American Textile History Museum

Kitson Machine Shop, 1860s-1918

      
Kitson Machine Shop c.1927                 American Textile History Museum c.1994

Building History

Established in 1849, the Kitson Machine Shop was typical of industries that developed to serve Lowell’s textile manufacturers as the city grew.  Its niche was specializing in the manufacture of cotton pickers which performed the first mechanized operation in the production of textiles.  So successful was the Kitson picker that it soon dominated the national market for such machines.

In 1860 founder Richard Kitson relocated his company to an old blacksmith shop on Dutton Street, opposite the Lowell Machine Shop.  Between 1860 and 1918, the complex gradually grew through a series of additions and new buildings.  The company was acquired by the Lowell Machine Shop/Saco-Lowell Shops after 1905 and was shut down in 1928 when all of the company’s operations were consolidated to Saco and Biddeford, Maine.

Preservation and Reuse

Following the company’s closure in 1928, the buildings were sold and marginally used for other industrial uses until 1992 when they were purchased by the American Textile History Museum for redevelopment as the museum’s new home.  The exterior rehabilitation of the buildings was completed in 1994 in anticipation of the museum’s opening a few year’s later.

Exterior work on the complex included new wood windows that matched the originals and the restoration of industrial steel windows (a few were replaced with visual duplicates of aluminum).  Other work included the chemical cleaning of the exterior masonry along with extensive repair and repointing of the brick.  A new entryway for the museum, clearly a modern addition, was created on the north side of the complex.

The building now has multiple functions in housing the museum, residences, and the Lowell Sun.

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