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Apartments at Boott Mills
Boott Cotton Mills
Mills 1, 2, Connector, 5 East, 7, and Power House; built ca. 1835-1882
aka East Mill
Site History
The Boott Cotton Mills is one of the most historic and architecturally significant millyards in the United States. Of the original millyards in Lowell, the Boott is the most intact surviving example of the first phase of Lowell’s mill construction. All four of the original 1830s mills survive as part of an interconnected series of buildings. The 1835 company office and counting house also survive in their original exterior form. Development of the millyard continued until 1900 when the last major mill additions were made.
The corporation was chartered in 1835 for the purpose of “manufacturing cotton and woolen goods in the town of Lowell.” The Boott millyard demonstrates the evolution of the earliest Lowell mills to meet the needs of expansion of an increasingly restrictive site, bound by the Eastern Canal and Merrimack River. It is one of the few corporations that managed to expand on its site while retaining and even enhancing the architectural quality of the millyard.
The Boott Cotton Mills were in operation as a textile manufacturer until 1956 when production ceased. The millyard was then used as industrial rental property for a variety of small-scale manufacturers and commercial firms.
Preservation and Reuse
In 1989-90, new owners began a historically sensitive rehabilitation of the millyard for use as office and technology space with the exception of Mill No. 6 which was developed by the Lowell National Historical Park for their Boott Cotton Mills Museum. While several buildings in the millyard were fully rehabilitated and the courtyard facades and towers restored, the bulk of the complex was not rehabilitated. However, over the last few years additional buildings in the millyard have begun to be rehabilitated for offices and residential use in a gradual effort to complete what was begun in the early 1990s: the comprehensive rehabilitation and reuse of the entire millyard.
Mills 1, 2, Connector, 5 East, 7, and Power House underwent a major renovation into 154 rental apartments, with 32 units being designated affordable, by Winn Development. Work has included extensive masonry repairs and reconstruction, installation of replica aluminum and wood windows, and restoration of the millyard’s signature smokestack and iconic bell tower and cupola.