on 6-1 

contained 164 Drapers made in 1901-1902, belt-driven, and 69 from 

1911 were stored there. Humidifiers worked to control climate 

conditions, while two-shift pick counters measured workers’ 

production and pay. Twenty-year-old looms were seriously worn in 

the best of circumstances, and no one ever suggested that machines 

in the Boott were running in good circumstances, regarding either 

the state of the building or their maintenance. Thirty-year-old looms 

had no place in a competitive operation. Looms which should have 

been replaced during or immediately after the good years of high 

production (and high wear) had not been, and times of depression 

do not produce massive reequipping. 

Instead of replacement campaigns at the Boott one found continual 

efforts to continue maximum production (for these machines) 

through minimal repairs and parts additions. New shuttles and 

bobbins were purchased, a few looms at a time motorized, loom 

beams built up to hold longer warps for long runs of a given fabric. 

About a dozen looms on 6-3 had Crompton and Knowles leno 

jumpers added in 1935. These represented a new capability, 

enabling the looms to produce materials in which some warp 

yarns were wound around others on certain picks. The jumper 

manipulated a portion of the threads involved while the dobby 

head took care of the rest. These changes continued during 1936, 

while at the same time long-draft spinning was slowly being added 

to the frames in 6-4. Both Whitin Casablancas and Saco-Lowell Long 

Draft attachments were installed, as were more H & B units. These 

went on at a pace of about six per month during the period 1936-

1940, but intermittently. New roll cleaners, hank clocks, and the 

occasional spooler or winder accompanied these improvements. 

No. 6 also received temperature regulating equipment, as did the 

Office.22

These sorts of efforts did little to keep the mill apace of machinery 

developments; rather they offered stop-gap solutions to continuing 

problems. As Frederick Flather said in 1937, “Most of our new 

equipment is a small percentage of the whole. It is a demonstration 

equipment.”23

Draper “X” looms offered an example of this behavior. A faster 

running loom than the “E” and “K” models used in #6, Boott Mills 

bought one in 1933, and by 1940 owned 78, a drop in the bucket 

of their 2000+ looms. They also looked at a comparable Japanese 

loom, but found it wasn’t available here. Efforts were also made to 

run existing looms at higher speeds, but little seems to have come 
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of it, and no wonder, considering the worn-out machines on which 

it was attempted.24

Defense work at the time of World War II led to some small 

alterations, primarily new spindles, rings, bobbins, and such. 

Blackout windows, a warning horn, and a fence guard were also 

part of the defense work preparations.25

During this period of comparatively little investment in 

improvement to the mill and its equipment, consultants were 

called to the mill less often and there remain fewer outside 

opinions regarding conditions in the mill. However, when experts 

did report, they found that the equipment and program did not 

bode well for efficient operation. The Ralph E. Loper Company, 

which had studied the mill previously, returned in 1944 and found 

that the mill’s machinery and conditions worked against effective 

operation, stymying production: 

It is a fact that present operating conditions are unsatisfactory. 

Our comparisons have shown that your labor cost per pound is 

considerably higher than the average of competitors after making 

allowance for the difference in wage rate. Your excessive labor 

cost which is both the proof and the result of operating conditions 

being far from satisfactory, is due to the lower productivity of your 

employees than that of employees in competing mills. A portion 

of the excess cost is due to the inefficient layout of buildings and 

machinery necessitating employment of several persons as truckers. 

While this is an important item of cost, we do not believe it to be 

necessarily fatal to the future welfare of your company. However, 

we suggest consideration be given to regrouping the machinery 

when more positive knowledge of post war requirements is at hand. 

After eliminating the factor of machinery layout from our 

discussions, the remaining cause of the high labor cost is that of low 

machine production and low machine load per operative. 

According to our analysis there are two underlying reasons for the 

present situation, both of which are interrelated and have a bearing 

on each other. These reasons are:

1. The work runs so poorly that it is impossible to maintain 

a normal rate of machine production or to assign normal 

workloads in all cases. The responsibility for this condition 

must be born by management. 

2. Employees lack sufficient initiative to perform to the best of 
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their ability, in certain instances, under present operating 

conditions. This, of course, is labors’ share of the responsibility 

for high costs. 

Loper began by reporting that even without a wage rate differential, 

the Boott’s costs were higher than those of its competitors. The poor 

layout of the buildings and machines had been noted by consultants 

for many decades, without significant effect. The fact that the 

“work runs poorly” had to be attributed to poor machinery, poor 

cotton, and poor management of the process. In such a situation, 

the occasional modernization could have little effect. 

Furthermore, the machinery was not only old, it appeared to be 

driven at practically random speeds: 

The extent of machine speed variation is very excessive and is a 

condition which tends to keep operatives in a very unsettled state of 

mind. As an illustration we point to the case of weavers whose pick 

price is based on a loom speed of 160 P.P.M. It can be readily seen 

that the weaver cannot possibly earn the standard wage on looms 

running as slow as 137 P.P.M. Not only does the worker suffer 

unduly from such conditions but the mill is the chief loser because 

of lost production. 

Current working conditions, as indicated by the degree of end 

breakage and machine speed variation, are the result of incorrect 

manufacturing practices over a lengthy period and are management’s 

direct responsibility. It is a well-known fact that the problem of 

maintaining peak employee efficiency is difficult even under the best 

of working conditions. When conditions considerably below normal 

are allowed to exist, employees eventually become indifferent in 

their attitude toward their work and toward the over-all welfare of 

the mill furnishing them employment. Under conditions such as 

are prevalent in your mill, employees adopt an antagonistic attitude 

toward any change in job assignments, even though they may be 

fully capable of taking on a great load, until operating conditions 

are improved. 

According to our diagnosis the basic responsibility for low employee 

productivity in Boott Mill rests with management because it 

has allowed conditions to exist which are detrimental to efficient 

operation. 

While such an indictment would have a place in a discussion of 

labor-management relations, it offers important commentary on the 

state of technology in the Boott, on the conditions of machines and 

process which were a part of the situation relative to the operation’s 
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attitude toward and use of technology. It is important to note that 

Loper’s assessment came from a consultant hired by management, 

not someone hostile to it. 

Having established the basic situation regarding the mill’s 

equipment and processing, Loper went on to detail the problems he 

found. Loper charged that the operation suffered from the lack of 

a plant manager expert in cotton manufacture and recommended 

that someone knowledgeable, established, and able to work in 

harmony with labor be found and added to the staff. That he would 

have pointed out such a lack in regard to both cotton and labor 

expertise said a good deal about the mill’s predicament. He also 

noted a need for a better stock, straight cotton (without waste), in 

order to improve the breakage situation, particularly in toweling. 

The procedure of mixing in waste from processing offered false 

savings, an indication of the ways in which managers not expert 

in the field could appear to benefit the mill through frugality 

while actually creating production problems and discouraging 

employees. End breakage on spinning in combed yarns at times 

doubled acceptable frequency. 

Slow running frames and looms frustrated workers on piece rates 

and indicated poor maintenance, improper settings, and incorrect 

parts. They also led to unrealistic piece rates and, in the case of 

battery-hands, an unrealistic expectation of 600 bobbins per hour 

to be inserted into the batteries on the looms. 

Dirty and non-uniform spinning frames caused excessive broken 

ends and also produced inconsistent yarn. Without stricter 

supervision of conditions spinners could not perform normal tasks. 

Lack of proper humidity continued to plague the mill, as both its 

lab tests and excessive fly in the air indicated. Looms weaving at 

narrower widths than those for which they were made restricted 

output and demonstrated a need for either appropriate looms or 

fabrics consistent with the sizes of the machines. 

Loper concluded by suggesting “that management would be in 

a very vulnerable position in case outside parties are called in to 

settle disputes.” In other words, if a conflict between labor and 

management were to be arbitrated, the advantage would lie on the 

side of the former.26

In another report the Loper firm pointed out that while 69 of 

the frames on 6-4 and 6- 5 had been converted to long-draft, 24 

conventional frames still run on 6-5. A third report, from 1945, 

described most of the Boott’s looms as old and noncompetitive 

for the postwar period, probably not worth moving (within the 

complex) to overcome the fact that they were badly grouped.27
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Efforts were made to group certain aspects of production at 

times, such as the 1947 movement to concentrate warp spinning 

in 6- 4.28 But such attempts had little impact on the long-known 

problem of appalling transportation difficulties. As was noted in 

a 1948 supervisors’ meeting, there persisted “too many cases of 

waiting for material... in carding, twisting, and weaving.”29 Such a 

labyrinthine pattern had afflicted the mill for decades but was only 

given attention by the managers when they sought tax breaks from 

the city. 

When late in 1949 management did purchase a little new equipment, 

it bought:

96 unusually good Models E and Modified D, motor driven, Draper 

looms, to enlarge our capacity to produce 42 1/2” pin corduroy, at 

a cost of $165 each. We then scrapped 111 narrow, belt drive, fifty 

year old, side-cam looms, and reclaimed valuable useable parts... 

The looms are installed on felt pads to reduce vibration.30

Such an extreme example of too little, too late, and the apparent 

satisfaction in it, makes one wonder. Purchasing a few secondhand 

looms of an outmoded type, saving “valuable” parts from 50-yearold looms, and expecting felt pads to have a significant effect on 

serious vibration problems does not indicate a strong focus on the 

sort of things the mill needed. Whether the Directors prevented 

more useful changes cannot be determined. Motorizing looms and 

mounting them on felt continued. Old “K” models were widened 

to produce 48” pin-cord. Minor efforts continued, little was done. 

Later considerations of the mill’s final year (below) will contrast 

these measures with management’s statements regarding the 

nature of the situation. 

One technological change affecting conditions in #6 did not stem 

from the choices made in Lowell. Emma Belisle, Spinner in #6, 

complained in 1950 that the cotton was not as clean as before, 

left more dust on the frames and was more difficult to run. While 

management suggested that workers in preceding processes could 

cause bad work, it also noted that, “The machine-picked cotton 

now reaching us has more dust and dirt in it than the hand-picked 

cotton and it is not surprising if more dust is now occasionally seen. 

However, our management knows the problem and has taken steps 

to make corrections where and when necessary.”31 If this last were 

true, of course, the complaint would not have been made. 

A chart prepared in 1950 indicated amounts of money spent 

since 1939 on equipment for the various processes in the mill. 

Since #6 at this time was primarily a spinning and weaving 

mill, only those sections, along with the Office, are reproduced: 
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1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945

Office $ 

1,259.50

827.63 995.15 1,400.46 990.25 26,410.46 1,441.10

Weaving 1,887.48 11,000.00 2,293.95

Spinning 14,035.15 168.40 1377.75 951.25 122.50 1,525.65

LaboratoryInstrumentsTools265.58 944.28 294.15 2,019.10 239.42 376.80 948.50

1946 1947 1948 1949 to Mar 

1 1950

TOTALS

Office 1,802.80 454.84 701.97 2,296.29 38,580.45

Weaving 17,530.82 118.50 32,830.75

Spinning 1,075.00 57.65 558.68 1,292.81 21,164.84

LaboratoryInstrumentsTools373.84 92.99 5,554.66

32

In light of the outmoded nature of the equipment in place in 1939, 

remarkably little was done over the next decade. To have spent 

nothing on the antiquated weave rooms in seven of those years, to 

spend nothing or in the hundreds of dollars in spinning in seven of 

those years, did not suggest an effort to keep the plant current in 

the field, to say the least. 

The largest expenditures during this period went toward 

motorizing machinery rather than improving the mill’s capabilities 

through technological advance. Even in the case of the long-draft 

adaptation of the ring frames, the value of the improvement was 

severely limited by the fact that the frames still ran with the small 

rings available at their purchase dates in the teens, thus limiting 

them to producing uneconomically small packages of yarn. When, 

in 1954 and 1955 the equipment was appraised and sold, practically 

everything in #6 went for scrap. Some of the frames on 6-4 sold as 

secondhand machines, but otherwise it was only the motors and 

other auxiliary items such as bobbins, shuttles, and a monorail 

cleaning system in spinning that had resale value. The worn-out 

looms (some still belt-driven) and frames had no value except for 

scrap. The machinery had been run until it could no longer produce 

profit. Twenty-six dollars a ton defined its quality and value. When 

the mill closed, it was no longer an effective operation but simply 

a building full of junk. The significance of this period lies in the 

human side of the story, the relationship of the scrap to the people 

involved. 
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2. Work Environment 

a. Job Descriptions 

(1) Introduction 

This period saw the arrival of careful time-studies to the jobs in the 

Boott Mills. For the first time precise site-specific job descriptions 

became available and one can understand the operations and 

responsibilities of each position as never before. The extent to which 

practices and jobs were given definition at this time had obvious 

implications regarding the degree of job-definition previously. 

Because of the absence of change in the mill’s equipment, the 

earlier years of the period saw little or no change in work. The 

advent of wartime production first initiated alterations in standard 

practice (no easy thing to do). Labor turnover, unionization (which 

will be discussed below), the competitive squeeze and wartime 

opportunity to produce large quantities of goods at considerable 

profit all combined in efforts to rationalize production in ways 

which had not occurred before. 

(2) Training 

Labor turnover higher than the industry average had long 

plagued the Boott. Low wages and poor conditions, both in 

regard to production (and therefore earnings) and to working 

conditions generally, had represented a recurrent theme among 

both consultants and management spokesmen. Once the wartime 

situation emerged (and that happened well before the country’s 

entry, in fact in 1938) war production dominated all considerations. 

Among other things, that meant learners were employed despite 

the cost disadvantages they represented. As management noted in 

1944: 

Fortunately, we had quite a back-log of experienced employees and 

we certainly have increased our appreciation of them. 

The turnover which we encountered has largely been among the 

newer employees. We estimate that about 75% of our people have 

been with us since before the war. Some of them we once would 

have allowed to go with our blessing, but now we want them to 

stay even though they are not of high efficiency. The turnover 

you can see has been among 25% of our employees. To maintain 

this 25% we have trained more than 5,000 people during the war. 
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The recent record is that we had: 

1 year ago 1,403 employees 

Average last half of 1944 1,220 employees

Christmas low 1,155 employees

Present 1,201 employees

Our turnover has improved, in spite of the less fortunate experience 

locally and nationally. In fact, although 3% quit each month in 

1943, we are glad to say that progressively we slightly improved in 

1944 and were well under 2-1/2%.33

In light of other available information, and even in terms of this 

statement, the loss of experienced labor in this war-time period 

was enormous. The figure of 3% per month added up to 36% of the 

people working in the mill in a given year being new to the Boott, 

and, likely, to textile work. The concept of “our people” is better 

treated elsewhere. 

Turnover not only required extensive training programs, but also 

made the mill even more susceptible to dislocations within its 

production system. In 1943 JRF described the necessity of laying 

off loom fixers, not for any reason regarding their performance, but 

because turnover and absenteeism in the card department created 

a bottleneck.34

Turnover required that training become increasingly effective and 

fast. Examining the mill’s response informs about instruction and 

about the tasks to be learned. 

Recognizing the difficulties faced, management in 1941 called on the 

Office of Production Management, Northern New England District, 

Training Within Industry, Branch of Labor Division (OPM, NKED, 

TWI, BLD) to assist with the mill’s effort to confront the situation. 

(The war management effort rivaled the New Deal’s alphabet soup 

of agencies). The report of this office described efforts to train new 

employees at the Boott. One method used involved assigning new 

people to experienced workers who would teach the skills of the 

department involved. This system required an enlargement of the 

supervisory staff and became less able to keep up with demand as 

production moved from one to three shifts. Another approach was 

to set up a loom-fixers’ school in a room with 100 looms which had 

not run recently, had been scavenged somewhat, but which were 

usable machines. Trainees were put to work replacing missing or 

worn parts and getting these looms ready to run. Most of these 

trainees were males being upgraded from other jobs in the mill. 

Once these looms were operable, recently hired “girls” received 

instruction there and began to run the looms. As they learned to 

operate several looms at once they were inserted into the mill’s 
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weaverooms. This system worked well but became insufficient to 

the Boott’s needs, partly because of the amount of supervisory help 

it required, partly because it simply did not work quickly enough to 

meet the needs of the mill, and partly because the operation lacked 

standard machine settings and practices. Such standardization was 

essential to practical operation. 

The production experts recognized that the mill included tasks 

requiring a wide range of skill levels: 

There are a few jobs, such as bobbin-boys and bobbin-cleaners, which 

do not require much skill. A new employee can become effective in 

these jobs after a few days of experience. In the course of their duties 

they become somewhat familiar with other mill operations and 

accustomed to the noise and other peculiarities of a cotton mill. It 

is the policy of this mill to upgrade bobbin-cleaners to spinners and 

weavers, and bobbin-boys to weavers and from weavers to loomfixers or to some of the other operations in the mill. Supervisors are 

selected from the outstanding weavers or loom-fixers, spinners, or 

carders, so that there does appear to be a reasonable chance for job 

progression as opportunities permit. The four department heads are 

men who have worked their way up in the mill. 

Success in this program would lead to increased production and 

therefore earnings, and, it was hoped, reduced turnover. 

This study utilized meetings with the supervisors of the several 

departments to define some of the specific identifiable skills which 

the various jobs required. Efforts focused on weaving and loomfixing as areas in which certain tasks could be specified and taught 

in a standardized way. The importance of uniformity of approach 

was emphasized, and the problem of people on different shifts 

implementing contrasting solutions or treatments for problems 

indicated. 

b. Weave Room Instruction 

(1) Weaving 

As part of this analysis of training needs, the Office offered several 

“Exhibits” describing the particular tasks supervisors had brought 

up as both measurable and crucial. For weavers, they identified the 

skills that supervisors agreed were essential: 
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1. Tying the weaver’s knot 

2. Drawing in warp ends 

a) Drawing in new ends b. 

b) Repairing a broken warp thread 

3. Finding the pick 

4. Starting loom properly 

a) Properly placing shuttle in shuttle box 

b) Letting back warp yarn 

5. Keeping correct tension on cloth and warp 

6. Inspecting cloth for defects 

7. Inspecting warps to prevent stoppages35

They then prepared a sequential approach to those operations 

which would lend itself to teaching. One of the values of these 

descriptions is their ability to describe the work involved as a series 

of steps and make the skills more apparent to those to whom the 

work is unfamiliar, whether contemporary trainees or modern 

readers. Furthermore, since managers, then, and scholars, since, 

have often referred to the “unskilled” nature of much textile work, 

including weaving, it could be vaulable to consider the description 

of “Key Points” in the performance of one aspect of the several 

tasks associated with a weaver’s work. The OPM, NNED, TWI, 

BLD described drawing in a broken warp end, a common task: 

2. Determine location of broken end. 2a. Move crankshaft to position between 

bottom and front center. This will 

place harnesses in “center” position and release tension on warp 

threads. 

2b. Move stop motion feeler-finger and 

observe where fallen drop- wire 

is striking comb. On sliding bar, 

stop motion, observe where wire 

is caught between feeler-bar and 

holder.

3. Repair broken end. 3a. Remove broken end from position 

where it has fallen or become 

tangled, and make space for hands 

by sliding ends, heddles, and drop 

wires to either side of broken end.

4. Tie a piece of yarn on to broken end. Knot is to be so-called 

“weaver’s” knot, closely trimmed.

5. Relocate repaired end in its proper position.
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6. Insert weaver’s hook into hole 

in drop wire with right hand 

and with left hand hold repaired 

thread under hook as hook is 

pulled out of hole in drop wire 

with thread in slot on hook.

7. Locate proper heddle. This can be 

ascertained by checking location 

of thread in adjacent drop-wire.

7a. With left thumb and forefinger, hold 

heddle in opening made by sliding 

adjacent threads to right and left. 

Hold repaired thread between last 

two fingers of left hand. With right 

hand pass weaver’s hook into eye 

of heddle, catch thread in opening 

on end of hook and pull hook and 

thread through eye of needle.

8. Locate proper “dent” or opening 

in reed. You have had explained 

to you how many ends should 

be in each dent. To locate proper dent, check location of end 

adjacent right and left. Insert reed 

hook in opening and pull through 

repaired end.

8a. Slightly raise the warp ends to the 

left of the repaired end with last or 

two three fingers of left hand while 

holding the repaired end between 

thumb and forefinger. This will 

help find correct dent or opening 

more easily.

9. Start up loom. Push shuttle all the 

way into box. Move loom by hand 

to position beyond bottom center. 

Holding repaired end with right 

hand, pull shipper handle to “on” 

position with left hand.36

Before considering the job itself, one must remember the situation 

of the weaver. One of a number of looms he/she tended has 

stopped, signaling a problem. In the midst of the indescribable 

cacophony of the Weave Room, the weaver had to hurry to the idle 

machine and determine the cause of the stop. Piece work wages 

were halted as long as the loom was still, and the fear that another 

loom would need attention while this problem was treated carried 

the threat of a multiplying economic impact on the worker. Not 

only dexterity and good eyesight were required, but ability to work 

under pressure. Error in any of the steps described would create 

further difficulties. While the job might still not be seen to require 

brilliance, it begins to become clear that it did involve skills, and 

that the amount of pressure on the weaver’s performance increased 

rapidly in proportion to the number of looms tended. 

(2) Loom-Fixing 

After weaving, they addressed the more complex task of loom-fixing. 

Again, they provided an overall description and then a breakdown 

of the way in which the first listed goals were accomplished. This 

description indicated a few of the fixer’s tasks, but it must be 
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noted that in accomplishing these ends, the fixer confronted the 

particular difficulty that alteration of any one of the loom’s seven 

motions or its settings had an effect on all the others. Each motion 

had to be timed in synchronization with the others, and each 

setting affected timings and results elsewhere in the machine. For 

example, adjusting the binder on the shuttle box which decelerated 

the shuttle after it passed through the shed affected the timing of its 

arrival at the picker and the amount of power which was required 

to return it to the other side of the loom. Given that caveat on the 

greater than apparent difficulty of the tasks described, the Office’s 

program presented the fixer’s duties: 

1. Adjustment and setting of picking motion 

2. Aligning of box- plates and race-plate 

• Aligning of box-plates and reed 

• Centering the shuttle 

3. Boxing and checking shuttle 

• Adjusting of box fronts 

• Adjustment of binder-spring 

• Adjustment of check- straps 

4. Setting of protection devices 

• Adjustment of frogs, daggers, frog pieces 

5. Proper setting of harness mechanism 

• Adequate shed opening 

• Timing of harness movement 

6. Check filling-stop motion 

7. Check feeler, transfer mechanisms, and cutters 

8. Proper lubrication 

9. Periodic inspection and adjustment to prevent stoppage and 

breakage37

Such a list is far from eloquent in describing the variety and 

complexity of tasks facing a loom-fixer. Many of the adjustments 

required careful judgment, and even those which were supposed 

to be checked with a gauge required increasing skill as looms aged 

and wore. In the case of the Boott, this included all production 

looms. 

These descriptions suggested the efforts of the training campaign 

and introduce one to some of the intricacies of the work at the Boott. 

The need to prepare the training programs indicated the informal 

ways in which workers had generally learned the jobs previously. 

Family connections were common in the industry, as were others, 
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such as nationality, which would enable a prospective worker to 

come to the factory with an educator already lined up. The demands 

of the war on the country’s productive capacity eliminated the 

luxury of time which inefficient instruction demanded. The Boott’s 

inability to compete with other employers for the available talent 

required it to come up with new methods to train replacements 

for the employees continually lost to better jobs. The necessity 

for careful efforts to improve training, as well as the descriptions 

it produced of job breakdowns, reveals a level of complexity for 

textile work which belies the standard accounts which dismiss it as 

unskilled. 

c. Job Specifications 

The advent of an overall union- management relationship during 

this period led to careful measuring of the elements in each job 

in the mill. Ongoing negotiations between management and 

the employees’ authorized bargaining agent (as made possible 

by federal legislation establishing the workers’ right to such 

organization), the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA), 

CIO, produced efforts to create precise measurement of each job. 

Management hired a New York engineering firm, Albert Raimond 

and Associates, to define each operative’s tasks. The results went 

to Solomon Barkin, Director of Research for the TWUA, in New 

York. These descriptions enable the current student to observe how 

time and motion study engineers applied the system formalized by 

Taylor’s “Scientific Management” to textile production. They also 

show exactly what the worker described did, second by second, in 

performing a task, and give the standards upon which all discussion 

of wages, assignments, or other matters discussed between union 

and management were based. 

Raimond developed this set of job specifications over a period of 

several months in 1945. At the outset, the report established certain 

presuppositions cited as traditionally accepted in the industry: 

Textile mills operate in general two or three shifts per day. It is 

an accepted and well understood basis that all employees turn 

over their jobs to the operatives on the next shift in good running 

condition, without interruption of production. 

Contact between the two operatives on succeeding shifts is based on 

a mutual respect for each other, on the above understanding that 

each leaves the job in proper order for the other to take over. 

It is well established that all machinery is to be kept running all of 

each shift, except for well-defined periods of stoppages for cleaning 
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and repairs.

It is well established that no smoking is permitted in a cotton mill. 

It is well established and understood that supervisors; are responsible 

for discipline and have the authority it implies.38

Operating on the assumption that rules are not made against things 

which people do not do, one suspects that the work in the mill 

may well have been proceeding so poorly that these elementary 

conditions were not being met, or he would not have mentioned 

them. Careful measurement of the jobs could not erase the effects 

of many years of difficult operating conditions and bad feelings. 

Before job analysis and measurement could begin, an assumption 

had to be established that employees would work together and 

operate the machines for the requisite amount of time each shift. 

Having stated that assumption, Raimond could proceed to assess 

each position. 

(1) Spinning Room 

The report’s treatment of the job of Spinner stands as an example of 

the technique employed. The work was described first as a list of the 

tasks which, combined, represented all the types of work included; 

second, the assignment was defined, the number of spindles to be 

tended on a certain type of yarn production; third, a schedule listed 

the regularity with which various functions were to be performed; 

finally, the elements, or parts of tasks, were considered, along with 

the amount of time required for each, in order to explain and justify 

both the work assignment and the rate of pay for it. 

Raimond’s description of a Spinner’s job illustrated this process. 

He listed the tasks: 

Keep machines in operation to produce yarn of uniform size and 

continuous length of standard quality 

Start and stop machines 

Observe safety rules 

Piece up broken yarn and roving properly 

Remove defective roving and yarn 

Place waste in proper receptacles 

Report machines out of order promptly 

Assist in emergencies involving danger to fellow worker, plant, 

machinery or interruption to production 
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Replace nearly run out roving bobbins 

Observe cleaning schedule 

Remove laps from rolls 

Replace travelers 

Remove, clean and replace clearers 

Clean roller beam by passing board 

Clean spindles to properly seat bobbins 

Record clock readings 

Remove, clean and replace top rolls 

Remove accumulation of lint 

Keep record of production 

This description moved from the general to the specific, breaking 

down the work of spinning into its constituent parts. The list did 

not add up to a complete account of the job; other workers, with 

their own assignments, contributed much of the effort needed to 

accomplish the spinning. 

The idea of what a worker could accomplish related to the 

contributions of others and to the material being processed. The 

above tasks were assigned to a Spinner: “On basis of 1656 spindles 

for #16 1/2 combed warp yarn running at 140 R.P.M. and having 

14 oz. roving in creel and 30 ends down per 1000 spindles hours. 6 

Patrols per hr.” The product was precisely defined, along with the 

operating speed of the machine, weight of raw material, anticipated 

amount of breakage (which would require repair), and the number 

of trips around the 1656 spindles the worker was expected to make 

in an hour. Production was also defined, in this case as 32.5 hanks 

per forty hours. 

Frequency of operations was specified, as well. A cleaning schedule 

specified the areas of the machines to be cleaned per 40 hours, per 

shift, every 2-1/2 hours, every doff, and as needed. Finally, all 

elements were assigned what Raimond considered an appropriate 

amount of time: 10.5 seconds to “piece up yarn break (all),” or 

“Patrolling double creel per side, 35 seconds,” or “ Clean creel 

and pick lint in roving, 114 spindles--double creel--240 seconds 

per side.” All of these functions were ultimately multiplied by the 

frequency of the chore to determine a total assignment and its pay.39

Such analyses offered the most precise description available, 

perhaps imaginable, for not simply the job, but the job as done 

in the Boott. References to “Patrolling” reflected the belief that a 

Spinner worked most efficiently by moving through the area of 

responsibility at a steady pace and direction performing tasks on the 
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frames as the job descriptions or the needs of the moment dictated, 

but not reversing direction, for example, to piece up an end which 

broke after the worker passed. This procedure represented a new, 

“scientific” approach to the job. 

These job definitions represented optimal procedure. The 

assignments they provided did not reflect such ideal circumstances, 

and these workloads continued as a source of controversy until the 

mill closed. 

Comparably complete information existed for each of the jobs 

in the mill. They offer an opportunity to consider the many jobs 

of the people working in #6. They remind one that the Spinner’s 

assignment assumed the contribution of a Doffer, a Fixer, a Roll 

Picker, a Sweeper, and a Cleaner, each with duties as carefully 

measured and assigned as the Spinner’s. 

(2) Weave Room 

Raimond’s effort to determine standard assignments proceeded 

through all the mill’s departments. In weaving, one found not only 

a Weaver, but also Fixer, Battery Hand, Filling Boy, and Loom 

Cleaner, suggesting once again the extent to which the division 

of labor, the specialization of tasks, had been carried. Each of 

these positions was as thoroughly measured as had been those 

in Spinning. The description of the Weaver’s Job Specifications 

permitted a further understanding of the effort and skill associated 

with this job traditionally described as requiring little skill or 

training: 

Keep a group of looms in operation to produce maximum production of highest quality cloth 

Observe safety rules 

Repair broken warp threads 

Draw threads through drop wire, heddle, reed 

Start and stop looms 

Remove incomplete picks on filling threads from cloth 

Pick up shuttles, thread same and place in proper position for 

starting loom 

Remove empty or bad bobbins from shuttle and replace 

Report looms out of order 

Start loom so no defect is in cloth, by “finding the pick” and “letting back” 

Inspect warp and remove bad yarn, lint 
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Adjust weights 

Adjust temples Inspect cloth on looms 

Remove cloth from loom 

Keep record of production 

Mark cloth with chalk 

Assist in emergencies involving danger to fellow workers, plant, 

machinery, or interruption to production 

The concepts of “maximum production” and “highest quality” 

defined the two conflicting pressures under which these, and other 

production workers, labored. The next few tasks repeated the 

general descriptions of weaving found throughout accounts of this 

type of work. However, several points revealed the requirement 

of judgment and expertise generally denied this classification of 

workers. 

After finding and repairing a mistake, the Weaver had to turn the 

loom backward until the harness position at which the fault had 

begun was found (“finding the pick”). In order to avoid a fault, the 

cloth on the take-up beam had to be “let back” to the point where a 

resumption of operation would produce cloth with neither a thick 

nor a thin spot. This was not done by rule or gauge, but by feel and 

experience. More complicated looms, and cloth, accentuated this 

difficulty, and the Boott’s 20-harness dobbies ranked high in the 

level of difficulty presented. Similarly, adjusting the weights on the 

warp-tension mechanism had to be done with skill as the size of the 

warp beam changed during weaving. These and other aspects of 

the assignments made demands which were completely met only 

by well-trained and experienced weavers, despite the fact that the 

looms employed were denominated “automatic looms.” 

The Job Specifications helped describe the work which took place 

at the Boott. They also aimed to measure the amount of work which 

could be expected and to prescribe the manner in which the work 

should be accomplished. They were important as an indication of 

how management believed work should be performed, evaluated, 

and compensated. They were also significant as the basis from 

which management and the union would discuss their differences 

over the relationship between Raimond’s idealized opinion and 

actual operation. 

d. Work Loads 

While the job descriptions portrayed tasks and suggested 

assignments, issues of workloads festered throughout this period. 
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Consultants continually indicated that loads could not be increased 

without improvement in conditions, as has been noted. Continual 

efforts at such increases were made and it cannot always be 

determined whether or not conditions had gotten better. One of the 

problems posed by the war and the accompanying loss of skilled 

employees to better-paying jobs was that the new help could not 

always work up to performance standards; in order to keep any 

help, the mill had to pay them a minimum wage. Experienced 

workers then had little incentive to work efficiently, since to do so 

resulted in little income difference over those whose work did not 

meet standards. This problem further complicated a historically 

troublesome disagreement. 

The dispute between workers and management on the issue of 

increasing workloads during this period was constant. Various 

sources permit descriptions of the conflicts in terms of spinners, 

doffers, weavers, battery hands, loom-fixers and others in #6. 

Rather than describe each of these conflicts, a concentration on one 

job, spinning, permits a more thorough account which includes 

individual workers and represents the type of situation which was 

repeated throughout the mill. 

A 1943 description suggested something of the nature of the work, 

its difficulties, and the difference in point of view between the 

management and the worker on piecework: 

Results of spending 45 minutes with E. Ntapalis, a spinner, who 

works in 6-5 running eight sides of No. 15 combed warp... During 

this period she had to piece up 64 ends and put in 26 new rovings. 

This is equivalent to 120 operations per hour. It was noticed that 

whenever she put in a new roving she would attach the end of the 

roving to the roving of the second bobbin and break off the roving 

that was running out. Each time she did this there would be an 

average of three or four inches where 3 strands of roving were being 

drafted instead of 2. lt was also noticed that at times apparently the 

traveler would be sticking and the spinner would touch her finger 

to one of the bearings getting a small quantity of oil on the tip of 

her finger, transferring it to the traveler and then piecing up. This 

would give you an oily place in the yarn. The accompanying card 

shows the various types of piecings that this spinner made. Mr. 

Lemire, supervisor of this room, said this was a very good spinner. 

In talking with Mr. Bourgeault about it, he said that every time a 

piecing was made we would get a slub.40

Ntapalis cared only about production and had little incentive 

to correct the situation regarding a sticky traveler or to piece up 

ends with care. Faulty supervision permitted the situation to 

persist. During the mid-forties a continuing dispute arose over 

management’s effort to increase workloads in the spinner-doffer 
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job. Angelina (a.k.a. Emma) Belisle was first-shift union steward 

and a spinner on 6-4. She participated in committee meetings with 

various supervisors both on the floor and in the Counting House 

and performed, and argued about, the work under discussion. 

Most of the information available comes from John Rogers Flather’s 

notebooks from the period.41

When management wanted to raise workloads in Spinning in 1945, 

it encountered difficulties from a joint advisory committee on 

which Belisle served (discussed below): 

It was brought out that Mrs. Belisle’s present job, 16 frames, kept 

her working approximately 21 minutes out of each hour, and that 

all we were asking her and the other doffers to do was to work 

approximately 35 minutes out of each hour, or 1400 minutes per 

week, out of 2400, leaving the doffers with 1000 minutes, or 16 

hours and 40 minutes per week idle time. The trend in Mrs. Belisle’s 

mind seemed to be that she wanted the doffers to work about one 

hour and then be permitted to leave the mill for an hour or more, 

and still be paid full time. 

While one would like another version of the meeting, the conflict 

was clear. Doffers were removing and replacing about 500 bobbins 

per hour. When the committee moved through the spinning rooms 

to view the work, some workers were waiting for frames to fill up 

and were seen eating lunches or reading newspapers. Performance 

was less than was specified by a 1937 Board of Conciliation and 

Arbitration agreement (below). However, one finds here no 

mention of the problems cited by consultants and workers which 

made workloads and earnings hard to predict: changing yarn 

counts, transportation delays, poor or poorly prepared stock, 

varying machine speeds, etc. The doffers felt they were being 

pushed toward doubling their performance without an increase in 

pay. 

Complicating the situation further was a belief that some doffers in 

6-4 were reporting more work than they performed. Yarn spun and 

bobbins doffed balanced in other rooms, but not in 6-4, where the 

first shift reported 50% higher production than the second. 

Union officials complained of mismanagement, shortages of roving 

and bobbins, and a lack of expertise at the top. Flather routinely 

dismissed criticism of management and material. 

A year later the dispute continued. In visiting 6-4, problems were 

seen but the engineering department described each as the fault 

of the Fixer, Roll Picker, or Spinner. Some workers managed to 

keep their frames running while others allowed several to stop 
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with full bobbins and did not keep up with the work. Problems, 

from management’s viewpoint, stemmed from labor’s refusal to do 

sufficient work and the union’s refusal to enforce the mill’s desires. 

The conflict in point of view was as old as the mill itself. Many 

factors had contributed to the poor relationship which made the 

disagreement so total at this point, and the advent of the union 

had given workers both strength and a voice with which to protest 

expectations they found unreasonable. 

The end of the war in 1946 led to diminished work in 1947. All 

warp spinning for the Boott was concentrated on 6-4 in order to 

reduce the number of employees and improve efficiency. Disputes 

over spinning assignments continued, and management persisted 

in its belief that the stock was running well enough (breaking and 

requiring repair seldom enough) to permit an assignment of an 

increased number of sides (of spinning frames). John Flather noted 

visiting Spinning with a union representative and finding few ends 

down, even while Belisle left her frames to talk with the union man. 

He also noted that the Fixer on the floor, Joe Comtois, was found in 

an “empty storage room in the adjoining building,... sitting on the 

window sill.” Not enough work going on to please the office, and 

an effort at arbitration was attempted, in keeping with the union 

contract. However, the arbitrators sent the question back to the mill 

for a further attempt at changing workloads, with management 

looking toward 900 bobbins per hour; management resumed its 

study. While they felt twelve sides per spinner was the right load, 

they decided to attempt ten sides: 

Before the spinners change was made, a change was made eliminating 

one section hand and one sweeper, increasing the work assignment 

of the 2 fixers who remained and the 2 sweepers who remained. This 

had been done without comment from the union. 

Similarly, we increased the doffer assignment from 450 to about 

600 bobbins per hour. This was done without any comment from 

the union. It goes without saying the Gionet, Hawks, Hopkinson, 

Dutton and the Room Supervisor, had been concentrating on the 

Spinning Department to be sure that the conditions were favorable 

to permit the change in these assignments to go smoothly. 

In 6-4 yesterday the spinners were running 8 sides on 23s combed 

and 23s carded. Today they were told that the assignment was to 

be 10 sides. 

The frames were to require 6 spinners, whereas heretofore it 

required 7-1/2 spinners. Each of the 6 spinners was spoken to by the 

supervisor, one at a time, and explained what their new assignment 
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was. The spare spinners were kept in case of any difficulty, so that 

they could be used to step in, in case of a break. If everything went 

smoothly as expected, they were to be transferred somewhere else. 

The first one spoken to was Jennie Slowik, who said she would take 

10 sides if the rest of the room would take them, and then proceeded 

to run 10 sides without comment. 

The second spinner was Miss Lambros. She took the 10 sides but 

suggested a different layout, and she proceeded to run 10 sides. 

The third one was Catherine Economou. She made no comment and 

proceeded to run 10 sides. 

The next one was Angeline Harne. She declined to take 10 sides and 

kept on attending 8 sides. She was told that there was no work for 

her if she did not carry out this assignment. She said she would not 

leave and proceeded to run 8 sides. 

The next person was Mary Richard. She said 10 sides would make 

her nervous and declined to run them. 

Blanche Dempsey was next, and when she was asked to run 10 sides 

she willingly accepted the 10 sides and proceeded to run them. 

Next was Contance Economou. She declined to run 10 sides. 

Bessie Karas - She willingly accepted 10 sides. 

At about 6: 15 AM Richard and Harne went up to speak to Mrs. 

Belisle, the head steward. The conversation was not overheard by 

the supervisor, but when the spinners came away, after talking with 

her, they still refused to run 10 sides. 

Hopkinson, Cheetham and Dutton then went up and spoke to 

Mrs. Belisle, the head steward, and requested her to explain to the 

spinners that they should try that assignment, and she said the 

union had instructed the spinners that they were not to take more 

sides, and that if anyone refused and was suspended or sent out, the 

other spinners would all sit down and not work at all. She ended 

by saying - “Let the head of the union come down and straighten 

it out”. 
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In view of this opposition and complete lack of cooperation from the 

steward, we told them to go back on 8 sides pending arrival of Mr. 

Hodgman, head of the union. 

Flather’s account reflected in many ways the mill’s new situation. 

He acknowledged the cooperation of the union in the elimination 

of certain positions, and tacitly admitted the problems which had at 

times plagued the operation in noting the efforts of the supervisors 

to make sure the work was running well when the changes were 

implemented. That the Assistant Treasurer would participate 

in this effort indicated the new relationship, the new degree of 

power on the workers’ side. The degree to which the workers were 

personalized indicated that a new awareness of their individuality 

grew out of their collective strength. 

Belisle’s idea that the union representatives should “come down and 

straighten it out,” a reflection of her use of the new organization, was 

followed. Without that presence, that assistance, Flather had seen 

that he could not impose the policy. Despite the effort to make the 

work run well on this day, Belisle feared that the conditions might 

well change, revert to what she had experienced as normal. The 

union believed that the change required fuller explanation in order 

to make the employees agree to try it, and after two explanations by 

two union representatives, it was accepted. Collective bargaining 

had fulfilled the fears of Lowell’s investors throughout its 

existence: labor had a voice, an opportunity to interfere formally 

with production, in contrast to its informal techniques in the past. 

This episode stood for a series of such efforts and confrontations 

throughout the period. Battles over loads with the loom-fixers 

went on steadily, sometimes going to arbitration, at others causing 

strikes. Arbitrators found fault on both sides. They criticized the 

mill’s layout, the condition of the machines, and management 

policy and attitude (for example a fear of the fixers), just as had 

numerous consultants for decades. They also faulted the conduct 

of the employees as careless, uncooperative with one another, and 

performing less than a full day’s work. 

Things had run badly for so long that no one expected them to 

run properly. Given the condition of the building and machines 

at this point, probably nothing could have produced an efficient 

operation. In any case, no changes were made to the direction of the 

operation, nor to the equipment. As had traditionally been the case 

in Lowell, improvements were expected to come out of the workers 

end of the operation, not from improved machinery or direction. 

Unfortunately, the entire operation by this time lacked the leeway 

which would permit such an approach to deal adequately with the 

difficulties faced. 
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3. Wages 

A number of new factors came to affect wages at this time: 

The National Recovery Administration [NRA], Massachusetts 

arbitration boards, an industrial union, and wartime federal 

measures. As a rule, Boott wages fluctuated as a function of the Fall 

River- New Bedford scale, in a relationship management worked 

hard to adjust to what they saw as their special situation. Newly 

arisen conglomerates such as the American Woolen Company and 

the Textron group also affected wages in New England. 

During the first years of the Depression, wages fell 10 per cent on 

two occasions, in 1932 and 1933. Not until 1939 did they rise above 

1931 levels, despite the factors assisting labor at the time. In 1933, 

Boott employees earned the following rates for a week of straight 

time (During most of the period the 40- hour week represented the 

standard): 

Pay Schedule Adopted By Fall River & New Bedford

Textile Councils July 31, 1933

B.M

40 Hours

Doffers $13.00 13.00 D

W F

Ring Spinners 15.00 14.70 to 16.44 P

Doffers 16.00 19.04 P

Spoolers (Cotton) 15.00 15.00 P

Winders 16.00 (from Skeins) 15.00 P Foster

Knotter Portable 23.00 24.00 P

Helpers 16.50 20.00 P

Weaving - Plain Non- Auto 16.50 --

Weaving - Auto 18.00 18.05 P

Weaving - Fancy Non- Auto 18.50 --

Weaving - Fancy Box & Auto 19.00 Dobby 19.32 P

Weaving - Jacquard 20.25 18.05 - Woven 

Name

Weaviong - Side Cam 20.25 P

Smash Piecer Room- hand 17.00 15.16 D

Loom Fixers 26.00 26.96 D

Changers 23.00 20.32 D42

This increase of about $4 per week led to a flurry of activity on the 

mill’s part to determine Fall River workloads and compare them to 

the Boott in hopes of altering this effect. 
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Following reductions in 1932 and 1933, increases in 1936 and 1937, 

another reduction hit in 1938:

Jan. 20/38

40-Hour Base Rates of Pay

Boott

Job

N.B.

-12-1/2% 1937 2/7/38

Ring Spinners 16.41 20.39 17.83

Spin. Doffers 18.29 20.90 18.29

Ring Twisters 18.00 20.74 18.15

Ring Tw. Doffers 15.89 17.00 14.87

Spooler Tenders 15.89 18.40 16.10

Tie-In Girls 15.89 20.08 17.55

Warper Tenders 16.94 24.96 21.84

Slasher Tenders 23.30 26.40 23.10

Weavers Pl. Auto 19.05 21.62 18.92

Weavers Dobby Auto 20.10 23.16 20.26

Weavers S.C. 24.26 21.21

Weavers X 25.47 22.28

Smash Pr. (Rm. Hd.) 18.00 18.35 16.05

Loom Fixers 27.50 31.46 27.50343

Small wages, and prone to shrinkage, they followed the ups and 

downs of the national economy, as Lowell wages always had. 

