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Lower Locks Gatehouse
Lower Locks Gatehouse
1822-23; 1841-43
The Lower Locks and Dam are located on the end of the Pawtucket Canal, above a wasteway that empties into the Concord River. Although there were locks here in 1796 when the Pawtucket Canal was completed, the current configuration of two locks to the south of the dam dates from 1822-23. Much of the present appearance though dates to a rebuilding between 1841 and 1843.
The reconstruction in the 1840s reduced the width of the stone locks from 25 to 12 feet by building new stone walls at the locks’ gates and wooden walls along the lock chambers’ sides. The wooden walls are now gone.
The gatehouse atop dam has been in place since the late 19th century and was restored/reconstructed by the National Park Service in the 1980s. The locks were also restored by the Park Service in the 1980s and today are used by their tour boats as well as a terminus for whitewater rafting excursions on the Concord River run by the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust.