At the center of Lowell, Massachusetts lie the rivers, dams, canals,
and factories which contributed to the growth of one of America's
greatest manufacturing centers. Although considerable attention
has
been focused on the study of Lowell's central core, the majority of
Lowell's residents in the mid-to late nineteenth century resided
outside the city center. The colorful names of Lowell’s
neighborhoods - such as Chapel Hill, Belvidere Village,
Pawtucketville, Centralville, and the Highlands - provide only a
hint of the important role these areas had in shaping the city's
history.
Among the earliest of these neighborhoods is
Chapel Hill, with
representative residential architectural styles from nearly every
period of the city's industrial development. Enveloping a hilly
site,
Chapel Hill is bounded at the east by the Concord River, at the west
by Gorham Street, and at the north and south by Charles Street and
Hale’s Brook.
Chapel Hill's settlement began in the 1820s,
when Lowell was
emerging as a major textile center. Although many of the town's
residents were employed in the cotton mills and
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lived in company-owned houses, the growing community
attracted others -shopkeeper, carpenters, masons,
policemen - who supplied the goods and services
required by a rapidly expanding town.
For individuals wishing to build their own
houses,
Chapel Hill proved to be the only available land
convenient to the center of Lowell that was neither in
corporation ownership nor separated from the mills by
a river. Unlike Centralville and Washington Square in
Belvidere, which date from the 1830s, there was no
predetermined plan for the growth of Chapel Hill.
Instead of following a previously laid-out
grid of
streets and houselots, the area grew organically,
conforming to the topography and to the random sale
and development of house lots. Paralleling the north-
south axis of Gorham Street (the original colonial
route between East Chelmsford and Billerica), Central
Street wrapped around the hill, Chapel Street ran over
its ridgeline, and Lawrence Street followed the
Concord River. A network of short cross streets (Charles,
North, Ames, Mill and Elm) soon connected them.
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