The Treasurer summarized the trends in 1940: 

Dec. 14, 1936, Boott made a flat 10% increase to all employees in 

step with New Bedford and a group of Northern mills. Boott took 

the position with representatives of the group that it would be a 

mistake. 

Jan. 12, 1937, Boott made an increase of 8 1/2% to fixers only. This 

was awarded to the fixers by the State Board of Conciliation and 

Arbitration. Boott complied under protest. 

March 19, 1937, Boott made a flat increase of 10% to all, again in 

step with New Bedford and a group of Northern mills. Boott again 

expressed itself to some of the group as deploring their action. 

The three above advances made a total to fixers of 31.28%. 
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May 3, 1937, a C.I.O. strike for a 20% advance for all and a written 

contract occurred. It lasted until June 15th, or six weeks. They all 

came back to work with no advance and no contract. 

Feb. 7, 1938, Boott made a reduction of 12 1/2% flat to all, in step 

with New Bedford. 

About last November, a few mills in Fall River raised wages 7%, 

and were followed by a majority of the mills in Massachusetts and 

by some in nearby states. 

The Boott declined to follow. 

The Boott fixers made a demand for 7% increase for themselves. No 

other group in the mill have made any demand.44

Flather, Sr.’s commentary was interesting in a number of ways. The 

Boott resisted, complained about, and tried to circumvent every 

increase, despite the fact that other mills found them acceptable. 

When possible, they refused to follow the regional standard and 

seemed to count it as an accomplishment that only their one 

organized group of workers, the Loom Fixers, made official demands 

for a raise. Despite the litany of consultants’ complaints about 

every aspect of the mill’s operation, there was a continual effort 

to place as much of the pressure, stemming from the Depression 

and from competition, on the employees, and to claim success for 

the operation as a whole when the effort was sustainable, despite 

the resulting antagonistic attitude on the part of the workers. The 

loom-fixers’ dispute dragged on in arbitration and in the courts for 

two years until a judge ruled that the arbitrators had erred in failing 

to consider both workload and pay in its decision. The criticism of 

both sides in the dispute has already been noted. 

During the war, the mill lost many workers to better-paying jobs. 

Wages rose somewhat to compete, but hiring novices, particularly 

women, offered the path of least resistance, or the cheapest solution, 

at least. After the war, other problems emerged, according to the 

Treasurer: 

Those employees who left for “cost-plus” munition works formed 

bad habits regarding easy money and soldiering on the job, and are 

now preferring “The Nine o’clock $20 Club” tax free per week, to 

minimum pay of $26 per week, which less about 10% withholding 

tax, is $23.40. They reason that to get $3.40 per week, they would 

have to work 40 hours.45
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The slight difference between unemployment compensation and 

Boott Mill earnings underlined the low level of the wages. 

During the period 1938-1947 wages rose slowly, a few cents per 

hour per year for those making production quotas. In 1948, union 

negotiations resulted in a new contract which specified both pay 

and initial workloads. After a year under the contract, management 

boasted that despite the wage increase, increased production had 

actually lowered labor costs. At the end of 1949, management 

paid each worker a $12.50 bonus.46 In 1950, New England owners 

responded to CIO pressure, in wartime conditions, with a 10 

percent pay hike. In 1951 a 6 1/2 percent raise followed at the Boott. 

The next year, in keeping with the decision of an arbitrator in a Fall 

River case, the last increase was rescinded. At no time after the war 

did raises keep pace with increases in the cost of living. 

The latest available set of hourly rates for the Boott were from 1952, 

before the 6 1/2 percent raise had been rescinded: 

Doffer, Spinning Frame 1.41

Spinner, Ring Frame 1.32

Loom fixers (Plain & Dobby) 1.745

Weavers, Dobby 1.47 Avg.

Weavers, Plain --

Battery Hands 1.21

Truckers 1.165 47

The range, from about $1.16 to $1.75, while above the minimum 

wage, and above the southern wages about which management 

complained so constantly, offered low compensation to the 

employees of a faltering mill. The average, $1.38, fell slightly below 

that of other New England mills. 

The period 1931-1954 brought little change, then, in the area of 

Boott wages, despite the advent of industrial unionism as fostered 

by New Deal legislation. Pay at this mill remained below the 

average for other mills in New England, and since work was 

sporadic, yearly income was even more adversely affected. Many 

of the better workers left for other jobs, and those who stayed felt 

underpaid and unwilling to see their work assignments extended. 

As had long been the case, Boott wages were low for textiles and 

textile wages were low for manufacturing work in the region. 

4. Labor-Management Relations 
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a. Management View 

While a number of aspects of the relationship between the two 

parties at the mill, management and labor, were altered by federal 

legislation during the 1930s and 1940s, traditional attitudes were 

not necessarily changed. Management’s perspective revealed 

itself in a variety of ways. The Flathers were in turn manipulative, 

concerned, condescending, perplexed, and mistrustful. When 

wages were to be raised, they consulted with their “Senior French 

Canadian Supervisor” in order to make the timing most effective. 

They employed “women in as many operations as possible, as 

being easier to train and more stable.”48 When workers did not 

come in, someone from the office visited their residence to check 

up on them.49 When a veteran returned home they complained 

that “his family (our employees) takes time off to help him spend 

his money.”50 If employees were “rewarded” it was because, 

“we felt like giving a bonus to everyone.”51 If employees were to 

be accommodated, it was by agreeing to have a meeting in the 

Smoking Room so the “boys” could have a smoke.52 These were 

not simply the mannerisms of the time, but added up to a steady 

disregard for the workers as people with interests and expectations, 

with an existence, rights, and opinions of their own. It suggested 

the maintenance of the distance which permitted the decision to 

allow the mill to gradually deteriorate over a period of time, while 

the equity the employees had helped build up was used for the 

benefit of the owners at the expense of the workers. Inherent in all 

these comments and actions was a belief that labor was less than a 

full partner in the operation, that the decisions and interests of the 

managers and the investors were independent of and superior to 

those of the employees. Further, there was a clear assumption that 

the managers could better decide for labor what the best course 

of action was for it, unrecognizing of the separation between 

their points of view and actual best interests. It is axiomatic that 

paternalism of this sort, while expressing kindness for the recipient, 

at the same time reserves to itself control over the well- being of 

the beneficiary. Management knew better than the workers what 

was good for them, it believed. The degree to which it could have 

an insidious effect on its supposed beneficiaries could be seen in 

the decision to allow the operation to run itself into the ground, a 

decision made for the benefit of the investor s and at the expense of t 

hose who had created the equity involved. In making that decision, 

the Boott Directors were typical of, rather than an exception to, the 

pattern of the industry. 

b. Labor View 

Records of individual responses from workers are rare, but a recent 

interview by Judith K. Dunning with Harry Dickenson, loom- fixer 

and union officer in #6, offers a bit of a reply. His commentary 

about entering the mill offers an interesting counterpoint to 
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the nineteenth- century resentment of Agent Cumnock and his 

associates regarding the Commonwealth’s attitude toward the 

existence of a permanent class of mill-workers: 

No. He didn’t have to teach you, you were suppose to be in the 

mill. What was good for your mother and sisters, you were suppose 

to be. That’s the worst part of it, I think that is the worst part of 

any family, you don’t give the kids a chance to get interested in 

anything else. You have to be a mill rat. That’s what they used to 

call them, mill rats. My brother was awful strong on that, he was 

all mill.53

Dickenson indicates the extent to which going into the mill 

could represent thwarted ambition, the loss of an opportunity to 

choose, caused in part by the family’s need for the income of every 

member to survive. Low wages meant an early end to school and 

little opportunity to learn a trade, a process which might not pay, 

and help support the family, at first. Dickenson’s account, given 

twenty-five years after the mills closed, also reflects labor’s concern 

with the operation of the mill, its knowledge and frustration, as 

well as the somewhat rose- colored memory which casts the best 

light possible on the work that had been his life: Some mills you know are run better than others on account of 

management. The Boott, we used to go to work there and I’d rather 

go to work there than go to the show. Everyone was pleasant. The 

head of the mill, he started putting his sons in there... Before, they 

used to hire a man to run the mill that knew the business. Now, 

when they started putting the sons in there that had come out 

college it was a different story altogether... 

What he [Frederick Jr.) did was breaking down the standards of 

foremanship. He’d take a man off a junk pile and put him in the 

mill as a foreman. He really ruined the mill. But John he was older 

than Frederick, you could talk to him, he had more reason. Frederick 

seemed to take charge and you couldn’t do anything about it. When 

I was foreman, you know in the mill you have got to have heat, 

warm, and then you’ve got to have humidity and you can’t have 

no drafts. The drafts in the weaveroom causes static electricity and 

it dries everything up... So, I had trouble there and kept asking 

for more heat but all they did was just laugh at me. Some of the 

weavers were having a hard time and there was a place there, next 

to where the weaveroom was there was an empty room and it was 

wide open. Every so often there was a window there, it was open. 

So the weavers couldn’t do nothing. You know what I mean, work 

hard for nothing. So I spoke to another guy, I was fixing looms then. 

I said “Give me the right to close those windows...
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He [FAF, Jr.] came through and saw it. Ordered them all down, 

all the windows open again. So, you couldn’t do nothing. It’s 

unbelieveable, any millman, and I can prove it if they want to prove 

it, that went to work, them weavers had gone to work in the morning 

and worked with their sweaters on and coats and rubbers on. The 

people was willing to do their work and produce if the management 

will give them the necessary things to do with.54

Dickenson’s commentary reads like a summary of the many hired 

consultants. His evident satisfaction in his work when it went well, 

and his obvious frustration with poor operating conditions, parallels 

the advice received for decades. Heat and humidity problems 

had long been noted, as had the unpleasant working conditions 

related to them. Poor management of the mill had appeared more 

and more often in the reports from this period, the time after the 

days when mill men, cotton experts, oversaw the cotton process. 

Dickenson’s words give life to the abstraction of “Labor” of whom 

the consultants wrote and with whom management dealt as it made 

the determinations which would lead to the mill’s closing. 

c. Unionization 

During the 1930s and 1940s management had to learn to deal with 

labor in new ways which conflicted with its paternalistic attitude. 

In the past, dealings generally took place in confrontations between 

the office and a small, skilled, loosely organized group. As late as 

1935 the Treasurer described such a relationship: 

R. What are the labor unions doing? 

F. They will do what they can to reduce our profit. We have 

them out on a limb. 

A. What is that -- “out on a limb”?. 

F. Daigle, politician and real estate dealer and farmer and 

assessor for the Town of Dracut -- these fellows picked him up to 

be their leader. He started an organization called the Loomfixers 

Club, and he made trouble for us about two years ago. We sent a 

couple of smart young fellows there to see the people at their houses 

when he didn’t know it, and he got tired of this and resigned. Then 

we had the man Alliades, a Greek lawyer. We got our loomfixers 

pretty well tamed. Jerry Sullivan came down. We got rid of him 

pretty well. I used to buy shoes of his Father. I showed him one 

mill. He said, “The trouble with these loomfixers is they are not 

doing work enough.” He dropped out and then we had Alliades, 
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the Greek lawyer. They hired him in the Textile Workers Protective 

Association in Lowell, and pretty nearly everything in Lowell was 

in this. A young lady rang up Rogers [JRF], and said they wanted 

to send down a committee. Rogers said he couldn’t do that until 

he know who it was. Every little while the girl rang up and asked, 

“What about that appointment” Rogers said, “We haven’t got your 

committee yet.” Some of them got disaffected. They said they were 

turned off and that we discriminated. They went up to headquarters, 

and were told that they would compel us to do so and so. We found 

that one fellow was laid off legitimately. 

A. Was he a loomfixer 

JRF. No, a weaver. 

F. The policy of the Boott Mills now is to get the labor leaders 

out on a limb.55

This description applied to a situation of intimidation and control. 

Personalities were seen as the significant factors and paternalism 

prevailed. 

The combination of unemployment and poverty, plus federal 

legislation, which marked the Depression era, led to the most active 

resistance to such attitudes Lowell had ever seen. Strikes hit the 

Boott often after 1930. One occurred in 1933 and another in 1934. In 

the second, the Loomfixers’ Club, the Textile Workers’ Protective 

Association, and the United Textile Workers represented different 

constituencies and conflicting points of view. The importance of 

the loomfixers to the operation enabled them to halt production 

despite the desire of some to return to work, thus delaying an 

end to the conflict. By October, however, the strike, which began 

in September, had ended and the mill stated it hired back more 

workers than it felt were needed in order to avoid charges of 

discrimination and bad feelings.56 

In May of 1937 workers again struck the mill. Management refused 

their demand to recognize the CIO or to raise wages. It claimed 

that the Greeks employed violence to intimidate the French 

and sought an injunction. The State Board of Conciliation and 

Arbitration [SBCA] recommended that the strike be ended without 

discrimination against any employee, a Grievance Committee be 

established, and the Textile Workers Organization Committee 

[TWOC] be recognized as bargaining agent. This settlement held 

until October, when the doffers went out for two days. The Board 

got them to return on the basis that they would receive the work 
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load and wages to be agreed upon in the Fall River-New Bedford 

dispute.57

By the early 1940’s a new figure entered the picture; he was seen 

in terms similar to those previously applied to union organizers at 

the Boott: 

A neighboring cotton mill fell victim to an ambitious independent 

local Greek organizer, Louis Vergados. He first usurped the throne 

of the old Loomfixers’ Club, fired its old-time officials, flattered the 

French making Valencourt President of the Loomfixers’ Club, but 

eclipsed that Club by a greater new organization, patterned after 

the tricky shoe shop organizations (which found fertile ground 

in the fly-by-night shoe shops), and is call the “Lowell Textile 

Independent Union,” Louis Vergados, Organizer. 

Flattery and trickery were seen as the keys to labor’s moves. Only 

the people in charge, it seemed, were capable of interest in the 

mill’s success, and labor was open to manipulation by the likes of 

Vergados, against the kind concern for it on the part of management. 

Yet, despite the benevolence of the operators of the mill, Vergados’ 

role grew. In fact, efforts on the part of management and the local 

paper to minimize his impact failed to deter the organization. The 

union distributed this appeal in 1941: 

Attention! Workers of the Boott Mills; Over 65% of the workers of 

the Boott Mills have already joined The Lowell Textile Independent 

Union: 

1. The United States Government gives you the right to organize 

and become members of a UNION. 

2. The United States Government gives you the right to choose who 

you want to represent you. 

3. If you want higher rates; better conditions; one week vacation 

with pay; elimination of the stretch out or overload; and to stop 

discrimination by the supervisors, then join now. 

4. So why not join now with the LOWELL TEXTILE 

INDEPENDENT UNION and derive the benefits of a UNION 

contract that are being received by the workers on the Merrimack 

Mills; where the LOWELL TEXTILE INDEPENDENT UNION 

has a Union contract, representing all the workers of that mill. 
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5. Our offices are located at 373 Moody St. and are open from 9:00 

A.M. to 5:00 P.M. 

JOIN NOW AND FULFILL YOUR AMERICAN RIGHT; 

Fraternally Yours, Louis Vergados, Organizer; LOWELL 

TEXTILE INDEPENDENT UNION.58

In 1940 the loom-fixers had struck again. This group, French with 

just four exceptions, went out despite lacking, in management’s 

opinion, the support of the French community. The mill did not 

close and kept the looms running with the help of supervisors 

and weavers.59 This dispute stemmed from a 1939 demand for a 

seven percent pay increase, spent many months in arbitration, and 

was only settled when in April, 1942, the state courts struck down 

the arbitration board’s decision in the case. It was typical of the 

situation in that it revealed management’s continuing belief that 

factors outside the mill (such as arbitration) could play a decisive 

role, and its willingness to spend large amounts of time and money 

in an effort to block organization. No interference with its operation 

of the mill would be tolerated. 

After a series of rearrangements among labor representatives in 

order to avoid internecine conflict, the Textile Workers Union of 

America (TWUA), CIO, achieved recognition as representatives of 

the production and maintenance workers at the Boott Mills, despite 

the original insistence by management on avoiding recognition 

that a national agency had the support of the workers. By the end of 

the decade, after an eight month strike (Photograph 32), the union 

had achieved a closed shop, with all employees required to join 

the union. Excluded were executive officers, foremen, supervisors, 

office employees, watchmen, and guards.60 A new status quo created 

new relationships, new dealings between the two contesting sides. 

Many aspects of the long-standing relationship were affected. 

Supervisors had to be instructed to maintain neutrality with regard 

to all matters regarding the existence of the union, to guard against 

any indication, verbal or facial, of a desire to keep people out of the 

union. The rules had been changed by the union agreement. Within 

the mill, relationships between workers were also affected. Winder 

operators in 6-4, along with the spinners there, stopped work on 

March 20, 1945, rather than work with a non-union employee on 

the floor.61 Similar eruptions took place consistently during the late 

forties. 

Management, as always, sought expert opinion and help in 

confronting the union activities. Two New York consultants gave 

advice, one of whom warned that “this is not a simple Union matter 

but a social and political revolution.” While wages rose during the 
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period, management noted that increased production per worker 

continued to lower labor’s share of production costs.62 In other 

words, new efficiencies more than outweighed the cost of raises. 

Management continued to see its relationship with the employees 

as a personal one, a paternalistic situation in which it could best 

determine and define the workers’ needs and best interests. They 

failed to learn the lesson of the industrial relations people they 

had consulted since the teens, that workers had interests which 

had to be considered and that mechanisms existed to facilitate the 

exchange, and that the exchanges were not personal, as they were 

felt to be by the management, or even revolutionary, but simply an 

effort to redress the imbalance of power that had been part of the 

Lowell situation for over one hundred years. 

At the end of the 1949- 50 strike, an effort was made to unseat the 

management. Arguing loyalty, responsibility for successes, and low 

management salaries, as well as comparatively high investment in 

the firm, the Flathers held on.63

d. Conclusion 

Speaking to the stockholders at the Annual Meeting in February, 

1951, the Treasurer announced that the mill had done twice as 

well as the year before, with income after taxes and depreciation of 

$167,870.52. He defended the paying of an extra, fifth, dividend in 

1950.64 All these numbers are suspect, as indicated in letters from 

the younger Flathers to the employees in 1953 which stated that 

the mill lost money in 1951 and 1952. Another document pointed 

out that the mill also owned one-half of the Lowell Industrial 

Development Company, consisting of the Massachusetts Mills, the 

Bigelow- Hartford Carpet Company power plant, and the millpowers water rights associated with each, along with 622 share of 

Locks and Canals and proportionate mill powers, none of which 

appeared on their balance sheet.65 These aspects of the mill’s 

situation, which reflected part of the success achieved by the plant 

as a whole, particularly the workers, did not appear during the 

negotiations of 1952-54 in which the Office unsuccessfully sought 

greatly increased workloads without pay increases. In retrospect 

it seems clear that these negotiations were doomed from the start, 

based as they were on the union’s desire to protect the workers and 

management’s intent to extract significantly more production from 

the mill despite its refusal to invest in the equipment needed to 

generate maximum production from minimum labor. 
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The result: 

Mr. John Smith 

45 Smith Street 

Lowell, Mass. 

Dear Mr. Smith: 

We regret to inform you that your department has been permanently 

discontinued with the result that your job here is no longer available. 

We enclose, accordingly, a Suspension-Discharge Notice to this 

effect. 

We are sorry that it has not proven possible to save your job, but as 

there is no longer any hope of doing so, we feel that it is only fair to 

so inform you, in order that you may secure other employment. We 

hope you will be successful in doing so. 

Very truly yours, 

BOOTT MILLS. 

Personnel Department66

Thus, not with a bang but a whimper, ended the story of the Boott 

Cotton Mills-Boott Mills as producers of textiles. 

It is important to note that not only were wage increases outweighed 

by increased efficiency, but also that the decision to terminate 

reinvestment was made in the twenties and reasserted in the 

early thirties. Both factors argued against the common belief that 

unionization led to the flight of textile industry from New England 

to the South. One notes the continuing pattern of paternalistic 

relations, the resentment on the part of management of any labor 

voice, the lack of upgraded machinery or plant, and the generally 

poor operation of the mill, and one realizes that these factors played 

an obvious role in its demise.

Throughout the period 1931- 1954, the mill lurched along, 

heavily impacted by outside forces. Floods, hurricanes, wars, and 
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government legislation alike impacted the operation, and in no 

case did the mill come up with innovative or original responses. 

Operating conditions remained poor, became worse in every aspect: 

machinery, plant, working conditions, process management. Both 

labor and management resented the other and the difficulties it 

presented to their idea of how the mill should have been run. Since 

the decision to close had, in effect, been made years earlier, all the 

action of the time was an exercise in futility, a self-fulfilling prophecy 

of doom. An era that began in the poverty of the Depression had no 

hope of rising to escape the chains of its own past, the decision not 

to reinvest, the history of plant deterioration, acrimonious labormanagement relations, or poor cotton processing. Crushed beneath 

such a series of burdens, the Boott Mills foundered, strewing blame 

in its wake, accusing unionization, reds, and government officials, 

but never recognizing the true culprit, its own historic course. 
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ENDNOTES 

1. Directors Reports, (DR) FC, 3/1935. 

2. DR, 1929. 

3. DR, 4/1937. 

4. Paul F. McGouldrick, New England Textiles in the Nineteenth Century, p. 210. 

5. DR, 5/1932. 

6. DR for 3/1939. 

7. DR for 2 and 3/1936. 

8. DR for 8/1938. 

9. JRF, 9/14/1944, p. 147. 

10. DR for 3/1942, 8/1942; JRF, pp. 210- 211. 

11. National Industrial Conference Board, “Previews,” 1174 (4/1 2/1952). 

12. Richard 0. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, Labor’s Untold Story, (New York: United Electrical, 

Radio, and Machine Wor ker s of America), pp. 366-367. 

13. DR, 8/1939; 9/1939; 2/1940; 7/1940; 1/1949; 7/ 1949. 

14. DR, 1/1942. 

15. DR, 4/ 1939. 

16. “Boott Mills vs. City of Lowell,” 3/ 3/ 1945, FC, p. 1. 

17. “Boott Mills’ Buildings Are Not Suitable for Post-War Competition in Cotton Manufacturing Nor 

Present Day Competition Either,” FC, 12/15/1944. 

18. DR for 1942. 

19. John Rogers Flather’s Notes, 1943-1 950, esp. 10/13/1950. 

20. George Sweet Gibb, The Saco-Lowell Shops: Textile Machinery Building in New England, 1813- 

1949 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950), pp. 565, 803N. 

21. F. A. Estes and B.F. Pierson, Insurance Appraisal of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts, FC 

(5/27/1933), pp. 24- 27. 

22. DR, 1936- 1940. 

23. DR, 11/1937. 

24. DR, 1940. 

25. DR, 1942. 
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26. Ralph E. Loper Co., Report to Boott Mills, FC (11/1944), pp. 1- 7. 

27. Ibid., 12/14/1944, p. lA; 1/17/1945, p. 1. 

28. JRF, 7/10/1947, p. 494. 

29. DR, Supplemental Meeting, 7/16/1948, p. 2. 

30. DR for 11/1949. 

31. JRF, 8/22/1950, p. 941. 

32. Machinery and Equipment Purchased since January 1, 1939, DR, March, 1950, FC.; 29. BM, 

Machinery List, 12/1954, FC. 

33. DR for 12/1944. 

34. JRF, 5/ 18/1943, p. 52. 

35. Survey and Recommendations on Employee Training in the Plant of the BM, Lowell, Mass., 

8/1/1945, pp. 1- 3, 8. 

36. Ibid., pp. 9- 10. 

37. Ibid., pp. 11-13. 

38. Albert Raimond and Associates, Inc., Job Specifications, 4/17/1945, FC. 

39. Raimond, Spinner Job Specifications; all the job specifications which follow are based on this report. 

40. Account from 3/27/1943, FC. 

41. Wherever not otherwise noted data for this discussion comes from JRF, 12/1945-3/1950. 

42. Pay Schedule Adopted by Fall River and New Bedford Textile Councils, 7/31/1933, FC. 

43. 40-Hour Base Rates of Pay, 1/ 20/1938. 

44. DR for 5/1940. 

45. DR for 3/1946. 

46. DR, Supplement, 12/1949. 

47. Straight Time Hourly Earnings for Selected Occupations, 3/1952, FC. 

48. DR for 8/1941. 

49. e.g., JRF, 10/19,21/1943. 

50. DR for 11/1945. 

51. JRF, 12/28/1949. 

52. Ibid., 1/24/1947. 
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53. Harry Dickenson, interviewed by Judith K. Dunning, 9/17/1980, p.8, Lowell National Historic 

Park. 

54. Ibid., pp. 12-15, 22-23. 

55. DR for 8/1935. 

56. DR for 9- 11/1934. 

57. DR for 5/1937: DR for 6/1937; DR, 11/2/1937. 

58. DR, 10/1941. 

59. DR for 11/1940. 

60. DR for 9/1942; 3/1/1950. 

61. JRF, 7/18/1944; 3/20/1945. 

62. DR for 9/1945; DR, e.g. for 10/1948. 

63. Untitled, 3/1/1950. 

64. DR, 2/13/1951. 

65. Increasing Income and Decreasing Expenditures for the Purpose of Reducing Losses Can Hardly 

Be a Quick Job, FC. 

66. BM to John Smith, 4/16/1954. 
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XI. PHYSICAL HISTORY 1931- 1955 A. The Counting House

The interior of the Counting House was replanned in 1936.

1

 The 

plans (Figure 22) show the first floor as having an entry in the 

northwest corner, with stairs leading off it to the second floor 

along the west end wall. A door was let into the north bay of the 

west wall, the rest of the wall at this level was blind. The first floor 

entrance served a large “employment office,” three bays wide by 

almost two-thirds of the depth of the building. To the canal side 

of this office was a payroll office and a hall giving access to men’s 

toilets in the extreme southwest corner and a large closet under the 

stairs. A first-aid room was planned east of the payroll office, along 

the canal wall, with another first-aid room directly east of the first. 

This east room had a toilet room appended to it at the canal wall. 

The east end of the employment office was occupied by an earlier 

“safe” or fireproof vault (in the center) and a hall leading to a large 

coat room. Two stock rooms followed to the east, the first four bays 

wide, the second narrower at two bays--both ran the full depth of 

the Counting House, from the canal wall to the yard. A third stock 

room was located in what was the original blacksmith shop of Mill 

#6, with a wide ramp leading to it from the Counting House side. 

The upper floor as shown in the 1936 drawing was entered from 

the foot bridge, with a curved stair leading up to a landing that 

paralleled the stair to the lower floor. Three waiting rooms were 

arranged along the canal (south) wall, fronted by a three bay long 

hall that opened to the landing. This narrow passage opened at 

the east end to another hall that ran alongside “Mr. Flather Sr.’s 

“ office, which extended two bays along the canal wall and had a 

mens’ toilet at the east end. A second large office was located east 

of the toilet. The rest of the first floor was a large open-plan office 

that ran along the entire yard (north) wall. The second floor area 

at the west end of Mill #6, the original Paint Room, was used as an 

“Office-Stockroom” and was reached by an “L”-shaped stair and 

landing tucked into the northeast corner of the Counting House, 

with a door cut into the center of this wall. 

No record of costs for the 1936 proposal has been found, and since 

a second plan (Figure 23) for virtually the same work was prepared 

in 1937 it is likely that the 1936 plan was not undertaken.

2

 The 1937 

plan relates favorably with existing conditions at the Counting 

House, and cost accounts are available. The 1937 Plan, prepared 

in July of that year, has the same entrance at the lower level as 

shown in the 1936 version, but the pre-1936 door at the north bay of 

the west end wall was now a window, and a second window was 

added south of it. 
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Figure 22. Plan of First and Second Floors, Boott Mills Office, March 1931, corrected 1936.

Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-114
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383 Figure 23. Plan of First and Second Floors, Boott Mills Office, July 26, 1937. Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-143
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The 1937 plan is virtually the same as that proposed in 1936 for the 

area west of the first-aid room and the vault. However, the payroll 

office at the canal wall was now a conference room with a large 

rest room in the east part. The space identified in 1936 as a coat 

room and a second first-aid room was now given over to a large 

coat, rest, and toilet room for women. The two stock rooms shown 

within the Counting House in 1936 were now “tabulating, files and 

accounting offices.” The stock room in the east part of the first floor, 

served by the same ramp, was another “accounting office.” 

The second floor of the 1937 proposal retained the 1936 entrance 

plan except that the curved stair to the landing was replaced with a 

stair perpendicular to the end wall. The three waiting rooms along 

the west part of the canal wall were “customer rooms” and two 

toilets, with the narrow hall remaining. The extension of the hall at 

the east, however, was removed, creating a larger office, designed 

as “Mr. Flather Jr.”[s] office, with a second “private” office five 

bays long cut out of the large area at the east part at the canal wall. 

The large, open-plan office that occupied the entire yard side of the 

building in the 1936 plan was subdivided, with “three salesman’s 

offices” in the west part and an “L”-shaped long office in the 

remaining space. 

The stair (Figure 24) to the office in the second floor of Mill #6 

was double loaded, with a second stair at the end wall; the same 

door opened into a stock room as shown in the 1936 plan. With the 

exception of the windor/door changes in the west end wall, there 

were no alterations suggested for the exterior in either the 1936 or 

the 1937 plans. Costs for the 1937 improvements were $2076.65.

3

The only obvious changes to the exterior of the Counting House 

are unfortunately undated. The fourth bay at the first floor from 

the east at the yard side is shown as a window in the 1936 plan and 

elevation (it was a door before this time) and the fifth bay, shown 

as a door in 1936 and 1937 is now a window. Conversely, the fourth 

bay from the west end, now a door, was a window in 1936-37. Also, 

the third window from the east end at the second floor, and the 

third window in the first floor from the west end of the canal wall 

were inserted sometime between 1890 (Photo 20) and 1936. Sash has 

also been altered, most of which appears to predate an elevation 

drawn in 1936 (Figure 25).

4

 1/1 sash was installed in the first three 

windows from the east end, second floor, yard side, and 2/2 in the 

next window. A small window in the fifth bay from the east end of 

the first floor, canal side, had been changed from 6/6 in 1936 to 1/1, 

probably in the mid-1940s. Also, all of the sash in the second floor 

of the canal elevation was 1/1, again probably from the mid-1940 

period (based on the condition of the woodwork). 
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385 Figure 24. Proposed Stairway, Office Building, Boott Mills, May 1937. Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-142
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Figure 25. Side Elevations of Office Building, Boott Mills, Feb. 1936.

Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-132
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387 Figure 26. Deflection in walls of Mill Number 6, drawing dated August 21, 1935. Source: LNHP, L&C, Plan Number 153-129
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As mentioned in the previous chapter, four skylights had been 

installed at the eaves of the south roof, near Mill No. 6. These were 

removed in 1942 at a cost of $38.24.5 Also, walls and floors were 

reinforced (especially at the canal wall, where tie rods were added) 

in 1944.6

 Other changes that probably occurred during the 193 

1-1955 period include the addition of simple wood hoods at the 

four doors along the yard side, and the insertion of steel lintels at 

the same wall (those in the canal wall predate 1936). 

B. Mill #6 

1. Exterior 

a. General Conditions 

The appearance of Mill #6 was not materially changed during 

the period 1931-1955, the last year of operation by Boott Mills. 

However, an important study of the structural soundness of the 

exterior walls was conducted at Mills 1 and 6 by Charles T. Main 

in 1935 (Appendix Q). The report was concerned with vibration, 

especially at the second floor and recommended that they monitor 

the “bulges in the #6 mill wall on the canal side.” This was done 

and a drawing (Figure 26) was prepared to show the results of the 

study.7

 Dated August 21, 1935 and titled “Deflections of Mill Walls 

from the Vertical” it shows Mill No. 6 out-of-line towards the south 

by 6 1/8” at the north facade, fifth floor. With the possible exception 

of the tightening of tie rods and the relocation of some machinery 

(replacement looms put in in 1949 had felt pads at the floor) little 

attempt was apparently made to correct the problems caused by 

the vibration.8

 However, in 1950, in reporting what was perhaps a 

hasty move, the treasurer announced the removal of the sixth floors 

of the towers at the mill: “ No. 6 Mill Tower’s parapet removed one 

story above the roof to prevent vibration and sway.”9 

This act had been recommended as early as 1930 by Locks and 

Canals in a letter to Frederick Flather, Jr.: 

With regard to the upper story of the tower of No. 6 mill, we believe 

that this can be made safe and the vibration reduced by either one 

of two ways. The most economical way would be to leave the tower 

as it is by securely tieing it in to the corner of the mill with tie rods, 

and also nut in either three or four tie rods from one side to the other 

of the tower at the point where the floor was taken out. We estimate 

the cost of doing this at about $200. 

The other method would be to take down the upper story of the 

tower, with a new roof put on a little above the height of the roof of 
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the mill. Even with the top story taken off we still ought to tie the 

upper part of the tower into the mill as some cracks have developed. 

It is rather difficult to closely estimate the cost of taking off the top 

story putting in the tie rods, but think it would be about $500.10

At that time the towers were retained and tie rods installed and the 

towers stood for another 30 years.* A photo in the collection of the 

Lowell Museum made in October, 1942 (Photograph 33) shows the 

towers as built. 

The 1945 Plant Condition Report also reiterated earlier 

recommendations that the mill structures in their entirety be 

demolished: 

Due to the narrow buildings, small spans and bays, differences in 

floor levels, small rooms and other features, there is considerable 

waste space in the machinery arrangement compared to what might 

be done in a modern mill. Little can be done in the way of saving 

this waste space in that portion of the existing buildings which 

will continue in use, as it is not going to be feasible to remove side 

walls or existing columns to any material extent until the existing 

buildings are torn down and replaced.11

b. Foundation 

Prompted by structural damage that occurred to the first floor and 

foundation as a result of a hurricane in 1938, Flather prepared an 

in-house memo on September 22 of that year detailing the need to 

“re-examine the underpinning of our foundation walls inside and 

out, under floors and around the base of columns... and point up 

wherever any cracks show, and close all apertures.”12

A number of short steel I-beams were inserted as columns and 

braces under the first floor. Based on visual inspection they are 

likely a result of this memo, but there is no documentation or cost 

records to substantiate the date of installation. 

c. Roof and Exterior Walls 

The 1945 Plant Condition Report previously cited mentioned 

that cornices were repaired, painted, and new flashings installed 

because of hurricane damage, claiming that they had rotted because 

of moisture over many years. The same report stated “Tie rods 

* A report prepared for the Appellate Court in February 1950, mentioned 

that the flag pole had been removed from No. 6 tower, a further indication that 

the sixth floors of the stair towers were in existence at that time. (Appellate Tax 

Court Record, 1950 [F.C.]).
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Photo 33. West stair tower at Boott Mill Number 6, October 1942. Note top floor in place, and skylights and vents in roof of Counting 

House in the foregroundSource: LNHP, Museum Collections, Lowe 15655
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installed on Engineers recommendation in office, #3 mill, #4 mill, 

#5 mill, #6 mill, #1 mill, most towers.”13

2. Interior 

a. Floors 

The June 1935 memo written by James R. Flather mentions “a new 

section of flooring” in the second floor, indicative of assumedly 

continuous repairs to the original plank flooring. The most important 

of these repairs and alterations were caused by the construction 

of a conveyor system in 1948. On June 21st of that year James R. 

Flather wrote to Mr. Hawks of Locks and Canals concerning the 

employment of A.W.G. (not further identified), “the bulk of his 

time is being spent on the conveyor, to get it functioning.”14

No exact location has been determined for the conveyor, but 

architectural analysis suggests that it was located at the north end 

of the east section of the mill. Alterations to the floor, floor beams, 

and ceiling at the fourth bay south of the north wall, (second floor) 

indicate the possibility of such a conveyor in a location convenient 

to the three bridges that connect mill #6 to #7 at the #7 connector. 6” 

x 8” timbers were installed with steel angle hangers at this location, 

with the bottom edge of the northern beam chamfered 9” at the 

horizontal, 6” at the vertical, and the top edge of the southern beam 

cut 3” at the top. This would suggest a four foot wide conveyor 

running at an angle through the second floor to the first, where 

the ceiling is repaired in this location, and up to the floors above. 

The third floor is patched at the same area, as has the ceiling at the 

fourth, but the floor here has been altered at a later date eliminating 

the potential for discovering seams in that floor. Two other beams, 

both one bay long, have been inserted at the north wall, from 

the wall to the first timber beam supporting the floor. 12” x 15” 

in section, they are supported by cast iron clips at the floor beam. 

There are patches in the second floor and ceiling and in the third 

floor at this area. This was probably, based on its size, a trap door 

serving the same purpose as the conveyor until that apparatus was 

installed. 

b. Columns 

The Flather memo concerning the damages experienced during the 

1938 hurricane also called for a plan to anchor all roofs at Boott 

Mills. Again, there is no documentary evidence to date accurately 

the work, but considerable bracing was applied at sometime during 

this period at the roof beams and columns in both the east and west 

sections of the fifth floor. The repairs are especially noticeable at 

the first eight column/beam connections in the west part, where 
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additional flitch plates and shims have been added. The Plant 

Condition Report of 1945 mentions that beams had been plated, 

floors stiffened, indicating that the work may have been completed 

c. 1938-40. 

c. Walls and Interior Doors 

Plans drawn in 1936 and 1937 for alterations to the Counting House 

(see above), indicated that the original blacksmith shop at the first 

floor of the west section of Mill #6, and the paint shop, at the second 

floor, were used as offices. To facilitate communication between 

these areas and the Counting House, a ramped entrance was built 

at the lower level of #6 and a full door opening cut into the end 

wall of the mill at the second floor, served by a stair at the Counting 

House side. The 1937 plan also showed a vestibule arrangement 

at the interior entrance to the first floor at the west tower; the only 

reference to this configuration found. It is not known if the vestibule 

had been in existence previous to when the plans for the Counting 

House were drafted in 1937, or if it was ever constructed and if it 

was, when it was removed. 

The Treasurer’s Report for September 1935 recorded “widening 

doorway, fourth floor. $88.17” with an additional $53.86 spent 

in June, 1936. 15 This refers to the widening of an opening at the 

two doors that had been previously cut into the north wall of the 

east section, from the original windows, to communicate with the 

bridges at the #7 connector. A single door replaced the two and 

was in use until 1955. Also, a safety gate was added to the 1917 

elevator in 1936. 

d. Coal Pocket 

The Plant Condition Report for January 5, 1945 noted a change at 

the entrance to the coal pocket. The trestle and track was filled in to 

facilitate oil truck deliveries. This would date the installation of the 

steel diamond plate in the track area at the 1944-45 period. (At the 

time the 1927 rolling door was probably replaced, as the existing 

door is certainly not fifty- seven years old.) 

e. Interior of the Stair Towers 

A supplement to the Treasurer’s Report for November 1949 reported 

“we are reinforcing with channel irons (the spiral stairs in the 

towers) due to sagging. This is a safety and maintenance measure 

to extend use fullness indefinitely.”16 According to the 1950 Plant 

Condition Report other minor work had been accomplished in the 

stair towers, including “cement floors laid under all stairs.”17
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f. Painting 

While the Plant Condition Report of 1945 states “most of the mills 

painted inside and out in past ten years,” a report prepared by the 

Boott in reference to an Appellate Court Tax case in February of 

that year says “painting done in 1943 already dull.”18 There is no 

evidence that the interior was painted after 1943 until after Mill #6 

was sold in 1955. 

g. Mechanical Systems 

(1) Heating

Based on documentary evidence, it appears that only minor 

improvements were made to the heating system in this period. 

Three Beacon Unit Heaters were installed in 1953.19 Temperature 

regulators were added in 1938 at a cost of $420.13.20

(2) Sanitary Facilities 

Sanitary facilities were not improved either during this period, 

as evidenced in a report made in 1944, “Boott toilets are notably 

unattractive and depressing, and should be rebuilt over, enlarged 

and refitted. To do this would require extending the toilet rooms 

into the manufacturing area, because all rooms are so narrow.”21 

Despite this recommendation, the 1955 Plant Conditions Report 

recorded only six female toilets (two at the fourth floor in the east 

section, one at each of the other floors), and six male toilets (two at 

the third floor of the west section, one at the other floors).22

(3) Lighting

Lighting remained an issue throughout this period but gradual 

improvements did occur as witnessed by the 1945 Plant Condition 

Report, “some rooms changed to Cooper-Hewitt, some rooms 

changed to flourescent,” followed by comments in the 1949 

Treasurer’s Report, “Boott Mills continued to install them (florescent 

lights) regularly, monthly.” The 1949 report explained the rationale 

for the change-over, “flourescents have two advantages--they give 

us better light with less current, which is a quality measure, and 

they are not stolen as are incandescent bulbs.”23 While the 1950 

Treasurer’s Report stated that they had installed “about 1000 new 

flourescent lights and fixtures, thus saving current, improving 

lighting. Cost[ing] about $15,000,” Boott Mill Mill #6 still labored 

under a mixture of light sources as late as 1955, when the Plant 

Condition Report for that year mentioned “1st floor, mercury and 

flourescent; 2nd through 4th, flourescent; 5th, drop lights.’’ 
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Boott Mills was sold on December 10, 1954, with the result that a 

number of alterations were made to Mill No. 6 throughout the first 

half of 1955 to satisfy conditions of that and subsequent sales. These 

changes are more appropriately discussed in chapter XII, dealing 

with the period after the Boott ceased its operations as a cotton mill. 

3. Facades of Mills #1 and 2 

Major changes to the first floors of Mills No. 1 and 2 and the 

Connector occurred in the 1940s, many of them related to the 

paving of the yard (Photograph 34). Prior to 1944 the courtyard 

was still primarily a pedestrian space. In that year the: “Main 

entrance [was] resurfaced, Entire upper yard resurfaced, Road to 

Storehouse: resurfaced Too narrow for highway trucks. Too steep. 

Studded with hydrants & gate valves.”24

A supplement to the November 1949 Treasurer’s Report clarified 

the reason for the repaving: 

Whereas formerly goods went out in the grey in bales by railroad 

from our storehouses, they now go entirely as finished goods in 

corrugated containers from the mill yard. Many huge trucks use 

our main entrance bridge daily. We have resurfaced the bridge with 

Koppers Co. lumber impregnated with preservatives and laid a new 

asphalt roadway.25

While no records for the actual work have been located, it is 

assumed that the truck docks and loading doors, except for one 

at the east of the tower of No. 1 mill (1955) were put in between 

1945 and 1950--they were all in place by 1969.26 Alterations to the 

first and part of the second floor of the connector between these 

two mills, however, can be documented. Three 33” Leffels turbines 

were installed here in 1947, causing the removal of the entire center 

section of the south facade (the turbines were inserted into the 

building from the courtyard). All original windows were replaced 

with the present steel casement industrial sash. 

By 1949 most of the changes to the facades of Mills #1 and 2 that 

took place during this period were completed. 

Our yards are in good shape, kept clean and provide an attractive 

appearance. We are gradually filling a banking, cementing the 

lower floor windows, thus improving the room inside, and the yard 

outside... We removed the unsightly size room penthouse above the 

sixth floor of Buildings Nos. 1 and 2 connection... this summer 

we removed old tar and gravel roof covering of No. 2 Mill and 

connection, and applied latest type Johns-Manville bonded asphalt 

covering.27
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Photo 34. "Courtyard at Mills No. 1 and 2", 1957. Note "Recreation and Employee's Room" or "Personnel 

House" at right, constructed in 1950

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, LM Flather Collection
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4. The Courtyard 

Changes to the courtyard area during 1931-1955, other than the 

repaving mentioned above, included roofing over the bridges 

that connected Mills No. 1 and 7 with No. 6, “primarily done to 

strengthen structures,”28 planting “six trees and grass plot,”29 and 

the addition of new lighting: “Outside Lighting-we have installed 

ten flood lights-a safety measure-helpful to employees at change of 

shift in Winter weather.”30

Also, the hydrants were removed, a “dozen metal park benches 

for the convenience of emloyes (sic) during lunch and change of 

shifts”31 were installed, and a “Recreation and Employees Room”32 

was constructed just north of the Counting House (Photograph 34). 

This “room” was described in the Extracts from the Plant Physical 

Condition Report for 1950:33 “PERSONNEL HOUSE in the YardOne-room Hodgson Portable House, concrete asbestos board, 

automatic sprinklers, unit heaters, fluorescent lights, settees. It is 

used for waiting between shifts, for lunch recreation and smoking. 

Cost about $7,000.”34

The building permit describes the building further as: “24x42x15’, 

gable roof, frame on concrete, rear of Office Building, $3400.”35
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ENDNOTES 

1. Shelf 153, drawing 114, Locks and Canals file (Boott Mills Office). 

2. Shelf 153, drawing 131. 

3. Treasurer’ s Report to the Directors of Boott Mills (hereafter DR), September 1937. 

4. Shelf 153, drawing 132. 

5. DR 1942 (FC). 

6. Plant Condit ion Report, January 5, 1945 (FC). 

7. Shelf 153, drawing 129. 

8. Memo, James R. Flather, August 22, 1950, found in File 1009, Locks and Canals (Boott Mills Office). 

9. DR, October 1950 (FC). 

10. Letter, Locks and Canals to Boott Mills, File 1009 (Boott Mills Office). 

11. Plant Condition Report, January 5, 1945 (FC). 

12. Memo, Flood and Wind, Frederick Flather, Jr., September 22, 1938 (FC). 

13. Plant Condition Report, January 5, 1945 (FC). 

14. Letter, JRF to “Mr. Hawks”, June 21, 1948 (FC). 

15. DR, June 1937 (FC). 

16. DR, Supplement to November 1949 (FC). 

17. Plant Condition Report, 1950 (FC). 

18. Appellate Tax Court Records, February 17, 1945 (FC). 

19. DR, 1953 (FC). 

20. DR, March 1938 (FC). 

21. Memo, ‘’Boott Mills Buildings are not Suitable for Post War Competition in Cotton Manufacturing”, 

December 15, 1944 (FC). 

22. Plant Condition Report, 1955. 

23. Ibid. 

24. Plant Condition Report, January 5, 1945 (FC). 

25. DR, Supplement to November 1949 (FC). 

26. Interview with Melvin Lezberg, Proprietors of the Locks and Canals, Russell Wright, February 17, 

1984. 
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27. DR, supplement to November 1949. 

28. Ibid. 

29. Ibid. 

30. Ibid. 

31. Ibid. 

32. City of Lowell building permit 34, February 9, 1950. 

33. Flather Collection. 

34. Plant Condition Report for 1950, p. 1 (FC). 

35. Cit y of Lowell building permit 34, February 9, 1950. 
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XII. PHYSICAL HISTORY 1956 TO 

DATE 

Boott Mills was sold on December 10, 1954 to the Overseas 

Discount Corporation, (ODC) New York. ODC sold the complex 

to the Massachusetts Mohair Plush Company on June 15, 1955. An 

article in the April 6, 1955 Lowell Sun quotes Richard N. Stone, Vice 

President of the Mohair Company: “A group closely associated 

with the ownership of Massachusetts Mohair have arranged to 

purchase the entire stock of Boott.” 

This group, incorporated under the name Northern Textiles of 

Lowell, sold Mill #6 to the Lowell Realty Corporation for $65,630. 

The transfer of ownership occurred on July 22, 1955. This sale 

prompted a number of alterations and changes to Mill #6, the 

south facade of #l, and 2, the interior of the Counting House, and 

the courtyard. In 1972 the Capehart Corporation purchased the 

property, which was then, in 1979 sold to the Wang Corporation. 

A. The Counting House

The interior of the Counting House was considerably altered 

starting in May, 1960 when a permit was issued for “new partitions 

for office and a door”1 at a cost of $5000. This corresponds to the 

time that the Counting House was first occupied as offices by 

Locks and Canals. The entire second (main) floor was rearranged, 

especially at the east end where a series of offices, rest rooms and 

a conference room are now located. The stair to the second floor 

of Mill No. 6 remained in place but the door was blocked off. The 

first floor has seen the removal of the employment office and rooms 

along the canal wall to be partially replaced by a concrete block 

fireproof vault. However, no changes were made to the exterior of 

the Counting House at this time. 

B. Mill #6 

1. General Repairs 

A memo prepared by James R. Flather outlines work to be 

accomplished in preparation of turning Mill #6 over to its new 

owners. 0f particular interest was work items 6 though 10, 

reproduced below:
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6. Close conveyor holes in No. 6 floors.

2nd floor - 2 holes

3rd floor - 2 holes

4th floor - 1 hole

5th floor - 1 hole

7. Remove all machinery.

1st floor completed

2nd floor completed

3rd floor completed

4th floor completed Close to July 15

5th floor completed

8. Remove humidifier heads and piping.

9. Remove overhead spinning cleaners.

10. Close doorways between No. 6 Mill and adjoining Boott buildings.2

Item 6, “close conveyor holes in No. 6 floors” was completed July 

14, as noted on a marked-up copy of the June 29th memo that 

records Flather’s conversations with Stone (who by this time has 

been named President of Northern Textiles). All machinery (item 

7) had been removed by July 15. Items 8 and 9, the removal of the 

humidifiers and the overhead spinning cleaners was completed 

on July 14. Closing of the doorways between #6 and “adjoining 

Boott Buildings” was put off, “postponement agreed to”, but was 

accomplished by August or September of 1955. 

Previous to this work, the conveyor system, humidity lines and 

electric motors had been removed during the week of April 13, 

1955.3

 Windows at the first floor of the north wall of the east section 

were bricked in on June 13, 1955 in anticipation of three new 

transformers that were to have been installed in the yard between 

Mills No. 1 and 6 (see Courtyard, below).4

 While undocumented, 

it is assumed that the door in the north wall of the east tower, 

originally a window, was also blocked below the sill line at this 

time. (Returned to a window, it has a pre-cast concrete still typical 

of other work carried out during this period.) The final item, (No. 4), 

“steam line entrance to No. 6 mill” is noted as “completed portion 

inside mill No. 6 July 12.”5 The installation of the transformers 

caused minor additions to the interior of Mill No. 6; a vertical 

electrical conduit was located in the east stair tower opposite the 

bricked-in hoist opening. The conduit runs through the first floor 

ceiling to the second floor, where it is connected to a large breaker 

panel. Also, two 5” diameter steel conduits were installed at the 

2nd and 3rd floors between the third and fourth bays at the north 

wall, directly above the transformers. 
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2. Supervisor’s Office 

One other substantiative alteration to the interior, other than 

considerable floor patching, was the construction of a “supervisor’s 

office” at the center of the north wall of the west section, 13’ 6” 

x 16’ in plan. As described in March 1984, “this office was frame 

with large windows, set into the floor, heated by steam pirated 

from the Locks and Canals line that heated the office (Counting 

House). It was put there by Capehart/Wakefield in the late 1950’s, 

was there when we came to work here in 1970. We took it down 

around 1982.”6

3. Doors 

As called for in Flather’s memo of June 29, 1955, all doorways 

connecting Mill #6 with other Boott buildings were closed off in the 

summer of that year. This included the doors (originally windows) 

at the second floor, “1 ordinary doorway” at the fourth, and “1 

ordinary door” at the fifth floor.7

 A door in the west end wall of 

the west section at the second floor, and presumably, the ramped 

opening at the first floor below it serving offices in the mill that 

were a part of the Counting House, were also closed off at this time. 

4. Boiler Installation 

Two major improvements were made to Mill #6 in 1973, the 

installation of a boiler in the original blacksmith shop at the first 

floor, west end of the west section, and the addition of a freight 

elevator to replace the outmoded 1917 elevator. The three bay 

wide fireproof section of the first floor of the west section of the 

mill was divided into two spaces: “install 8” masonry wall between 

two rooms-see plans attached-paint room, to be approved by Fire 

Prevention Bureau (paint room notation is wrong, as it was located 

at the second floor).”8 

The “plans attached” (Figure 37)* showed an 8” block wall just to 

the west of the west jamb of the second window in the south wall 

of this part of the mill, extending to the existing masonry corridor 

wall along the north side. A “present metal door” was retained in 

the right part (where the boiler was installed) and a “new door” 

installed at the left. The work was completed by the Fairway 

Construction Company of Fitchburg, Massachusetts at the request 

of Wakefield Industries. Numerous holes were cut into the new 

north-south partition and the original east end wall of the fireproof 

area for steam lines, which were also extended into the Counting 

* This reference to Figure 37 in the 1984 HSR could not be located. There 

is no Figure 37 in the 1984 HSR, hence no Figure 37 is included in this digitized 

2016 version.
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House. Prior to this work, in May 1960, a new door had been let 

into the first floor of the shop area, replacing the ramped opening 

that had been blocked in 1955 leading to the Counting house.9 The 

1960 door was blocked as part of a 1973 contract. 

The building permit issued for the work at the boiler room also 

called for an “Overhead Door... replace two windows with 

overhead door.” The door and framing was shown on a plan that 

accompanied the permit application as a 10’ wide opening in the 

brick wall just west of the 1917 elevator, framed at the head with 

two 8’ I-beams. The overhead door was set on tracks to be flush with 

the interior wall when closed. While the permit was issued in May, 

1973, it appears that the door was not installed until 1974, when 

a second permit was taken out: “first floor area-remove structural 

column and install 15WF beam to open span-solid masonry in walls 

to receive one end of beam- install 10’x9’ overhead door with 3-12” 

lintel over.”10

Fairway Construction did this work as well. The door as built is 

similar to the one shown in the May 1973 plan, but the opening has 

four 12” channels as a lintel, conforming closely to the 1974 permit 

description. There is a narrow concrete loading dock at the opening 

with the slab resting on the granite foundation wall. Building permit 

349, issued on October 1, 1974 calls for Fairway Construction to 

complete the work in this area by adding a fire-rated pedestrian 

door west of the overhead freight door, replacing a third window. 

It also includes a second overhead door, most likely the overhead 

door that replaced an original steel casement window in the west 

wall of the coal pocket entrance area, all for the cost of $1500.11

5. Elevator 

Construction on a new elevator (Photograph 35) started in May 

1973 with a “pad and footing for elevator shaft” to be installed 

at a cost of $2500, again by Fairway Construction.12 The interior 

dimensions of the tower were 10’0” x 13’1”. The elevator is an 

“oildraulic 1000 lb” freight elevator manufactured by the Beckwith 

Elevator Corporation and installed under contract no. H-5162-73 

by Southeastern Elevator Company of Atlanta. (“Bryan 1973” is 

chalked on the wall at the interior of the fourth floor door opening, 

consistent with the date of the permit.) The new elevator caused 

the bricking in of the 3rd and 4th bays of the west wall of the east 

section of the mill, north of the 1917 elevator. The 1973 elevator 

opens at the east into all five levels, with bi-fold metal clad doors 

in steel casings. The full opening, including the wall area between 

the two original windows was spanned by steel I-beams that were 

faced with brick for fire protection. 
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The elevator tower measured 12’ x 13’ in plan and extended 6” 

above the roof line. It was built of a combination of concrete block 

(CMU) and brick, with the first 16 courses block, then 9 courses 

of brick, 16 CHU, 9 brick, 16 CMU, 9 brick and terminating with 

8 courses CMU. A one-story machine room was appended to the 

north side of the elevator tower, 8’ 9” side, with a flat roof, concrete 

block walls and a modern flush door. It blocked one window at the 

second bay south of the east stair tower at the first floor only. 

6. Other Changes 

Other changes to Mill #6 that, while undocumented as to exact date, 

almost surely took place during the period 1956-1984 included the 

replacement of the interior doors at the first floor of the east stair 

tower with an overhead door and the cutting of 12 joists and three 

4’ diameter holes into the roof of the west sec tion, 12” from the 

south wall at the second, fifth and tenth bays. There is a similar 

hole in the brick area above the altered party wall between the two 

parts of the mill. All of these intrusions have been attributed to the 

installation of roof fans as a stop-gap ventilation system. (Plant 

Condition Reports up to 1955 repeatedly stress that there is no 

artificial ventilation in the mill, an indication that this work was at 

least post-1955.) 

A frame partition was installed at the fourth floor, west part, 

between the first and second bays from the west end wall. Only 

the south part remains, paneled with plywood at both faces, with 

the remains of a telephone switchboard at the west side. Also at the 

fourth floor, west part, a later pipe column has been inserted south 

of the original cast iron column that supported the floor beam at 

the third bay. This beam has been cut out 24’’ in width, full depth, 

effectively splitting it in two. The reason for the removal of part of 

the beam is as yet unknown, but a rectangular patch in the ceiling 

perpendicular to the cut may indicate a possible second, later 

conveyor and/or trap door. 

There have been other structural modifications made to this floor, 

apparently in the same time frame, including the addition of paired 

steel cribbing at the 5th, 6th and 15th bays from the west end wall, 

supporting the fifth floor at both sides of the row of columns, and at 

the center section of the 15th bay. Other steel bridging of this period 

is found at the 16th, 19th and 23rd columns where a beam extends 

from the centered column to the north wall, at the west side of the 

floor beams only. New timbers had been inserted at the fourth floor 

of the west section, in the 6th and 7th bays west of the party wall 

between the two parts of the mill, hung on steel joists hangers. 

The structural system at the first floor, east section was also modified, 

where a 12” steel I-beam marked “Eastern Steel” was placed at the 
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ceiling in the third bay from the coal pocket entrance wall. The first 

column in the west row of columns was also removed and a lallycolumn installed next to the second column. The window opposite 

the beam was infilled with concrete block and faced with plywood 

at the outside. 

A photograph (Photograph 34) made in 1957 and in the collection 

of the Lowell Museum showed a sheet metal construction at the 

first bay south of the east stair tower. Of unknown use (possible a 

conveyor for the extraction of sawdust) it was removed in 1980. A 

small section of a steel channel used to anchor it to the stair tower 

remains. A vertical sheet metal shaft located in the fifth bay of the 

south facade (Photograph 36), running from the third floor to the 

roof was in place in 1979 but was also removed in 1980.13 Undated 

but considered to be of this period are changes to a number of the 

interior doors at the stair towers, where many have been replaced 

with modern fire-rated metal clad doors. 

7. 1980 Changes Made by the Wang Corporation 

a. Window Sash 

Wang Corporation carried out extensive repairs at Mill #6, 

including the replacement of 400 sash and the repair of window 

frames and sills. The window openings were weatherstripped and 

the jambs rabbeted for storm windows that were not installed. Most 

noticeable, the window in the first floor, north wall, west tower 

received a new jamb and stool, and a window immediately south 

of the east tower, second floor had the jamb rebuilt from below the 

stool to the meeting rail, both repairs of poor visual quality. 

b. Boiler and Other Interior Changes 

Wang also replaced the 1973 boiler with a Cleaver and Brooks 

boiler in 1980, removing steam lines and refitting the heating 

system. The new boiler is vented with a large diameter stack that 

runs up to the fifth floor where it turns at an angle to exit through 

a brick chimney constructed in 1981. To install the new boiler the 

north wall of the 1973 boiler room was removed. Rebuilt when the 

boiler was in place, it is inset 18” from the line of the original wall, 

which remains in the eastern part of the fireproof room. Wang also 

removed a number of air ducts and a compressor that were located 

in the upper part of the east masonry wall.14 However, a square 

sheet metal conveyor that runs from the first floor, eighth bay from 

the west end wall to the fence at the south side of the canal remains 

in place. To provide a more secure storage area at the first floor, a 

chain link fence and probably much of the existing steel diamond 

plate replacement flooring was installed by Wang at the party wall 
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Photo 35. East stairtower, Mill Number 6, June 1985. Note later elevator shaft at right, and altered door at stair tower.

Source: HAER, NPS MA-16, 1985
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Photo 36. Eastern Canal elevation of Boott Mill Number 6, July 1979. Note curious sheet metal 

shaft at fourth bay, third floor to roof.

Source: HAER, NPS MA-7 #4, 1976
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between the two sections of the mill, the fence removed in March, 

1984.15

c. New Roof 

The most important of all the work carried out by Wang in 1980 

was the resurfacing of the entire roof. An elastometric roof system 

was applied over the existing built-up roof, with all flashing 

replaced, 2-3/4” rigid insulation installed between the old and new 

roofing, ballast applied to the membrane, gravel strips added, and 

the cornice either repaired or rebuilt as required. As an unfortunate 

consequence of this work, the original entrance at the east stair 

tower was altered by the roofing contractor who used the tower as 

his office. A concrete loading dock at the entrance, predating the 

1980 alterations, was altered by adding concrete pads to the jambs 

of the entrance. 

d. Facades of Mills #1 and 2 

The tower at Mill #2 was altered at the ground floor level 

(Photograph 37) in the 1970s (photographic evidence). The wall 

surface was covered with wood shingles and a modern fire-rated 

door installed. The first floor of the tower at Mill #1 was also 

altered. The bracketed hood was removed and a new loading dock 

constructed, and a flat hood was installed in the northwest corner 

to protect a later door in the east bay of the connector. A letter to 

Richard N. Stone of Northern Textiles, from Paul Murray of Boott 

Mills dated April 19, 1955 (previously mentioned), outlines other 

changes at Mill #1: 

Work will begin this week on the construction of a loading platform 

at #1 mill tower. This platform is required in order to remove 

machinery from the general area of #1 and #2 mills and connecting 

buildings. Heavy timbers and planking for platforms are available 

at the Boott Mill, labor will constitute the main expense. Work to be 

done by Boott millwrights.16

The loading platform is located just east of the Mill No. 1 tower and 

has a large service door. 

e. Courtyard 

The courtyard was also altered during this transitional period, 

much of the work related to that completed by Boott Mills prior 

to the occupation by Northern Textiles. Flather’s memo of June 29, 

1955 outlined the following projects, with comments on the dates of 

completion in handwriting as mentioned above: 
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Photo 37. Stair towers at Mills Number 1 and 2, 1975

Source: HAER, NPS MA-7, 1975
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Black Top Yard 

Move 2 hydrants (will post instead of moving) 

Water and Sewer pipe to cafeteria (July 15) 

Destroy Ice House (July 18) 

Move tool house (July 18) 

Lower one shut-off valy’ (July 19) 

Build Transformer base17

The transformers were delayed, but the section of the Treasurer’s 

Report for July 19, 1955 dealing with future expenditures at Mill #6 

cites: 

3 transformers 4126.50 payment due August 

Cable-Primary 500 v 

Secondary 110 & 120v 1373 August

Mis Power Equipt 1000 August18

The three “HT Quite Transformers,” presumably installed in 

August or September, 1955 rested on concrete piers set on a concrete 

pad and surrounded by a 24” high cast concrete wall. The pad was 

depressed 12” below the wall, the wall used as a base for a pipeframe construction that created a pent-roof form, with chain link 

fencing at the roof and upper walls for security. The transformers 

were located at the northwest corner of the mill, opposite Mill #1. 

The yard in this area also has a series of concrete piers parallel to 

the #7 connector that might be the location of the tool and ice house 

mentioned in the 1955 memo noted above. Two of the piers measure 

56” x 56” x 18” high with steel diamond plates in the top face. 
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ENDNOTES 

1. City of Lowell building permit 298, May 9, 1950. 

2. Memo JRF to Richard N. Stone, June 29, 1955 (F.C.) 

3. Letter, Paul W. Murray to Richard N. St one, April 19, 1955 (F.C. 

4. Pencil notations by JRF on memo dated June 29, 1955, op cit (F.C. 

5. Ibid. 

6. Interview with Dunn brothers, warehousemen for Wang Corporation, Russell Wright, February 17, 

1984. 

7. Shelf 153, sheet 169. Locks and Canals (Boott Mills Office). 

8. City of Lowell building permit 144, April 24, 1973. 

9. Building permit 298, May 9, 1960. 

10. Building permit 20, January 31, 1974. 

11. Building permit 349, October 1, 1974. 

12. Building permit 209A, May 17, 1973. 

13. “Photo of Eastern Canal Side of Boott Mills No. 6, July 1979”, in Preliminary HSR, (undated) NPS 

np. 

14. Interview with Dunn Brothers by R. Wright. 

15. Field inspection by Russell Wright, February 17, 1984. 

16. Letter, Murray to Stone, op cit. 

17. JRF memo June 29, 1955 op cit. 

18. DR July 9, 1955. 
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 XIII. SUMMARY A. Occupation and

Use

The Boott Cotton Mill’s origins differed little from those of any 

of the major Lowell companies. Mercantile investors created a 

joint-stock company characterized by large holdings, built a set of 

buildings like all the others, and produced a narrow range of coarse 

cloth for which they anticipated a steady market. The production 

process was rationalized and fully integrated, all functions taking 

place at the mill complex. Tasks were reduced to the simplest level 

in order to make the necessary labor as cheap as possible. Highly 

skilled operations were avoided and an inexperienced workforce 

attracted and taught the work. Drawing workers in part, though to 

an unknown degree, from existing mills must have simplified the 

process. However, for positions of skill and oversight, the reserve of 

English talent served until well into the twentieth-century. Because 

of the extent of textile-related operations in Lowell by the 1870s, the 

Boott managers had a comparatively easy task when they decided 

to expand after the Civil War. The Lowell Machine Shop, part of the 

interlocking and overlapping set of companies controlled by the 

Boston Associates, stood ready to provide most of the machinery 

needed. It could also provide an engineer, Channing Whittaker, to 

provide the layout of the individual machines on the factory floor. 

The fact that the mill needed an outsider to perform this rather 

simple task, and the fact that it was done after the building had 

been built to a set of standard dimensions, rather than looking 

toward the accommodation of a particular set of equipment, might 

have raised a tremor of concern in an interested observer. 

However, the mill had employed two agents of note in the years 

leading up to the building of Number 6: William A. Burke and A. 

G. Cumnock. Each introduced practices noted by the New England 

Cotton Manufacturers Association, and Cumnock correctly 

analyzed the emerging ring-spinning technology of the day and 

equipped the mill with the new light-weight spindles after careful 

tests. 

Even with hindsight, one hesitates to evaluate some of the decisions 

made at the time. For example, management began replacing 

looms shortly after the opening of #6, but descriptions of their 

initial purchase are incomplete, making it impossible to determine 

whether or not they took advantage of the availability of state-ofthe-art equipment when starting up. Perhaps more important than 

a somewhat limited expertise in cotton manufacture displayed 

at times, the first decade of the mills’ operation coincided with a 

serious depression in the national economy, leading to a series of 

wage-cuts. When money was spent during this period, it was on 
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equipment, with workers absorbing the brunt of the effects of the 

economy’s problems, a pattern which would continue. A reluctance 

to invest in the plant’s future, in terms of either people or machines, 

plagued the mill from the start and never left it. 

Still, the operation began with a good set of machinery and an 

astute Agent. It had the capacity to make money during good times 

in the industry and suffered from the same boom and bust cycle as 

the rest of the mills. 

In certain areas, the Boott moved quickly to take advantage of 

technological advances, as in its purchase of Draper automatic 

looms beginning in 1901. But in others, they persisted in running 

obsolete machinery such as the fixed - flat cards in #6 which stayed 

for decades after the end of their useful life. Even in the realm of 

looms, the Boott simultaneously purchased some state-of -the-art 

Drapers and then ran old, belt-driven Lowell looms for years after 

they were outmoded, despite knowledge of the advantages of the 

Drapers. 

The mentality which would operate machinery despite awareness 

of the advantageousness of available replacements also permitted 

the mill itself to become archaic before its time. Never an appealing 

place to work, #6 went downhill quickly as the building grew older 

and ameliorative measures were not taken. Drawing employees to 

these rooms represented a continuing problem. Wages were not 

used to overcome this disadvantage, either, for the Boott’s stayed 

low throughout its history. Workers went to the Boott because they 

could not find a job that would pay them more; only by taking the 

whole family to the mill could labor acquire a living wage. By letting 

the mill and equipment deteriorate, profits, from the beginning, 

were made at the expense of the workers, whose labor generated 

the income but did not retain it, either as wages or as re-investment 

which would sustain their jobs. This pattern, traditional to Lowell, 

would intensify and spread with time. 

Yet the managers of the mill objected, from the start and 

continuously, to any claims that were anything but concerned with 

the workers’ well-being that they employed a degraded class of 

citizens, or that they failed to do their part in working toward the 

mill’s continuing success. Their protestations did not reflect reality, 

but they may well have indicated their feelings, their desire to be 

providing valuable employment and, certainly, to run a successful 

factory. The managers’ bias, however, affects many of the available 

sources of information. It has an interest of its own, part of which 

lies in the distance it discloses between the two classes of employees 

(management and labor) in the minds of the management. 
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Management domination of the situation, in terms of power, 

made the early decades fairly quiet, with little active or organized 

resistance on the part of labor to the many pay-cuts (at least little 

that can be detected now). Still, the situations which would lead to 

resentment and disagreement were being established. 

When one management had taken all it could from the mill, it 

passed along what remained to new owners and the era of Flather 

Treasurership began. New ownership meant new consultants, and 

one report after another analyzed the building, the equipment, the 

workers, and, at times, the management. None emerged unscathed. 

Many of the difficulties identified had been inherited. The lay-out 

of machinery and processes, the machinery itself, as well as much 

of the workforce, came with the mill. While consultants pointed 

out deficiencies, the people involved, such as the Agents, described 

things in a way to cast a favorable and optimistic light on the fruits 

of their careers, and the new Treasurer knew more about managing 

machine-shops than cotton mills. Yet Frederick Flather played a 

major role in the mill’s operation, particularly during the ill-health 

of E.W. Thomas in the second decade of this century. The use of 

the mill by the selling agents and chief stockholders, Wellington, 

Sears, accentuated its difficulties, taking profit from the mill not 

only without concern for its future, but with little concern for its 

present. Their success came from selling the cloth, and they seem 

to have cared little for the condition of one mill, among many, that 

made cloth for them to sell. Their misuse of the mill only increased 

effects of the damaging practices of the past. 

One of the impressions that emerges from study of the mill’s 

workings is that of a seat-of-the-pants operation. Accounting 

and supervision were not precise or well- developed, but when 

the Agent had sufficient knowledge and skill, as with Burke and 

particularly Cumnock, the factory succeeded. Under the turn-ofthe-century agents it floundered and struggled. It is to Flather’s 

credit that when he finally wrested control from Wellington, Sears 

he was able to extract some last decades of occasional success from 

the plant. 

Reinvestment in machinery during this period followed the 

usual mixed pattern. The value of knotters and warp-tiers was 

recognized, as was long-draft spinning, but while the former were 

adopted wholesale, because of their small number and expense, the 

latter entered the mill piecemeal, increasing the disparities between 

machines which produce in tandem. Furthermore, conditions in 

the mill did not permit efficient operation of the new equipment 

(nor of the old, for that matter). No willingness existed to make 

major changes, to either buy new groups of machinery or to 

rhabiliate the structure. Gradual replacement improved spinning 

and weaving, which came to fill #6, but never caught up with the 

problem. Dividing the responsibility for what did not happen 
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seems impossible: the Directors did not appear eager to improve 

the plant, but suggestions for improvements in the record are too 

slight to absolve Flather. 

Throughout this period the mill, except when great runs of one 

product for defense work were available, made a multitude of 

materials. This program brought innumerable problems. Mills, 

particularly in other areas, succeeded with such practices, and at 

times they worked for the Boott. The insurmountable problem was 

not simply the mixed production, but the inappropriateness of the 

plant for it, and that issue the owners never addressed adequately. 

Given these difficult conditions regarding plant, equipment, 

and flow, it comes as no surprise that consultants found labor 

discouraged about its ability to produce successfully, or to make a 

good income on piece rates there. 

Poor practices flowed through the mill much like the archaic 

line shafting which continued to power it. An operation which 

succeeded only fitfully did not hold the best workers or encourage 

the best efforts from those who remained, just as poor temperature 

and humidity control and worn-out machines did not lead to 

efficient production or machine repair. The consultants’ reports of 

dirty, unsanitary, unpleasant conditions must be kept in mind by 

the modern observer, for they were a constant part of the existence 

of those who worked in the mill. The failure to take care of even the 

simplest of these problems underlined an unwillingness to improve 

production or to admit the importance of the workers as people. 

Wages continued to go up and down according to the market, a 

factor greatly accentuated by the fact that hours of work, while 

gradually declining per day, rose and fell dramatically overall, 

according to demand. It is important to note that management 

reported that every wage increase was more than made up for 

through increased productivity from the workers. Still, wages 

remained low and worker turnover high, a factor which led to the 

introduction of large numbers of new immigrants to the mill. The 

tradition of hiring the cheapest available workers and then teaching 

them the work was a consistent one in Lowell. Losing many 

workers, and presumably losing even more among the most skilled 

(and able to get work elsewhere), placed an enormous burden on 

the managers at all levels. 

Despite the beginnings of labor organization, the period up to the 

Depression was dominated by the old ways, the era harking back, 

consciously, to the “Lowell mill girls,” and absolute owner control, 

or at least a belief in that management. 
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The final decades of operation took place under a cloud formed 

by the stated belief on the part of management that significant 

investment in the Boott would be misplaced. Given the frugality of 

previous times, such a situation could only bode ill for continuing 

operation. Some companies bought southern mills as adjuncts, 

while others invested money there. The Boott investigated such 

mills but did not buy. Some of the owners were involved with mills 

elsewhere, but their finances have not been traced as part of this 

study. In any case, they did not invest heavily in Lowell at this time. 

The pattern followed by the Boott fit that of many textile companies 

at the time and many others since. The Amoskeag, in Manchester, 

New Hampshire was one of the best known to make a clear-cut 

decision to cease to reinvest, to take all the capital which had been 

built up by years of operation but not paid out in dividends and 

separate it from the company. The plant and machinery then ran 

as long as they could produce a profit and were then abandoned. 

(In fact, the Dumaine family which presided over the pillaging 

of Amoskeag proceeded to repeat the process at the venerable 

Waltham Watch Co.). 

Workers, being less mobile than capital, suffered when the operation 

and capital they had helped create were removed geographically, 

depriving them of a livelihood in which they had had a stake. 

Consultants continued to tell Boott management the same things in 

the last decades that they had for years. The plant was inefficient 

and unattractive; machinery was old, workers uninspired (as well 

they might be, given their situation). Certain steps were taken, 

though at little expense. Finishing operations, including stitching 

of curtains and towels, began and a conveyor system was installed 

to improve transportation between departments, but these had 

little impact in comparison to the decision not to reinvest. 

Management came to speak with two voices, one which described 

the plant’s shortcomings to Lowell tax assessors, another which 

claimed fine conditions in negotiations with labor.

Modernization continued in a small and piecemeal way 

with occasional new machines, often secondhand, and some 

electrification of individual machines. Wartime again brought big 

government contracts and renewed production. 

A great deal of effort went into labor-management relations, 

with effort on both sides. The disagreements were fundamental: 

management trying to maintain control in as complete a way as 

possible, labor attempting to improve wages and power. The 

union gave the worker a voice, both collectively, in bargaining, 

and individually, through a grievance procedure and various 
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committees and stewards. The accommodation of the two sides 

to one another was often awkward, handicapped by decades of 

freedom on one side and new found ability to debate on the other. 

At times differences continued in arbitration for more than a year. 

Many disputes continued unresolved, or resolved unsatisfactorily 

to one side or the other, for many years. In numerous cases the 

comparative merit of the two positions has been obscured by time, 

but the energy spent disputing is still clear. 

The fact of the constant disputes and their attendant cost, in terms of 

time and resulting ill-will, remains apparent. It had been a long time 

since workers had felt as though they and management were in the 

enterprise together, but the final period made it clear how far apant 

they were. All the time management argued for accommodation, for 

concessions on the part of labor, it knew that the mill was doomed, 

although it said otherwise. The workers battled to maintain the 

position they had attained in recent years while management 

worked to undermine it on the pretext of continuing employment. 

Although we do not have all of labor’s side of the disputes, it may 

well be that it recognized the handwriting on the wall and rejected 

the idea of endless concessions in what would be a hopeless cause 

and an endangerment of the union position elsewhere. 

All sides expended effort on the task of solving the mill’s problems. 

From the present vantage point, it appears that the only side which 

could have put those efforts on a potentially successf ul basis had 

long since determined not to do so. Slowly the Boott Mills sank 

beneath the weight of antiquated machinery and plant. 

B. StructuralDevelopment

The physical development and architectural evolution of the Boott 

Mills, and especially that of Mill #6, may be considered to be tot 

ally derivative in nature. Similar to the problems experienced by 

management as a result of their cavalier treatment of the workers 

and a reluctance to keep pace with technological improvements 

regarding new machinery, the owners relied on tried and true 

lessons of the past in the construct ion of their physical plant. 

Either through ignorance (unlikely, at least after 1904 as the Flather 

collection contains a wealth of material concerned with avant 

garde textile engineering, processes and mill construction) or 

misplaced determination, the owners were reluctant to experiment 

with innovative design and structural techniques that might 

have improved the productivity and longevity of the mills under 

their control. This pattern was not unique to the Boott Mills--it 

was pervasive throughout Lowell. It is here that the value of the 

Counting House, the Courtyard with the facades of Mills #1 and 2, 

and especially Mill #6 as an interpretive museum lies. 
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The complex incorporates virtually all of the architectural and 

construction devices, good and bad, in use in Lowell during the 

mid-to-late 19th- century. It is the perfect stage to present the 

activities, disputes and processes that took place within the mill 

and effected the lives of the workers as described above.

 The Counting House is one of two (Suffolk Mills is the other) 

survivors of a building type in continuous use that existed at each 

of the textile manufacturers in Lowell. It has survived a century and 

a half of such use remarkably intact, suffering only minor alteration 

to the exterior and the partitioning of the office space. Importantly, 

all of the changes made to the Counting House reflect a simplistic 

but effective accommodation to an expanded need. 

Mill #6 offers the rare opportunity of interpreting a structure itself 

as an artifact. It displays many of the design and structural features 

of the original construction as well as introducing the positive 

changes that occurred over time that reflect the technological 

evolution of such a facility and use. 

The design and construction of Mill #6 may have lacked innovation, 

yet the building has experienced only minor structural damage to 

the foundations, (repaired in 1926) the rotting of flooring at the 

first level (because of a lack of ventilation) and a distress line in 

the north wall of the west section. These changes to the structural 

integrity of the mill resulted primarily from the lack of maintenance, 

continuing the pattern of neglect we have seen in other areas of 

management, and were not the result of inherent design flaws. 

Importantly, however, gross errors of omission occurred regarding 

design and construction that must be laid at the feet of the owners 

and builders. The most important error was the failure to take full 

advantage of the opportunity afforded by the new shafting and by 

the availability of turbines for power to increase the width of the 

mills. This should have provided the designers of Mill No. 6 with 

enough freedom in planning to tailor the plan to the exact layout 

requirements of the new machinery and processes to be used here. 

Instead, the west section of the mill retains the traditional 48’ width. 

While the third through fifth floors of the east section are expanded 

to 78’, this width is most likely a result of the decision to locate 

the entrance to the coal pocket at the eastern end of the structure, 

enclosed from the weather. Initially, occupying only the first floor, 

later enlarged and raised to two floors in height, the coal pocket 

forced the widening of the entire east section if the remainder of the 

first floor were to be used for manufacturing. 

The narrow width of the mill, together with the five-story height 

required to make the structure economically efficient, was the main 

reason cited by Lockwood-Greene & Company in their 1907 report 

recommending that the Boott Mills be torn down and started anew: 
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“Mills 45’ and 50’ in width and six stories high cannot be considered 

good buildings for any department of a modern cotton mill. “

1

The width problems were restated in a 1944 report that compared 

the Boott Mills to new mills under construction in the South. 

“Competitor mills in the south are 1 and 2 stories high, as wide as 

150’..,” citing that such a width offered complete freedom in the 

arrangement and re-arrangement of machinery and describing the 

height of Boott Mills in an understated comment: “A 6-flight climb 

every time one enters the mill to go to work, is not popular.”

2

The size of Mill #6, like most of those at the Boott and elsewhere 

in Lowell, was of course partially dictated by site conditions--

the contiguous Eastern Canal and the pre-existing mills--yet the 

width and walk-up problems certainly were major factors in the 

inefficiency in operation and discontent among the workers that 

plagued the Boott during most of the 20th century. Other factors 

that are related to design and construction that have had a negative 

effect on Mill #6 include the lack of sufficient lateral supports in 

the structural system that contributed to the deflection of the mill 

(6-1/2” at one point) and increased the effects of vibration inherent 

with textile machinery. Both could have been alleviated to a large 

degree if the designers had utilized pilastered walls, a device in 

common use at the time of construction. The pilastered walls would 

also have improved both natural light and ventilation, as the wall 

area between the brick piers is usually filled with operable windows. 

Instead, the building was put up with the “traditional” bearing 

walls, reduced in thickness as they rose to the eaves, and extremely 

susceptible to high winds loads because of the unbroken flat wall 

surfaces of such length. Minor structural details that fortunately 

have not been tested at the Boott Mills include the archaic use of 

tie rods with anchor plates at the exterior wall to fasten the floor 

beams (the beams fall inward if the ends are burned, bringing the 

wall with it since it is tied to the rods), the use of cast iron columns 

despite the known threat of collapse during a fire, especially in 

sprinklered spaces where cold water will split cast iron on contact, 

and the lack of any masonry fire walls to retard the spread of fire 

horizontally throughout the mill; the party wall at the juncture of 

the east and west sections would have been an ideal location for 

such a device. 

The above features can all be related to the traditional approach to 

design and construction taken by both Boott Mills, the owner, and by 

Locks and Canals, the designers and builders; such traditionalism 

certainly contributing to the other problems faced by management. 

The same approach also led to the removal of the sixth floors and 

cresting at both stair towers at Mill #6, the most destructive action 

taken by management with regard to the visual appearance of the 

mill. The towers and balustrades were the dominant feature of the 

entire Boott complex, punctuating the skyline in all photos of the 
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manufacturing section of Lowell made after the 1870s. Fortunately, 

the same photos offer the necessary documentation to permit 

their reconstruction, an action that would return the mills to their 

appearance during their most productive period of operation. 

Removal in 1950 to “reduce vibration” thus was a wanton, uncalled 

for destructive act. 

While there are numerous negative implications of some of the 

original design concepts and of later actions at the heavy hand 

of management, they are at the least equaled by the numerous 

positive features of Mill #6 that exemplify the state-of-the-art of 

mill construction during the mid-19th-century and later. However, 

it must be stated once again that most of these positive features 

were already well known to millwrights in and out of Lowell when 

the mill was started in 1872. The use of octagonal plan towers with 

stairs and hoists had been incorporated into the mills rebuilt after 

a fire at the Merrimack Manufacturing Company in 1855, and the 

same company placed the stair towers at the corners of the mill, 

rather than in the center of the main facade when they built a new 

dressing mill in 1863. The almost flat roof had replaced both the 

dormer and clerestory lit roofs of earlier mills in Lowell by the 

mid-1850s. Steam heat along the walls, gas lighting, sprinklers at 

all floors with vertical stand pipes, composite beams (rather than a 

single large timber), slow-burn floor construction, brick rather than 

stone lintels at the windows for strength in case of fire, corbelled 

solid brick cornices that eliminated the flue-like effect of hollow 

metal or wood cornices, and even the cast iron treads at the stairs 

to reduce wear had all been in use in Lowell and at the Boott Mills 

before #6 was built. Yet, importantly, they all occur here, ready to 

be interpreted. 

Despite the lament of some writers at the close of the 19th century: 

The cotton factories themselves are not so agreeable nor so healthful 

to work in as they used to be. Once they were light, well ventilated, 

and moderately heated: each factory-building stood detached, with 

pleasant sunlit windows, cheerful views and fresh air from all 

points of the compass3

and a statement in the 1945 Plant Condition Report regarding noncompliance to state building codes of the time: 

Certain features could not be used in present day construction but 

buildings grounds & waterways restrict betterments. If present 

buildings were removed they would not be rebuilt4

Boott Mill No. 6 reflects the technological development of textile 

mills from the 1870s on. It has stood the test of time, with over 
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100 years of continuous occupancy, most of which was less than 

friendly to the structural system, without serious compromise to its 

integrity as a building. Obviously,: 

In general, Mill #6 can be considered an engineered structure. The 

beams, columns, walls, and foundations are all matched for the same 

superimposed loading. Except for the first floor, durable materials 

were appropriately used. Further evidence of this is the overall fine 

condition of the mill after 113 years of varied uses.

5

The facades of Mills #1 and 2, with their connector, are in themselves 

documents to the evolution of many of the mills at Lowell. They 

represent the first phase of development as a pair of free-standing 

four-story structures of “typical size” as well as the second phase, 

when the open space between them was infilled as prearranged 

to provide additional manufacturing floor area. These so called 

“connectors were usually designed to be visually sympathetic with 

the original mills, and often incorporated new stair towers at more 

functional locations into their planning. The connector between 

Mills #1 and #2 at Boott Mills, with the towers at the ends of the new 

construction, is an exemplary example of this device. The facades 

of these structures also reflect the final development phase of many 

of the mills at Lowell, when a full fifth floor replaced the dormered 

(or as at other mills in the city, the clerestory) gable roof. All three 

phases of development are present here, offering documentary 

evidence of the architectural changes that took place at many of the 

mills throughout Lowell before the Civil War. Despite the negative 

visual impact, even the post-1955 alterations to the facades and 

connector are of importance, as they tell the story of the rise and 

fall of the mills as profitable textile concerns. 

The Courtyard, its present use as a truck entrance, service yard, 

and parking lot notwithstanding, reflects the importance of open 

space in the original organizational pattern of the Boott Mills. 

The arrangement of the early mills in long rows, separated by 

continuous open spaces to provide natural light and ventilation 

was predicated on the Waltham system of a canal built parallel to 

the river, with perpendicular raceways. This planning device was 

followed throughout the initial stages of the Boott Mills, and was 

carefully modified to satisfy the development pressures of the mid19th century. Since the mill yard was restricted in area from the 

start, later structures were placed at right angles to the rows, and 

enclosed both of the original parallel courtyards of the Boott. This 

limited access to the formal, easily controlled central entrance at 

John Street. The courtyard between the Counting House and Mill 

#6 at the south, and Mills#1 and #2 at the north represents the 

southern spine of the original site plan. It is of special importance 

as this area became the dominant open space during the mid-
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19th century when most of the north yard was infilled by new 

construction. 

The extant buildings, library and archaeological materials 

and artifacts, represent an outstanding, perhaps unparalleled, 

opportunity for interpretation of all aspects of large-scale cotton 

textile production in New England. The roles of owners, managers, 

and workers, the interplay of capital, water and steam power, and 

textile technology, the effects of market fluctuations, government 

intervention, and national unionization trends all interacted within 

and around Boott Mill #6. It stands as an ideal opportunity for 

discussion and interpretation of all these factors. 
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 ENDNOTES 

1. Letter, Lockwood-Greene & Co. to FRF, Jr., January 29, 1907 (FC). 

2. Memo to BM, “Boott Mills Buildings Competition in Cotton Manufacturing, Nor December 15, 1944 

(FC). are Not Suitable for Post War Present Day Competition Either,” 

3. Harriet Robinson, Loom and Spindle, New York, 1898, pp. 208-209. 

4. Plant Condition Report, January 5, 1955, p. 4 (FC). 

5. Structural Report of Mill 6 Boott Mill in Lowell, Brown, Rona, Inc., Boston, 1984, p. 53. 
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 XIV. FUTURE RESEARCH 

While much has been accomplished in terms of research concerning 

the operation, planning, and construction of the Boott Cotton 

Mills and Boot Mills, substantial areas remain to be studied. The 

quality of the Flather Collection insures that research will continue 

for many years. In fact, a first priority would be a review of that 

material from a broader perspective than that permitted by the 

Historic Structures Report’s focus on specific structures. Further 

beneficial expansion would include examination of the structures 

and records of other major Lowell corporations in order that a valid 

comparative analysis can be created. 

Specific topics that should be explored: 

1. Design and construction sources: what handbooks or other 

published material influenced the design and planning of the mills 

at Lowell, with site specific reference to Mill #6 and others at the 

Boott? 

2. Who was responsible for the actual design of the mills, in Lowell 

and at the Boott in particular? Did Locks and Canals prepare the 

plans and specifications or did they subcontract to professionals? 

If Locks and Canals actually did the design and structural work 

in-house, who was responsible; was there a separate staff for this 

work, or did the millwrights and engineers double as architects? 

3. What influence did management have on the design of the mill 

structures? How was work coordinated between Locks and Canals 

and the owners-financiers, etc?

 4. How did Locks and Canals actually build the mill structures; was 

there a permanent construction team moving from mill to mill, or 

did they sub-contract out some of the construction? Who were the 

men responsible for overseeing the work, where were the laborers 

drawn from? 

5. Who supplied the building materials and components for the 

mills at Lowell as well as the Boott. Where did the brick and stone 

come from, how was it transported? 

