Essex National Heritage Area
Lawrence Heritage State Park,
Boarding House Site

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A national model in historic preservation and urban landscape design, the park includes 23 acres spread throughout the city, including a scenic park downtown on the river, boating and beach facilities, and especially informative exhibits, tours, and films bringing to life the city's rich labor heritage.

The visitor center itself is in a restored 1840s mill boardinghouse. The center features exhibits that help you explore Lawrence's industrial, labor, and immigration history. In the 1840s, when Boston merchants discovered the tremendous waterpower of the Merrimack River (the same river that naturalist Henry David Thoreau had already made famous), just 25 miles northwest of Boston, these industrialists planned an entire city of mills and interconnected canals. By the turn of the century, Lawrence had become one of the world's greatest producers of worsted cloth and was employing thousands of workers from dozens of countries. Needless to say, some of America's great fortunes were made from the labors of these immigrants, from over thirty countries. Today, with waves of immigrants coming from other parts of the globe, Lawrence's nickname, "Immigrant City," still holds true.

Exhibits at the Lawrence Heritage State Park Visitor Center hearken back to an earlier Lawrence. Walk a city plan woven into a carpet and look into the windows of mill and boardinghouse models. These six-foot replicas reveal another era's industrial technology and the way of life it crated. Visit a turn-of-the-century kitchen, complete with antique stove and sink, and experience for a moment the home life of mill workers. A city-planning game, a map tracing the routes of more than 30 immigrant groups to Lawrence, and actual machinery from the early years of textile production make it clear how the Industrial Revolution transformed American life. A video presentation of the Great Strike of 1912 tells the story of nearly 30,000 workers and the dramatic events that catapulted Lawrence to center stage in the nation's labor struggles.

The Lawrence Heritage State Park, Boarding House Site is officially designated an Essex National Heritage Area Visitor Center. As such, in addition to giving information about the history of Lawrence, the Lawrence Heritage State Park also provides information on resources in Metheun, Middleton, North Andover, and Andover, as well as general information about the Essex National Heritage Area.

Nearby Area Sites