6. HABS and HAER quality drawings and records should be made 

for all the standing mills in Lowell so that comparative analysis can 

be made of such features as floor sizes (by time period); floor to 

ceiling heights (by time period); the use of cast iron versus timber 

for columns; when was slow-burn construction introduced, where, 

by whom and how did they learn about it; were pilastered walls 

ever used at Lowell, if so where and when; fenestration patterns 
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(percentage of openings to solid walls as related to the width of the 

mills) and the kind of artificial lighting available; how did the mills 

satisfy sanitary needs; coatrooms, recreation rooms, etc.; where 

were the heating pipes attached (at the walls as at Mill #6 or at the 

ceiling); what were the differences in floor dimensions over time, 

keyed to advances in machinery and lighting? 

7. What were the costs of the mills, on a comparative basis, per 

loom or square foot, over time? 

8. It is assumed that other avenues of research will be uncovered 

during the next phases of work related to the Boott Mills and Lowell, 

but it is recommended that the completion of the HABS and HAER 

drawings take precedence, as much of the comparative analysis 

suggested above can be drawn from the visual record. Also, while 

this project has afforded the opportunity to thoroughly explore the 

records of the Flather Collection and the files of the proprietors of 

Locks and Canals, both at their Boott Mills office and at the Lowell 

University Library Special Collections†

, as well as other collections, 

little documentary evidence regarding architects and engineers, or 

contractors and laborers, suppliers and craftsmen has been found. 

Oral history may help in this area, as some of the workers on the 

later mills must still reside in the area. Other sources for this kind 

of material normally include union records, extant contracting and 

building firms and suppliers records, local and other architectural 

and engineering firms and consultants records such as those 

contracted by Locks and Canals during the reconstruction of the 

John Street bridge and the relocation of the railroad tracks at the 

coal pocket. 

9. Oral histories with former workers, managers, or builders 

would illuminate the written record. Library research can lay 

the groundwork for a sophisticated use of this avenue. Detailed 

knowledge of the mill’s history would permit insightful use of the 

memories of those connected with its history. Park Service efforts 

in this area deserve strong support. 

10. Economic analysis of the business records of the mill and of 

its investors. Determination of actual profits, other investments by 

these people, and the precise amounts of money spent in various 

ways would reveal much about the plant’s performance and its 

Directors’ relations to this and other mills, including those in the 

South with which the Boott competed. 

† This reference is reproduced verbatim from the 1984 HSR. It should 

be noted that as of 2016, these records are housed at the Lowell National Park's 

Locks and Canal Collection and at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, 

Special Collections. 
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11. The relationship between Boott production and competition 

in the South. This relationship represented a factor of growing 

importance during the final half-century of the mill’s operation. It 

effected decisions on products and investment and influenced all 

aspects of the mill’s situation. It was both the source of real concern 

and powerful propaganda. 

12. A detailed examination of surviving Lowell newspapers for 

textile industry news and other relevant material. Such a study 

would not only help flesh out the mills’ histories, despite the close 

relationship between the corporations and the papers in most 

instances, but also enhance one’s understanding of the local milieu 

within which the activity took place. 

13. Comparison of the Boott’s equipment with that of other mills. 

Operations in various parts of the country with which the Boott 

competed employed machinery which accomplished the same 

ends as the Boott; the relative merits of the various complements 

of machinery would increase understanding of labor’s situation 

regarding skills and loads and further understanding of the 

management’s competence. 

14. Union-management relations and labor-management relations. 

While both these were studied for the HSR, more could be done to 

untangle these complex relationships. 

15. Immigration and textile labor. The origins and motivations 

of the mill’s changing workforce deserve further attention than 

that provided by the available contemporary lists of nationalites. 

Motivations, recruitment, intentions, travel routes, and experiences 

all offer fruitful ground. 

16. Sources of innovation in textile technology. The relative 

contributions of machine-builders and shop floor or workshop 

inventors would cast light on the state of the American machine 

building industry over time. 
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 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Research for this report drew primarily on the collections of Lowell University, the Museum of American 

Textile History‡

, Baker Library at the Harvard University Business School, and the Library of Congress. 

The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, the Archives of the Commonwealth of 

Massachusetts, and the American Antiquarian Society collections also contributed information. 

Studies of various aspects of the history of the textile industry and Lowell offer bibliographies of 

numerous relevant works. Of particular note are those in Cotton Was King, prepared by Martha Mayo, 

and Women at Work, by Thomas Dublin. Because of the number of specialized bibliographies available 

an annotated bibliography of works cited in this report is provided. 

COLLECTIONS§

Lowell University Library¶. Flather Collection. A rare and complete group of business records, primarily 

for the Boott Mills, 1905-1954, including all consultants’ reports cited, and also related material; see 

Catalog by R. Nicholas Oldsberg. 

Lowell University Library**. Lambert Collection. Includes notes by engineer Channing Whiittaker, 

some of which relate to machinery and architectural details of Boott Cotton Mills. 

Boston. Baker Library at Harvard Business School. Proprietors of Locks and Canals Collection. Records 

machinery sold by Lowell Machine Shop to Boott Cotton Mills (and others); contains business records 

of several other Lowell corporations. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Anonymous. “Statistics of Cotton Manufacturers in New England, 1866.” Proceedings of the New 

England Cotton Manufacturer’s Association [NECMA]. Vol. I, No. 1: 9-23. Forthwright exchange of 

Information Among The Active principals within the industry in the Northeast. 

Appleton, Nathan. Introduction of the Power Loom and Origins of Lowell. Boston: Little Brown & 

Company, 1858. One of the original investor’s account of his perspective; valuable for its evidence of 

the way they portrayed themselves. 

Bagnall, William R. “Sketches of Manufacturing and Textile Establishments in the Eastern United 

States.” Typescript in the collection of the Museum of American Textile History, No. Andover, MA. 

n.d. A continuation of his 1639-1810 publication. 

‡ This reference is reproduced verbatim from the 1984 HSR. It should be noted that as of 2016, these locations are 

referred to as the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Special Collections; and American Textile History Museum. 

§ As of 2016, part of the collections exist at Lowell National Historical Park, Museum Collections. Proprietors of 

Locks and Canal Collection.

¶ As of 2016, this location is referred to as the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Special Collections.

** As of 2016, this location is referred to as the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Special Collections.
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_____.The Textile Industries of the United States. Vol. I, 1639-1810. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 

1893. The eanliest attempt at a comprehensive history of the industry. It is valuable for the firsthand 

information Bagnall was able to draw upon. 

Bahr, Betsey. “Nineteenth Century Textile Mill Design and the Factory Workplace.” Paper presented at 

the annunal meeting of the Society of the History of Technology, Philadelphia, 1982. Excellent discussion 

of mechanical considerations and improvements as they affected mill design and construction. 

Baily, Sarah Loring. Historical Sketches of Andover 1880. Reprint. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 

1974. 

Bender, Thomas. Toward an Urban Vision. Lexington. University Press of Kentucky, 1975. The author 

places Lowell’s development in a continuum of American urbanization. 

Blewett, Mary, ed. Surviving Hard Times. Lowell: Lowell Museum, 1982. A collection of essays by the 

editor’s students on labor during strikes and other hard times after 1875. 

Boston Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company. “Special Report, Outside Coverings for Flat 

Roofs.” Boston. undated (c.1905). 

_____. “Special Report, Modern Mill Building. “ Boston, 1908. 

_____. “Special Report, Standard Mill Construction.” Boston, 1902. 

Boynton, G. W. Plan of the City of Lowell. Philadelphia, 1845. 

Brown, Rona, Inc. Structural Report of Mill 6 Boott Mill in Lowell. Boston, 1984. 

Candee, Richard M. “New Towns of the Early New England Textile Industry.” Perspectives in 

Vernacular Architecture, 1982. Good analysis of the differences and similarities of the Waltham and 

the Rhode Island System of mill communities. 

Carroll, Pauline C. “Industrial Fire Protection in Nineteenth-Century Lowell: The Acquisition and 

Diffusion of Technology and Applied Science.” Unpublished term paper, Brown University, n.d. 

Chevalier, Michael. Society, Manners and Politics in the United States: Being A Series of Letters on 

North America. Boston: Weeks, Jordan and Company, 1839. One of the most perceptive of the many 

accounts by foreign visitors. 

Cole, Donald B. Immigrant City: Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1845-1921. Chapel Hill: University of North 

Carolina Press, 1963. A useful history, primarily social, one of Lowell’s many imitators. 

Condit, Carl. American Buildings: Materials and Techniques from the First Colonial Settlements to the 

Present. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. 
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Coolidge, John Phillips. Mill and Mansion, A Study of Architecture and Society in Lowell, Massachusetts 

1820- 1865. New York: Columbia University Press: 1942. While primarily a study of the architecture of 

Lowell, this book is important for its treatment of the founding of Lowell and its first buildings. It also 

attempts to trace the influences of established architectural principles (especially “Romanticism” and 

“Early Romantic Architecture” of 1835-1865) on the individual mill structures and the mill complexes 

as design units. Well illustrated, including early maps and site plans, photographs and engravings of 

the factories and especially the mill housing. 

Copeland, Melvin T. The Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the United States. Cambridge: Harvard 

University Press, 1923. An overview of the economic and technological development of the industry. 

Conley, Charles. Illustrated History of Lowell. 1856. Revised. Boston: Lee Shepard. Lowell: B.C. Sargeant 

& Joshua Merrill, 1868. The revised edition of the original 1856 work, this is the best local history 

of its period, with coverage of the founding and early development of Lowell written on an almost 

contemporary basis. Includes important chapters on manufacturing and the advent of the “modern 

factory system” citing important mechanical inventors and their contributions. Comprehensive 

treatment of the “manufacturing history” that includes current data on each of the cotton manufacturies. 

Supplemented by high quality, if small, engravings of mill structures and important personages. 

Draper, George Otis. Labor-Saving Looms. Hopedale, Mass.: Draper Company, 1907. A combination 

of history and advertising promoting the Northrup loom. 

Dublin, Thomas. Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, 

Massachusetts, 1826-1860. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979. An analytical account of the 

role and treatment of the women workers during the mis-named “golden age.” 

Dunwell, Steve. The Run of the Mill. Boston: David R. Godine, 1978. A survey of the history of the 

textile industry in New England with detailed commentary on technological innovations and their 

impact on the new mills. Excellent illustrations with copious captions that clearly explain the process 

used at Lowell and elsewhere. Of special interest is the section concerning the founding and growth 

of Lowell’s earlier mills at Waltham, his move to Lowell (with Boott Mills discussed in particular) and 

the decline of the industry in New England. 

Ellis, G. H. The Lowell Book. Boston, 1899. A description of the city at the turn of the century compiled 

by a number of authors, all members of the First Unitarian Church. Value limited primarily to social, 

political and economic considerations but touches on the mills and the workers. 

Eno, Arthur L., Jr., ed. Cotton Was King: A History of Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826- 1860. Lowell: New 

Hampshire Publishing Company, 1976. A collection of essays on the city’s history from Indian times 

into the current century. Emphasis on the role of the cotton industry in the shaping of the present day 

Lowell and its attendant social structure. Detailed coverage of each of the early miils and canals, power 

sources, the introduction of the railroad and its impact on the form and manufacturing processes, and a 

good discussion of notjable personages like Kirk Boott, James B. Francis and others. Good illustrations, 

including town plans and portraits. 

Fahre, Herbert J. The Cotton Mill Worker. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, Inc., 1944. Recounts the 

workers’ role and position in both North and South, and the growth of unionism. 
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Fayer, Robert G. Earnings of Cotton Mill Operations, 1825-1914. Cambridge, Mass.: Committee on 

Research in Econmics History, Inc. Tabulates wages and hours worked in relation to living costs. 

Francis, James B. “On the Means Adopted in Lowell, Mass. for Extinguishing Fires.” Journal of the 

Franklin Institute. Vol. XLIIX. 

General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Acts of 1825, Chapter 53. 

_____. Acts of 1835, Chapter 74. 

Gibb, George Sweet. Saco-Lowell Shops Textile Machinery Building in New England, 1813- 1949. 

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950. An outstanding description of the origins and growth of 

both the city and the machine-building shops. 

Goddard, James. Handbook of Cotton Manufacture; or A Guide to Machine Building, Spinning and 

Weaving. New York: John Wiley and Son, 1867. A useful “how to” book with fine period illustrations. 

Green, Stephen. “Modifications in Mill Design Resulting from Changes in Motive Power.” Proceedings 

of the New England Cotton Manufacturer’s Association, No. 65 (Oct. 1897). 

Gregory, Frances W. Nathan Appleton, Merchant and Entrepeneur, 1779- 1861. Charlottesville: 

University Press of Virginia, 1975. A strong account of the life and thinking of this pivotal figure. 

Grinnell, Frederick. “Heating by Overhead Steam Pipes.” Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting 

Held at Boston of the New England Cotton Manufacturing Association. Vol. XXVIII: 39- 42. 

Handbook for the Visiter [sic] to Lowell. Lowell: D. Bixby & Co., 1848. Contemporary description of 

the mills in Lowell and their supporting industries and other facilities. State-of-the-art discussion of 

the cotton manufacturing process. Important 1848 map. Recently reprinted for resale. 

Hexamer, C. John. “Mill Architecture.” Journal of the Franklin Institute. Vol. CXX (July, 1885), No. 1. 

Hill, Frank Pierce. Lowell Illustrated; A Chronological Record of Events and Historical Sketches of the 

Large Manufacturing Corporations. Lowell: Huse, Goodwin & Company, 1884. Oversize publication 

with full-page photos preceeded by narratives. Important for its discussion of the Proprietors of Locks 

and Canals on the Merrimack River and all of the 19th century mills, the Lowell Machine Shop and mill 

housing. Excellent photo coverage of at least one structure at each mill complex. Narratives include 

descriptions of the structures, motive power and production statistics. 

Hindle, Brooke, ed. Material Culture of the Wooden Age. Tarrytown, New York: Sleepy Hollow 

Press, 1981. A compendium of essays on the use of wood and timber construction and its place in the 

history of American building. Of interest is a piece written by Gary Kulik, “A Factory System of Wood: 

Cultural and Technological Change in the Building of the First Cotton Mills, “ in which he traces the 

use of timber framing at Slater and Lippitt mills in Rhode Island (among others) and how the resulting 

forms were carried over to the masonry mills at Lowell and elsewhere. 
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Hitchcock, Henry-Russell, Jr. Rhode Island Architecture, 1938. Reprint. New York: DeCapo Press, 

1939. While concerned with the architectural development of Rhode Island, this book has important 

discussions of the Rhode Island Factory System of mills, and includes narrative and photographic 

coverage of such pivotal mill structures as Slater, Lippitt and Harris. 

Johnson, Paul E. A Shopkeeper’s Millenium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815- 1837. 

New York: Hill & Wang, 1978. A social history focused on business, religion, and economics. 

Josephson, Hannah. The Golden Threads: New England’s Mill Girls and Magnates. New York: Duell, 

Sloan, and Pierce, 1949. The most readable and still unsurpassed history of the city’s development. 

Highly reliable although not footnoted. 

Kulik, Gary and Julia C. Bonham. Rhode Island: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial 

Sites. Historic American Engineering Record (HAER): Washington, D. C., 1978. A catalog of important 

early Rhode Island cotton and woolen mills that influenced the design of the mills at Waltham and 

Lowell. 

McGouldrick, Paul F., New England Textiles in the Nineteenth Century: Cambridge: Profits and 

Investment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Plots economic trends reflected in the records 

of major cotton companies represented in Baker Library collections. 

McKelvey, Blake. The Urbanization of America 1860-1915. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. 

1963. A general work that attempts to catalog the character of city growth and the underlying reasons 

for such visual change. This book touches briefly on Lowell, citing its industrial importance as an 

example of a specialized factory tohwn, the effect of the Civil War on the textile industry in the North, 

and the eventual dispersement of the centralized factory town. 

Macauley, David. Mill. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1983. A fictional treatment of the evolution 

of cotton mills, typical of the Macauley genre but of interest for its coverage of the basic principles of 

mill construction, ranging from the selection of the site, the transfer of water power, loom layouts, etc., 

through the use of slow-burn construction--a pictorial glossary of terms which are clearly presented. 

Main, Charles T. “Notes on Mill Construction.” Proceedings of the New England Cotton Manufacturers’ 

Association. vol. CII. 

Makepiece, C. B. “The Best Method of Heating a Cotton Mill.” Proceedings of the New England Cotton 

Manufacturers’ Association. Vol. LIV: 74- 79.

Malone, Patrick. Canals and Industry, Engineering in Lowell 1821- 1880. Lowell: The Lowell Museum, 

1976. Reprint. 1983. A thorough treatment of the development of the canal system in Lowell.

Middlesex County Deeds, Southern Registry, Book 349, p. 458. 

_____. Book 405, end page. 
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Miles, Henry A. Lowell, As It Is And As It Was. Lowell: Powers and Bagle and N. L. Dayton, 1845. A 

contemporaneous account by an apologist for the owners. 

Molloy, Peter, ed. The Lower Merrimack River Valley: An Inventory of Historic Engineering Sites. 

Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), Washington, D. C. and the Museum of American 

Textile History (MATH) No. Andover, MA; 1978. A well-rounded discussion of the mills, including 

those at Lowell with its canal system in inventory format. Selected photographs. 

Nasmith, Joseph and Frank. Recent Cotton Mill Construction and Engineering. London, 1909. 

Navin, Thomas R. The Whitin Machine Works Since 1831: A Textile Machinery Company in an 

Industrial Village. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1950. A parallel study to Gibb’s.

Palfrey, General J. C. “The Use of Steam for Heating a Cotton Mill.” Proceedings of the New England 

Cotton Manufacturers’ Association. Vol. VI: 22- 25. 

Peterson, Charles E., ed. Building Early America. Radnor: Chilton Book Company, 1976. See especially 

Eugene Ferguson’s “A Historical Sketch of Central Heating: 1800-1860.” 

Pierson, William H., Jr. American Buildings and Their Architects: Technology and the Picturesque; The 

Corporate and the Early Gothic Styles. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1978. A thorough 

treatment of these two styles of American building with excellent coverage of cotton mill construction 

in this country, tracing its evolution from the English examples of the early 18th century through 

Waltham and especially Lowell. Pierson makes convincing statements regarding the debt owed by the 

Lowell Mills to both these earlier sources, as well as the Rhode Island mills, and details the planning, 

siting and construction of all the major mills in the city. Excellent illustrations and comparative analyses 

of the many elements that were combined at the Lowell mills. 

Report of the Hon. Henry K. Oliver, Deputy State Constable, Specially Appointed to Enforce the Laws 

Regulating the Employment of Children in Manufacturing and Mechanical Establishments. Boston: 

Wright and Potter, State Printers, 1868. 

Report of the Special Commission on the Hours of Labor and the Condition and Prospects of the 

Industrial Classes. Boston: Wright and Potter, State Printers, 1866. 

Reps, John W. The Making of Urban America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965. Perhaps the 

most important publication concerned with town and city planning from the Colonial period through 

the 1960’s. Chronicles the founding and development of the town and city of Lowell and relates the 

lessons learned here to development of such later factory towns as Lawrence and the “best example of 

the Lowell Ideal Town,” Manchester, New Hampshire. 

Robinson, Harriet. Loom and Spindle: Or Life Among the Early Mill Girls. New York: Thomas Y. 

Crowell & Co., 1898. A reminiscence by a former worker generally favorable toward the system. 

Samuel, Raphael. “Workshop of the World: Steam Power and Hand Technology in Mid-Victorian 

Britian.’’ History Workshop III, Spring (1977): 6-72. 
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Sande, Theodore Anton. ‘’The Architecture of the Cotton Mills of Lowell Massachusetts, 1822-1860.” 

Unpublished term paper, University of Pennsylvania, 1971. 

_____. “The Textile Factory in Pre-Civil War Rhode Island.” Old Time New England. (Summer-Fall 

1975): 14. 

Sealts, Merton M., Jr., ed. The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1973. 

Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott. “Cultural Resources Inventory, Lowell National Historical 

Park and Preservation District.” Lowell, 1980. 

Ure, Andrew. The Philosophy of Manufactures: or, An Exposition of the Scientific, Moral, and 

Commercial Economy of the Factory System of Great Britian. London: Charles Knight, 1835. An early 

account important for its portrayal of the mentality of manufacturing’s supporters at the time. 

Webber, Samuel. Manual of Power for Machines, Shafts, and Belts, with the History of Cotton 

Manufacture in the United States. New York: D. Appleton and Co., rev. ed., 1879. A precise analysis of 

machines in place at major factories, particularly as regards to their power requirements, along with a 

history of the industry. 

Wright, Helena. “Sarah G. Bagley: A Biographical Note.” Labor History 20 (1979): 409 and note. 

Young, T. M., The American Cotton Industry. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903. An Englishman’s 

expert opinion of the United States’ industry, North and South.
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APPENDIX A

Description of crawl space under Mill No . 6

“The height of the crawl space varies from 1’ ± at the north 

foundation wall to 6’± at the south foundation wall in the area of 

the penstocks. The floor is mostly dirt and littered with rotted , 

broken beams and planks.

The penstocks are open in some areas, covered by granite slabs in 

other and by wood beams and planks in still others... It is apparent 

that at one time the penstocks were covered with wood beams and 

planks but this covered area has now collapsed.

In the northwest area there is a masonry and granite pit extending 

8’ below the grade of the crawl space, approximately 11’ below the 

first floor. Two 14”x14” wood beams span the top of the pit, with 

supports for the first floor beams. Two other 14”x14” beams span 

the pit approximately half way down. The notches and markings 

on these lower beams indicate some equipment used to bear on 

them. In the north wall of the pit there is an opening into a tunnel 

heading north. The top of the opening is framed by large granite 

blocks.

Most of the remaining crawl space in the east section is not 

accessible... The east wall is cast in place concrete, with the 

framework still in place in some areas.”

(The last sentence refers to the foundations put in when the coal 

pocket was enlarged in 1927.)

Source: Structural Report of Mill 6, Boott Mill in Lowell, Brown, 

Rona, Inc., Boston, 1984, p. 3-4 .
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APPENDIX B

Roofing specifications, published c.1905

“Place upon the roof plank three layers of roofing felt parallel with 

the eaves; continue by lapping each additional layer two-thirds of its 

width upon the preceding one; so continue until the whole surface 

of the roof is covered. This being properly secured, coat the same 

with the melted composition, and over this place two additional 

layers of felt... The felt being thus properly secured, spread upon 

the surface a good body of the melted composition and gravel in 

sufficient quantity to thoroughly incorporate the same with the 

composition.”

Source: Boston Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company 

Special Report, “Outside Coverings for Flat Roofs,” undated 

(c.1905).
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APPENDIX C

Design of composite beams, including the use of an open space 

between the individual members

“A preference may also be expressed for timbers in two parts rather 

than solid beams , for the reasons:

1st . The space between the two parts will adequately serve for 

ventilation, even if the outer part of the beam is indiscreetly painted 

when the wood is green. 

2nd. Sounder timber may be expected if 6 or 7x14 inch rather than 

12x14 is ordered.”

Source: Boston Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Company Special 

Report #10, Boston, April 7, 1882, p. 9

“...instead of attempting the use of one piece of timber, it is 

preferable to use two pieces of the same depth and half the breadth. 

These should be bolted together, with a space of an inch or so left 

between them left by placing small, vertical pieces of wood between 

the timbers when they are bolted together. In this manner one is 

more sure of sound timber, and in the process of seasoning there 

is less liability or dry rot in the interior, or of injurious checking, 

warping or twisting”

Source: Scientific American, June 2, 1888, p. 10346
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APPENDIX D

“Raising thresholds at doors to contain water for the prevention of 

the floors igniting”

“All floors should be arranged for flooding. This is accomplished 

by raising all sills and other openings through which water may 

escape. A floor arranged for flooding, when otherwise well laid, is 

one of the best means for restricking a fire from extending from 

one room to another, for, a soon as the fire appliances, such as 

sprinklers, hose, etc., are turned on, there is, in a very short time, 

a pond of an inch or an inch and a half deep formed on the floor, 

which prevents the floor from igniting, at the same time, a rise in 

temperature vaporizes the water on the floor , causing the formation 

of steam, which aids in extinguishing the fire.”

Source: C. John Hexamer, “Mill Architecture”, article appearing in 

the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. CXX, July 1885, p. 4
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APPENDIX E

Cast iron versus timber columns for mill construction

“The best column to stand in case of fire is a good hard wood column, 

without taper, bored near the top and bottom so as to prevent dry 

rot, lined with sheet iron or any other metal, or covered with a good 

protecting substance. Of all columns, those of exposed cast iron are 

the poorest.”

Source : Hexamer, op cit

By 1888,

“Iron columns for mills have been entirely displaced by those of 

timber, as it was found that the latter were more reliable in resistance 

to fire, were freer from defects in construction and possessed less 

tendency to vibration.”

Source: Scientific American, (Supplement No . 648) May 26, 1888, 

p . 10345
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APPENDIX F

Improvements to the interior of the Counting House, 1906-1909

“June 30, 1906

Office basement $ 61.09

Supply room 30.72

Office improvements 35.16

Office Equpt, & improv 132.99

December, 1906

Supply room $ 71.25

Office improvements 12.54

Alteration cotton sample room 50.71

June, 1907

Supply room $ 22.01

Office basement improv 5.50

Office in cloth room 142.73

December 1907

Supply room $ 7.50

Office in cloth room 10.96

June 1909

Office equpt & improv $ 54.13

November 1909

Office improv $ 16.39”

Source: Treasurer’s Reports to the Directors of Boott Mills (FC)
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APPENDIX G

Letter re: fire proof vault in Counting House, Sept. 20, 1930

Frederick Flather, Jr.

Boott Mills,

Lowell, Massachusetts.

Dear Sir:

I am enclosing a sketch showing the relations between your fire 

proof vault and the adjoining part of the office. By taking out the fire 

proof vault you can add an area of about 7’ ft. by 9 ft. which could be 

added either to the office or to the stock room. We estimate the cost 

of taking out the vault at about $100.

Yours very truly ,

Assistant Engineer.

SSK:H

Encl.

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals (to Boott Mills)
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APPENDIX H

Letter re: Safford to Flather, 1926 Conditions Report

June 8, 1926.

File #1009

Boott Mills

Lowell, Mass.

 Attention Frederick Flather, Jr.

Gentlemen:

The enclosed statement covers as nearly as we can obtain them the 

conditions at your No. 6 mill.

I personally looked over the underground structures with the water 

out last Sunday, and could see nothing to indicate that they were 

any different from what I had noticed the many times I have been 

under this mill . I noticed one granite flag stone which was cracked, 

and there was some slight opening of the brick in one of the groined 

arches, but not at a place which was carrying an extreme weight.

Mr. Kent, the assistant engineer, not only looked over the 

underground conditions with me Sunday but has observed the 

vibration at each one of the floors of No. 6 mill. (See attached 

statement also copy of a statement giving Mr. Francis’ computations 

for the columns of this mill under date of March 25, 1872.)

While I am pretty confident that the vibration of this mill is not 

unusual with cotton mills having looms in the upper stories, there 

is no question that it is something which should not continue if it 

is possible to change the set-up of the machinery and get rid of this 

vibration.

Yours truly,

ATS

Engineer

ATS/R

Encls.

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals
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APPENDIX I

Charles T. Main 1926 Conditions Report

Chas. T. Main

Engineer

Massachusetts Trust Building

200 Devonshire Street

Boston, Mass.

C O P Y

 June 11, 1926.

SUBJECT: Foundations of No. 6 Mill

Boott Mills

Lowell, Mass.

- Attention of Mr. Frederick A. Flather, Treasurer -

Gentlemen:

In accordance with the request of Mr. Flather, Jr., we have made an 

examination of the foundations of this mill which are built in connection 

with or in the canal.

Our representative’s visit was made on June 6, 1926 at a time when 

the water was drawn down and Mr. Stafford of the Locks and Canals 

Company was there to assist.

The following items were noticed:

It may be well to state at first that nothing of an alarming nature was 

found, although there were several places where the brick work needs 

pointing very badly, and one stone lintel or sill was found to be cracked, 

and two stone slabs were also badly cracked. These things are noted on the 

accompanying sketch.

No signs of settlements of the foundations were visible from the level of 

the canal floor and the stone footings were found· to extend out wider than 

the columns.

The bottom of the canal just behind the screens is covered with planking, 

so that the full extent of the footings could not be found. Where there 

were cracks or openings in the planking the footings showed that they 

were stone or mass concrete with large stones embedded. A number 

of the piers are out of plumb as shown on the accompanying sketch.
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2 Boott Mills June 11, 1928

The underpinning course of granite with the wall which it carries is from 

2” to 3” out beyond the base course of stone lintels at the section where 

the brick wall has the greatest motion from the action of the looms, and 

where the top of the wall sets back about 5”, as shown by sketch of plumb 

readings of the wall taken in November 1925.

At other sections of the wall the underpinning is either flush with the face 

of the stone lintels or from 3” to 6” back of it. This is shown on the sketch.

It would seem from this that there has been a movement toward the canal 

of the lower portion of the canal wall followed up to some extent by the 

yard wall. This movement appears to have taken place a number of years 

ago, but is has produced in the wall a rather unstable condition. The 

wall does not appear to be broken up, so that if a portion of the looms 

are changed as suggested in our previous report, it probably will be very 

favorable to the construction of this mill, and make it good for many more 

years. If the changing of the looms does not stop the movement of the walls 

as described, it will be necessary to reinforce the building in a positive 

manner in the near future.

The brick walls especially have of later years withstood the swaying motion 

in a remarkable manner and have demonstrated that the brick walls 

having window openings such as are in this building have a large amount 

of elasticity and a large safety factor. It is, however, necessary to stop the 

swaying of the walls previous to the time when the mortar is over-stressed, 

or breaks up through fatigue. We trust that this will now be accomplished.

We recommend that close watch be kept of the tendency to lean by these 

walls and also the tendency of the underpinning and lintels over the 

openings to the canal to move. It would seem that this could be done 

probably through an examination occurring at not more than six month 

periods.

Mr. Stafford of the Locks & Canals stated that they had no information 

relative to the sizes of the footings under the columns which were covered, 

but he felt sure that they were on good solid foundations. He stated that 

the building was erected in the early 70’s , and in his opinion it was 

nicely built and in first-class manner. He did not anticipate any failure or 

weakness of the foundations themselves.

 Very truly yours,

CHAS. T. MAIN

By

H. E. Sawtell

HES D

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals
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APPENDIX J

“Conclusions Regarding R.R. Track to Boott Coal Pocket, Sept. 13, 

1926”

Conclusions Regarding B. B. Track to Boott Coal Pocket.

1. The present bridge is not strong enough for the smallest coal cars 

coming to Lowell.

2. The passageway (after substituting I-beams for the arch at the 

entrance) is large enough for the small to medium coal cars (40000 

lbs to 80000 lbs capacity) but is too low for the large size cars 

(100,000 to 110,000 lbs) or for a locomotive.

3. In order to take the largest coal cars and a locomotive, the 

passageway will have to be extended up through the second floor.

4. A windlass and cable, or perhaps a special gasoline driven 

locomotive could probably be used to haul the smallest sized cars 

into the coal pocket in case the 2nd floor cannot be encroached upon. 

Windlass and cable operation might not be very satisfactory.

5. The beams supporting the track in the coal pocket itself are too 

light for even the small sized cars, and would have to be replaced by 

heavier cross beams with stringers.

6. The cost of Scheme No. 1 (passageway raised to include 2nd 

floor and admit use of locomotives) is estimated at from $12000 to 

$16000. Cost of moving machinery not included.

7. The cost of Scheme No. 2 (track lowered 1 foot, 2nd floor not 

affected, passageway high enough for small sized cars but not for 

locomotives) is estimated at from $9000 to $12000. Cost of windlass 

and cable, or special locomotive not included.

Source: File 1009 Locks and Canals
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APPENDIX K

“Track to Boott Coal Pocket

September 13, 1926

The track to the Boott coal pocket branches off from the southerly 

track on Amory Street crosses the canal on a curve of 80 ft. radius, 

passes through the first floor of the Bridge Street end of No. 6 mill, 

thence through the first floor of No. 6 and 7 connection, and thence 

to the coal pocket in the basement of No. 7 mill. In considering ways 

and means of using this track for taking cars down to the coal pocket 

there are three features that have to be considered.

(1) The short radius curve and the bridge across the canal.

(2) The clearance in the passage way from the canal wall to the coal 

pocket.

(3) The support of the track in the coal pocket itself.

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals
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APPENDIX L

Letter from Boott Mills to R. Burroughs, Division Engineer, Boston 

& Maine Railroad, December 17, 1926

“Curvature of the track will be approximately forty-eight degrees. 

Our standard curvature is ten degrees for sidetrack operation. 

Wherever this requirement is exceeded, it is necessary for the 

licensee, the shipper or the owner of the track to agree if after 

the track is built, it becomes necessary for the Boston & Maine 

Railroad to increase size of power which is operating tracks, thereby 

necessitating a decrease in the amount of curvature in the track, 

that the shipper stand the expence of realigning the track or do their 

own shifting upon it.”

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals
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APPENDIX M

Estimates of cost for constructing the new track for the Coal Pocket 

at the Boott Mills

“Agreeable with your conversation with my assistant, Mr. Chase, a 

few days ago in Lowell, I have developed an estimate covering cost 

of labor and material to put in track for Boott Mills about which we 

have had considerable correspondence , estimate covering from point 

of new switch to portal of building and including rearrangement of 

crossover. I believe the work can be done for approximately thirty 

seven hundred dollars, ($3700.00) the big item of which is special 

crossing frogs which as near as I am able to discover from one or two 

bills which I have received, will be about twelve hundred dollars, 

($1200.00). The labor item will come to about eight hundred 

dollars ($800.00), the switch item to about three hundred dollars 

($300.00), the tie item to about four hundred dollars ($400.00) 

and the remainder of the charges to make up the total I mentioned 

are for rail and other small material and includes engineering and 

supervision.”

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals (filed under Boott Mills 

correspondence, May 23, 1927)
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APPENDIX N

W. A. MACK CO.

25 Shattuck Street

Lowell, Mass.

 May 11, 1929.

Locks & Canals Co.,

Lowell, Mass.

Gentlemen:-

We are pleased to quote you the following prices to cover the roof of 

the bell deck at the Boott Mills, as follows: -

The entire roof and curved face drip, with M.F. tin, for the sum of 

one hundred and eighty-three dollars ($183.00).

The same roof and drip, with copper, for the sum of four hundred 

and three dollars ($403.00).

The above roof originally was covered with Belgium zinc, what 

there is left of the roof has become very brittle and has been patched 

at various times with American zinc.

We should recommend M.F. tin or copper for this roof, tin would 

have to be painted, but the copper would need no attention.

Thanking you for the inquiry, and hoping we may receive your 

order, we remain,

 Yours very truly,

 W. A. Mack Co.

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals
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APPENDIX O

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Department of Civil and Sanitary Engineering

 Cambridge 39, Mass.

May 1, 1924

Professor E. B. Millard, Asst. Director

Division of Industrial Cooperation and Research

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dear Professor Millard:

The plans and correspondence submitted to you by the Boott Mills, 

of Lowell, show that it is proposed to replace their main entrance 

bridge by a structure composed of 24” - 79.9 lb. I-beams spaced 3.39 

ft. center to center with a deck of 4” planking. The distance center to 

center of supports for the I-Beams is approximately 44 ft.

Certain questions which have been raised concerning this proposed 

bridge together with the answers to the same are as follows:

1. Will the proposed design sustain a load of 20 tons on 4 wheels?

The proposed design will not be safe for 20 ton trucks. Provided 

heavier planking is used in the floor (as will be noted below) the 

I-beams proposed will safely carry 15 ton trucks. To make the bridge 

safe for 20 ton trucks it would be necessary to substitute 24”, 105 

lb. per foot I-beams in place of those now proposed, or it would be 

possible to use the 24”, 79.9 lb. I’s provided 9 beams, spaced about 

2 ft. 6-1/2” c. to c. were used.

2. Should provision be made for heavier loads than 20 ton trucks?

The use of 20 ton trucks is in line with the best modern practice in 

highway bridge design.

3. Is the proposed flooring adequate for the proposed load?

The 4” planking proposed is unsafe for either a 15 ton or a 20 ton 

truck. The planking should be composed of 6 x 12’s , (actual size 

5-1/2 x 11-1/2) . These should be laid with 1/2”, clear between 

planks to allow the floor to dry out after a rain.

4 . What would be the safe life of the proposed structure?
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Prof . E. B. Millard - 2- May 1, 1924

If the design is modified as above indicated, the planking should 

last for 10 to 15 years. If the planks are creosoted the life might well 

be twice the above figure. The life of the steel beams will depend 

entirely on the care and frequency with which they were painted. If 

well taken care of the B-Beams would outlast the flooring.

5. If the proposed structure is inadequate in any way, what should 

be done to make it thoroughly safe?

The design should be modified as above indicated. In addition, care 

must be taken in bolting the spiking pieces to the beams and in 

spiking the flooring to these, as the safety of the bridge will depend 

in a large measure on the tops of the I-Beams being well supported 

by the flooring against transverse deflection. A further precaution 

should be taken along this same line by placing a line of diaphragms 

between the I-Beams at approximately one-third the span from each 

end of the beams. These diaphrams might be made of 12” I-Beams 

with standard connection angles at the ends and should be placed 

as near the tops of the 24” I’s as may be done without cutting the 

flanges.

 Yours truly,

 (Signed) H. L. Bowman

COPY

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals, (copy)
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APPENDIX P

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Cambridge 39, Massachusetts

 May 10, 1924

Dr. E. B. Millard

M. I. T.

Dear Sir:

Certain additional questions have been raised by the Boott Mills in 

connection with the entrance bridge which they propose to build at 

their mills. The answers to these questions are as follows:

A 6 x 8 nailing strip would be entirely satisfactory. The I-beams 

should be punched 2 ft. center to center, the holes being first in one 

side of the flange and then in the other. Due to the closer spacing 

of the main beams it will be possible to use 4 x 12 planking. Two 

9 inch spikes at each crossing of the nailing strip would securely 

fasten the planking.

Your attention is called to the fact that the use of nine beams means 

8 spaces between beams so that the spacing center to center of the 

beams is about 2 ft. 6 inches instead of 2 feet 3 inches, as stated in 

Mr. Flather’s letter.

I do not recall that any mention has been made of wall bearing 

plates, and would further direct your attention to the fact that it is 

customary under the ends of 24 inch I-beams to use a plate 16 x 16 

x 1” to distribute the load to the masonry, and I am assuming that 

it is the intention of the Boott Mill to use such plates in their bridge.

 Your very truly,

 (Signed) H. L. Bowman

COPY

Source: File 1009, Locks and Canals, (copy)
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APPENDIX Q

Request by Boott Mills for a study of conditions to be completed by 

the C.T. Main Company

About ten days ago suggested to Treasurer and F. F. Jr. that Chas. 

T. Main make a report of the safety of our mills from a structural 

point of view. 

I had noticed in the back office that the vibration from #6 Mill seemed 

a little more than a short time ago. This prompted my remark, 

although the idea of the safety of our mill is almost constantly in 

my mind. 

Chas . T. Main was written to, and their Mr. Robinson who has 

inspected our mills before, was assigned to the work. Today having 

completed his preliminary study, and upon leaving to make his 

report, I showed him the place in the back office which I noticed the 

vibration. I then took him to 6-2, where there was a new section of 

flooring which vibrates considerably, and asked him if this did not 

cause excessive strain to the walls. He said he did not think so, in 

fact he though our mills were in excellent condition. 

He noticed some danger points, but nothing serious compared with 

our mills. I said we were not content to be compared with other 

mills, but we wanted to be sure that they were absolutely safe and 

that no tragedy would take place. He said there was no danger of 

that.

He said he though it might be advisable to measure the bulges in 

the #6 mill wall on the canal side, sometime. I said I certainly think 

he ought to do that and anything else, so that he could definitely 

take entire responsibility for the safety of our structures. He said he 

would do this, and might come back again after writing his report.

Source: Memo, James R. Flather, June 14, 1935, File 1009, Locks and 

Canals

chapter 1.3

Historical 

Background and Context

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1.3 Historical Background and Context I. Birth of Lowell National Historical Park

The Counting House and Mill 6 are significant surviving examples 

of America's industrial past. They tell the important story of 

how a group of ingenious investors, engineers and mill-workers 

transformed Lowell from the quiet village of Chelmsford to a 

bustling city in the 19th century. The numerous mills of Lowell 

propelled it to prosperity in the 19th and early-20th century. 

However, by the middle of the 20th century, the days of prosperity 

were long gone, as one mill after another started shutting its doors. 

Boott Mills was no different- after terminating production in 1955, 

the buildings sat vacant or under-utilised for a number of decades. 

The Boott complex, and particularly Mill 6 and the Counting House 

received a new lease on life in the 1980's by their redevelopment as 

the flagship buildings within the newly formed Lowell National 

Historic Park. 

Therefore, as one begins to understand the historical development 

of Mill 6 and the Counting House during the period 1984- 2016, it 

is important to place the physical changes at the buildings within a 

larger context. The following section is aimed to give the readers a 

brief summary of the creation and early years of operation of LNHP 

and how that set the stage for the comprehensive renovation and 

reuse of Mill 6 and the Counting House. 

The book 'Mill Power: The Origin and Impact of Lowell National 

Historical Park' presents a comprehensive account of the various 

people, processes and agencies that played a crucial role during 

the Park's creation. The book should be consulted for more detailed 

information. In the following paragraphs is a brief summary of the 

key decisions surrounding Mill 6 and the Counting House.

Interest in the revival of Lowell's industrial past began in the 

mid 1960's when Lowell received aid via the Federal Model 

Cities program for urban redevelopment. The aim of this 5-year 

program was to improve the quality of life in Lowell's poorest 

neighborhood, the Acre, organize community groups and get 

them thinking about how the city could be revamped. At the same 

time, Lowell schoolteacher Dr. Patrick J. Mogan emerged as a key 

figure in the city's revival. He routinely campaigned for using the 

city as a learning laboratory and celebrating its industrial past. 

Mogan and his collaborators formed a non-profit organization, the 

Human Services Corporation (HSC) in 1971. With the help of some 

regional grants and the involvement of outside consultants, HSC 
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began exploring the idea of a an urban cultural park in more detail. 

They drafted the first legislation calling for a Park in Lowell. The 

National Park Service was initially not very excited about the idea 

of a national park in Lowell owing to the loss of a number of mill 

buildings by the 1970's, however Mogan and his crew kept pushing 

on. The continued local and regional traction led to the creation of 

the city's first historic district - the Locks and Canals District in 1973. 

In the summers of 1974 and 1975 successive teams of architects and 

historians from the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER)

of the National Park Service recorded through measured drawings 

and historical documentation the canal system, which remained 

intact and was the most significant site of hydro-power technology 

development of the early and mid-19the century. In 1975, the US 

Congress created a federal commission to study Lowell's prospect 

for inclusion in the national park system. The commission's report 

came to be known as the 'Brown Book' for the color of the cover, 

and prominently featured a mill worker on its cover page. It was 

clear that the once forgotten, derelict mill buildings and historic 

canal system of Lowell were going to play an important role in its 

revitalization.

The final push to establish the Park happened in 1977 when 

Congressman Paul Tsongas put forward a bill to establish Lowell 

National Historical Park and it was finally signed into Law on June 

5, 1978. The creation of Lowell National Park was unique in that it 

also mandated the creation of a sister agency the Lowell Historic 

Preservation Commission (LHPC) that would help jump-start the 

Park creation for the next 10 years. One of the roles of the LHPC was 

to encourage private property owners to renovate their buildings 

in and around the historic district to give the area a cohesive feel.

Neither Mill 6 nor the Counting House were on the list of the first 

few properties that were purchased by the newly formed Park. 

Mill 6 was owned by the Capehart Corporation at the time and 

was actually in really poor condition during the late 1970's. It had 

suffered a gas explosion in the mid-70's which had led to the loss 

of a majority of its historic wood windows. The building was lying 

unused and its owners were on the brink of declaring bankruptcy. 

It was in this socio-economic climate that the LHPC did exactly 

what it was designed to do-it worked with the City to convince An 

Wang, an emerging technology entrepreneur who was setting base 

in Lowell to purchase this building for a future use. From 1979-

1981 Wang Corporation would receive federal funds to undertake 

historically sensitive repairs at the building, including replacement 

of all the wood sash and the roof. However, by 1983, Wang had not 

determined a use for Mill 6 had was interested in another location 

elsewhere in the city for building a new training center. 
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Since its creation in 1978, the Park had its eyes set on the Wannalancit 

Mills for development into the Park Visitor Center and Museum. 

However, that deal did not materialize and the Park turned its eyes 

instead to the Boott Mills. The Park had expressed interest in the 

Boot Mill Complex as early as 1979 and declared that they would 

develop a portion of the Mills for a high-profile use to be identified 

later. The proximity of Boott Mills to downtown was a key factor 

in the Park's eventual decision to shift its base to Boott Mills and 

purchase Mill 6 from the Wang Corporation in 1983. The Counting 

House was purchased in 1983 from the then owners of the remainder 

of the Boott Mills complex. Thus by 1983, the Park service was all 

set to begin planning a new Museum and an educational industrial 

history center at Mill 6 and the Counting House.

Over the next ten years, this plan was realized via a phased 

project, that completed core-and-shell improvements to Mill 6 in 

Phase I, including substantial structural repairs. Phase II included 

the interior fit-out of Mill 6 and both core-and -shell and interior 

improvements at the Counting House. 

Photo 49. President Jimmy Carter signs the legislation establishing the 

Lowell National Historical Park, June 5, 1978.

Source: Marion, Mill Power, 2014, p. 51
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II. Creatinga Mixed-UseCenter for

Education, Interpretationand NPS

functions

As outlined in the previous section, through the tenacious and 

innovative efforts of various local Lowell residents, educators, 

state legislators and administrators, The Lowell National Historical 

Park (LNHP) was established in 1978 with Mill 6 and the Counting 

House poised to become its signature buildings. This section will 

describe the functions and programs that filled these two buildings 

creating a vibrant mixed-use center for education, interpretation, 

and NPS operations. 

The first two floors of Mill 6 were designed as a museum exhibit of 

the textile era in Lowell. The idea was to recreate an entire working 

weave room on the first floor of Mill 6 with more general interpretive 

exhibits on the second floor. The Museum was designed to entered 

through the set of double doors at the first floor of the west stair 

tower - much like how it would have been entered historically. 

The spiral staircase with cast iron plates embossed with 'Boott 

Cotton Mills' on each tread, was important to setting the stage and 

preparing visitors to enter the Weave Room. Filled with eightyeight looms that were of the Draper automatic type once prolific 

in Lowell that had once been in a southern textile mill, the loud 

noise of the banging shuttles creates a one-of a kind experience of 

being inside a working 19th century mill. On the second floor, the 

exhibits use various period artifacts, images, 3D models, dioramas 

and audio-visual presentations to illustrate various aspects of the 

textile industry in Lowell. The Counting House was designed 

to serve as an extension of the Museum, connected to it on both 

floors 1 and 2 to house the entrance lobby and the bookstore. The 

bookstore relocated to the first floor of Mill 6 in 2007. 

The third and part of the fourth floor of the building were 

envisioned to house an educational component. This was a novel 

idea and one that was implemented for the first time at any national 

Park in the country. Probably owing to the involvement of key 

educators like Pat Mogan in the creation of the Park, and the desire 

from its early origins to combine education with interpretation, 

the Park conceptualized to create a one-of-a-kind educational 

program that was to be housed at Mill 6. Formalized in 1991, the 

Tsongas Industrial History Center (TIHC) became the culmination 

of these ideas aiming to create educational programs inspired by 

the industrial history of Lowell. It is a collaboration between the 

LNHP, UMass-Lowell and the Lowell School Department Now 

renamed the Tsongas Industrial History and Science Center, the 

educational program has grown and evolved in the last 23 yearsnot just in size but in terms of its reach, its content and its ability to 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.3 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

461 Figure 39. Cut-away perspective sketch showing museum, admin and TIHC program layout at various floors, c. 1986 Source: DSC Archives, LOWE_475_41012_[id144017]
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to have various classrooms or workshops that combined handson learning for students in elementary, middle and high school. 

These classrooms were originally located on the third floor of Mill 

6 with a lunch room on the fourth floor. Post 1993 five additional 

workshops/ classrooms have been created on the fifth floor. 

The upper floors of Mill 6 - third, fourth and fifth were also designed 

to house staff for the LNHP and the NPS Northeast Regional Office 

(NERO). Curatorial storage space was created on the third floor 

while library and office space was created on the fourth and fifth 

floors with material conservation laboratories occupying the west 

end of the fifth floor. The new service core created in 1993 in the 

east wing provided elevator communication between the floors, 

along with an enclosed egress stairway. In the long west wing, an 

enclosed egress stairway reaches only the third floor, although two 

communicating stairs were provided.

As described in Chapter 1.4 Chronology of Development, the 

functions as designed originally and their location within the 

building have changed somewhat since 1993, but remain largely 

the same. 
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chapter 1.4

Chronology of 

Development

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1.4 Chronology of Development

I. History of Use and Physical

Changes

The HSR completed in 1984 (and transcribed in Chapter 1.2) 

provides a comprehensive account of the original use patterns and 

physical appearance of Mill 6 and the Counting House, and the 

subsequent changes right up to 1984. Owing to available archival 

material, the period from 1871-1955 is most detailed in its account 

-the period from 1956-1984 is less detailed. In order to build upon 

the chronology of development outlined in the previous HSR and 

document the period from 1984 to the current time (2016), it is 

important to first begin with a summary of changes that had already 

taken place in each building’s life up to that point. This will allow 

us to distinguish original features from later ones, and inform the 

identification of character-defining features in subsequent chapters. 

Therefore, this current chapter is organized into two parts– 

Counting House and Mill 6. In each part, we will begin with a 

brief summary of the chronological development of the building, 

from 1839-1984 in the case of the Counting House, and 1871-1984 

in the case of Mill 6. Please note the descriptions included here 

are summaries of the information included in Chapter 1.2, which 

should be referred to for more detailed information. 

The narrative is supplemented by photographs and new color-coded 

illustrations that highlight important physical changes in every 

time period. These graphic illustrations are based on photographs 

and other archival information contained in the 1984 HSR and other 

data collected as part of research for this HSR update. The period 

1956-1984 is expanded upon from what was included in the 1984 

HSR. This is important not only to document that period better, but 

also since its end serves as the physical baseline for the time period 

of this HSR update (1984-2016).
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COUNTING HOUSE

1839-1936

This period begins with the presumed construction date of the 

Counting House 1836-1839, and ends right before a comprehensive 

interior renovation was carried out in 1937 (which provides the 

earliest drawings of this building). It roughly covers the first 

two time periods of the previous HSR. Although this time spans 

almost 100 years, owing to lack of archival information*, the 1984 

HSR was not able to document completely the building’s original 

appearance and changes during this period. Photographs, other 

archival material and accounts of the 1937 work do, however, 

provide many clues about original elements and those that were 

altered during this time.

First Floor:

As originally built, the Counting House was a free-standing 

structure. Buildings of similar form to the east within the site of 

Mill 6 housed service functions supporting the textile production 

of the complex’s earlier mills. The building had a rectangular 

footprint that has remained virtually unchanged to date. There 

was a large vault in the center of the first floor with a masonry 

wall running north-south. Another N-S masonry wall spanned the 

building width further to the east, thus subdividing the rectangular 

floor-plate into three large spaces. Not much is known about other 

interior partitions but there was presumably a stair in the western 

end that led up to the second floor. It was accessed by a door on a 

west façade and the western-most door facing the yard on the north 

façade. Another four doors on the north façade opened up to the 

yard, and possibly provided access to workers moving equipment. 

The structure consisted of load-bearing masonry walls, timber 

beams, wood joists and flooring and a combination of cast iron and 

timber columns. The first major change to the structure occurred 

in 1871 with the construction of Mill 6 directly adjacent to it on the 

east, covering the entire east wall and two bays of the north wall. 

Second Floor:

The second floor was accessed from the first floor by the stair on the 

west end, and also by a footbridge over the canal from the south. 

This footbridge connected with the west stair at the landing level 

via a door on the south façade. This entrance was possibly used by 

visitors and mill officers whose offices were located on the second 

* The HSR notes in a footnote on pg. 167 that the drawing file that contained the records concerning the Counting House, stored at the Boott Mills by 

Locks and Canals, has been misplaced and therefore was unavailable for research 

and documentation. 
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Interior layout 

unknown

Fenestrations 

unknown

Stair to first floor

Entry from footbridge

Interior layout 

unknown

Fenestrations 

unknown Vault

Doors to yard Entrance for 

prospective workers

Stair to second floor

Figure 41. Second Floor - Counting House; 1839Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016Figure 40. First Floor - Counting House; 1839Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

N
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470Sheet metal ventilator, typ.

Slate roof

Diamond anchor 

plate, typ.

Granite lintel and 

sill, typ.

6/6 wood sash, typ.

Sheet metal 

ventilator, typ.

Slate roof

Diamond anchor 

plate, typ.

Granite lintel and 

sill, typ. 6/6 wood sash, 

typ.

Louvered wood 

shutters, typ, at 2nd 

floor

Figure 42. North Elevation - Counting House; 1839Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Figure 43. South Elevation - Counting House; 1839Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016
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(Reprinted) Photo 14. Stereopticon view of Boott Mill Number 6 and the Counting House, c.1875

Source: UML, CLH, B6456 CN 05
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floor. Not much is known about interior partitions on this floor, 

except that a masonry wall directly above one of the first floor 

possibly ran N-S thus dividing the floor-plate into two sections. 

With the construction of Mill 6 in 1871, two of the easternmost 

windows on the north wall were blocked off as they were now 

obscured by the octagonal stair tower of Mill 6.

North Elevation:

This is the yard-facing elevation of the Counting House and 

comprised of thirteen bays at the time of construction. The first 

floor appears to originally have had four doors that were located in 

the 3rd, 6th, 8th, and 15th bays starting from the east, as evidenced 

on the building and an historical photograph. The face of the three 

surviving granite door lintels each contain penetrations of cut-off 

bolts near each end, which may indicate later canopy attachments. 

The lintel of the 6th bay is located well above both the current and 

somewhat lower original 2nd floor level. That lintel’s proximity to 

the window sill above and the presumably later bolt marks suggest 

that it was originally lower, most likely right in that same wider 

door opening, to allow the fit of a window canopy in the spandrel 

between door lintel and window sill above. All the doors were 

probably paneled wood doors and had granite lintels. All first floor 

window openings were roughly the same size and had granite sills 

and lintels and 6/6 wood sash. The second floor windows varied 

in size and were organized into twelve bays – the westernmost bay 

had a window positioned centrally above the twelfth and thirteenth 

bay on the first floor. All second floor windows were similar to the 

first floor in having granite sills and lintels and 6/6 wood sash. The 

building had a slate roof and a sheet metal ridge ventilator near 

each end of the roof. Due to the construction of Mill 6 in 1871, the 

two easternmost window bays on both floors were bricked up. The 

door in the 3rd bay may have been changed then to a window and 

its function provided in a window bay to the west.

South Elevation:

This is the canal-facing elevation of the Counting House and 

comprised of eleven bays at the time of construction. The first 

bay from the west had an entrance door off the footbridge into 

the building that connected a landing level between the first and 

second floors. The entrance door was possibly a paneled wood door 

and was protected by a flared metal hood that is evident in early 

photos of the building. The concave sheet metal hood was similar in 

concept to those installed at the doorways on the new stair towers 

of Mills 1 through 4 in the early 1860s, and thus may date from 

the same period. It was removed sometime between 1928-1936. All 

windows had granite sills and lintels and 6/6 wood sash similar 

to the north façade. A peculiar feature noted in the earliest photo 
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(1871-1882) of the Counting House, shows that the second floor 

had louvered wood shutters on every window. It is unclear if they 

existed on the first floor of the north façade windows and when 

they were removed. But as evidenced by later photographs, they 

were certainly absent by 1928. Another change to the south façade 

happened between 1899-1928 with the addition of four skylights on 

the eastern end of the south roof.

East Elevation:

Not much is known about the original appearance of this wallwhether it had any window openings etc. It was completely altered 

in 1871 with the construction of Mill 6 and serves as the party wall 

between the two buildings. It is unclear whether there were any 

openings in this wall that connected the Counting House to the 

shops at this end of Mill 6. 

West Elevation:

This is the gable end elevation of the building and featured a door 

opening at the north end on the first floor and two window openings 

on the second floor. This probably remained fairly unaltered until 

the renovations in 1937.

(Reprinted, zoomed) Photo 26. "Boott Mills Looking East, March 1928" Mill Number 6 is at right, with 

Counting House in front of it.

Note flared metal hood at footbridge entrance door, absence of window shutters and presence of roof skylights

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8658
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1937-1983:

Figures 44 - 47 show the physical conditions after the 1937 renovations 

with dates for changes that occurred prior to 1937.

Figures 48 - 51 show the physical condition of the building in 1983 with 

dates for changes that occurred from 1938-1983.

This time period begins with a renovation of the Counting House 

in 1937 and ends with the publication of the previous HSR. 1983 

is also the year in which detailed HAER drawings were prepared 

for the Counting House allowing one to accurately date building 

features. 1937-1982 roughly covers the last two time periods of the 

previous HSR. A lot happened during this time span- Lowell’s 

worst flood shut the Mill down for 4 days in 1936 and flooded the 

first floor of the Counting House. This is probably what prompted 

the 1937 renovations (initiated in 1936, executed in 1937). After 18 

more years of operation though, Boott Mills closed in 1955 and the 

Counting House was re-organized to serve as offices for the Locks 

and Canals in 1960. 

First Floor:

The major changes to the first floor in 1937 were new interior 

partitions, creating new office spaces and toilets for men and 

women. The stair at the west end was rebuilt- the access door to it 

on the north façade was retained while the one on the west façade 

was converted to a window, with a new window added to the south 

of it. A second stair to the second floor was added on the east end of 

the building, and an opening was created in the party wall between 

Mill 6 and the Counting House with a ramp leading to additional 

office space in the west end of Mill 6.

In preparation of the mill sale in 1955, the opening between the 

Counting House and Mill 6 was bricked up. In 1960, Locks and 

Canals made some renovations to the building before occupying 

it as office space- the opening to Mill 6 was opened up again- the 

ramp was replaced with steps with a new door. This opening was 

infilled with concrete block again sometime before 1983, as shown 

on the HABS/HAER drawings created in 1983 and reproduced 

graphically in Fig. 48. Other major changes included a new 

concrete vault that was added in the west part of the building, and 

the removal of a N-S brick wall in the east part of the first floor.All 

new interior wood partitions were put up, probably in 1960 when 

the office space was reorganized. Sometime during this period new 

concrete pilasters were also added on the first floor along the north 

and south brick walls and at building corners as shown in Fig. 48, 

to strengthen the existing masonry structure. 
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475 Figure 44. First Floor - Counting House; 1937 Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

N

Windows 

blocked 1871

Ramp to 

Mill 6

New stair to 

2nd floor

New stair to 

2nd floor

Conf. Rm.

Rest 

Rm.

First 

Aid Womens Coat & 

Rest Rm.

Window 

added

Window 

added

Door 

convertedto 

window

Door converted 

to window

Door converted 

to window

Window 

converted to 

door

Window 

converted to 

door

Toi

Toi

ToiToi

New opening

New window 

added

Windows 

blocked 1871

New stair to 

2nd floor of Mill 6, 1871

Private Office

Open Office

Hall

Waiting

Phone

Salesmen's 

Rooms

Treasurer's 

Office Customers 

Room Toi Toi

Elements added/altered since 1839

Figure 45. Second Floor - Counting House; 1937Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016
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Windows 

blocked 

when Mill 6 

constructed, 

1872

Door 

converted to 

window

Structural 

bracing 

added

Window 

to door

Window 

sash 

replaced (4)

Figure 47. South Elevation - Counting House; 1937

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Elements added/altered since 1839

Figure 46. North Elevation - Counting House; 1937Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Skylights (4)

added, pre-1928

Structural 

bracing added

Circle/star anchor plates added, typ.

New door, 

Hood 

1930

removed, 

1930

Shutters 

removed, 

pre-1928

Footbridge 

rebuilt 1924

Window 

added 

pre-1928

Window 

added 

pre-1928
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Second Floor:

In 1937, the second floor interior layout was revamped to create 

new open and private office space. A new straight run stair at the 

east end connected this floor to the first floor of the Counting House 

while a second L-shaped stair wrapped along the inside northeast 

corner to connect the Counting house to the second floor of Mill 

6. Since the 1937 plans note this stair as 'present', it is likely that 

this was added prior to the 1937 work, probably when Mill 6 was 

constructed in 1872.

By 1983, the second floor connecting stair and opening between 

Mill 6 and the Counting House had been removed, a completely 

new interior layout had been built to house offices of Locks and 

Canal and concrete pilasters had been added on the first floor along 

the north and south brick walls and at building corners as shown 

in Fig. 49.

North Elevation:

There were originally a set of four doors on this facade, as shown 

in Fig. 42, that provided access to the yard. The westernmost door 

provided access to the interior stair at this end. Some of these doors 

were altered by 1937 as shown in Fig. 46—the doors in the third 

and sixth bay from the east (count includes bays covered by Mill 

6) were converted to windows and existing windows in the fifth 

and seventh bays from the east were converted to doors. Window 

sash in the four easternmost windows on the second floor had 

been replaced with 1/1 and 2/2 sash, different from the 6/6 lites of 

the original. By this time, angle braces had also been added to the 

brick wall atop the three easternmost second floor windows as an 

effort to stabilize this wall and also the adjoining Mill 6, which had 

reportedly been suffering from vibrations due to loom operation. 

These structural repairs may have pre-dated 1937. 

By 1983, there had been a marked change in the appearance of the 

north façade. The two ventilators were gone from the roof, which 

itself had been re-shingled with asphalt in lieu of the original slate 

tiles. On the first floor, in the seventh bay from the west a door 

was converted to a window, while in the fourth bay from west, a 

window was converted to a door. This door-window configuration 

is the same as that exists at the building in 2016, confirming that 

it was retained since the Park acquired the building in the 1980’s. 

Simple wood hoods were added atop the four doors on this 

elevation probably between 1938-1955.
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478

Figure 48. First Floor - Counting House; 1983

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

N Elements added/altered since 1937

Figure 49. Second Floor - Counting House; 1983Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Concrete Vault

Brick 

Vault

Ramp

Toi

Toi Toi Toi

Opening 

bricked in 

Glass 

blocks

Toi Toi Toi

New door

Brick wall 

removed

Structural 

conc. supports 

added along 

exterior wall, 

typ. 

Structural 

conc. supports 

added along 

exterior wall, 

typ. 

Door 

converted to 

window

Conc. walls 

added

Conc. block 

Steps 

infill

added
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Figure 51. South Elevation - Counting House; 1983

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016Figure 50. North Elevation - Counting House; 1983Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Chimney 

removed, 

pre-1950

Chimney 

removed, 

pre-1950

Chimney 

removed, 

pre-1950

Chimney 

removed, 

pre-1950 Skylights 

removed, 1942

Door 

replaced

Water drip 

added

Structural 

bracing added

Structural 

bracing added

Second floor 

sash changed to 1/1 Structural bracing added

Structural 

bracing added

New asphalt 

shingles on 

roof

Door converted to 

window; brick sill added

Glass block 

infill

Plywood 

infill

Vent pipe

Elements added/altered since 1937

Door replaced; hood 

added

New anchor 

plates

New anchor 

plates

Door replaced; 

hood added

New door & 

hood added

Door replaced; hood 

added
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Photo 50. South Elevation of Counting House, 1982

Source: HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--17

(Reprinted, zoomed) Photo 19. North and west elevations of Counting House, June 1985

Source: HAER, NPS, MA-16, 1985
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South Elevation:

By 1937, a few minor changes had taken place at the south, canalfacing façade of the Counting House. Most noticeable was the 

addition of two windows- one at the first floor between the second 

and third bays, and second at the second floor between the ninth 

and tenth bay from the west. Both were 6/6 wood windows with 

granite sills and lintels similar in detailing to others on this façade. 

The shutters seen on an early pre-1882 photo on the second floor 

windows were gone, and so was the flared metal hood atop the 

footbridge entrance. A few circular star-shaped metal anchor plates 

could be seen and an angle brace over four second floor windows 

was also documented on the 1937 drawings. The four skylights in 

the south roof were removed in 1942.

By 1983, a number of other changes were visible in this façadeapart from the removal of the slate shingles and sheet metal 

ventilators noted in the north wall discussion above. These included 

replacement of all the 6/6 wood window sash on the second floor 

windows with 1/1 versions, addition of more angle braces over 

second floor windows and a new glazed door at the footbridge 

entrance with a sloped water drip integrated in the roof above. 
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482

1984 – 1993

The Park did not formally acquire the Counting House from the 

Locks and Canals Company/Boott Hydropower, Inc. until May, 

1987. From the sketches (Figures 52 & 53) , it is unclear what the 

intended use of the building was, but there is definitely an intent 

to restore the exterior of the building, to improve public access 

to it and create a community area along the north side called the 

‘Counting House Courtyard’. The sketch (Figure 52) retains the 

elevated footbridge on the south with an entrance between the 

two floor levels. The entry itself was proposed to be widened with 

new double doors and signage above. Landscape improvements to 

the sidewalks and canal-walk were also suggested. On the south 

façade, the four door openings and hoods that existed in 1983 were 

proposed to be retained with the westernmost one widened to 

incorporate a double door similar to the south side. 

This early sketch evolved to more detailed ‘Comprehensive Design 

Drawings’ prepared by Earl R. Flansburgh & Associates, Inc. dated 

2/28/1986. These drawings were prepared for the Counting House 

in conjunction with Mill 6. It is therefore clear that by this time it 

had been decided that the future use of these two buildings will 

be tied together and would be of a cultural nature with space for a 

museum, offices and educational activity areas as evidenced by the 

floorplans. 

It is believed that at this stage the project was split into two phasesthe first phase included core and shell improvements to Mill 6, 

Figure 52. "Preliminary Study of Boott Mills", Boott Mill Entry Development, 1983

Source: DSC Archives, File No. LOWE_475_40014_[id36299]
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and the second phase included interior fit-out and additional shell 

improvements to Mill 6 and both core and shell and interior fit-out 

of the Counting House. The first phase was completed in 1989, as 

suggested by as-built drawings prepared by Flansburgh Associates 

revised March, 1989. However, since the first phase apparently 

did not include the Counting House, the changes to it appear in 

the as-built set documenting the second phase, also prepared by 

Flansbugh Associates and dated March 1993.

The interior of the Counting House was completely re-envisioned 

for use by the Park. The new design and construction program for 

the building was carried out during the 1984-1993 period. Basic to 

the reuse of the building was the almost complete gutting of the 

interior down to the exterior brick walls. The entire first and second 

floor structures were removed. Only stubs of the remnants of the 

two historic brick cross walls and the concrete pilasters of earlier 

20th century structural repair work attached to the exterior walls 

were retained. The work on the new first and second floors and its 

related exterior effects is described following:

First Floor:

The 1986 drawings show a departure from the early 1983 sketches 

for the footbridge- it is now shown level with the adjacent sidewalk 

and enters the Counting House at the first floor level on the south 

façade via a semi-open passageway that cuts across the building 

Figure 53. "Preliminary Study of Boott Mills", Counting House Courtyard, 1983

Source: DSC Archives, File No. LOWE_475_40014_[id36299]
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484

Figure 54. First Floor - Counting House; 1993

Source: EYP. 

N Elements added/altered since 1983

Figure 55. Second Floor - Counting House; 1993Source: EYP. 

Toi

Mech

Elev 

Machine 

Room

Toi

Door replaced Door replaced Door replaced

New open 

stair to second 

floor 

New open 

stair to first 

floor 

Area open to 

above

Interpretation 

Staff Supervisor Store Room

Reservations

Window sash 

replaced, typ.

New semienclosed 

pedestrian 

passageway 

created 

New steel 

supports

New steel 

supports

Open to 

Opening 

bricked in

below

Museum 

Store

Wall 

shelving

Movable 

shelving

Open to below

Steps 

added

Steps 

added

New 

Opening 

widened

Opening

New 

Opening

New elevator 

to second 

floor

New 

elevator
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Figure 57. South Elevation - Counting House; 1993

Source: EYP.Figure 56. North Elevation - Counting House; 1993Source: EYP.

Brick 

infill at 

previous 

opening

New 

granite 

lintel

New 

signage

New light 

fixtures

New slate roof

New slate 

roof

New vent

New vent

Historic 

anchor 

plate 

retained

Historic 

anchor 

plate 

retained

Historic anchor plate 

retained

Historic 

anchor 

plate 

retained

Historic 

anchor 

plate 

retained

New wood 

cornice

New wood 

cornice

New wood 

sash, typ.

New wood 

sash, typ.

New 

anchor 

plates, 

typ.

New 

opening

New 

footbridge

Vent 

pipe

Vent 

pipe

Elements added/altered since 1983

Door & hood replaced

New 

anchor 

plates, 

typ.

Door & hood replaced

New 

opening 

New lights, 

typ. 

Brick infill 

at window 

removal

New fire 

connection

New granite 

New 

lintel

downspout, 

typ.
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486

Photo 51. South Elevation - Counting House; c. 1993

Source: Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-mills-museum/
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from north to south. This coincides with what currently exists and is 

documented in the 1993 as-built plans. This semi-open passageway 

was accomplished by creating a new north-south wall that took up 

the entire westernmost fenestration bay on the south façade and 

two of the westernmost fenestration bays on the north façade. The 

original west façade of the Counting House was retained, and the 

new passageway left open to the roof framing above in this area 

to essentially create a double-height pedestrian entry portal to the 

Boott Mill Complex. 

The entire two-story Counting House was designed as a public 

entrance and the exit for the adjacent Boott Mill Museum housed 

in Mill 6. Once visitors made their way to the former mill-yard via 

the double-height passageway described above, they followed the 

originally brick sidewalk along the north façade of the Counting 

House to access the lobby on the first floor via a set of three exterior 

doors (in the same openings as pre-1983). 

Re-imagining the Counting House as it existed in 1983, as a 

new public space necessitated a complete change to the interior 

floorplan. First was the removal of the original brick vault and 

the later 1960 concrete vault from the western portion of the plan. 

Second, the entire first floor slab was removed and an entirely new 

reinforced concrete slab on grade was poured under the building. 

Photo 52. Double- height 

pedestrian passageway at west 

end of Counting House, 2016 

Source: EYP

Photo 53. Entrance lobby at first floor of Counting House, 2016. Note the double height space created in 1993 

by removing a section of the second floor slab and re-framing the area with new beams and columns.

Source: EYP
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This slab ties into the existing exterior brick walls of the building 

and rests on the existing penstock granite piers in the southern 

portion of the building. Third, the new lobby was imagined as a 

partial double height space in the re-framing of the second floor 

with heavy timber beams and a structural wooden deck supported 

on a line of steel pipe columns. An open straight-run stair with an 

intermediate landing was situated in the west part. With its longer 

axis running east-west, this metal stair with wood plank treads and 

risers, and metal railing, connected the first floor with the second 

floor. At the east end of the lobby was a new elevator that provided 

handicap access to the second floor of the Counting House and the 

first and second levels of Mill 6. Adjacent to the elevator shaft was 

a set of three steps that led up to the first floor of Mill 6, which now 

housed the Weave Room of the Mill Museum. The southern half 

of the first floor plan was given up for offices of the Reservations 

and Interpretation staff, a store room, public toilets and an elevator 

machine room. 

Photo 54. Open stair to second floor in Counting House 

lobby, 2016

Source: EYP

Photo 55. Concrete pilasters at exterior wall of 

Counting House retained in the 1993 renovation, 

2016

Source: EYP
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Photo 56. Museum bookstore at second floor of Counting House, c. 1993

Source: Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-mills-museum/
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While a large part of the interior was re-imagined in the renovations 

completed in 1993, many elements from the building’s original and 

subsequent renovations were retained. These included the interior 

of all the exterior brick walls which were left exposed and simply 

painted white, re-calling the original whitewash finish on the 

brick walls that had historically not been finished otherwise in the 

business offices. Other elements like the post-1937 concrete piers 

that were added to the inside of the exterior walls as stabilizing 

elements were also retained. 

Second Floor:

The second floor was designed to be the new museum store. It was 

open to the north and looked onto the double-height lobby space. 

The floor-plate was entirely open with no columns. At the east end 

was the new elevator and a set of nine steps that led up to additional 

museum exhibit space in the second floor of Mill 6. The south wall 

was covered with wooden bookshelves and window seats with a 

new wooden counter table in the south-west corner. Additional 

display racks and items occupied the rest of the second floor space. 

The new second floor deck was supported with new paired 8 “x 

14” timber beams running north-south and paired 6” x 12” beams 

running east-west. At the exterior walls, the new beams were 

through bolted with star shaped anchor plates. 

Photo 57. North Elevation of Counting House, 2016

Source: EYP
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The attic floor was removed to expose the roof structure to the 

interior of the Counting House. The existing roof trusses were 

retained and strengthened by the addition of new 7/8” diameter 

stainless steel tie rods. 

North Elevation:

The approach to the exterior renovation of the Counting House was 

that of restoration. It was decided to bring the exterior appearance 

back to 1955 – the last year of its operation as Boott Mills. This 

involved removal of later window infills and bringing the lost 

finishes back to 1955. The existing window sash was replaced with 

new wood 6/6, 1/1 and 2/2 versions to replicate the 1955 condition. 

The existing window frames were reconstructed and fitted with 

new wood sash. A comprehensive paint analysis was carried out on 

the existing windows and frames to determine historic paint colors. 

From the analysis it appeared that the windows were originally an 

off-white/white color, they were painted a ‘green/gray’ color in 

1937, and re-painted white in c. 1960. This was the color scheme 

chosen for the 1984-1993 renovation, with all new sash painted 

white.

New steel doors designed to emulate the configuration of the historic 

paneled design were created with six glass lites on each door leaf. 

It was decided to retain the 1938-1955 wooden hoods above each 

door opening. Since the existing versions were in poor condition, 

they were replaced in kind during this renovation with a closely 

matching design. The existing roof was entirely removed to the 

roof planks and a new slate roof was installed on the building, with 

a new wood soffit, wood gutter and three new copper downspouts 

on the north façade.

The entire brick façade was re-pointed with new mortar based on 

a mortar analysis. This was accomplished by collecting various 

mortar samples from the building – it was determined that the 

existing mortar was a lime/sand mix in the 2:5 to 3:5 ratio. The 

specifications for the 1993 renovation have not been yet locatedthese would be essential to documenting the exact mortar mix that 

was utilized for the repointing initiative in 1993. 

The most major change on the north façade was the entry to 

passageway that was created at the west end of the building. 

This had necessitated the removal of a door and window opening 

at the extreme west end of the façade, and the creation of a new 

wider masonry opening with a new granite lintel. New light 

fixtures were installed on each side of every door opening and the 

westernmost passageway opening. Other obvious changes on this 

façade were the new star-shaped anchor plates at the second floor 

level. A representative example of a historic diamond and circle 

Photo 58. Detail of hood 

reconstruction , 1993

Source: 1993 As-built drawings, 

Flansburgh Architects, LNHP

Photo 59. Opening on north facade 

of Counting House for pedestrian 

passageway, 2016

Source: EYP
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shaped plate was retained on both the north and south facade of 

the building. 

South Elevation:

The strategy for renovating the canal-side elevation was the same 

as the north elevation, in terms of bringing the appearance back 

to 1955. This meant that all the first floor windows received new 

6/6 sash while the second floor windows got new 1/1 wood sash. 

The impact of the new lowered footbridge and new passageway at 

the west end of the Counting House was most visible on the south 

façade. The new opening was topped by a granite lintel. New brick 

was infilled above and around this opening to meet and match 

adjacent construction. New metal signage with the words ‘Boott 

Cotton Mills Museum’ was affixed directly to the brick façade atop 

this new entrance passageway with new light fixtures on either 

side of the opening.

System Improvements:

A large part of the 1993 renovation was the complete replacement 

of all building systems- mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire 

protection and telecommunications. Most of the mechanical 

ductwork in the Counting House was left exposed . Other visible 

impacts of the new system improvements were fire sprinklers, fire 

alarms, light fixtures, electrical outlets and plumbing pipes and 

vents. The 1993 as-built drawings by Flansburgh Associates, filed 

at both DSC and the LNHP should be referenced for more details of 

the systems design and layout.
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1994-2016

While the exterior appearance of the Counting House and a large 

part of the interior has remained largely unchanged from 1993, 

there have been some interior changes on the first and second floors 

that merit attention. 

First Floor:

The biggest change on the first floor has been on the west and south 

portion and appears to have been brought about by programmatic 

changes. The single-user male and female toilets built in 1993 were 

expanded to create multi-stall versions. In order to create space 

for these, the office space for the interpretation staff was moved. 

More recently in 2014, a new kitchen was added in the west section 

of the Counting house in the space that used to be occupied by 

the Reservations staff. The finishes and appearance of the new 

alterations are meant to blend in with the 1993 work.

Second Floor:

On the second floor, the major change since 1993 has been the 

relocation of the museum store to the first floor of Mill 6 in early 

Photo 60. Multi-stall toilets created at first floor of Counting House since 1993; 2016

Source: EYP
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Figure 58. First Floor - Counting House; 2016

Source: EYP. 

N Elements added/altered since 1993

Figure 59. Second Floor - Counting House; 2016Source: EYP.

Toi

Kitchen

Store

Toi

Museum Store moved to 

Mill 6 in 2007- space now 

used as multi-purpose 

events center Wall shelving remaining after 

store move
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Figure 61. South Elevation - Counting House; 2016

Source: EYP. 

Elements added/altered since 1993

New 

signage

New 

snow 

guards

New 

snow 

guards

Figure 60. North Elevation - Counting House; 2016Source: EYP. 
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2007. A majority of the wood bookshelves and window seats along 

the south wall were removed at the time of this move. The cashier 

counter in the southwest corner remains as is. This space is currently 

used a multipurpose events space with movable furniture. 

North Elevation:

There have been no noticeable changes on the north façade since 

1993, except for the undated addition of snow guards on the roof. 

The wood gutter was replaced in kind in 2015. 

South Elevation:

The south façade has remained largely unchanged as well, except 

for the addition of snow guards on the roof above the pedestrian 

entry passageway and the replacement of signage on the brick 

above this entrance. Instead of individual metal letters fixed to 

the brick wall, the current sign comprises of a semi-circular and 

rectangular metal plate with a cut out of the NPS logo.

Photo 62. Pedestrian passageway 

entry at south facade of Counting 

House, 2016

Source: EYP

Photo 61. Multi-purpose events space at second floor of Counting House, 2016

Source: EYP
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Photo 63. Deterioration at 

brick pier at Counting House 

substructure, 2015

Source: EYP

Photo 65. Failed brick vault at Counting 

House substructure, 2015

Source: EYP

Photo 64. 'Flattening' of granite arch (towards right) 

supporting southwest corner of Counting House above, 2015

Source: EYP

Other Changes: Substructure

In November 2014, structural distress was noticed in the 

substructure of the Counting House that forms the entrance to 

Penstock 1 of the Boott canal system. This area was last impacted in 

the Phase II renovations completed 1993 when the Counting House 

received a completely new reinforced concrete slab (partially on 

grade and partially above the penstock/ gallery area). The primary 

area of concern is the easternmost bay of the penstock entrance 

that lies directly below the west end of the Counting House. The 

granite arch at the south end of this bay is displaying 'flattening' 

and bulging of the east thrust-block outwards. Other defects noted 

were partial collapse of the brick vault at this bay and deterioration 

at the heads of two brick piers that were added pre-1976. Another 

visual assessment of the structure was conducted in November 

2015. Preliminary recommendations include partial rebuilding of 

the easternmost arch that is displaying movement, rebuilding of the 

collapsed brick vault and replacement of deteriorated brick piers 

with new granite columns. This work is expected to be completed 

in 2016/2017 at the time of writing of this report.
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MILL 6:

1872-1955

This time period begins with the construction of Mill 6 in 1871-72 

and ends with the closing of Boott Mills in 1955. It combines roughly 

the first three time periods for Mill 6 outlined in the previous HSR. 

Mill 6 remained virtually unchanged from its construction right up 

to 1905 when ‘Boott Cotton Mills’ officially closed and the company 

was reorganized as ‘Boott Mills’ producing ‘coarse’ goods. This 

necessitated the switching of machinery housed in the building in 

1906 and the relocation of some original program elements like the 

shops in the lower floors of the west part. A mix of big and small 

changes continued to be made to Mill 6 for the next 50 years as 

it maintained operation within Boott Mills. These changes will be 

briefly summarized in the following sections.

First Floor:

As originally built in 1872, the first floor comprised of a an 

L-shaped floor plan with two arms- the longer was the east-west 

arm that stretched along Eastern Canal, directly to its north. This 

is commonly referred to as the west part of Mill 6. The shorter arm 

of the L extended in a north south direction along Bridge Street, 

and is referred to as the east part of Mill 6. The building design was 

based on rather traditional mill design practices for its time, with 

loadbearing brick walls (without pilasters or buttresses), and timber 

beams that pocketed and anchored directly to the exterior walls. 

The long narrow floorplates were designed based on limitations 

imposed by natural light streaming through the numerous closely 

spaced windows on the exterior façade. The interior was largely 

open to allow for flexibility in accommodating the mill equipment, 

except for a central row of cast iron columns in the west part and two 

rows of similar columns in the east part. These columns supported 

paired timber beams and a wood floor deck above. 

Other plan features included a double height passageway at 

the eastern end of the building. This area referred to as the coal 

pocket, allowed off-loading of coal from railroad cars at the rear 

of Mill 6 to fire the boilers located formerly in Mill 7 to the north. 

Blind windows that copied the hood detail of the true windows 

throughout the building elsewhere continued the window pattern 

along the first floor wall of the East Elevation to enclose the coal 

pocket rail track that ran inside the building. However, that twostory trackway was naturally lit by standard mill windows in the 

second floor above. A loadbearing masonry partition wall was 

constructed at the intersection of the east and west parts of the 
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Figure 63. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1872

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

N

Figure 62. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1872Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Granite 

steps

Granite 

steps

Hoist

Masonry 

wall

Masonry 

wall

Hoist

HoistHoist

Blacksmith 

& Machine 

Shops

Paint & 

Carpenter 

Shops

Brick 

vaults in 

this area

Brick 

vaults in 

this area

Cast iron 

columns, 

typ.

Cast iron 

columns, 

typ.

Brick 

arches

Brick 

arches

Coal 

Pocket 

Entrance

Blind 

arched 

openings 

at this 

facade at 

Floor 1

Wood 

panel 

double 

door

Wood 

panel 

double 

door

Coal Pocket Coal Pocket- Open to below
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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N

Figure 64. Third, Fourth & Fifth Floors - Mill 6; c. 1872Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Hoist

Hoist

Cast iron 

columns, 

typ.

Brick 

arches
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Figure 66. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1872

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016Figure 65. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1872Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

East Stair 

Tower

East Stair 

Tower

Fire escape Metal cornice, typ.

Metal 

cornice, typ.

Corbeled brick 

cornice with 

brackets, typ.

Corbeled brick 

cornice with 

brackets, typ.

12/12 double 

hung wood 

windows, typ.

12/12 double 

hung wood 

windows, typ.

Arched brick 

hood, typ.

Arched brick 

hood, typ.

Fire escape Door with hood and granite steps, typ.

Coal 

Pocket

Coal Pocket 

entrance

Counting 

House

West Stair 

Tower

West Stair 

Tower

Brick 

chimney

Diamond-shaped anchor plates 

between windows at floors 1-4 , typ.

Diamond-shaped anchor plates between windows 

at floors 1-4 in west wing, typ.
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Figure 67. East Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1872

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

East Stair 

Tower

East Stair 

Tower

Metal 

cornice, typ.

Metal cornice, typ.

Corbeled brick 

cornice with 

brackets, typ.

Corbeled brick cornice with brackets, typ.

12/12 double 

hung wood 

windows, typ.

12/12 double 

hung wood 

windows, typ.

Arched brick hood, typ.

Arched brick hood, typ.

Counting 

House

Brick 

chimney

Brick 

chimney

West Stair 

Tower

West Stair 

Tower

Diamond-shaped anchor plates between windows at floors 2-4, typ.

Diamond-shaped anchor plates between windows at floors 2-4, typ.

Granite sill, typ.

Granite sill, typ.

Blind windows (brick infill) at first floor

Figure 68. West Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1872Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016
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(Reprinted) Photo 24. Note the top floor of the stair towers with metal cresting, and the west elevation close in appearance to how it was built., 1899 

Source: UML, CLH, LHS, LM, Pin 4111
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building. It provided access through it via two large triple row-lock 

arched openings. 

Two octagonal brick stair towers, one each in the east and west 

wings of the building was attached to the west facing walls at their 

respective northwest corners. Access to the mill was provided 

though these towers via a centrally located opening in each, 

protected by an overhanging bracketed wood hood. Each entrance 

was reached by a set of three granite steps. Once inside the tower, 

there was a wood spiral staircase that occupied the southern half of 

the space while the northern half constituted a landing and a hoist 

for transferring materials between the floors. An arched opening 

at each floor in the wall between the stair tower and the mill area 

provided access to the hoist. Directly south of this opening at each 

floor was another arched opening with a set of double doors that 

provided access to the stairways. 

The west end of the first floor (and second floor) was slightly 

different in construction than the upper floors in having a masonry 

partition wall demarcate a space with brick vault construction. 

These housed the Blacksmith Shop and the Machine Shop serving 

the entire complex, and were therefore vaulted for better fire 

protection. Present in 1899 and probably original to the building 

were three hooded doorways with granite steps along the north 

elevation of the west wing, as seen in Photo 24. These doorways 

were removed and seamlessly converted to windows by 1955, and 

probably in 1906 when their proximate first and second floor shop 

functions were removed from the building. 

Between 1876 and 1911, numerous bridges and connectors were 

constructed between Mill 6 and Mill 7, primarily, and Mill 1 to the 

north. All of these attached to the north wall of the east wing of Mill 

6. The largest undertaking was a 5-story brick connector at the two 

easternmost bays of this north wall. It was originally 2 stories, but 

was expanded to 5 stories by 1886. By 1911, enclosed wood frame 

bridges were added to the west of the brick connector at the second, 

third and fourth floors. All these connectors necessitated change in 

many original window openings in this façade to door openings. 

In 1906, the Mill changed its operation to producing ‘coarse’ goods 

and this required an overhaul of the machinery in place. The shops 

in the west end on the first and second floors were moved to other 

locations on the site. In 1914, metal pipe railings were added to the 

spiral stairs in the octagonal stair towers. 

The first major change to the exterior appearance of Mill 6 took 

place in 1917 with a construction of a new freight elevator tower at 

the inside corner of the L-shaped building plan. Consequently, the 

hoists in the stairwells were removed and the openings bricked up. 

Despite being built in brick, the elevator tower was distinctively 

Photo 66. Wood spiral staircase 

in octagonal stair tower. Railings 

were added in 1914, undated

Source: LNHP Archives, LOWE 

16552

Photo 67. Bridges between Mills 

#6 and # 1 looking east

Source: HAER, Reproduction 

Number: HAER MASS,9-

LOW,7--24
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different from the original building. This was largely the result of 

larger window openings with 9/9 wood sash and flat granite lintels 

instead of arched brick hoods. The elevator obscured two window 

bays on north and west walls of the inside corner of the original 

building footprint. Three of these openings were bricked up on 

each floor and one in the north wall was widened to serve as the 

access to the elevator. The yard track formerly adjacent to the east 

stair tower was re-routed to the new elevator tower.

The second major change that took place during this time, happened 

in 1928 with the expansion of the coal pocket entrance on the south 

façade. The entry was both widened and increased in height. This 

led to the loss of one window on the first floor and other alterations 

on the second floor. Around this time, a small wood frame shipping 

shed was also added on the first floor, directly west of the 1917 

elevator tower.

In 1955, as preparation for the sale of Boott Mills to new owners, 

several repairs were made to the building. These included removal 

of all the machinery and infilling all masonry openings that 

connected with adjacent buildings. In anticipation of three new 

transformers to be installed in the yard between Mill 1 & Mill 6, all 

first floor windows in the north wall of the east wing were bricked 

in at this time.

(Reprinted, zoomed) Photo 26. "Boott Mills Looking East, March 

1928". Note the appearance of west stair tower and the addition 

of the 1917 elevator tower (at the inside corner)

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, LOWE 8658

(Reprinted, zoomed) Photo 30. Mill yard 

between Boott Mills Number 1 and 2 and 

Number 6, Dec. 1933. Note 1917 elevator 

tower and one-story 'shipping shed in 

front built in 1928.

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, 

LOWE 8986
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(Reprinted) Photo 17. "Bridge and Coal Pocket at Mill No. 6 (1912)." Note wood picket fence and sliding door

Source: LNHP, L&C, LOWE 7638

(Reprinted) Photo 27. "Boott Mills Railroad Bridge Showing Bridge Floor and Tracks, Aug 1927

Source: LNHP, Museum Collections, Lowe 8581
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(Reprinted) Photo 21. Connecting wall between 

east and west sections of Boott Mill Number 6, 

third floor. June 1985

Source: HAER, NPS, MA-16, 1985

(Reprinted) Photo 20. Cast iron columns at 

first floor of Boott Mill Number 6, June 1985

Source: LNHP
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Second Floor:

The second floor plan was almost identical to the first as built in 

1872. Being a double height space, the coal pocket occupied the east 

end of the second floor as well. The vaulted section on the west end 

was replicated on the second floor, except here it house the Paint 

Shop and the Carpenters Shop.

The construction of connectors at the north wall of the east wing 

from 1876-1911 and the new elevator built in 1917, all had effects 

on the second floor plan similar to first floor as described above. 

The major change happened with the expansion of the coal pocket 

entry when three of the easternmost window openings on the south 

façade were removed to make way for the expanded masonry 

opening.

Third Floor & Fourth Floor:

Changes on the third and fourth floors during 1872-1955 were 

largely brought on by the construction of connectors at the north 

wall of the east wing from 1876-1911 and the new elevator built in 

1917. The nature of the changes was similar to those experienced on 

the lower floors.

Fifth Floor:

In addition to changes brought on by the construction of connectors 

at the north wall of the east wing from 1876-1911 and the new 

elevator built in 1917, the other major change at the fifth floor 

occurred at the arched masonry partition wall. In 1929, owing to 

structural concerns, the arches and brick pier at this wall were 

removed, and replaced by a pair of I-beams supported by metal 

columns. 

North Elevation:

All the elevations of Mill 6, including the north were characterized 

by a rhythmic fenestration pattern of closely spaced arched window 

openings at each floor topped with ornamental brick hoods and 

featuring 12/12 wood sash. The walls were topped with a corbeled 

brick cornice, which surrounded the eaves and was supported 

by deep corbeled pendant like brackets that terminated at a brick 

stringcourse. The two octagonal stair towers broke the monotony 

of the façade by virtue of their shape, exposed pilasters, granite 

beltcourses, narrower window openings, and most importantly 

their 6-story height which extended an entire floor above the 

rest of the mill building. Topped by ornamental metal cresting, 
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Figure 70. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1955

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

N

Figure 69. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1955Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Hoist removed, 

1916

Hoist removed, 

1916

Hoist removed, 

1916

Hoist removed, 

1916

Shops re-located, 

1906

Shops re-located, 

1906

New machines 

installed, 1906-1910

New machines 

installed, 1906-1910

Coal Pocket Coal Pocket- Open to below

Elevator tower 

added, 1917

Elevator tower 

added, 1917

Coal pocket entrance widened, 1928Coal pocket entrance widened, 1928

Shipping shed added, 1928

First floor windows infilled 1955

Door to bridge infilled, 1955

Elements added/altered since 1872
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Hoist removed, 

1916

Hoist removed, 

1916

Hoist removed, 

1916

Hoist removed, 

1916

New machines 

installed, 1906-1910

New machines 

installed, 1906-1910

Brick pier removed, 

I-beam with lally 

columns added, 1929

Elevator tower 

added, 1917

Elevator tower 

added, 1917

Openings to bridge & connector infilled, 1955Openings to connector infilled, 1955

N

Figure 71. Third & Fourth Floors - Mill 6; c. 1955Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016Figure 72. Fifth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1955Source:

Elements added/altered since 1872

 EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016
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Elevator tower 

added, 1917 Brick chimney removed, pre-1950

West Stair Tower upper 

floor removed, 1950

West Stair Tower upper 

floor removed, 1950

East Stair Tower upper floor removed, 1950

East Stair Tower upper floor removed, 1950

Downspouts installed, 1927

5-story connector to Mill 7 and wooden bridges added, 1876-1911; all openings infilled 1955

Coal pocket entrance widened, 1928

Windows and previous opening infilled

Figure 74. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1955Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016Figure 73. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1955Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Coal 

Pocket

Counting 

House

Elements added/altered since 1872

Shipping shed added, 1928 First floor windows infilled 1955
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Figure 75. East Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1955

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Elevator tower 

added, 1917

Elevator tower 

added, 1917

Counting 

House

Brick chimney 

removed, pre-1950

Brick chimney removed, pre-1950

Shipping shed added, 1928

West Stair Tower upper 

floor removed, 1950

West Stair Tower upper floor removed, 1950

East Stair Tower upper floor removed, 1950

East Stair Tower upper 

floor removed, 1950

Figure 76. West Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1955Source:

Elements added/altered since 1872

 EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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these towers soared above the flat roof of Mill 6, and their richer 

architectural palette corresponded with other stair towers at other 

Boott Mill buildings around the yard.

Other original features of the façade were the ubiquitous diamondshaped anchor plates between each window opening where the 

individual interior floor beams were anchored to the exterior wall. 

Two metal fire stairs were spaced along the north façade and a third 

in the same scissors-like configuration was located in the courtyard 

west wall.

With the construction of the 5-story connector to Mill 7 in 1886, 

and subsequent wooden bridges on the second, third and fourth 

floors, many windows on the eastern end of the east wing wall 

were converted to doors and/or infilled. Exterior downspouts 

were installed in 1927. Arguably, the most significant change to the 

exterior appearance happened in 1950 when the top (sixth) story 

of the two stair towers was removed in a misinformed attempt to 

address vibration in Mill 6. The truncated towers were topped with 

a new flat roof and simple overhanging bent flashing.

Another change occurred in 1955 when all the first floor windows 

at the east wing were bricked in to allow for installation of new 

transformers in this area. Openings at the upper floors in the 

connectors were also infilled in preparation of the Mill’s sale in 

1955.

South Elevation:

The south canal-facing elevation presented a simple flat façade 

with the same detailing as the north. The original entrance to the 

coal pocket was a one-story arched opening that took up less than 

two easternmost bays of the façade. This was of course enlarged in 

1928 to three bays wide and 1.5 stories tall.

East elevation:

The east, street facing elevation of Mill 6 was similar to the other 

ones, except one major difference. All the first floor windows were 

blind, with recessed brick infills, owing to the coal pocket in this 

area. The construction of the 5-story brick connector to Mill 7 in 

1886 essentially extended the east façade all the way to Mill 7, 

owing to its similar exterior appearance.

West Elevation:

Photo 68. East elevation, Mill 6. 

Note the blind windows on first 

floor at coal pocket location.

Source: HAER, Reproduction 

Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--8
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Effects of the 1917 elevator tower and the removal of the top story 

of the stair towers in 1950 are very apparent on the west, yardfacing elevation of the building. 

1956-1983:

This time period begins with new ownership of Mill 6, before it was 

sold once again in 1972, and was used for light manufacturing uses 

and storage right up to 1979. Then a focus on the preservation and 

redevelopment of the Boott Mills in response to the establishment 

of the Lowell National Historical Park began. The Park had been 

created by an act of Congress in 1978. That legislation also created 

the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission (LHPC), part of 

whose mission was to assist private property owners with financial 

and technical assistance in the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of 

their historic buildings in the Federally designated Lowell Historic 

Preservation District to both preserve the historic character of the 

Park environs and aid in its economic redevelopment. 

In 1975 a gas leak in a building across the river caused a massive 

explosion that damaged some 1000 windows in the Boott Mills. 

Worst affected were those in the two northerly ranks of buildings, 

but there was some glass breakage in Mill #6 as well, presumably 

more extensively on windows higher up on the upper courtyard 

and Bridge Street elevations. Many of those damaged sash and 

others were replaced with full 1/1 or smaller blocked-down units 

or simply removed and boarded up by Capehart Corporation , then 

owner of the building. Soon, the Capehart Corporation declared 

bankruptcy and was not in a position to make more comprehensive 

repairs to the building. The LHPC wanted this derelict, but fairly 

intact and visible mill building to be adaptively reused by new 

owners that would restore the exterior according to preservation 

standards. They found the perfect partner in Wang Laboratories, a 

growing technology firm that was building its new headquarters in 

Lowell. Wang purchased the building and LHPC provided $500,000 

in grant money over the next three years to renovate the exterior 

with new windows and roof. Wang acquired the building at the 

behest of LHPC to prevent its being purchased by a salvager, and 

land banked it for the hoped-for eventual purchase by the National 

Park Service. Wang undertook roof and window replacement 

with a $500,000 grant from LHPC and installed a new boiler in 

1980. Wang used the building in the interim for warehousing and 

storage. In 1983, Wang became interested in another building for 

development as a training center. The Park’s plan of acquiring 

the Wannalancit Mills for its museum and other functions did 

not materialize, and the Park turned its gaze to Boott #6 instead. 

Its rehabilitated exterior shell, and prime location for these Park 

functions, helped prompt the Park to acquire the building from 
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Wang in 1984. Following is a summary of the physical changes that 

occurred at the building during this time:

First Floor:

The first major change to the site post-1955 was the construction 

of a second freight elevator tower adjacent to the outdated 1917 

Photo 69. View from mill yard of north and west facades of Mill 6, c. 1979. 

Note the 1917 freight elevator tower at the corner, the 1973 freight elevator 

tower next to it, and missing window sash.

Source: LNHP Archives, LOWE 16552
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(Reprinted) Photo 36. Eastern Canal elevation of Boott Mill Number 6, July 1979. Note curious 

sheet metal shaft at fourth bay, third floor to roof.

Source: HAER, NPS MA-7 #4, 1976
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Photo 70. Entrance at west stair tower, 1982. Note altered opening, non-historic door, replacement 

windows above in Mill 6.

Source: HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--30
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tower in 1973. It extended 6” above the roof line & was built with a 

combination of concrete masonry units and brick. The construction 

of this tower led to the bricking in of the 3rd and 4th bays of the 

west wall of the east wing. A one-story machine room was built 

to the north of the tower with a flat roof, concrete block walls and 

a modern flush door. Unlike the 1917 tower, the windowless 1973 

tower was a marked deviation from the original building. Another 

Photo 71. View of Mill 6, looking west, 1982. Note the new wood window 

sash, restored wood frames and new metal cornice at west end wall and 

1981 reproduction of the removed brick chimney to vent the Wang boiler 

and eliminate the boiler flue previously routed through an adjacent upper 

floor window

Source: HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--29
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change during this period was the construction of a masonry wall 

that subdivided the vaulted section at the western end of this floor 

into 2 rooms and the creation of a new boiler room in this space.

Repairs by Wang Corporation in 1981 involved replacing upwards 

of 400 window sash with replacement wood windows that closely 

matched the original and were designed to receive an integrated 

storm panel. It appears that while the frames were restored and 

the replacement sash installed in 1981, the storm panel was not 

installed at this time and was added later in renovations completed 

sometime after 1993. The 1981 restoration work was designed by 

Moore & Heder Architects and was executed by Erection Specialties, 

Inc. (ESI). A paint analysis was carried out on the existing sash and 

frames. This revealed that up until the late 19th century, most of the 

exterior wood work of the Boott Mills was painted in a white/offwhite color. This was therefore chosen as the color for the restored 

frames and new wood sash†.

A new boiler was installed at the first floor in the boiler room created 

in 1973, and various floor improvements were made to ready the 

buildings for use as a storage facility.

Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Floors and Roof:

† A letter by Charles Parrott, LNHP Architect to Allen Moore of Moore 

Heder Architects, dated December 15, 1980 notes that the exact shade of offwhite chosen was Benjamin Moore-O-Matic II system, designated OW-13. This 

color or a similar alkyd gloss or semi-gloss was recommended for use at the 

windows and cornice. The chimney cap was proposed to be painted a dark 

charcoal gray.LNHP Archives, LOWE 16552.

(Reprinted) Photo 35. East stairtower, Mill Number 6, June 1985. Note later 

elevator shaft at right, and altered door at stair tower.

Source: HAER, NPS MA-16, 1985
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The impact of the new 1973 freight elevator was felt on all the upper 

floors similar to the first floor. One of the biggest changes to occur 

during the 1981 repairs was the complete replacement of the roof. 

The existing tar and gravel roof over the building was removed in 

its entirety and replaced with a new insulated elastomeric roof and 

all new metal flashings. The ornamental brick cornice at the west 

face of the west part of the building had been lost during the years 

during an undated event and had been replaced with a short parapet 

wall. The parapet was removed and the cornice was reconstructed 

in 1981 to match the historic design. The historic brick chimney at 

the west end of the building, which was demolished prior to 1950, 

was also reconstructed in 1981. The roofs over the stair and 1917 

and 1973 elevator towers were also replaced.

North Elevation:

Between 1956 and 1983, major changes on the north elevation 

included the creation in 1974 of a large opening on the first floor 

adjacent to the 1917 elevator. Spanning two window bays, this 

Photo 72. View of Mill #6 from the south (1982). Note the new wood window sash and restored wood frames. 

Source: HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,7--9
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Figure 78. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1983

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

N

Figure 77. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1983Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Mech. 

Rm

New 

walls 

added

Entry 

altered

Entry altered

New overhead 

door, 1974

Overhead 

door

Ramp

Coal Pocket Coal Pocket- Open to below Elevator tower added, 1973

Elements added/altered since 1955

Elevator tower 

added, 1973

Elevator machine 

room, 1973

Windows 

infilled, 1973

Window 

infilled, 1973

Opening with 

overhead 

door, 1974

New window sash, new/

restored window frames, 

typ. 1982

Transformer 

shed, post 1955
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Elevator tower 

added, 1973

N

Figure 79. Third, Fourth & Fifth Floors - Mill 6; c. 1983Source:

Elements added/altered since 1955

 EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Window 

infilled, 1973
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Plywood 

infill 

Plywood 

infill 

Downspout 

added

New window sash, new/

restored window frames, 

typ. 1982

New window sash, new/

restored window frames, 

typ. 1982

Selective brick 

rebuild and repointing, typ. 1982

Selective brick 

rebuild and repointing, typ. 1982

Downspouts 

replaced,1982

Downspouts 

replaced,1982

Metal flue added, 

pre-1980

Brick chimney 

rebuilt, 1982

Brick chimney 

rebuilt, 1982

Figure 81. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1983Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016Figure 80. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1983Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Coal 

Pocket

Counting 

House

Elements added/altered since 1955

Cornice rebuilt, 1982

Cornice 

rebuilt, 1982

Transformer 

shed, post 1955 Door to window, pre-1981 New overhead door & brick infills, 1974
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Figure 82. East Elevation- Mill 6; 1983

Source: EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016

Elevator tower 

added, 1973

Plywood 

infill 

Elevator tower 

added, 1973

Transformer 

Elevator machine 

shed, post 1955

room, 1973

Windows 

infilled, 1973

Entry altered; 

hood removed

Entry altered

New window sash, 

new/restored 

window frames, 

typ. 1982

New window sash, new/restored window frames, typ. 1982

Selective brick 

rebuild and repointing, typ. 

1982

Selective brick rebuild and re-pointing, typ. 1982

Counting 

House

Brick chimney 

rebuilt, 1982

Brick chimney rebuilt, 1982

Cornice rebuilt, 1982

Figure 83. West Elevation- Mill 6; 1983Source:

Elements added/altered since 1955

 EYP. Sketch showing probable layout based on historic photos and 1984 HSR research, drawn 2016
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Photo 73. View of west elevation of east wing of Mill 6, 1976. Note the altered entrance at east stair tower, the 

1973 freight elevator tower with adjacent one-story machine room, window openings with brick and plywood 

infills and mechanical flues.

Source: HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,8--27 (zoomed from original)
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Photo 74. View of Mill 6 looking west, 1982. Compare with Photo 70 and note the restored window openings 

with replacement wood sash and removal of mechanical flues. Also note rebuilt metal cornice at west end of 

the building.

Source: HAER, Reproduction Number: HAER MASS,9-LOW,8--27 (zoomed from original)
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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new opening was fitted with an overhead door with a new firerated pedestrian door installed to the west of it. During this period 

several exhaust flues and ducts were installed through window 

openings and run on the exterior to above the roof. These elements 

were removed in the 1981 rehabilitation, with the one venting the 

Wang boiler routed through a brick reproduction of the original 

forge chimney located on the west wall of the west wing. The 

Wang rehabilitation project replaced all the building’s multiple 

pane wood window sashes, which has been largely removed, 

as described above. These new sashes, installed in the original 

window frames, which had mostly survived, recreated the original 

true-divided light 12/12 main windows and the 4/4 windows in 

the original stair towers. This work had a major impact on the 

condition and historic appearance of the building’s facades. This 

was enhanced by the partial repointing of deteriorated and poorly 

repaired brick joints, removal of unused conduits, equipment, etc 

from the facade and the replacement of missing and damaged 

brick units. All the brick hoods over the window openings were 

completely repointed at this time and lead-burning repairs made to 

the window hood flashing. New downspouts were installed on the 

exterior roof drains that c. 1927 had apparently taken the place of 

failed interior leaders and the existing metal cornice was repaired 

and replaced as needed around the building. 

South Elevation:

The south façade had followed a pretty similar pattern to the 

north elevation. From 1956 to right before the Wang repairs, many 

of the original window openings were missing sash and vertical 

mechanical flues marred the appearance of the façade. In 1981, all 

of the windows were replaced, a large flue at the west end of the 

façade was removed and new downspouts near the southwest and 

southeast corners were installed.

East Elevation:

The east elevation had remained virtually unchanged from 1956-

1980. In 1981, as part of the Wang Corporation repairs, new sash 

was installed in all the windows and portions of the façade were 

repointed. 

West Elevation:

A large mechanical flue had been installed between the two 

northernmost bays of the of the west wall of the east part of Mill 

6. Owing to this many of the adjacent window openings had been 

boarded up prior to 1980. The 1981 repairs involved removing this 

flue and installing new sash in the blocked openings. The 1973 
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Figure 84. Roof Plan-Demolition, Mill 6, 1980

Source: Drawing A1, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 1980. LOWE_475_25902_[id14563]- DSC Archives.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Figure 85. Roof Plan-New Constriction, Mill 6, 1980

Source: Drawing A2, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 1980. LOWE_475_25902_[id14563]- DSC Archives
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Figure 86. Roof Details, Mill 6, 1980

Source: Drawing A6, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 1980. LOWE_475_25902_[id14563]- DSC Archives 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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532

Figure 87. South Elevation, 1981

Source: Drawing A3, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 1980, Notes per site visit 2/23/1981. LNHp Archives
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Figure 88. North Elevation, 1981

Source: Drawing A4, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 1980, Notes per site visit 2/23/1981. LNHP Archives
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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534

Figure 89. East & West Elevation, 1981

Source: Drawing A5, Boott Mill No. 6 Repairs and Restoration, Moore-Heder, 6 May 1980, Notes per site visit 2/23/1981. LNHP Archives
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Figure 90A. Window Details, 1981

Source: Drawing 2 of 2, Boott Mill No. 6, ESI & Moore-Heder, 7/28/1981. LOWE_475_25900_[id19242] - DSC Archives
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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elevator tower was retained in these repairs and so was the bay 

of bricked up windows directly north of it. Other repairs apparent 

on the west façade included the reconstructed cornice on the west 

wall of Mill 6, adjacent to the Counting House. This cornice had 

been removed some time earlier at an unknown date and replaced 

with a short parapet. The parapet was removed and the cornice 

was reconstructed in 1981 to match the historic design elsewhere 

on the building. Another unfortunate change that had occurred 

on the west façade post 1956 was the loss of the ornamental wood 

hood and brackets over the entrance at the east octagonal tower. 

The arched opening had been poorly reconstructed with a flat 

profile, the opening was infilled and a single door installed in it to 

provide access. The west tower entrance was in appreciably better 

condition. While the arched opening and bracketed hood were still 

intact, the double doors were gone and had been replaced with an 

infill with a single modern door. The 1981 repairs did not include 

any work at these areas.

1984-1993:

After repairs that were undertaken at Mill 6 in 1981 as part of a 

collaboration between the then owners Wang Corporation and 

the LHPC, the building remained unoccupied for a couple years 

and was sold to the Lowell National Historical Park in 1984. By 

this time, the Park had determined that it planned to use Mill 6 

for an interpretive use, and reuse the building in conjunction with 

the adjoining Counting House to accommodate a textile history 

museum, offices for the Park staff and educational activity areas. 

Conceptual design plans for both buildings had begun to be drawn 

up as early as 1983. The design ideas were further developed in 

a ‘Comprehensive Design’ set prepared by Earl R. Flansburgh 

& Associates, Inc. and dated 2/28/1986. It was decided that the 

project will be executed in two phases- the first phase included 

core and shell improvements to Mill 6, and the second phase 

included interior fit-out and additional shell improvements to 

Mill 6 and both core and shell and interior fit-out of the Counting 

House. Phase I was completed in 1989 and Phase II in 1993, as 

suggested by two sets of as-built drawings prepared by Flansburgh 

Associates corresponding to these dates. Apart from the interior 

partitions inserted at each floor to accommodate the new program, 

the other major change to the interior during these renovations, 

was the insertion of new building systems- most noticeably large 

mechanical ductwork that was left largely exposed and unpainted 

in the majority of spaces, thus allowing unhindered view of the 

original ceiling and cast iron column caps. 

Mill 6 had already received a number of repairs to its façade and the 

roof during the Wang repairs of 1981. The intent of the additional 

facade work completed in 1989 was to continue those repairs and 
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make other changes as needed to retrofit the building for its new 

proposed use. Following is a summary of the changes that were 

completed in 1989 and 1993.

First Floor:

Scope completed 1989:

The entire first floor slab was demolished and replaced with a new 

6” concrete slab on steel form deck. The new slab was supported 

by new concrete beams that rested on existing granite piers in the 

crawl space below. Additional concrete walls and mat slabs were 

also laid in locations of the new building elevators (in the center 

of the east part). The floor slab at the two stair towers and the 

vaulted historic shop area in the west part was retained as existing. 

In addition, concrete was not poured over a section of the floor slab 

in the north half of the west part closer to the inside corner of the 

L-shaped plan. 

In the west part of Mill 6, brick pier ‘extensions’ or pilasters were 

added to the inside of the exterior brick wall between the windows 

Photo 75. View of Weave Room at first floor of Mill 6, 2016. Note 1-wythe thick brick pilasters/piers added to 

the exterior wall between window openings in 1989. 

Source: EYP
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on the first floor. These pilasters were connected to the existing 

brick walls with new anchors. Existing and original paired timber 

beams existed in this space. Framing the second floor deck, they 

were originally pocketed into the existing brick wall and anchored 

with tie rods featuring the distinctive and original diamond shaped 

plates on the outside. This entire structural arrangement was 

retained, albeit strengthened by the addition of new steel plates, 

brick and non-shrink grout in each beam pocket. Where damaged 

or missing, the existing tie rods to the outside of the exterior wall 

were also replaced. The existing cast iron columns were retained. 

At this time, the 1973 elevator tower was demolished and the brick 

infill at the original windows was removed. The 1917 elevator 

tower was retained but the elevator car and all related equipment 

was removed from it. The space was intended to be used as 

programmable space on each floor, and therefore a new concrete 

slab was poured here at each level. 

The 1973 interior masonry partition that subdivided the shop area 

into two sections was retained. At the original arched masonry 

partition that separated the east part of Mill 6 from the west part, 

replacement tie rods were provided at each of the existing arched 

openings. A new services and circulation core was constructed in 

the north half of the east part of the building. This included two 

elevator shafts, multi-stall toilets for men and women, a number 

of rooms for electrical, mechanical, plumbing and fire-protection 

equipment and a new staircase that served floors 1 through 5. The 

floor around the new stair opening was framed with new wood 

beams. 

An existing ramp at the first floor that connected with the coal 

pocket area to the east was replaced with new steps and a door. 

Another door was added on the north wall of the east part, from the 

fire pump room directly to the exterior.

At the west octagonal stair tower, the existing infill and single door 

was removed to be replaced by a double door with six-panels on 

each leaf, reminiscent of the historic double doors that originally 

existed at this opening. The west stairway itself was proposed 

to be restored. While some of the items originally planned were 

executed, others were left out. For example, the vertical metal 

support channels that were existing and were probably added at 

the stair pre-1955 were initially called for removal, were left in place 

and still exist at the building. Other repairs included installation 

of plywood under each tread from floors 1-2 and expansion bolts 

at every alternate tread to the wall from floors 1-2. The 1914 pipe 

railings were retained and repaired in place. 

Photo 76. View of east tower 

entrance, 2016. Note new wood 

hood and paneled double 

door based on historic design, 

constructed in 1989. 

Source: EYP

Photo 77. View of arched masonry 

partition at first floor, 2016. Note 

new tie-rods installed (in place of 

existing) in 1989. 

Source: EYP
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Figure 92. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989

Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC Archives

N

Figure 91. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC Archives

Trolley Maintenance Facility Open to below 1973 elevator tower removed 1973 elevator tower removed

Window openings 

reinstated

Window openings 

reinstated

New double doors at stairs Door added

New double doors at stairs

New double doors at stairs

New double doors at stairs

New brick pier extensions/ pilasters added, typ. where shown

New tie-rods at archesNew tie-rods at arches

New brick pier extensions/ pilasters added, typ. where shown

New concrete floor slab with new 

conc. beams resting on existing 

granite piers below

New circulation 

and services core

New circulation 

and services core

Window openings infilled (3)

Elevator car 

removed

Elevator car 

removed

New granite steps & wood paneled 

entry double doors at stairs

New granite steps & wood paneled entry double doors at stairs

Elements added/altered since 1983
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

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1973 elevator 

tower removed

1973 elevator 

tower removed

Window openings 

reinstated

Window openings 

reinstated

New double doors at stairsNew double doors at stairs

New double doors at stairsNew double doors at stairs

New tie-rods at arches

New tie-rods at arches

New brick pier extensions/ pilasters added, typ. where shownNew brick pier extensions/ pilasters added, typ. where shown

New circulation 

and services core

New circulation 

and services core

Elevator car 

removed

Elevator car 

removed

N

Figure 93. Third Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC ArchivesFigure 94. Fourth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989Source:

Elements added/altered since 1983

 EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC Archives
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

542

1973 elevator 

tower removed

Window openings 

reinstated

New double doors at stairs

New double doors at stairs

New circulation 

and services core

Elevator car 

removed

N

Figure 95. Fifth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1989Source:

Elements added/altered since 1983

 EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC Archives
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

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Selective brick 

rebuild and repointing, typ., 1989

Door replaced

Selective brick 

rebuild and repointing, typ., 1989

Window to 

door

Bottom flight of historic fire 

escape removed

Figure 97. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1989Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC ArchivesFigure 96. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1989Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC Archives

Counting 

House

Elements added/altered since 1983

1973 elevator 

tower (behind)

removed
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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544

Figure 98. East Elevation- Mill 6; 1989

Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC Archives

Counting 

House

Figure 99. West Elevation- Mill 6; 1989Source:

Elements added/altered since 1955

 EYP. Sketch based on 1989 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] DSC Archives

Selective brick rebuild and repointing, typ., 1989

Selective brick rebuild and repointing, typ., 1989

Plywood infill at 

windows

Wooden hood & granite 

steps rebuilt; new double 

doors based on historic 

design installed

Granite steps rebuilt; new double doors based on historic design installed

1973 elevator 

tower (behind)

removed

1973 elevator 

tower removed
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

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Similar repairs were not called out for the east octagonal stair, 

probably because it was decided that the new stair built across from 

it to the east was designed to handle most of the traffic. Nonetheless, 

the entrance to the east stair tower from the exterior was rebuilt 

with a new wooden hood and brackets to match the extant version 

at the west tower with new double paneled wood doors. 

Scope completed 1993:

Phase II included interior fit out of all floors of Mill 6. Since most 

of the east part was taken up by the core completed in Phase I, the 

majority of the program areas found space in the west part. At the 

first floor was a ‘Weave Room’. This was envisioned as a working 

exhibit of a typical mill floor. Weaving looms were brought in from 

other textile mills in the country and installed in this space. Design 

drawings for this work were prepared by Flansburgh Associates in 

November, 1986, and they show the location and installation details 

for the various machines. The majority of the interior fit out scope 

is documented on a set of record drawings prepared by Flansburgh 

Associates and dated March 1993. This set shows that the first floor 

was meant to have two entrances – one at the west octagonal stair 

tower and the other at the 1917 elevator tower further east. New 

doors were provided at the 1917 elevator tower to create a new entry 

vestibule at the first floor leading directly into the elevator lobby. 

An exterior accessible ramp and set of stairs built in granite and 

brick were also added at this entrance. At the other end, the west 

tower entrance led to a reception/ orientation space in the historic 

blacksmith shop area (with the brick vaulted ceilings above). A 

new stair was added directly east of this space. Connecting floors 

1 through 3 this stair was likely added to accommodate the larger 

occupancy on the first three floors of the building. The orientation 

area led to an observation space which provided access to the 

Photo 79. View of new internal stair from floors 1-3 inserted in west part 

of Mill 6 in 1989, Photo taken 2016

Source: EYP

Photo 78. Entry ramp and steps 

built in 1993 at the historic 1917 

elevator tower, photo taken 2016

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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Photo 80. Weave Room at first floor of Mill 6 , c. 1993

Source: Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-mills-museum/
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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547

Photo 81. Curved stair connecting floors 1 and 2 of the museum located directly east of the 

arched masonry partition added in 1989, photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

548

weave room through an aisle with railings on both sides. The entire 

floor was provided with a new wood floor over the concrete slab 

on concrete beams over crawl space. At the other end of the weave 

room was a new curved stair going up to the second floor directly 

east of the arched masonry partition. The space behind this was 

finished for exhibit gallery use and was accessed both from the 

weave room and the main building lobby. 

In terms of interior finishes care was taken as much as possible 

to avoid covering of historic surfaces with new materials. New 

partitions were held away from the exterior walls and interior 

columns as much as possible. The un-plastered brick surface at the 

inside face of the exterior walls was retained and simply painted, as 

it had been historically. A bi-color scheme was chosen for the first 

and second floor, with the divide between the two colors happening 

roughly at the wainscot level. The upper half of the walls was always 

white. Walls at floors 3-5 were painted all white. The brick window 

jambs and stools, the cast iron columns, the underside of the floor 

deck above and the exposed timber beams were all painted white. 

All new pipes and conduits along the ceiling were also painted 

white with the exception of the round mechanical ducts that have a 

silver/gray metallic finish.

Photo 82. Theater located on floor 2 of the museum, added in 

1989; photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP

Photo 83. View of corridor along exterior 

wall on floor 2 of the museum, built in 

1989; photo taken 2016. Note the brick piers 

between windows, the bi-color wall paint 

scheme and the dark painted ceilings and 

systems above.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

549

Second, Third and Fourth Floors:

Scope completed 1989:

At the second, third and fourth floors, common changes in the work 

completed in 1989 included the addition of brick pier extensions at 

the exterior walls between the windows in the west part, selected 

replacement of decayed/ damaged wood beams, strengthening of 

the arched masonry openings in the partition wall and the creation 

of a new core similar to the one at the first floor. New metal double 

doors were also provided at the openings connecting the two 

historic octagonal stair towers to the floors at each level. At the 

Photo 84. Exhibit space at west end of Mill 6 on 

floor 2, built in 1989; photo taken 2016. Note the 

vaulted ceiling and cast iron columns.

Source: EYP

Photo 85. Exhibit space directly east of the space 

in Photo 80, at west end of Mill 6 on floor 2, built in 

1989; photo taken 2016. Note the dropped ceiling 

and cast iron columns.

Source: EYP

Photo 86. View from lobby looking west at west 

wing of Mill 6 on floor 3, general layout from 1989; 

photo taken 2016. 

Source: EYP

Photo 87. Lunch room on floor 4, built in 1989; photo 

taken 2016. Note the dropped ceiling and cast iron 

columns.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

550

Photo 88. View of third floor looking south , c. 1993. Note arched masonry partition on right with one arch infilled; double-height opening created in 

the floor above and new connecting stair between floor 3 and 4 added in 1993.Source: Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-mills-museum/
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

551

Photo 89. View of third floor looking north , c. 1993. Note double-height opening created in the floor above 

and new connecting stair between floor 3 and 4 added in 1993.

Source: Flansburgh Architects, http://flansburgh.com/projects/boott-cotton-mills-museum/
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

552

Figure 101. Second Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993

Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP Archives

N

Figure 100. First Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP Archives

Trolley Maintenance Facility Open to below

Doors added

Window installed

Windows 

installed (3)

Entry ramp and 

steps built

Windows 

installed (4)

Louver 

installed (1)

Windows to receive reflective film and 

fabric backed panels at exhibit areas

Storage & 

Dressing rooms

Exhibit

Weave Room

Reception

Stair 

added

Stair 

added

Exhibit

Exhibit

Exhibit Theater Exhibit

Opening created in 

masonry wall

Mech

Elec

Events 

Center; 

stepped 

seating

Stair 

added

Stair 

added

LobbyLobby

Entry vestibule created in 1917 elevator 

tower; new doors, windows & granite 

lintels & steps installed

Elements added/altered since 1989
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

553

Windows 

installed (5)

Windows 

installed (5)

Stair 

added

Stair 

added Stair 

Stair 

added

added

Boiler

Storage

Workshop

Workshop

Workshop Workshop

Wkshp

Wkshp

Louver 

installed

Wkshp

Artifacts Artifacts

Wkshp

Copy/

Supply

Temp 

Teachers

Conf

Conf

Off

Offices

Textile 

Machine 

Shop

Exhibit/

Orientation

Arched opening infilled 

with wood partition

Arched openings (2) 

infilled with glazed 

partitions

Exhibit

Lobby

Lobby

AV

Mech

Storage

Lunch Room Open Lowell Historic 

Society

Library Eastern 

Archaeological 

Field Labs

Offices

Offices

Off Off

Copy

N

Figure 102. Third Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP ArchivesFigure103. Fourth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993Source:

Elements added/altered since 1989

 EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP Archives
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

554N

Figure 104. Fifth Floor - Mill 6; c. 1993Source:

Elements added/altered since 1989

 EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP Archives

Stair 

added

Windows 

installed (5)

Louver installed

Conf

Conf Folklife 

Center

Folklife 

House

Conf

Conf

Lobby

Kitchen Off Offices Paper Lab

Cons. 

Lab

Micros. 

Lab

Storage

Storage

Off Video

Off

Seasonal 

work area

Interpretation 

work area
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

555

Window to 

door

Window 

installed

Windows installed

Brick rebuilt/repaired 

around windows

Louver 

installed

Window 

installed

Figure 106. South Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1993Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP ArchivesFigure 105. North Elevation- Mill 6; c. 1993Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP Archives

Counting 

House

Elements added/altered since 1989

Downspouts removed

Downspouts removed, typ.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

556

Figure 107. East Elevation- Mill 6; 1993

Source: EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP Archives

Counting 

House New 

entrance 

Windows 

installed

created

Figure 108. West Elevation- Mill 6; 1993Source:

Elements added/altered since 1955

 EYP. Sketch based on 1993 as-built drawings- Flansburgh Associates, LNHP Archives

Louvers 

installed

Louver 

installed

Windows 

installed
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

557

second floor, three openings in the easternmost wall looking into 

the coal pocket area, were infilled with masonry.

Scope completed 1993:

The second floor housed additional museum exhibit space with 

a small theater in a portion of it. Since natural light needed to be 

blocked in the auditorium and exhibit area, fabric wrapped panels 

(grey on the inside, black to the outside) are attached to all the 

window frames. All the ceilings and equipment attached to it was 

painted black in this area. There are two spaces on the second floor 

that have dropped ceilings with 2x2 acoustic tiles –a portion of the 

auditorium and a portion of the exhibit gallery directly east of the 

internal west egress stair that extends from floor 1 to floor 3. An 

events center with stepped seating was created behind the new 

curved stair on the second floor.

The third floor was designed to have space for ephemera storage on 

the west end while the rest of the floorplate accommodated spaces 

for the Tsongas Industrial History Center (TIHC) - an educational 

program for school children designed around the industrial history 

of Lowell. This comprised of various workshops/classrooms, 

exhibit areas and staff offices. A new straight-run stair was inserted 

in the east part and communicated with a lunch room on the fourth 

floor. Two historic timber beams were cut to make way for the stair. 

Directly to the west of this new stair, the floor was removed from 

the first five bays north of the south wall creating a double height 

space in this area. 

Photo 90. View of connecting stair 

between floors 4 and 5, constructed 

1993, photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP

Photos 91 & 92. View of material conservation labs at floor 5 of Mill 6, constructed 1993, photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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558

The fourth floor housed a lunch room for students in the education 

program, in the corner of the L-shaped floor plan. This was directly 

east of the new connecting stair and the double height opening 

creating in the floor, spanning five structural bays and extending 

west from the stair up to the arched masonry wall. The arched 

openings were in-filled with glazed partitions. The space directly 

west was occupied by the Lowell Historical Society. The remainder 

of the floorplan was utilized as offices, field labs and a library 

for the regional NPS archaeology department. A connecting stair 

between the fourth and fifth floors was located in the west part. The 

stair was designed to fit within a column bay, thus avoiding any 

major structural modifications.

Fifth Floor:

Scope completed 1989:

The1989 repairs at the fifth floor differed from those at the lower 

levels in that no brick pier extensions were added here. Also, the 

arched masonry openings at the brick partition wall had already 

been modified earlier in 1929 by the removal of the intervening 

brick pier and the addition of an I-beam supported by metal 

columns. This condition was retained in the 1989 work with repairs 

to the brick and structure.

Scope completed 1993:

The 1993 fit-out created a conference room and offices for seasonal 

Park staff adjacent to the lobby core area. The space at the corner of 

the L-shaped plan was occupied by additional offices for the LNHP 

Interpretation staff, with a large conference room directly west of 

it. The west wing of Mill 6 was taken up by two entities- east part 

housed the folk-life center and related offices and equipment rooms; 

while the west part was occupied by NPS regional staff connected 

to the fourth floor by the new connecting stair inserted in this area. 

This area housed offices and labs for material conservation and 

related equipment rooms.

Roof:

Scope completed 1989:

Although the roof had been completely replaced in 1981, it 

was removed again in order to make structural improvements 

to the deck and structural members and to accommodate new 

penetrations necessitated by the new systems. New insulation 

and single ply roofing membrane was installed once the structural 

Photos 93. View of north facade of 

Mill 6, 2016.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

559

repairs were done. Downspouts from the façade were removed to 

enable brick work around and were not re-installed. The exterior 

leaders were either not reinstalled in 89 or 93. By 1993 at the latest 

(and probably by 89) the roof drainage had been changed to a new 

system that collected the runoff by wing at the ceiling and routed it 

horizontally to two interior leaders; the east wing at the southeast 

corner of the building and the west wing about midway down its 

length against the south wall. Apparently they drain directly into 

the Eastern Canal beneath the 1st floor. No work was done at the 

roofs of the two stair towers and the 1917 elevator tower. 

Scope completed 1993:

The work completed in 1993 was limited to flashing around new 

vents and mechanical equipment that was added post 1989.

North Elevation:

Scope completed 1989:

The elevations had already been partially restored in 1981- additional 

work was completed by 1989. This included partial repointing of 

areas of the façade, removal of some remaining mechanical flues, 

electrical conduits and other non-historic hardware/ devices from 

the brick walls. The area on the first floor directly west of the 1917 

elevator tower which had been modified with an overhead door 

was called out for restoration in Phase I but it appears that this work 

was actually completed in 1993 as part of Phase II. Once the 1973 

elevator tower was removed, window infills at the north façade of 

the 1917 tower were removed and closed with temporary board 

infill in anticipation of new windows in Phase II. The two metal 

fire escapes on this façade were retained as historic ornamental 

features, and those portions of them between ground level and the 

second floor level were removed to prevent exterior access.. A new 

door was added in an existing window opening at the north wall 

of the east wing. 

Scope completed 1993:

Spot repointing, brick cleaning and minor brick repairs were 

completed in some additional areas by 1993 including rebuilding 

of the three window openings directly west of the 1917 elevator 

tower. Two windows, on the third and fifth floors on the north 

wall of the east wing (as indicated on Fig. 105), were replaced with 

metal louvers. Windows that were provided with temporary infills 

in Phase I (at the 1917 elevator tower) were fitted with new wood 

windows. Two additional windows on the north wall of the east 

wing at the first floor were converted to door openings.

Photos 94. View of north facade 

of east wing of Mill 6, 2016. Note 

the three doors that were added at 

floor 1 between 1989-1993.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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560

South Elevation:

Scope completed 1989:

Repairs at the south façade were similar to those on the north with 

regards to repointing and repair of brickwork. The roll-up door at 

the previous coal pocket and future trolley maintenance area was 

replaced.

Scope completed 1993:

Spot repointing, brick cleaning and minor brick repairs were 

completed in some additional areas by 1993. A blocked up window 

(third from the east on the first floor) was provided with new wood 

frame and sash. 

Photos 95. View of east facade of Mill 6, 2016. Note the window openings converted 

to louvers in 1993.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

561

East Elevation:

Scope completed 1989:

In addition to masonry repairs, another change at the east elevation 

was the removal of grafiitti from the first floor.

Scope completed 1993:

Spot repointing, brick cleaning and minor brick repairs were 

completed in some additional areas by 1993. Double doors were 

installed at the roof level at the two window openings in the east 

wall of the 1917 elevator tower to provide access to the building 

roof. 

Two windows, as indicated on Fig. 107, at the fourth floor were 

entirely removed to be replaced with metal louvers, and at the 

second window from the south on the second floor, some of the 

panes were removed to install a small louver.

West Elevation:

Scope completed 1989:

The west elevation saw a major improvement in appearance at the 

end of Phase I in 1989, owing to the removal of the 1973 elevator 

tower and machine room. The window openings obscured by it 

were restored and provided with a temporary infill. The entry on 

the west face of the east stair was restored by the construction of 

a new wood hood and brackets that matched the extant historic 

version on the west tower. Double doors were installed at both the 

tower entrances in a paneled design that was more sympathetic to 

their historic appearance. New granite steps were provided at both 

stair tower entrances.

Scope completed 1993:

Spot repointing, brick cleaning and minor brick repairs were 

completed in some additional areas by 1993. New windows were 

installed in the openings that had been fitted with temporary infills 

in Phase I at the location of the removed 1973 elevator tower and 

at all openings of the 1917 elevator tower. A new entry vestibule 

was created at the first floor of the 1917 tower by enlarging and 

installing new doors with new granite lintels in existing window 

opening locations. 

Photos 96. New entry at 1917 

elevator tower created in 1993, 

photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

562

System Improvements:

A large part of the 1989 and 1993 renovation was the complete 

replacement of all building systems- mechanical, electrical, 

plumbing, fire protection and telecommunications. Most of the 

mechanical ductwork in Mill 6 was left exposed other than at 

locations indicated in the narrative above. The ductwork was left 

unpainted (with a silver/sheet metal finish) except on the second 

floor of the museum exhibit area where it was painted black similar 

to the ceiling and all other systems in this area. Other visible impacts 

of the new system improvements were fire sprinklers, fire alarms, 

light fixtures, electrical outlets and plumbing pipes and vents. The 

1989 and 1993 as-built drawings by Flansburgh Associates, filed at 

both DSC and the LNHP should be referenced for more details of 

the systems design and layout.

Photos 97. Bookstore at first floor of Mill 6 - relocated 

to this space in 2007. Prior location was the second 

floor of the Counting House.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

563

1994-2016:

The exterior and interior of Mill 6 has not changed appreciably 

since the 1993 renovation. The majority of changes have focused on 

interior re-organization of programmatic functions, addition and/

or alteration of mechanical, electrical and IT systems, structural 

repairs to the penstock under Mill 6 and the more recent phased 

replacement of the deteriorated 1981 windows. 

Following is a summary of changes that have happened since 1993.

First Floor:

The first floor has remained largely unchanged, with the weave 

room exhibit still occupying the majority of the floorplate as 

designed in 1993. The bookstore/ museum store was relocated 

from the second floor of the Counting House in early 2007 to the 

west end of the first floor of Mill 6. This space was earlier used as 

Photos 98. Typical 1981 wood window at Mill 6

Source: EYP

Photos 99. Typical 2013-2016 custom replacement 

aluminum window with true divided lights and 

integral storm panel, at Mill 6

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

564

Figure 110. Second Floor - Mill 6; 2016

Source: EYP. 

N

Figure 109. First Floor - Mill 6; 2016Source: EYP. 

New partitions to 

create storage area 

for Weave Room

Bookstore moved 

here from prior 

location in Counting 

House

Elements added/altered since 1993
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

565

MEP

Boiler Room moved 

to Mill 7 link, 2001

Door added, 2001

Door added, 2001

Lunch

Kit.

Partitions 

added

Partitions 

added

Partitions 

added

MEP

Off

Workshop

Off Off

OffOff Off Locker Rm Off

Off

Off Off

Compressed 

shelving added

Elec

Offices

Workshop retroffited 

for wet use, 1995 Figure 111. Third Floor - Mill 6; 2016 Source: EYP. 

Figure 112. Fourth Floor - Mill 6; 2016Source:

Elements added/altered since 1993

 EYP. 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

566N

Figure 113. Fifth Floor - Mill 6; 2016Source:

Elements added/altered since 1989

 EYP. 

Door added, 2001

IT

Workshop Workshop Workshop

Workshop

Off

Off

Storage

Off

IT

Offices Plan 

Rm

Plan 

Rm Kit.

Workshop
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

567

Louver 

installed

Windows replaced with custom 

aluminum replicas

Windows replaced with custom 

aluminum replicas

Figure 115. South Elevation- Mill 6; 2016Source: EYP.Figure 114. North Elevation- Mill 6; 2016Source: EYP. 

Counting 

House

Elements added/altered since 1993
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

568

Figure 116. East Elevation- Mill 6; 2016

Source: EYP. 

Counting 

House

Figure 117. West Elevation- Mill 6; 2016Source:

Elements added/altered since 1955

 EYP. 

Windows replaced 

with custom aluminum 

replicas
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

569

a reception/ orientation area. Another minor change includes the 

addition of partitions to create a storage room at the exhibit room 

on the east end of Mill 6 (east of the curved stair to floor 2). The first 

floor windows on the south and west facade have recently been 

replaced with custom aluminum true-divided light replications 

with an integrated storm panel. These are designed to closely match 

the original wood windows at Mill 6 and the 1981 replications. This 

window replacement is being executed as part of a phased projectthe first phase was completed in 2013 and involved replacement of 

62 windows; the second phase is expected to be completed in 2016 

and involves replacement of 42 additional windows. All of these 

are the typical 12/12 windows at Mill 6. 

Second Floor: 

While the second floor has not seen any major changes in physical 

layout, there appear to have been some changes in mechanical 

distribution and equipment, in and around Room 228 (the 

mechanical room housed in the historic 1917 elevator tower). The 

north, south and west facade windows on the second floor (as 

indicated on Figs 114-117) have been replaced with aluminum 

versions as described in the discussion on the first floor, as part of 

a phased project executed in 2013 and 2016. 

Third Floor: 

In 1995, one of the workshops/classrooms (Room 340) on the third 

floor was fitted with a wet floor and sinks to better accommodate the 

Photos 100. Room 340 - Workshop converted to wet use in 1995. Photo 

taken 2016

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

570

new program activities. In 1997 additional mechanical ventilation 

was provided to spaces on the third, fourth and fifth floors. This 

involved installing new roof-top equipment and some new 

ductwork at each floor. Joists were cut where required to enable 

new duct penetrations. 

Mill #7 Link Building: 

In 1995, the five story link building between the north wing of Mill 

#6 and Mill #7, which encompassed the northern end of the coal 

pocket was acquired by the Park from the then owners of the rest of 

the Boott Mill complex, Historic Boott Mills, Inc. The Park continued 

the use of the Link building portion of the coal pocket as part of the 

trolley maintenance facility and then extended its occupancy to the 

three floors above the coal pocket and began using those spaces for 

storage and maintenance functions supporting the uses of Boott #6 

and other Park programs In 2001, the boiler room from Room 345 

in Mill 6 was relocated to the link space. A fire escape stair was also 

added at this time in the Mill 7 link, internally on floors 3, 4 and 5, 

and externally on floors 1 and 2 (to avoid the trolley barn facility). 

Connecting doors to the Mill 7 link were added in the north wall of 

Mill 6 at floors 3, 4 and 5.

Sometime during this period, the area directly east of the curatorial 

space and identified as 'Textile Machine Shop' on the 1993 plans 

was reprogrammed to be used as offices by the curatorial staff - 

some partitions were added to create additional private offices. 

Photos 101 and 102. Enclosed offices added on fourth floor post 1993.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

571

Two TIHC workshops lining the north wall of Mill 6 were 

subdivided by insertion of partitions are re-used as private offices. 

Low-height partitions were also added in the space directly south 

of the elevator lobby to enable use as an additional workshop area.

Fourth Floor: 

The changes on the fourth floor are largely at the open office areas 

of the NPS regional staff. Three enclosed offices were added, along 

with new open office workstations at various locations. Compressed 

shelving was installed at the east end of the NPS regional office 

space (roughly in the middle of the west wing floorplate of Mill 6). 

None of the new partitions extend all the way up to the underside 

of slab to avoid interference with existing systems. A partition was 

added at the north end of the building to create a new lunch room 

and staff kitchen, along with the addition of a door to the Mill 7 link 

space.

Fifth Floor: 

Changes on the fifth floor have also been limited to programmatic 

switches and addition of partitions. The Tsongas Industrial History 

Photo 103. New partition (not 

extending all the way to underside 

of structure) at left of picture, 

added post 1993 at fifth floor to 

create new TIHC workshops; 

photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP

Photo 104. PV arrays and solar hydronic system added at roof of Mill 6 in 2007 and 2010 ; photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

572

Center expanded to include workshop/classroom space on the 

fifth floor at the location of the earlier Folklife Center. Partitions 

were added in this space to create five new workshops. Similar to 

the fourth floor, none of the new partitions extend all the way up to 

the underside of slab to avoid interference with existing systems. A 

large storage room at the east end of the NPS regional office space 

was subdivided with new partitions to create some office space, a 

staff kitchen and storage areas.

Roof: 

In 1997, two changes impacted the roof at Mill 6. First, a completely 

new single-ply membrane roof was installed to replace the existing 

membrane roof; and second, new roof-top mechanical equipment 

was installed to provide additional ventilation to floors 3, 4 and 5 

of Mill 6. The roof replacement project included replacement of all 

existing flashing but did not impact the existing cornice or the roof 

structure.

In 2007, a 96-panel photo-voltaic system was added to the roof, 

providing 22 KW power on four circuits. The system provides 

direct current electrical power for lighting at Mill 6. In 2010, A solar 

array hydronic system was also installed on the roof, providing 

350,000 Btu. This system supplements the main heating and 

cooling absorption chiller operation. At this writing, the system 

is non-functioning due to mechanical failure. Both the 2007 and 

2010 installations are not visible from the ground except for the 

southerly row of the solar hydronic array, which does not become 

visible south of the building until about 250 feet from the façade.

Other changes: 

In 2004, major structural distress was noted in the penstock gallery 

under the south wall of Mill 6 at the canal, with evidence of failed 

granite piers and brick piers caused by scour eroded soil and 

subsequent settlement of foundation blocks subsided footings. 

Another concrete column was displaying significant erosion at the 

head. The proposed design suggested insertion of new concrete 

footings, galvanized steel column replacement of failed granite 

posts, repair of the eroded concrete pier and reconstruction of the 

fallen brick piers. The work was actually executed in 2006 and also 

included insertion of by the canal owner of a new steel trashrack 

over the penstock gallery entrance. 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

573 Figure 118. Details of aluminum window used for Phase I and Phase II of the Window Replacement Project at Mill 6, drawing dated 9/15/2015 Source: LNHP 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

574
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

575

II. Tabulated Building Chronology

Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1810 Lowell visits England

Francis Cabot Lowell visited England, observed their

factories & machinery HSR, p.7

1813 Mill in Waltham

Lowell teamed up with engineer Paul Moody & founded

the Boston Manufacturing Company (BMC) and built the

first integrated textile factory  in Waltham. HSR, p.7

1821 Pawtucket Falls

Paul Moody discovered the Pawtucket Falls of the

Merrimack River in East Chelmsford. HSR, p.9

1826 Birth of Lowell Town of Lowell was incorporated HSR, p.43

1835

Founding of Boott

Mills

Boott Cotton Mills founded by John Amory Lowell, Abbott

Lawrence, Nathan Appleton and other Boston investors.

Named in honor of Kirk Boott, the first agent of the

Merrimack Manufacturing Company and of the Proprietors

of the Locks and Canals. HSR, p.11

1835 Lowell Railroad Initiation of service by the Boston and Lowell Railroad HSR, p.49

1836 Eastern Canal Eastern Canal, built for Boott Cotton Mills was completed. HSR, p.46

1836 Mills 1 and 2 Mills 1 & 2 were built HSR, p.56

1836‐1839 Counting House built CH

Counting House or office of the Boott Cotton Mills was

built, concurrently with the first four mill structures, and

most likely in 1836, so that it would be operrative when

Mills 1 & 2 went into production that June. HSR, p.77

1836‐1839 Boott Mills housing First unit of Boott Mill housing constructed HSR, p.58

1837 Kirk Boott Kirk Boott dies HSR, p.11

1839 Penstock built Boott penstock constructed to improve flow of water HSR, p.46

1839 Mills 3 and 4 Mills 3 & 4 were constructed HSR, p.56

1847‐48 Mill 5 Mill 5 was constructed HSR, p.58

1849 Gas lighting

Lowell Gas Company was established, providing mill agents

the opportunity to convert from oil lamps to wall mounted

or suspended gas lighting. HSR, p.53

1850s Bituminous materials

Introduction of modern bituminous materials makes

shallow pitched roofs practical for mills HSR, p.34

1857 Turbine power Four original Boott Mills were converted to turbine power HSR, p.61

1871‐1904 Early changes to CH CH

No documented changes to the CH‐ due to file at Locks &

Canals being misplaced. HSR, p.162

1871‐72 M6 M6 Mill 6 was built HSR, p.60

1871 CH windows blocked CH

The 2 easternmost windows on the north façade were

infilled with brick due to construction of Mill 6 stair tower

directly north of it

1873

Steam power

introduced

Steam power was introduced to supplement the water

powered turbine HSR, p.62
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

576

Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1876‐78 Mill 7 and connector M6

Mill 7 was built  & connector b/w 6 & 7 was built. This

connector was 2 stories high & access was limited to a

door(s) at the second level, since passage to the coal

pocket ran through the lower level. All eveidence of this

was lost in the coal pocket expansion of 1927‐28. HSR, p. 60, p.189

1882 Connectors M6

Second, third & fourth floors of the mill (at north wall ‐east

section) were connected by a connector to 'dressing mill' &

Boiler House beyond. There were 'tinned' doors at this

location. Two window openings in the easternmost bay of

the north wall were converted to doors to serve the

connector @ 3rd & 4th floors. HSR, p. 189

1886 Connector expansion M6

Connector b/w Mill 6 & 7 raised to five stories from 2

stories (original) HSR, p. 60

1889‐1911 Enclosed bridges M6

Sometime during this period, enclosed bridges were added

to the west side of the 5‐story connector b/w 6 & 7. To

facilitate access, windows in the 3rd bay west of Bridge

street on the 2nd, 3rd & 4th floors were converted to

doors. HSR, p. 189

1889‐1928 CH roof skylights CH

Four flat skylights were installed at the front edge of the

south roof just west of Mill 6 HSR, p. 312

1897 Insurance Dwg CH,M6

Provides a bird's eye illustration of the complex,includes

information about  building levels and materials.

DSC file‐

LOWE_475_25910_[id9

907]

1901 Insurance Dwg CH,M6

Provides a bird's eye illustration of the complex,includes

information about  building levels and materials.

DSC files:

LOWE_475_25911_[id3

8975]

LOWE_475_25911_[id3

8988]

1905

Boott Cotton Mills to

Boott Mills

CH,

M6

Boott Cotton Mills closed & the company was reorganized

as 'Boott Mills' ‐ producing 'coarse' goods‐ toweling,

corduroy; Frederick A. Flather began as treasurer at Boott

DSC file‐

LOWE_475_129153_[id

34816]

1905‐1954

Flather appointed

Treasurer Flather family overtakes operation of Boott Mills HSR, p. 197

1906‐1907 Consultant report

M6,

CH

Lockwood Greene & Company, inspected the mill buildings

& machinery & presented a very scathing report‐ old,

narrow buildings not suited for a 'modern' mill. HSR, p.201

1906 Machinery Plans M6

Plans showing location/ type of machinery (as running

before 1906)

DSC file‐

LOWE_475_25913_[id6

4571]

1906 Machinery Plans M6 Proposed motor driven machinery plans

DSC file‐

LOWE_475_25914_[id1

43986]

1906 Shops moved M6

The Carpenter, Blacksmith, Paint & Machine & Wood

shops were moved from Mill 6 to other locations in the

Boott complex HSR, p. 229
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

577

Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1906 M6 production M6

Mill 6 started the process of becoming a Fine Mill

producing the lighter weight yarns & fabrics, including

corduroy. HSR, p. 229

1906 CH rooms CH

Improvements to office space with introduction of a

cotton sample room to the Counting House HSR, p. 311

1907 Humidifiers M6

Humidifiers from the American Moistening Company were

installed in 6 HSR, p. 231

1908 Lighting M6

Use of gas lighting (supplemented by electric) continues at

Mill 6 HSR, p.185

1910‐1930

New programmatic

layout

M6

Mill 6:

5th floor‐Ring Spinning

4th floor‐ Ring & mule spinning

3rd floor‐ mule spinning & weaving

2nd‐ recreation room abutted counting house

1st‐ repair shop next to CH & coal pocket

CH:

Vacant attic

2nd‐ office rooms

1st‐ Supplies & belt shop HSR, p. 203

1912

Steam heating

replaced Steam heating system was replaced HSR, p. 324

1914 Handrails installed M6 Metal pipe railings were added in the octagonal stairs HSR p. 323

1916 Consultant report M6

Another audit was performed by Valentine. Buildings in

poor condition‐ dim lighting. Machines arranged such that

they blocked the windows. Artificial lighting hung too

high/low & with inadequate shades as to cause glare. HSR p. 245

1916 Hoists removed M6

Hoists in the octagonal stairway existed only in one of the

staircases by this time (most probably east stair). It was

removed and all the wall openings reduced to 5'‐6" and by

installation of a steel lintel, and the wall bricked in, flush

with the tower side, indented at the mill side 12". HSR, p. 323

1917 Electrification

M6,

CH Boott Mills electrification was completed. HSR, p. 327

1917 Elevator tower M6

Construction of 6 story freight elevator tower. Led to

blocking of all windows in the two southernmost bays of

the east wing  and the two eastern bays of the west wing.

Access from exterior was provided by an overhead Door in

the west wall that slid on vertical tracks. Door was served

by a concrete loading dock. HSR, p. 314; 318

1920

Fire escape on north

façade M6

West Wing‐‐2nd floor, seventh bay from west‐‐window

was converted to door and led down a fire escape on the

outside of the building to the ground below. This used to

be a textile lab & display room. HSR, p. 314

1922 CH footbridge CH Footbridge to Counting House repaired HSR, p. 332

1924 CH footbridge CH Footbridge to Counting House re‐built HSR, p. 332

1925 Cracks in west tower M6

C.T. Main Co. in their structural assessment note that the

west tower continues to show cracks which open up after

each pointing & painting. HSR, p. 313
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

578

Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1926

Structural report &

repairs M6

Due to reported 'vibrations' in Building 6, Charles T. Main

& Company Engineers was asked to prepare a survey of

structural conditions. Their report cites the need for

repointing, replacement of a stone lintel and the need for

underpinning of part of the wall along the canal. Based on

this, concrete piers & lally columns were placed below

lintels in the penstock. HSR, p. 313

c. 1927 Downspouts installed M6

Exterior downspouts installed to supplement interior

drainage system.

1927

Structural re‐

inspection M6 Still some vibration reported in Mill 6 HSR, p. 313

1927 Trolley tracks

Trolley tracks were present in the yard atleast up to 1927,

maybe even a little later HSR, p. 225

1927‐1928 Coal Pocket enlarged M6

Coal Pocket entrance at Mill 6 was widened to the west to

14' and raised to a height of 23'4". This required the

elimination of a window in the first floor and three

windows at the second floor. Rolling steel door was

installed at entrance HSR, p. 60; p. 316

pre‐1928 Shutters removed CH

Wooden lovuvered shutters from second floor south

elevation were removed Historic photos

pre‐1929

Window openings

added CH

Two window openings, one each at first and second floor

of the Couting House were added

Historic photos; 1936

elevations

1928 Shipping Shed' M6

25' x 16' concrete block shipping shed was appended to the

west wall of the 1917 elevator tower. It had a shallow shed

roof pitched toward Building #6, with upper section of

west & north walls consisting of steel industrial sash. Roof

was surmounted by a single sawtooth monitor on an east

west axis. HSR, p. 331

1928 Structural study M6

Study by John A. Stevens, & repairs based on study

included bolting, stiffening and strengthening steel plates

on wooden beams. HSR, p. 314

1928 Towers repair M6

Upper deck of the towers was stated to be rapidly

deteriorating.

West Tower: New tie rods were installed at S wall, 3 & 4

floors.

East Tower: New tie rods at S & SW walls, 1, 2, & 3 floors.

Also, large 8" x 16" plates to secure additional ties were

placed at 5th floor window heads. HSR, p. 317

1929

Repair of arched

interior masonry wall M6

Stevens expressed concern about this wall‐ there were

some cracks at various levels. Repairs were subsequently

done at the fifth floor‐ this involved removal of a brick pier

& tie rods & replacement with a pair of 12" I‐beams,

supported by 5 5/8" lally columns. HSR, p. 322

1929 structural repairs M6

West wing‐ 5th floor: Application of plates and angle irons

to brace all columns where they were connected with roof

beams. HSR, p. 320

1930 CH entrance at bridge CH

Pre‐1930 this entrance was protected with a flared metal

hood  and had a wood door with a single glass upper panel.

In 1930, the hood was removed, opening altered and new

door installed HSR, p.311
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

579

Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1930

Footbridge to Mill 7

built CH

3rd floor‐Northmost wall‐3rd window from east‐changed

from window to door to provide access to a footbridge

built alongside the #6‐#7 connector HSR, p. 321

1932 Power source

Combined use of steam & water power continued till this

time HSR, p.62

1935 Structural study M6

Another study of M6 conducted by CT Main & Co.,

reported 'bulges' in the canal‐side (south) wall of Mill 6.

Deflection of almost 6‐1/8" from plumb was documented

by the dwgs accompanying the report. HSR, p. 403

1936 Flood CH Water entered first floor of Counting House HSR, p. 342

1936 CH renovation CH Un‐executed plans from 1936 for renovation HSR, p. 400; Fig. 22

1937 CH renovation CH

Complete renovation based on plans drawn up in 1937;

new partitions and stairs added HSR, p. 401; Fig. 23

1937

Door/windows

altered CH

North elevation first floor ‐one window converted to door;

2 door openings converted to windows. West elevation

first floor‐ window added; door converted to window HSR, p. 401; Fig. 23

pre‐1937 Structural braces CH

Structural braces were added below the cornice on north

and south façade of CH; new circular/star anchor plates on

first floor south façade 1937 drawings

pre‐1937

Window sash

replaced CH

Second floor north façade‐ sash on four easternmost

windows changed from 6/6 to 1/1 on three windows and

2/2 on one window 1938 drawings

1938 Hurricane CH,M6

A hurricane in 1938 damaged portions of the buildings &

subsequent repairs were made. These included ‐ repair,

painting & new flashings at the cornices, tie‐rods at the CH

& M6 and bracing of roof beams and columns in both east

& west wings on the fifth floor. HSR, p. 405

1938 War production Mill started transition to war production HSR, p. 342

1942 Skylights removed CH Four skylights in the CH roof were removed HSR, p. 402

1944 Reinforcement CH

CH walls & floors were reinforced (especially at the canal

wall, where tie rods were added). HSR, p. 402

1949 Stair reinforcement M6

The spiral stairs in the towers were reinforced due to

sagging. HSR, p. 408

c.1949

Steel supports in

stairs M6 steel supports were added in stairs undated

1950 Stair reinforcement M6 Cement floors laid under all stairs HSR, p. 408

1945 Track M6

Trestle and track filled in to facilitate oil truck deliveries.

Steel diamond plate installed in track area. Rolling door at

entrance replaced HSR, p. 408

pre‐1950 Chimney removed M6 Brick chimney at west end of Mill 6 removed Historic photos

1950

Towers upper floor

removed M6

The Treasurer announced the removal of the sixth floor of

the two stair towers at M6. "to prevent vibration and

sway." HSR, p. 403

pre‐1955 Hoods at CH entrance CH

Simple wood hoods were added to the CH four doors along

the yard side HSR, p. 403

1954, Dec‐10 Mill sold CH,M6

(ODC). All equipment was appraised & sold‐ it is estimated

that everything in Mill #6 went for scrap. HSR, p. 361; p. 415

1955, June‐15 Mill sold CH,M6

ODC sold the complex to the Massachusetts Mohair Plush

Company. HSR, p. 415
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

580

Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1955, June‐13 Windows bricked in M6

In anticipation of 3 new transformers to be installed in the

yard between Mill 1 & Mill 6 , all first floor windows in the

north wall of the east wing were bricked in. HSR, p. 417

1955, July‐Aug

Repairs in prep of

sale M6

Conveyor holes in floors were closed up, all machinery was

removed and the doorways between mill 6 & adjoining

buildings were closed off, CH first floor‐‐  ramped opening

to M6 blocked. HSR, p. 416

1955, July‐22 Mill sold M6

A new ownership group was incorporated under the name

Northern Textiles of Lowell, and they again sold Mill 6 to

the Lowell Realty Corporation HSR, p. 415

1956‐1984 Doors at stairs M6

Many of the interior doors were replaced with fire‐rated

metal clad doors HSR, p. 422

1956‐1976 Tower entries M6

East stair tower‐ hood, door and steps removed, West stair

tower‐ door removed, opening partially infilled Historic photos

1960 CH‐Int renovations CH

Counting House occupied as offices of Locks and canal:

First Floor‐ employment office and rooms along canal wall

removed, concrete block fireproof vault added. Connection

b/w CH & M6 at first floor re‐opened, ramp removed; new

stairs  and new door added here.

Second floor‐ entirely re‐arranged, especially at the east

end where a series of offices, rest rooms and a conference

room were located. Stair to second floor of Mill 6

remained but door was blocked off. HSR, p. 415, 419

1960‐mid Tsongas

Paul Tsongas returned to the city in mid 1960s and was

elected to the Lowell City Council. MP, p. 26

1966

Federal Model Cities

Program

Federal Model Cities Program for urban redevelopment

was established. Model cities had a five‐year plan (1968‐

1972) MP, p.xix

1966‐1978 Mogan campaign

Dr. Patrick J. Mogan campaigned for a revival of Lowell.

Reconceived Lowell as a city‐scale lifelong learning

laboratory. MP, p.19

1971 HSC

Mogan & his collaborators formed the Human Services

Corporation (HSC) to keep federal funds flowing after the

conclusion of the Model Cities time frame. HSC became

the primary vehicle for developing plans for what was

being called an urban cultural park. From 1972 to 1974,

HSC advanced the Park idea.

1972 Bldg sale Mill 6 sold to the Capehart Corporation HSR, p. 415

1973 Boiler installation M6

Boiler was installed in the original blacksmith shop at the

first floor of M6 HSR, p. 418

1973 New freight elevator M6

New freight elevator tower (12' x 13') was added on the

exterior adjacent to the outmoded 1917 elevator. It

extended 6" above the roof line & was built with a

combination of CMU & .  Led to bricking in of the 3rd and

4th bays of the west wall of east wing. A one‐story

machine room was built to the north of the tower‐ 8'9"

side with a flat roof, concrete block walls and a modern

flush door HSR, p. 418, 420
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

581

Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1973

New masonry

partition; boiler room M6

An 8" masonry wall was built in the fireproof (vaulted)

section of M6 on first floor to sub‐divide into 2 spaces;

westernmost room housed boiler

LOWE_475_25003_[id40

295]

1973 Door b/w CH & M6

CH,

M6 Door between these spaces at first floor was blocked off.

LOWE_475_25003_[id40

295]

1973 First Historic District

Lowell’s first historic district was created – the Locks and

Canals Historic District. MP, p. 44

1975 LDFC formed

Another entity was formed: a quasi‐public banking entity

called the Lowell Development & Financial Corporation

(LDFC), through which local banks pooled funds to make

low‐rate loans for local projects. MP, p. 27

1974

Lowell Historic Canal

District Commission

Senate passed the bill establishing the Lowell Historic

Canal District Commission with a budget of $150,000 to

determine whether Lowell warranted being a park. MP, p.46

1974

New access from

loading dock/yard M6

A new masonry opening was created in the west wing,

north wall (west of the 1917 elevator) at first floor to

receive a 10' wide (9' high) overhead door. A pedestrian

fire‐proof door was also installed west of this overhead

door. HSR, p. 419

1974

New overhead door

to coal pocket M6

Another new opening with a fire‐proof door was created in

the west wall of the coal pocket (providing access from

M6) HSR, p. 420

mid‐1970s

Gas explosion in Mill

6 M6

Mill 6 damaged in gas explosion with resulting loss of 455

windows.

LHPC Briefing Paper,

March 18, 1983

1975 Brown Book

US Congress created a federal commission to study

Lowell's prospect for inclusion in the national park system.

Commission's report known as the 'Brown Book' for the

color of the cover

1975 Univ of Lowell

Lowell State College & Lowell Technological Institute

merged in 1975, forming the University of Lowell (now U

Mass Lowell)

1977 LNHP bill

Congressman Tsongas put forward a bill to establish Lowell

National Historical Park.

1978‐June LNHP formed

President Jimmy Carter signed the LNHP legislation. The

park represented a $40 million initial investment by the

federal government. MP, p. 22

LHPC formed

Lowell Historic Preservation Commission formed with Fred

Faust as first Executive Director MP, p. 22

1978 Window M6

West Wing‐‐2nd floor, seventh bay from west‐‐door

converted back to window. HSR, p. 314

1979 M6 sold to Wang M6 Mill 6 sold to the Wang Corporation HSR, p. 415

1979

Lowell Plan, Inc.

formed

Lowell Plan, Inc., a roundtable of business, govt and

community leaders was formed MP, p. 27

1979

NPS expresses

interest in Boott Mills CH,M6

In late 1979, the NPS and LHPC staff forged an agreement

that they would develop a portion of the Boott Cotton

Mills in the heart of the downtown for a high‐profile use to

be identified later MP, p. 58

1980 Wang buys M6 M6

LHPC & city of Lowell urged Wang Laboratories to

purchase Mill #6 from bankrupt Capehart Corporation

LHPC Briefing Paper,

March 18, 1983
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

582

Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1980

Restoration‐Dwgs‐

1980 M6

Design drawings for partial renovation of Mill 6‐‐‐roof

demo & replacement‐ entirely new elastomeric roof,

insulation added, new flashing  ; spot repointing; new

windows, frame repair and replacement (7 sheets)

LOWE_475_25902_[id1

4563]

1981

Window replacement

& repairs

Dwgs showing new wood window sash for Mill #6, with

storm panel & spiral balance system (2 sheets)

LOWE_475_25900_[id1

9242]

1981

Wang Corporation

repairs to Mill 6

Replacement of 400 window sash & repair of window

frames and sills. Window openings were weatherstripped

and jambs rabetted for storm windows that were installed

later; Windows painted based on historic paint analysis

Selective brick masonry re‐building and repointing based

on historic preservation guidelines

New roof and insulation, metal and brick cornice rebuilt at

west wall, historic chimney rebuilt at west end, new

downspouts installed

1982 CBA formed

Community action group‐ The Coalition for a Better Acre

(CBA) formed in 1982 gave traction to LNHP creation MP, p. 27

1983 Early sketches

Shows area around the Counting House and Mill 6. The

footbridge is shown elevated with double doors at the

passageway.

LOWE_475_40014_[id3

6299]

1983 Lowell Historic Board Lowell Historic Board was established MP, p. 117

1983 Mill 6 sold to Park

Wang Labs sold Mill #6 to the LHNP for $200,000‐ price

reflecting the actual capital costs Wang incurred on the

building.

LHPC Briefing Paper,

March 18, 1983; LNHP

Archives

1983 Structural Study

Concept drawings were done for stabilising the structure

of Mill 6 for shear loads‐ new shear walls proposed, new

connections at beams, roofs and building perimeter.

1983 drawings, LNHP

Archives

1983‐Oct Concept Sketch

Early perspective sketches of the proposed reuse show

landscape improvements along the north and south façade

of the Counting House. The  south footbridge is shown

elevated with double doors at the passageway on both the

north and south facades. Sketch, DSC Archives

1984 HAER Documentation CH Existing Conditions set (27 sheets)

LOWE_475_25007_[id4

0632]

1984 HAER Documentation M6 Existing Conditions set (73 sheets)

LOWE_475_25003_[id40

295]

1984

Penstock & Bridge

Assessment CH

Assessment and recommendations for repair of Counting

House sub‐structure

LOWE_475_D49_[id396

85]

1984

Walters becomes

Superintendent

In late 1984, Sandy Walters replaced Burchill as

Superintendent‐ oversaw renovation of Boott Mill No. 6,

the signature building of the park

MP, p. 59

1985

Paint & Mortar

Analysis CH

161 pg. report. Concurrent effort with preparation of 1984

HSR. 307 exterior & interior paint samples & 36 exterior &

interior mortar samples from the Counting House were

analyzed.                                                                                           

LOWE_475_D50_[id414

10]

As‐built drawings,

Moore‐Heder, 1981,

LNHP Archives; HSR, p.

422
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

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Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1985

Cultural development

plan

The city was changing in other ways. Local artists, business

chiefs, museum directors, patrons and others joined forces

in 1985 to write the state’s first comprehensive plan for

cultural development.

MP, p. 32

1986 Design drawings

CH,

M6 Comprehensive Design Set‐ CH & #6 (64 sheets)

LOWE_475_25011_[id4

4995]

1986 Design drawings M6

Comprehensive Design Set‐ LG series dwgs (6 sheets)‐ 

machine layout

LOWE_475_41011_[id4

7104]

1986 Design drawings Ch, M6 Comprehensive Design Set‐ CH & Mill 6 (64 sheets)

LOWE_475_25011_[id4

4995]

c. 1986

Tower reconstruction

explored M6

Concept sketches prepared for reconstruction of stair

towers‐ not pursued

LOWE_475_25016_[id1

38687]

1987 Lowell folk festival First Lowell Folk Festival held MP, p. 60

1987

Congress Group

acquires Boott

Complex (Bldgs other

than M6, CH & M7

link)

Congress Group Properties of Boston acquired other mills

within Boott with plans for offices, technology companies

and shops. Congress Group announced that it would spend

$50 million to renovate the complex. Unfortunately,

Congress Group’s progress at the Boott stalled out in the

recession of 1991. MP, p. 66

1988 Trolley M6 Historic trolley line expansion MP, p. 60

1989

Phase I Renovation

complete M6

Included structural repairs and core and shell renovation of

Mill 6.

LOWE_475_25004A_[id

54325]

1989 MCC Mogan Cultural Center established MP, p. 60

1990 Boardinghouse Park Boardinghouse Park built MP, p. 60

1990

Lowell hailed as

success

Historic Preservation magazine praised Lowell as “the

premier rehabilitation model for gritty cities worldwide.” MP, p. 32

1991 Congress Group

Recession stalls Congress Group's plan to renovate Boott

Complex (mills other than M6 and CH) MP, p. 66

1992 Wang bankrupt In 1992 Wang Laboratories declared bankruptcy. MP, p. 24

1992 Boott Mills Museum M6 Boott Mills Museum in Mill 6 opened MP, p. 60

1993

Phase II Renovation

complete

CH,

M6

Included exterior and interior renovation of CH, interior fit‐

out of Mill 6 and various repairs and improvements to

create a multi‐use LNHP complex. LNHP

post‐1993

CH first floor

restrooms CH Restrooms expanded on first floor

LNHP/ current

conditions

1994

M6 Ice Storage

system M6

Mill 6 ice storage system (now abandoned) was added in

basement of Mill 1, in space leased by NPS. LNHP

1995

Historic Landscape

Report CH,M6

Historic Landscape Assessment for Eastern Mill Yard ,

Boott Cotton Mill No. 6' was completed by Olmsted Center

for Landscape Preservation LNHP

1995

TIHC classroom fitted

for wet‐room use M6

Room 340 (third floor, corner of L‐shaped plan) was

converted to wet‐use ‐ 'Power to Production' workshop;

new flooring and drainage added. LNHP, File G00257

1997

Additional ventilation

added M6

New roof top equipment was added to provide additional

mechanical ventilation to spaces on the 3rd, 4th and 5th

floors; joists were cut where required for duct

penetrations in the floors. LNHP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT 

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Year Event Bldg. Description Source/Note

1997 Roof replacement M6

The entire single‐ply roof at Mill 6 was replaced with new

single‐ply roof and new insulation to match existing. New

flashings were provided at all penetrations. Downspouts

on north face were removed. LNHP

2000 LHP formed the Lowell Heritage Partnership (LHP) was formed MP, p. 73

2001

Boiler room re‐

located M6

Boiler Room 345 converted to MEP room and boilers

moved to Room 345C ‐ at north end of Mill 7 link on the

3rd floor LNHP

2001

Fire escape in Mill 7

link M6

Fire escape stair added in Mill 7 link space (functional part

of Mill 6) internally on floors 3, 4 and 5, externally on

floors 1 and 2 to avoid trolley barn facility. LNHP

2004

Administrative

history LNHP

Administrative history of LNHP completed by George O'Har

& Gray Fitzsimons LNHP

2006 Penstock stabilization M6

Turbines 3,4,5 penstock entrance under Mill 6 received

structural repairs to the canal wall and column

replacement LNHP

2007

PV electrical power

system M6

A 96‐panel photo‐voltaic system was added to the roof,

providing 22 KW power on four circuits.  The system

provides direct current electrical power for lighting. LNHP

2007

Museum store

relocated CH,M6

The museum store was relocated from the second floor of

the Counting House to the west end of the first floor of

Mill 6 (in the earlier reception/orientation space). LNHP

2010

PV hydronic system

added M6

A solar array hydronic system was installed on the roof,

providing 350,000 Btu.  The system supplements the main

heating and cooling absorption chiller operation.  At this

writing, the system is non‐functioning due to mechanical

failure. LNHP

2013

Window

Replacement Phase I M6

62 of the typical 12/12 windows on the south and north

façade at first and second floor of Mill 6 were replaced

with custom true‐divided light aluminum windows with

integral storm panel. LNHP

2014 CH‐kitchen CH New kitchen built in west portion of CH at first floor

LNHP/ current

conditions

2015 Penstock under CH CH

The substructure under the CH which forms entrance to

penstock 1 was investigated for structural stability‐

preliminary recommendations include partial rebuilding of

the easternmost arch  that is displaying movement,

rebuilding the failed brick vault and replacement of

deteriorated brick piers with new granite columns.

EYP; PMIS # 162632‐ 

Project A

2016

Window

Replacement Phase II M6

42 of the typical 12/12 windows on the south, north  and

west façade at first and second floor of Mill 6 were

replaced with custom true‐divided light aluminum

windows with integral storm panel. LNHP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT

585

Key:

CH= Counting House

M6= Boott Mill 6

HSR= 1984 Historic Structures Report, Archived copy at LNHP. Reproduced as Chapter 1.2 of this 

document. Page numbers refer to the archived printed copy at LNHP.

MP=Marion, Paul. Mill Power: The Origin and Impact of Lowell National Historical Park. Lanham: 

Rowman and Littlefield, 2014. 

LOWE= Sources preceded by LOWE refer to the document name/id at the Denver Service Center of 

the National Park Service

LNHP= Lowell National Historical Park Archives, 3rd Floor, 115 John St, Lowell, MA 01852

chapter 1.5

Current Physical Description

HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

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1.5 Current Physical Description

This chapter provides a brief description of the current exterior and 

interior features and spaces of the Counting House and Mill 6 at 

the Boott Mills Complex in Lowell National Historical Park. The 

two adjoining structures are located at 115 John St, Lowell, MA 

01852. Please refer to Appendix 1 for plans (with room numbers) 

and elevations of the two buildings.

I. COUNTING HOUSE

The Counting House is a rectangular, 2-story masonry building, 

roughly 100' x 30'. It is situated along the north edge of the Eastern 

Canal, at the east side of the John Street bridge that serves the 

Boott Mill complex. Mill 6 abuts the building directly to the east. 

To the north of the building lies the Boott mill-yard with an 

asphalt sidewalk and concrete paving between the building edge 

and the grassy sections in the middle of the yard.

Exterior Elements

Foundation/Substructure

The Counting House is built partially on the canal penstock 

(Penstock No. 1) entrance underneath. The penstock entrance at this 

location comprises of three barrel vaulted channels with galleries 

on either side. The vaults appear to be constructed of double wythe 

brick masonry and are supported on the short ends by granite 

Photo 105. Canal penstock substructure under 

south wall of Counting House visible during canal 

dewatering, 2015.

Source: EYP

Photo 106. Easternmost arch at the canal penstock 

entrance (visible on the left of photo 105), directly 

under west end of Counting House,visible during 

canal dewatering, 2015.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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arches and along the long ends by granite walls. The walls between 

the vaults are rough-cut ashlar while the retaining wall that forms 

the back and sides of the penstock/ gallery area is random rubble. 

The Counting House sits directly on top of the easternmost vaulted 

channel and the east gallery. 

The east gallery is a roughly 11' wide space extending the length 

of the Counting House along the canal and features trabeated 

construction with solid granite beams and columns. Two columns 

are constructed of brick and a third is cast in concrete. A composite 

steel deck with concrete slab forms the first floor slab of the 

Counting House. This slab ties into the exterior brick walls of the 

structure and rests on the granite penstock substructure below. 

North of the retaining wall, the first floor slab sits directly on grade 

There are interior concrete column footings, and existing masonry 

footings supporting the exterior walls. 

Exterior Walls

The 2-story structure is composed of multi-wythe load bearing 

brick walls roughly 10-1/2" thick. The molded red brick is laid in 

common bond with a header course after every seven stretcher 

courses. Mortar joints are struck flush. The brick walls are 

punctuated by window and door openings on the north, south and 

west facades. Some variation in brick color and texture from the 

rest of the building can be seen around the passageway opening on 

the north facade. 

Photo 107. View of eastern gallery 

under south wall of Counting 

House, visible during canal 

dewatering, 2015.

Source: EYP

Photo 108. North wall of Counting House, 2015.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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A row of circular anchor plates (with an embossed star shaped 

pattern) marks the structural ties at the second floor level on the 

north and south facades. The south wall has some additional ties 

between the window openings and at the first floor slab level. 

One example each of the original diamond anchor plates and the 

subsequent circle anchor plates can be seen on the north and south 

facade. Other items on the brick walls include linear structural 

braces directly underneath the roof cornice on both the north and 

south elevation. These exist (from the west), over the second and 

third windows, over the fifth window and over the seventh, eighth 

and ninth windows on the south facade. At the north facade, these 

braces exist (from the west) over the third and fourth windows, over 

the sixth window and over the eighth, ninth and tenth windows. 

Three metal downspouts are present - all on the north facade. 

The west side of the building has a semi-enclosed passageway that 

was created inside the original building shell. This unconditioned 

two-story space features the original gabled exterior west wall of 

the Counting House on the west, and one bay of the north and south 

facades. A relatively newer brick wall on the east separates the 

passageway from the interior conditioned building volume. While 

most of the original joist/ beam pockets of the second floor slab in 

this space have been filled in, a section has been left exposed as a 

reminder of the slab that existed here. Also visible are the concrete 

columns that were added at the exterior wall for stabilizing the 

building.

Windows

The building facade is punctuated by windows on the north, 

south and west facades. The west facade windows (and one bay 

of the north facade) are at the semi-enclosed unconditioned entry 

Photo 109. Double-height 

pedestrian passageway at west 

end of Counting House, created 

inside the building shell in 1993, 

photo taken 2015.

Source: EYP

Photo 110. South facade of Counting House, 2015.

Source: EYP

Photo 111. Detail of windows at south facade, 

2015.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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592

passageway, so they are not windows in the traditional sense, but 

their appearance is similar to the other windows on the building. 

The fenestration pattern at both the long elevations, north and 

south is not completely regular - windows do not always line up 

on the first and second floors and there is variation in opening sizes 

and light patterns. 

On the south facade, all but two of the eleven windows are 6/6 

wood double hung windows. The westernmost window is a 12-light 

single-sash window and the seventh window from the west is a 

smaller 9-light single-sash window. The second floor windows are 

of three different heights, yet all are 1/1 wood double hung. All 

windows on this facade feature exposed granite lintels and sills. 

On the north facade, the most typical windows are 9/9 wood double 

hung windows. There are deviations from this rule though- on the 

first floor the fourth window from the west is a 2/2 double hung 

window and features a brick row-lock sill and the third window 

from the west has a brick lintel. On the second floor, the second 

and third window from the west are 1/1, and the fourth window 

from the west is a 2/2. All windows (other than those mentioned 

above with brick sill and lintel) have an exposed granite lintel and 

sill. 

Doorways

The pedestrian passageway entry on the west end of the north and 

south facade is a simple masonry opening with a granite lintel and 

no doors. There is a light fixture on either side of it with signage 

over the south entry. On the north facade, there are three identical 

entry doorways into the Counting House. Each opening is framed 

by a granite lintel and protected by a projecting canopy. The canopy 

consists of a gabled wood framed construction with metal flashing 

on the slopes, at the edges of the wood fascia and at the brick 

wall interface. Simple wood brackets support the canopy and are 

attached to the brick wall. There are small light fixtures on either 

side of each opening. The door itself is a metal door with six glazed 

lights. There are granite thresholds at each doorway entrance. 

Roof

The building has a gable roof with slate tiles and a boxed wood 

cornice. A wood gutter is attached to the cornice, only on the north 

facade. The roof is punctuated by two pipe vents, one each on the 

north and south slopes, and an elevator vent on the ridge line at the 

east end. There is a continuous snow-guard on the north facade- on 

the south facade the snow-guard extends only above the pedestrian 

passageway entry. 

Photo 112. Windows at north wall 

of Counting House, 2015.

Source: EYP

Photo 113. Typical doorway at 

north wall of Counting House, 

2015.

Source: EYP
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Interior Elements

First Floor

The rectangular floor-plate of the first floor is accessed by three 

doorways on the north facade. These lead into a two-story lobby 

space that features a stair to the second floor on the west side and 

five exposed wood beams to the east. This floor opening allows a 

view to the second floor of the Counting House which is separated 

from this two-story space by a metal railing. The open stair features 

a similar metal railing and wood steps. 

A continuous row of cylindrical metal columns (roughly 10'-6" 

from the outside of the north exterior wall) support the second 

floor above and are visible in the open lobby at the first floor. Other 

spaces on the first floor include a kitchen on the west end, a store 

and toilets along the south wall and an elevator to the second floor 

on the east end. There are also a set of three steps leading up to 

the first floor of Mill 6 through an opening in the east wall of the 

Counting House. 

The inside face of the exterior walls is painted white. There are 

numerous concrete and brick pilasters at the north and south 

walls that are remnants from various interior arrangements and 

stabilizing efforts at the Counting House. These are also painted 

white. The window openings do not feature any casings or stools 

on the interior. Other features on the wall include various light 

Photo 114. West and south facade of Counting House, 2015. Note the slate roof and wood cornice.

Source: EYP

(Reprinted) Photo 54. Open stair 

to second floor in Counting House 

lobby, 2016

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 

594

fixtures, signs, conduits, and equipment boxes. Most of these items 

are also painted white. The lobby features a brick floor- other areas 

vary from linoleum to tiles. All interior partitions are faced with 

painted gypsum board. 

Second Floor

The second floor of the Counting House is primarily one open 

space that is accessed via the stair from the first floor at the west 

end. It looks down onto the first floor via the floor opening along 

the north facade and features a continuous metal railing along the 

slab edge. An elevator and machine room are situated along the 

east wall, along with a set of steps leading up to the second floor 

of Mill 6. The second floor space functions as a large milt-purpose 

events room. There is a wood counter at the southwest corner, some 

wall shelving and movable furniture in this space. The flooring is 

wood , and the ceiling is exposed underside of the roof truss. All 

the structure and underside of the roof deck is painted white, and 

so are all the conduits and pipes attached to the roof. Two large 

round mechanical ducts run along the length of the second floor 

space - these are left unpainted. 

(Reprinted) Photo 53. Entrance lobby at first floor of Counting House, 2016. Note the double height 

space created in 1993 by removing a section of the second floor slab and re-framing the area with 

new beams and columns.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

595

(Reprinted) Photo 61. Multi-purpose events space at second floor of Counting House, 2016

Source: EYP
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II. MILL 6 

Mill 6 is a roughly L-shaped five-story structure located along 

the north edge of the Eastern Canal. It abuts the 2-story Counting 

House to the west, is bounded by Bridge Street on the west and 

faces the Boott millyard on its north. For ease of description, the 

longer part of the L-shaped plan that extends along the canal 

will be referred to as the west wing and the shorter portion that 

extends along Bridge Street will be referred to as the east wing. 

It is connected to Mill 7 on the north via a five story masonry 

connector. The building features 2 octagonal stair towers- one 

each at the northwest corner of its west and east wings. A third, 

three-sided, six-story tower, (built later in 1917), is present at the 

inside corner of the L-shaped plan, facing the mill yard. 

Exterior Elements

Foundation/Substructure

The foundations at the east, north and west walls of Mill 6 are 

constructed of solid granite blocks. The south foundation of the 

building sits on the north wall of the Eastern Canal, bearing on a 

series of granite capped brick barrel vaults resting on solid granite 

walls that enclose the penstocks running under Mill 6, from the 

third bay from the west end through the nineteenth bay. Individual 

square granite piers support the first floor framing. Additional 

concrete foundations and tie beams were added in 1989-1993 to 

support the new elevator and two interior stairs. There is a small 

crawl space between the first floor framing and the top of grade 

under Mill 6. The entire first floor (with the exception of some 

areas) has a concrete slab on metal deck that rests on the foundation 

structure described above. In 2006, repairs were made to the 

structure supporting the penstock under Mill 6. This included 

replacement of columns and repairs to the canal wall. 

Exterior Walls

The exterior load bearing masonry walls are laid in common or 

American bond, 7:1 (stretchers to header course) using salmon to 

dark red brick. Mortar joints are struck flush. A roughly 15" tall 

granite foundation band is visible above grade on most elevations. 

Based on archival info noted in the 1984 HSR and field measurement 

taken in the 1980's wall thicknesses are 20" at the first two floors, 

and 16" for the third through fifth floors at the west wing; and 23" 

for the first two floors, 20" at the third, and 16" for the fourth and 

fifth in the east wing. The walls are solid multi-wythe masonry. The 

north and south face of the west wing features diamond shaped 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

597

cast iron anchor plates between each window at the second through 

the fifth floor slab. These mark the location on the inside where the 

timber beams supporting the floor are secured by tie bolts through 

the wall. Similar ties and anchor bolts exist at the east wing on the 

east and west face from the second through the fifth floor. Note that 

due to the presence of the two story historic coal pocket space along 

the east facade, the second floor ties are present on the coal pocket 

wall where the beams terminate, and not at the exterior wall. 

At the roof level, the masonry walls are topped by a six course 

corbeled continuous projecting brick cornice with pendant like 

brackets that terminate at a two-course projecting brick stringcourse. 

There are two historic metal fire-escapes attached to the north 

facade. These are purely decorative and non-functional. 

Stair Towers

Both the octagonal stair towers that are situated at the northwest 

corners of the east and west wing were built at the same time as 

Mill 6 and their exteriors are almost identical in design. The towers 

Photo 115. West (left) and north (right) facade of Mill 6, 2015. Photo taken from mill yard. Note the octagonal 

east stair tower on the left of the photo and the 1917 elevator tower at the inside corner of the L-shaped Mill 6, 

at center of photo.

Source: EYP

Photo 116. Detail of diamond 

shaped anchor plate at Mill 6, 2015.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 

598

feature similar molded red brick as Mill 6 with similar mortar joints, 

however, their coursing varies from 7:1 to 9:1. The towers have five 

stories and their top extends above the roof of Mill 6 by roughly 

6'. Each tower has six exterior faces- north, south, west, northwest 

and southwest. Windows occur in the north, south and west wall 

of each tower, the northwest and southwest facades are blind. Each 

corner has a one-wythe thick pilaster that extends along the height 

of the tower and is punctuated only by a brick stringcourse and 

granite band at the fourth floor slab level. 

Floors two through five feature recessed panels at each face. At 

the north, west and south faces, the panel at the second floor is 

rectangular with two-course corbel at the top edge, while the panels 

at the third and fourth floors are segmental with a four-course 

corbeled top with pendants. The fifth floor panel is also rectangular 

with four-course deep pendants set flush with the outer wall 

surface. Each recessed panel has a granite band as its lower edge. 

The fourth floor panel has a continuous granite band that extends 

beyond the panels, swells over the corner pilasters and continues 

all around the tower. Directly below this band is a two-course brick 

stringcourse that forms the top of the segmental recessed panel 

at this floor and that too extends all around the tower. There is 

another similar granite band at the top, right below the tower roof. 

Right below this band is a continuous band of seven-course deep 

brick pendant brackets. At the northwest and southwest angled 

wall surfaces, the recessed panels stay rectangular at all floors and 

there is no corbeling at the top of the fourth floor panel. 

As mentioned previously, windows occur in the north, south and 

west wall of each tower. Each tower window opening is detailed 

similarly to the windows at the regular Mill 6 facades, except that 

they are significantly narrower in proportion, resulting in 6/6 sash 

as opposed to 12/12 in the mill proper. Each window opening has 

a projecting segmental brick arch that creates a hood; the sills are 

rock-faced granite. See the discussion on 'Windows' for greater 

detail about the hood design. 

At the west face of each tower on the first floor is an entrance door. 

A set of three granite steps leads up to the door. The door opening 

itself features a segmental brick arch with a projecting wooden hood 

above. The hood has metal flashing on top and is supported by 

ornamental brackets that drop down on either side of the opening. 

The doors are double leaf, with six recessed panels on each leaf. The 

east stair tower has granite side walls at the steps leading up to the 

entrance along with a simple metal pipe handrail. The side walls 

and railing are not present at the west stair tower. 

Photo 117. East stair tower at Mill 

6., 2015

Source: EYP

Photo 118. West stair tower at Mill 

6, 2015

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

599

1917 Elevator Tower

This three-sided tower is present at the inside corner of the 

L-shaped Mill 6 plan and faces the mill yard. It was constructed 

in 1917 as a freight elevator tower, but was converted in 1993 to be 

used as programmable interior space. Therefore, it was provided 

with a new concrete floor at each level . This tower has roughly 

12" thick loadbearing exterior brick walls, laid in common bond 

with 7:1 (stretchers to header course) and mortar joints struck flush. 

The walls rest on a granite foundation at the same level as the 

foundation of the mill itself. The two exposed tower corners (where 

the northwest wall meets with the north and west wall) feature an 

interesting detail, where the last brick at each alternating course 

is not cut to create a flush mitred corner, but rather left empty for 

more relief. 

There are no beltcourses or pilasters on this tower. The largely 

monolithic brick walls extend for six stories culminating in a 

projecting metal cornice. Window openings are at each floor on 

all three facades and feature 12/12 double hung wood sash. Each 

opening is rectangular with an exposed honed granite head (set 

flush) and projecting granite sill. 

The first floor of this tower forms the entry vestibule for entry to 

the main elevator lobby of Mill 6. To enable this use, door openings 

exist in the west and north face. The west opening has three granite 

steps with side walls and metal handrails leading up to a double 

door with six glazed lights in each leaf. The opening is framed by 

an exposed honed granite lintel set flush with the brick wall. The 

north opening is accessed off of a brick paved landing that leads to 

an exterior ramp and set of three steps. This opening is also framed 

by an exposed honed granite lintel set flush with the brick wall and 

has a single door with six glazed lights along with a glazed side 

light and transom. 

Windows

Mill 6 features a very rhythmic and symmetrical fenestration 

pattern with one window opening between each structural 

bay lined up vertically on all five floors. While there are minor 

variations in window size and type at certain locations owing to 

function or change over time, the typical window consists of an 

approximately 4'-0" x 8'-7" segmental arched opening. Each opening 

has a three-course projecting brick hood with pendants that drop 

three courses below the lower chord of the segmental hood. A full 

stretcher in width, the pendants terminate with a centered header 

over a queen closer. The hoods at the second and fourth floors were 

visually accented by having only each alternating brick project out 

in the second brick course. This led to a dentil-like appearance and 

Photo 119. 1917 elevator tower at 

Mill 6, 2015

Source: EYP

(Reprinted) Photo 96. Entry at 

west face of 1917 elevator tower, 

photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 

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provided more ornamental relief to the brick hoods. Each projecting 

window hood has a metal flashing on its top curved surface that 

bends over slightly to cover a portion of the front face of the top 

course. The sills are all rock-faced granite and project out slightly 

from the brick wall surface. 

The windows themselves are mostly 12/12 wood double hung 

with an integral storm panel on the inside of each sash and date 

to the 1981-1993 renovations. In 2016, the first and second floor 

windows on the south facade and the second floor windows on 

the north facade of the west wing were replaced with custom truedivided light aluminum replication windows that closely mimic 

the appearance of the 1981-1993 windows. These too have an 

integrated storm panel on the inside. 

The first floor windows at the east facade are blind- this is believed 

to be an original condition, owing to the location of the coal pocket 

along this wall, and as affirmed by early photographs. The blind 

openings are the same size as first windows in other parts of the 

east wing on the first floor with the typical corbeled brick hoods 

and rock faced sills. The brick infill is recessed roughly 4" from the 

face of the exterior wall. 

At the north face of the east wing, three windows on the first 

floor have brick infill and two windows on the third floor and one 

window on the fifth floor have a metal louver. At the east elevation, 

two windows on the fourth floor have metal louvers, while one 

window on the second floor has a partial metal louver. For a 

discussion of windows at the octagonal stair towers and the 1917 

elevator tower, refer to the sections above on those elements. 

Doorways

The entrance doorways located at the stair towers and at the 1917 

elevator tower have been described above under the respective 

headings. Other than those, three doors are located on the first floor 

at the north face of the east wing. All of these are metal doors. Two 

of these have a solid infill above the door height and one of them 

has a metal louver above the door.

Roof

Mill 6 has a single ply membrane roof which was last installed in 

1997. Drawings from this effort indicate rigid insulation underneath 

the membrane roof which rests on a wooden roof deck. The cornice 

is made out of metal and is comprised of five interlocking pieces. It 

extends out roughly 2'-3" from the face of the brick cornice below 

and hides metal brackets that tie the cornice back to exterior brick 

(Reprinted) Photo 98. Typical 1981 

wood window at Mill 6

Source: EYP

(Reprinted) Photo 99. Typical 

2013-2016 custom replacement 

aluminum window with true 

divided lights and integral storm 

panel, at Mill 6

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

601

wall. Below the metal cornice is a corbeled brick cornice described 

in the section on exterior walls. 

The west wing roof has both an electric photo-voltaic array system 

as well as a hydronic solar array installed in a portion of it. There 

is some other additional mechanical equipment, various vents, 

exhausts, hatches and drains on the roof. 

Chimney

There is one chimney on the roof of Mill 6 situated at the west 

end. This is a non-functioning, ornamental chimney that was 

constructed in 1981 as a reconstruction of the historical chimney 

that existed at this location and was removed prior to 1950. It is 

constructed of brick and features recessed panels on all four sides. 

There is a simple corbeled brick cornice at the top with a dark grey 

metal cap. 

Interior Elements

First Floor

The first two floors of Mill 6 are primarily used for the Boott Mill 

Museum and related exhibit purposes. The primary entrances into 

the building are through the west stair tower, and the vestibule 

at the 1917 elevator tower (at the inside corner of the L-shaped 

plan). The door at the east stair tower is used as an exit. Visitors 

can also get access to the Museum through the Counting House 

via an opening in the west wall of Mill 6. The 1917 elevator tower 

(Reprinted) Photo 104. PV arrays and solar hydronic system added at 

roof of Mill 6 in 2007 and 2010 ; photo taken 2011.

Source: EYP

Photo 120. Chimney at west end of 

Mill 6, 2015

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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provides access to the main elevator lobby and is used by staff and 

visitors to the upper floors of the building. The entrance through 

the Counting House and the west stair tower lead into the Museum 

bookstore and are more specific access points to the Museum. The 

bookstore occupies the west end of Mill 6 and has a brick vaulted 

ceiling. Directly to the east is a stair tower that connects floors 1-3. 

Further east is an observation lobby with a glazed partition that 

provides a view of the Weave Room that occupies almost the rest of 

the floor plate of the west wing. The Weave Room features various 

looms that have been brought here from other mills to re-create 

(Reprinted) Photo 75. View of Weave Room at first floor of Mill 6, 

2016. Note 1-wythe thick brick pilasters/piers added to the exterior wall 

between window openings in 1989. 

Source: EYP

Photo 121. Entry vestibule at first floor of 1917 elevator 

tower at Mill 6, 2015

Source: EYP

Photo 122. Elevator lobby at first floor of Mill 6, 

2015

Source: EYP

Photo 123. Typical bricked in wall 

opening at historic hoist access at 

west wall of east wing, 2015

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

603

a functional 19th century mill floor. Timber beams roughly 8' o.c. 

span from north to south between each window. At the mid point 

of each beam is an approximately 5-1/2" dia. cast iron column. An 

aisle cuts through the looms to lead visitors to the east end where 

the arched masonry wall between the east and west wings of Mill 6 

marks the end of the Weave Room. There are one wythe thick brick 

pilasters between each window in this room, that were added in 

1989 as a means to structurally strengthen the building. The walls 

are painted in a bi-color scheme with the divide happening roughly 

at the vertical mid-point of the walls, the lower half is green and the 

upper half is painted white. The ceiling and all exposed structurebeams and columns are also painted white. Exposed mechanical 

ductwork added in 1989-1993 is left unpainted (therefore has a 

silver/grey metallic finish)

Directly east of this masonry wall is a curved stair, added in 1993, 

that leads up to more exhibits on the second floor. A door to the 

north of the weave room provides access to the elevator lobby with 

toilets and various utility and storage rooms. East of the curved 

stair is another exhibit room with a narrow storage room carved at 

its east end. The remainder of the east wing is taken by the building 

lobby and utility rooms mentioned above. The east wing has timber 

beams that run east to west and each beam is supported by two 

cast iron columns, each at roughly the 1/3 rd point of the span. 

All these columns are present, the partitions added in 1993 work 

around them to create the various rooms and spaces. At the north 

end of the east wing is another internal stair that connects floors 

1-5. Across the hall from this stair is the historic east stair tower. 

The east end of the building at floors 1 and 2 houses the trolley 

maintenance facility in the historic coal pocket area. 

The interior of the historic octagonal stair towers is similar and each 

features a wooden spiral staircase. Doorways connecting the stair 

to the floor are located on the east wall of each tower. Directly north 

of this door opening, originally there used to be an arched opening 

for hoists that connected the various floors. These were removed in 

1916 and the openings infilled with brick However, once can still 

see the profile of the brick arch and the opening recess on the floor 

side of the wall. Each flight of stair has 21 risers and 20 treads. The 

treads are protected with cast iron plates, with 'Boott Cotton Mills' 

cast into the face. These plates are presumed to be original to the 

building's construction. A metal pipe handrail with metal posts, 

most likely dating to 1914 are present in both stairs. 

Second Floor

Most Museum visitors get access to the second floor by taking the 

curved stair from the first floor and continue their tour to the west. 

This leads them through various exhibit rooms with floor and wall 

(Reprinted) Photo 81. Curved 

stair connecting floors 1 and 2 of 

the museum located directly east 

of the arched masonry partition 

added in 1989, photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP

Photo 124. Spiral stair at 

octagonal stair tower, 2015

Source: EYP

Photo 125. Metal plate at each 

tread of the spiral stairs with the 

letters 'Boott Cotton Mill' stamped 

on them, 2015

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 

604

displays. A small theater is also situated in the west wing, closer to 

the east end. All windows in the exhibit areas and theater on this 

floor are covered with fabric backed panels to block daylight. The 

ceilings and some of the pipes and ductwork at the ceiling are also 

painted black to not detract from the exhibits. The exhibit room on 

the west end, directly east of the stair from floors 1-3, has an acoustic 

ceiling with 2'x 2' tiles laid in a metal grid. The false ceiling is fairly 

close to the structural floor and does not come down far enough to 

conceal the timber beams. Directly east of this room is the stair that 

(Reprinted) Photo 82. Theater located on floor 2 of the 

museum, added in 1989; photo taken 2016.

Source: EYP

(Reprinted) Photo 83. View of corridor 

along exterior wall on floor 2 of the museum, 

built in 1989; photo taken 2016. Note the 

brick piers between windows, the bi-color 

wall paint scheme and the dark painted 

ceilings and systems above.

Source: EYP

(Reprinted) Photo 84. Exhibit space at west end 

of Mill 6 on floor 2, built in 1989; photo taken 2016. 

Note the vaulted ceiling and cast iron columns.

Source: EYP

(Reprinted) Photo 85. Exhibit space directly east of 

the space in Photo 80, at west end of Mill 6 on floor 

2, built in 1989; photo taken 2016. Note the dropped 

ceiling and cast iron columns.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

605

connects floors 1-3 and further east is an additional exhibit room 

that features the vaulted brick ceiling similar to this location on the 

floor below that houses the Museum bookstore. Walls at the second 

floor also feature a bi-color scheme- in addition to green/white, 

they also include rooms with a white/yellow scheme. The 1917 

elevator tower space at the second floor is used as a mechanical 

room. To the east of the curved stair from floor 1, is a room with 

stepped seating that functions as a workshop/ events center. 

Third Floor

The third floor is occupied by workshops and offices of the 

Tsongas Industrial History Center (TIHC) in the east and majority 

of the west wing. The west end of the west wing is occupied by 

the curatorial department. The elevator lobby and services core 

occupies the north half of the east wing just like on all other floors. 

A mechanical room in the northeast corner connects internally to 

additional maintenance and mechanical space in the Mill 7 link 

building, which is a functional part of Mill 6.

All the interior spaces are created by metal partitions faced with 

gypsum board, wood and glazing -- most of these were installed 

in 1993. There have been minor additions and alterations, as 

documented in Chapter 1.4- Chronology of Development. The 

inside face of the exterior walls is painted white as well as all exposed 

columns, beams and ceilings. The southern arch in the masonry wall 

that divides the east wing from the west is in-filled with a wood 

partition, while the north arch is left open and provides access to 

the west wing of the third floor. An open staircase is located east 

Photo 126. Event Center at second 

floor of Mill 6, 2016

Source: EYP

Photo 127. TIHC classroom at 

third floor of Mill 6, 2015

Source: EYP

Photo 129. Corridor at third floor 

of Mill 6, 2015

Source: EYP

Photo 128. View from third floor looking up through opening in fourth 

floor slab, 2015. Note fourth floor arched opening with glazed partition.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 

606

of this arched masonry partition and connects the third floor to the 

fourth. To insert this stair and create a visual connection between 

the two floors a portion of the fourth floor slab was removed (in 

1993) in this area. The floor opening spans five structural bays and 

extends west from the stair all the way to the arched masonry wall. 

Two timber beams were also cut to allow the stair to extend up. 

The 1917 elevator tower space at the third floor is used as a library/ 

conference room. 

Fourth Floor

The fourth floor has mix of functions- the north end of the east wing 

has the lobby and elevator core as on lower floors. In the northeast 

corner is a lunch room and small kitchen area that connects to the 

maintenance shop in the Mill 7 link space. At the southeast corner of 

the building is a large lunch room used by school groups attending 

classes at the TIHC. Directly west is the connecting stair to the third 

floor. To the west of the arched masonry partition a corridor runs 

along the north exterior wall for roughly half of the west wing and 

provides access to office/ storage space occupied by the Lowell 

Historical Society. Directly east are libraries for the LNHP and the 

NPS Northeast Regional Office (NERO). The remainder of the west 

wing, west of the library, is used for NERO offices. This includes 

some private offices, open office workstations, enclosed copy 

rooms and an area of compact shelving. There is a connecting stair 

that leads up to additional NERO space on the fifth floor. The 1917 

elevator tower space at the fourth floor is used as a conference/ 

small lunch room. 

Photo 130. Curatorial space at west end of third floor, 2015

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

607

Fifth Floor

The fifth floor also has a mix of functions - at the northeast corner 

of the east wing is an area occupied by the Information Technology 

(IT) Department. This has a door leading to additional curatorial 

storage in the Mill 7 link space at this floor. South of the IT area, 

and directly east of the toilet/ elevator lobby, extending all the way 

to the south facade of Mill 6, the space is occupied by the LNHP 

Interpretation and Education Department. This comprises of some 

enclosed offices, storage rooms and open workstations. Directly 

west is a conference room along the south wall that is accessed from 

the main elevator lobby. Across the lobby from this room is the 

1917 elevator tower space at the fifth floor that is used as a smaller 

video-conference room. From the lobby a set of double doors lead 

to a small open exhibit area that continues to a central corridor 

with rooms on either side - one of these is an unused office and 

the remainder function as TIHC classrooms. Another set of double 

doors leads further west to NERO office spaces that terminate at the 

connecting stair to the fourth floor. West of this stair are material 

conservation labs used by the NERO staff. These include rooms 

(Reprinted) Photo 87. Lunch room on floor 4, built in 

1989; photo taken 2016. Note the dropped ceiling and cast 

iron columns.

Source: EYP

Photo 131. Corridor along north exterior wall on 

fourth floor of Mill 6, view of NERO office space 

on the right, 2015.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 

608

for microscopy, mortar analysis, archaeological artifacts, paper 

treatment and paint samples along with various storage rooms. 

The labs are all arranged along the south wall with a corridor that 

runs along the north wall to the west stair tower. 

(Reprinted) Photos 91 & 92. View of material conservation labs at floor 5 of Mill 6, constructed 1993, photo 

taken 2016.

Source: EYP
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.5 CURRENT PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

609

chapter 1.6

Character Defining Features

HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.6 CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES

613

1.6 Character Defining Features

I. COUNTING HOUSE

Exterior

* Exposed granite foundation band

Portion of the Counting House substructure is part of the 

Eastern Canal penstock entrance, which comprises of granite 

arches, columns and brick vaults. Only the top lintel band 

of this substructure is visible above the canal water line on 

the south facade. This should be maintained as is. None of 

the foundation is visible on the west or north facades.

* Load-bearing exposed red brick walls 

Includes the color, texture, and size of the brick units, 

coursing pattern, mortar color, composition and flush joint 

profile.

* Diamond shaped anchor plates

These were most likely the original plates for the metal 

tie rods visible on the exterior of the building. Only three 

representative examples were retained - one on the north 

Character-defining features are the visual aspects of a structure that 

help us to identify and understand its value as an historic resource. 

Preservation Brief 17, Architectural Character - Identifying the Visual 

Aspects of Historic Buildings as an Aid to Preserving their Character, 

states the following:

“Character refers to all those visual aspects and physical features 

that comprise the appearance of every historic building. Characterdefining elements include the overall shape of the building, its materials, 

craftsmanship, decorative details, interior spaces and features, as well as 

the various aspects of its site and environment.”

The following features and elements should be taken into account 

during the planning process and preserved to the greatest extent 

possible. These visual and tangible features are what give the 

building its character and contribute to its significance.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.7 CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES

614

facade and two on the south facade. On the north facade, 

the plate exists west of the easternmost window head on 

the first floor. At the south elevation, the first plate exists 

east of the fourth window sill from the west at the first floor 

and another plate exists east of the seventh window head 

from the west on the first floor.

* Circle shaped anchor plates

These were most likely added pre-1955 and should not be 

confused with the circle plates that have an embossed star 

on them and were added in 1993. Only one representative 

example of the historic circle plates was retained on both 

the north and south facade. On the north facade, the plate 

exists west of the fourth window head from the east on the 

first floor. At the south elevation, the plate exists east of the 

fifth window head from the west at the first floor.

* Linear metal braces 

These refer to the linear structural metal braces directly 

underneath the roof cornice on both the north and south 

elevation. These exist (from the west), over the second and 

third windows, over the fifth window and over the seventh, 

eighth and ninth windows on the south facade. At the north 

facade, these braces exist (from the west) over the third 

and fourth windows, over the sixth window and over the 

eighth, ninth and tenth windows.

* Windows

Predominantly rectangular but of different sizes. 

Irregularity in window opening size and placement is a 

character defining feature. South facade: Nine 6/6 double 

hung sash, one 12-light single-sash, one 9-light single sash 

on first floor. Eleven 1/1 double hung sash at second floor.

North facade: Five 9/9 double hung sash, one 2/2 double 

hung sash, at first floor. Seven 9/9 double hung sash, 

one 2/2 double hung sash, two 1/1 double hung sash, at 

second floor. Exposed honed granite sill and lintel, typical 

- includes finish, size and color. Third window from east 

on north facade at first floor has a brick lintel, and fourth 

window from east on north facade at first floor has a brick 

sill. Both of these are not original to the building but predate 1955 and are considered character defining features.

* Projecting door canopies

Each of the three doors on the north facade have a gabled 

wood frame canopy with a metal roof. These date from 1993 

but were reconstructed based on an existing design that 

dated from pre-1955. Character defining features include 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.6 CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES

615

the proportions and design of the canopy and not the 

materials themselves.

* Roof

The building originally had a slate roof which was removed 

pre-1955 (most likely in 1942, coinciding with removal of the 

skylights). Two brick chimneys which were likely original 

to the building were also removed sometime during this 

period. The current slate roof was installed in 1993. It is 

identified as a character defining feature for the Counting 

House. Since no historical remnants of the original slate 

roof exist, the current roof should be used for purposes of 

matching color, texture and size. The existing wood cornice 

also dates from 1993 and was built based on the existing 

cornice. Profile, material and finish of the cornice are 

character defining features. 

Interior

* Inside face of exterior brick walls

Includes the exposed, painted (white) brick walls, brick 

window jambs and brick stools. The paint is more recent 

but mimics the original 'whitewash' finish of the interior. 

* Concrete and brick pilasters

Remnants of prior stabilization efforts at the Counting 

House. Includes brick and concrete pilasters on the inside 

on the north, south and west walls.

* Wood roof truss

Original wood roof truss with metal tie rods. The white 

paint is more recent but mimics the original 'whitewash' 

finish of the interior.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.7 CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES

616

II. MILL 6 

Exterior

* Exposed granite foundation band

Roughly 15" tall granite foundation band visible above 

grade on most elevations. Features gaps/ vents at joints to 

crawl space behind. 

* Load-bearing exposed red brick walls 

Includes the color, texture, and size of the brick units, 

coursing pattern, mortar color, composition and flush joint 

profile. Walls taper in thickness at upper floors. Six course 

corbeled continuous projecting brick cornice with pendant 

like brackets that terminate at a two-course projecting brick 

stringcourse.

* Diamond shaped anchor plates

The north and south face of the west wing feature diamond 

shaped cast iron anchor plates between each window at the 

second through the fifth floor slab. These mark the location 

on the inside where the timber beams supporting the floor 

are secured by tie bolts through the wall. Similar ties and 

anchor bolts exist at the east wing on the east and west 

face from the second through the fifth floor. Note that due 

to the presence of the two story historic coal pocket space 

along the east facade, the second floor ties are present on 

the coal pocket wall where the beams terminate, and not at 

the exterior wall. These are original to the building.

* Historic 'octagonal' west and east stair tower

Includes overall profile, shape and footprint. Note that 

the towers were originally six stories tall. The top most 

story was removed in 1950. This sixth story has not been 

reconstructed. Note that brick coursing is different from mill 

proper. Pilasters at each corner; recessed brick panels with 

brick corbel and pendant detailing at top and granite bands 

at bottom. Granite bands and brick stringcourses at fourth 

floor and roof level that wrap around tower. Seven-course 

deep roof cornice with brick pendant brackets. Segmental 

arched window openings with 6/6 sash, rock-faced granite 

sills and corbeled arched brick heads with brick pendants 

on either side. Projecting wood entrance canopy at door 

opening in west face- note that canopy at west tower is 

original and the east is a reconstruction; granite steps at 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.6 CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES

617

entrance- both have been rebuilt based on historic designwest is closer to historic design. 

* 1917 elevator tower

Includes overall profile, shape and footprint. Originally 

built as freight elevator tower- now part of interior space at 

each floor with new concrete slab. Interlocking brick corner 

detail. Metal cornice at top is a reconstruction from 1981 

based on historic design. 12/12 double hung wood sash 

in rectangular window openings with an exposed honed 

granite head (set flush) and projecting granite sill. Door 

openings at first floor on north and west face were created 

in 1993, with new granite lintels. 

* Windows

Rhythmic and symmetrical fenestration pattern with 

one window opening between each structural bay lined 

up vertically on all five floors. Rectangular opening with 

segmental arched head. Three-course projecting brick hood 

with pendants on either side. Hoods at second and fourth 

floors visually accented by 'dentil' course in the hoods. Rockfaced projecting granite sills. 12/12 double hung windowsnone of the windows are original - wood versions date 

from 1981-1993, aluminum versions date from 2013-2016. 

Character defining features include the number of lights, 

muntin and frame profiles and proportions. Recessed brick 

infill at first floor window openings on east facade.

* Roof

The building roof is non-historic and dates from 1995. 

Character defining features include the lack of a parapet, 

and an ornamental metal cornice all around. Brick chimney 

at west end- built in 1981 based on historic chimney that 

existed originally.

* Fire escapes

Two historic metal fire-escapes attached to the north facade. 

Interior

* Inside face of exterior brick walls

Includes the exposed, painted brick walls, brick window 

jambs and splayed brick stools. The paint is more recent 

but mimics the original 'whitewash' finish of the interior.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

1.7 CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES

618

* Paired timber beams 'pocketed' into the exterior walls

All beams are painted white- the paint is more recent but 

mimics the original 'whitewash' finish of the interior. 

* Cast Iron columns 

Cylindrical columns with a foliated cushioned cap. Placed 

at midpoint of span at west wing and at 1/3rd span at east 

wing.

* Wood plank flooring 

Wood flooring at floors 2-5 is historic (Floor 1 is all new 

dating to 1993). It is likely that historic flooring at upper 

floors was also partially replaced rather regularly prior to 

1955 owing to switching of machinery, etc.

* Arched masonry partition wall 

Between the east and west wings of the building at floors 

1 through 4. Note that some openings at floors 3, 4 have 

wood/ glass infill. 

* Masonry partition wall

Located in the west part of the building on floor 1, 2 

separating the historic shop area from the mill floor.

* Vaulted ceiling 

Brick vault floor slab construction at the historic shop area 

on floors 1, 2 at west end of building.

* Spiral wood staircases with metal tread plates

Located in the octagonal stair towers with simple wooden 

balustrades and handrail, and heavy turned newel posts. 

Pipe handrails and posts added in 1914 are also character 

defining and so are the cast iron plates on each stair tread 

with the text 'Boott Cotton Mills' cast into it.

* Recessed brick infills at hoist openings

Bricked-in arched openings at the wall between the stair 

tower and the mill floor, at location of original hoists, infilled in 1916.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

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HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

620

Bibliography 

Books:

Eno, Arthur L. Cotton Was King: A History of Lowell, Massachusetts. Somersworth, NH: New 

Hampshire Pub., 1976.

Marion, Paul. Mill Power: The Origin and Impact of Lowell National Historical Park. Lanham, MD: 

Rowman and Littlefield, 2014.

Stanton, Cathy. The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City. Amherst: University 

of Massachusetts Press, 2006.

Weible, Robert. The Continuing Revolution: A History of Lowell, Massachusetts. Lowell, MA: Lowell 

Historical Society, 1991.

Dissertations:

Frenchman, Dennis. "Connecting the past to the Present: A Planning Strategy for Urban National 

Historical Parks." M.C.P. diss., MIT, 1976.

Monahan Jr., Richard M. "The Adaptive Reuse of Residual Built Form." Master of Architecture diss., 

MIT, 1978.

Radville, Richard Arthur. "Adaptive Reuse and Growth in an Industrial City: Potentials and Restraints." 

Bachelor of Science in Art & Design diss., MIT, 1976.

Shatzer, Tess. "The Boott Cotton Mills Museum: An Exploration of Meanings, Connections and Sense 

of Place Outcomes." Masters diss., Austin State University, 2007.

Spector, Jayne O. "From Dockyard to Esplanade: Leveraging Industrial Heritage in Waterfront 

Redevelopment." Masters diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2010.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

621

Appendix 1- Annotated list of drawing sets consulted 

1. Denver Service Center Digital Archives

The Denver Service Center has 29 digital PDF drawing files pertaining to Mill #6 and the Counting 

House. Below is a more detailed description of each file with a brief summary of its contents.

NPS File Name Date Author Title Bldgs(s) Content Description

LOWE_475_25003

_[id40295]

11/1984 HAER/NP

S 

Existing 

ConditionsBoott Mills 

Building #6

M6 Set of 73 dwgs. Same as that 

available on HAER website 

but more complete. Includes 

civil, arch, struc, FP/P &

electrical pre 1984 renovation. 

Indicates physical conditions, 

some condition assessment.

LOWE_475_25003

_[id40308]

Same file as above

LOWE_475_25004

A_[id54325]

3/1989 Trust Corp. Mill #6 & 

Trolley 

Maintenanc

e Facility

M6 Set of 137 as-built dwgs. 

Includes Demo, Arch, Struc, 

MEP/FP and civil. 

Comprehensive account of 

1984 work. As built version of 

1986 Flansburgh dwgs.

LOWE_475_25007

_[id40632]

12/1984 HAER/NP

S 

Counting 

HouseExisting 

Conditions

CH Set of 27 dwgs. Includes civil, 

arch. Indicates physical 

conditions, some condition 

assessment.

LOWE_475_25009

_[id31161] HAER

1983 HAER Boott Cotton 

Mills

M6, CH Boott Cotton Mills Recording 

Project- HABS. Set of 30 dwgs. 

Includes various mills. 

LOWE_475_25011

_[id44995]

2/1986 Flansburgh Comprehen

sive DesignBuilding #6 

& Counting 

House

M6, CH Set of 64 dwgs. Includes civil, 

landscape, arch, struc, 

MEP/FP. Design dwgs 

showing proposed work. 

LOWE_475_25016

_[id138672]

undated unknown untitled M6 1 sheet. Perspective sketch 

showing yard facing facade 

and corner of Mill #6.

LOWE_475_25016

_[id138687]

Same file as above

LOWE_475_25900

_[id19242]

1/1981 ESI/ 

Moore & 

Heder

Boott Mill 

#6

M6 2 sheets. New window types 

and details. 

LOWE_475_25901

_[id138700]

undated unknown untitled M6, CH 6 sheets. Existing floor plans of 

the entire mill complex. Does 

not include interior partitions. 

Notes floor elevations and 

floor-plate areas.

LOWE_475_25902

_[id14563]

5/1980 Moore & 

Heder

Boott Mill 

#6- Repairs 

& 

Restoration

M6 Set of 7 dwgs. Roof and façade 

repairs to Mill #6 while owned 

by Wang Laboratories.

LOWE_475_25904

_[id138715]

undated unknown Section I-J M6 1 sheet. Seems to be part of a 

larger set. Line section through 

Mill #6 & #7 noting floor 

levels.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

622

NPS File Name Date Author Title Bldgs(s) Content Description LOWE_475_25905

_[id110786] undated unknown untitled M6, CH 3 sheets. Part of same set as above. Line sections through various mills noting floor levels. Includes key plan. LOWE_475_25905

_[id110801] Same file as above LOWE_475_25910

_[id9907] 5/1897 Associated Mutual Insurance Co. Boott Cotton Mills Insurance Map M6, CH 1 sheet. Contains plan, line section, aerial axonometric and construction type/material description of mill complex. LOWE_475_25911

_[id38975] 3/1901 Associated Mutual Insurance Co. Boott Cotton Mills Insurance Map M6, CH 1 sheet. Contains plan, line section, aerial axonometric and construction type/material description of mill complex. LOWE_475_25911

_[id38988] Same file as above LOWE_475_25913

_[id64571] 11/1906 Lockwood, Greene & Co. Sketch Machinery Plans running previous to 2/1906 M6 Set of 36 dwgs. Contains existing machinery and proposed new ‘main driving’ at the mill complex. Coincides with switch from cotton production to coarse goods. LOWE_475_25914

_[id143986] Undated; presuma bly 1906 Lockwood, Greene & Co. Sketch Machinery Plans M6 Set of 12 dwgs. Proposed motor driven operation. LOWE_475_40014

_[id36299] 10/1983 unknown Preliminary Study of Boott Mills M6, CH 6 sheets. Concept landscape sketches for courtyard and sidewalks at Mill #6 & Counting House. LOWE_475_41011

_[id47104] 11/1986 Flansburgh Comprehensive Design- Building #6 – Weave Room Technical Design M6 Set of 6 dwgs. Looms and shafting details for Weave Room. LOWE_475_41012

_[id144017] undated unknown untitled M6, CH 1 sheet. Cut-away perspective sketch showing museum, admin and TIHC program layout at various floors. LOWE_475_80008 A_[id4971] undated unknown LNHP Boundary Map M6, CH 1 sheet. Map showing LNHP and Preservation District boundary in Lowell. LOWE_475_80008 C_[id54333] 3/1989 unknown LNHP Boundary Map Index M6, CH 19 sheets. Enlarged maps showing LNHP and Preservation District boundary in Lowell. LOWE_475_12915

3_[id34816] 9/2008 Northeast Museum Services Finding Aid for the Boott Mills M6, CH 35 pg. report that describes the content of the (mostly administrative) Boott Mills 

NPS File Name Date Author Title Bldgs(s) Content Description

LOWE_475_25905

_[id110786]

undated unknown untitled M6, CH 3 sheets. Part of same set as 

above. Line sections through 

various mills noting floor 

levels. Includes key plan.

LOWE_475_25905

_[id110801]

Same file as above

LOWE_475_25910

_[id9907]

5/1897 Associated 

Mutual 

Insurance 

Co.

Boott Cotton 

Mills 

Insurance 

Map

M6, CH 1 sheet. Contains plan, line 

section, aerial axonometric and 

construction type/material 

description of mill complex.

LOWE_475_25911

_[id38975]

3/1901 Associated 

Mutual 

Insurance 

Co.

Boott Cotton 

Mills 

Insurance 

Map

M6, CH 1 sheet. Contains plan, line 

section, aerial axonometric and 

construction type/material 

description of mill complex.

LOWE_475_25911

_[id38988]

Same file as above

LOWE_475_25913

_[id64571]

11/1906 Lockwood, 

Greene & 

Co.

Sketch 

Machinery 

Plans 

running 

previous to 

2/1906

M6 Set of 36 dwgs. Contains 

existing machinery and 

proposed new ‘main driving’ 

at the mill complex. Coincides 

with switch from cotton 

production to coarse goods.

LOWE_475_25914

_[id143986]

Undated; 

presuma

bly 1906

Lockwood, 

Greene & 

Co.

Sketch 

Machinery 

Plans

M6 Set of 12 dwgs. Proposed 

motor driven operation. 

LOWE_475_40014

_[id36299]

10/1983 unknown Preliminary 

Study of 

Boott Mills

M6, CH 6 sheets. Concept landscape 

sketches for courtyard and 

sidewalks at Mill #6 & 

Counting House.

LOWE_475_41011

_[id47104]

11/1986 Flansburgh Comprehen

sive DesignBuilding #6 

– Weave 

Room 

Technical 

Design

M6 Set of 6 dwgs. Looms and 

shafting details for Weave 

Room.

LOWE_475_41012

_[id144017]

undated unknown untitled M6, CH 1 sheet. Cut-away perspective 

sketch showing museum, 

admin and TIHC program 

layout at various floors.

LOWE_475_80008

A_[id4971]

undated unknown LNHP 

Boundary 

Map

M6, CH 1 sheet. Map showing LNHP 

and Preservation District 

boundary in Lowell.

LOWE_475_80008

C_[id54333]

3/1989 unknown LNHP 

Boundary 

Map Index

M6, CH 19 sheets. Enlarged maps 

showing LNHP and 

Preservation District boundary 

in Lowell.

LOWE_475_12915

3_[id34816]

9/2008 Northeast 

Museum 

Services 

Finding Aid 

for the Boott 

Mills 

M6, CH 35 pg. report that describes the 

content of the (mostly 

administrative) Boott Mills 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

623

NPS File Name Date Author Title Bldgs(s) Content Description

Center/NP

S 

Records, 

1905-1989 

(Bulk dates 

1955-1985)

Records (bulk dates 1955-1985) 

that are housed at NMSC, 

Charlestown, MA. Related 

collections at NMSC include 

Lowell Industrial Company 

Records (bulk 1949-1951) & 

Proprietors of the Locks & 

Canals (bulk 1890-1970) 

LOWE_475_D13_[

id37688]

2/1984 NPS Inventory of 

the 

Flather/Boo

tt Mills 

Collection

M6, CH Inventory of the Flather 

Collection (1836-1979) housed 

at the Center for Lowell 

History, UMass Lowell. 62 pgs 

inventory of the collection 

items.

LOWE_475_D49_[

id39685]

9/1984 Flansburgh Building #6 

and 

Counting 

House: 

Penstock & 

Bridge 

Structural 

Investigatio

n

M6, CH 56 pg. report containing text, 

dwgs, photos of the bridge & 

penstocks, including 

recommendations.

LOWE_475_D50_[

id41410]

2/1985 NPS Boott Mills 

Counting 

HousePaint & 

Mortar 

Analysis

CH 161 pg. report. Concurrent 

effort with preparation of 1985 

HSR. 307 exterior & interior 

paint samples & 36 exterior & 

interior mortar samples from 

the Counting House were 

analyzed. 

LOWE_475_D54_[

id146640]

Undated 

(presuma

bly 1983)

Brown, 

Rona Inc. 

Consulting 

Engineers

Untitled M6 106 pg. structural report 

assessing feasibility of Mill #6 

for adaptive reuse. 
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

624

2. LNHP Archives

The material at LNHP is in two locations- Plan Room in the basement of 67 Kirk Street, Lowell MA 

which is the Park Headquarters building; and the Park Archives located at the 3rd floor of Boott Mill 

#6. All the drawing sets are located in the Plan Room at 67 Kirk Street while photos, documents etc 

are in Mill #6.

Title Date Author Bldgs(s) Content Description

Boott Mill #6 

Repairs and 

Restoration

4/1980 Moore-Heder M6 Set of 7 drawings. Detailing proposed 

roof and exterior work at Mill 6 when 

the building was owned by Wang 

Laboratories.

Boott Mill #6 

Repairs and 

Restoration

5/6/1980 

with 2/1981 

annotations

Moore-Heder M6 3 sheets scanned. Site visit notes on 1980 

base drawing documenting the amount 

of exterior restoration work done and 

still remaining.

Concept Design 

Boott Mill #6

9/23/1983 Unknown M6 Set of 3 sheets. Structural analysis 

regarding loading and shear at Mill 6.

Contract 

DocumentsBldg #6 and 

Counting House

1988 Unknown M6, CH Hand-written note on cover says ‘AsBuilts’. Scanned 40 sheets. Total set 

includes SK-1 through SK-20. Seems like 

a working set that was re-submitted as 

the 1989 as-builts by Trust Corporation. 

See file LOWE_475_25004A_[id54325] in 

DSC Archives.

Building No. 6 

and Counting 

House

1993 L. Addison 

and Assoc. 

and 

Flansburgh 

Assoc.

M6, CH Set of 193 drawings. As-constructed 

drawings for all disciplines. 

Boott Mills

Interior Details

1991 Various M6 Scanned 10 sheets. Interior fit-out details 

for various rooms at Mill 6 like Events 

Center, Weave Room, TIHC classrooms, 

offices etc.

Boott Mills Wet 

Room

1995 R.C. Wright M6 Interior details for TIHC classroom

Additional 

VentilationBoott Mills 

Museum

1997 Unknown M6 New HVAC work on multiple floors in 

Mill 6.

Roof 

ReplacementMill 6

1997 P. Wright M6 2 sheets. Roof plan and details.

Structural 

Repairs beneath 

Boott Mill #6

2004 McGinley 

Kalsow & 

Assoc. with 

Structures 

North

M6 Drawings showing proposed repairs to 

penstock under Mill 6.

Boott Mill 6-

Cooling Tower

2007 Johnson 

Engineering 

& Design

M6 Consulted sheets E2 & E3 that show new 

electrical work at floors 2 & 3 of Mill 6.

Solar Hot 

Water-As Built 

layout

2010 Scanned by 

Chuck 

Parrott, NPS

M6 Partial scanned sheet showing proposed 

layout of solar hot water panels at piping 

at roof of Mill 6.

Existing 

Conditions

2011 NPS, NERO M6, CH Existing plans of Mill 6 and Counting 

House with program areas identified.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

625

Title Date Author Bldgs(s) Content Description

Boott Counting 

House Kitchen

2014 Unknown CH Renovation of kitchen at first floor of 

Counting House.

Boott Mill 6 

Window 

Replacement 

Project

2015 Unknown M6 First & Second Floor Plan showing 

locations of Phase 1 and 2 window 

replacements at Mill 6.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT - BOOTT MILLS COUNTING HOUSE AND MILL #6

626

Appendix 2- Existing Floorplans