Trolley Tuesday 10/20/20 - Lowell National Historic Park & Seashore Trolley Museum

Heritage trolley lines have long been a mainstay of American cities since the Bicentennial of 1976, and cities such as Seattle, Dallas, and New Orleans alike have seen their heritage streetcars run well into the 21st Century on their own dedicated routes. With heritage streetcars come the possibility of urban revitalization and that nasty word, "gentrification", but don't underestimate the power of a heritage streetcar. Even the filthiest and most industrialized city can find itself beautified with a street railway, and no heritage trolley exemplifies this more than the longest-running heritage streetcar in America, the Lowell Street Railway in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The Handmaid of Invention

Lowell's town logo, featuring a cornucopia over a Norris Locomotive Works
product of the 1830s. The mill town buildings are in the background.
(Atticus van Astikatus)

One of Lowell's many textile mills, with the bricks
and windows seeming to stretch on forever.
(Atticus van Astikatus)

Long considered the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, the town of Lowell was founded in 1823 along the Merrimack River and became the center of America's mill and textile industries into the 1850s. Named after prominent "Codfish Aristocrat" Francis Cabot Lowell, the town's planned goal was to be a center for both industry and good morals, a haven from the cramped and "inhumane" conditions of British mills. Before the railroads arrived, canals were dug in and around the Merrimack and Concord Rivers to transport goods south and east where they could be delivered. The first railroad to run in Lowell was the aptly-named Boston & Lowell Railroad, which first operated in 1835 and soon became part of the Boston & Maine's Southern Branch in 1887. With the enormous growth in population once mass transit became established, the city planners and leaders began thinking about how to move its vast numbers of workers around the city. Like any good invention, the horsecars sprung up as a natural means to an end.

Lowell's Electric Desires

On Merrimack Street in 1908, a streetcar runs
down the street in Lowell. Note the open-bench style.
(Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Collection)

The first horsecar company, the Lowell Horse Railroad, began running in 1864 to connect Belvedere and Pawtucket Falls to the Lowell industrial center. At the time, all workers were concentrated deep in the downtown area and only had to walk to get to work. This meant any suburban development to free up downtown was welcomed, and so the Horse Railroad became a real estate venture. This business continued into 1889, when the Lowell & Dracut Street Railway Company (L&D) became the first electric streetcar in Lowell following Frank J. Sprague's sales tour of the United States. The Horse Railroad merged with the L&D in 1891 to form the Lowell & Suburban Street Railway (LSS). As the railway grew out of Lowell to connect new suburban communities, the streetcars even stretched out to Canobie Lake in Southern New Hampshire and established a trolley park in 1902 for summer day-trippers under another company, the Massachusetts North Eastern Street Railway.

The entrance to Canobie Lake Park, with an open car waiting for tourists
to board it and go home.
(CanobieFan.net)

Strikes Are Nothing New in Industry

A 1912 textile strike in Lowell, led by
W.D. Haywood.
(Library of Congress, Bain collection)

But deep in the engine room, all was not well. As the 1800s gave way to the 1900s, the street railway workers found themselves under new management of the Lynn & Boston Railroad Company. This firm reorganized the LSS into the Boston & Northern Street Railway (BNS) in 1901 and the lack of improved working wages and conditions forced the workers to join the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees (AASRE) in 1903. At the time, many of the BNS's motormen and shop workers were Irish and were seeking a new life following the potato famine, and so they faced intense opposition from anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic citizens and executives. The early 1900s were marked by several street railway and industrial strikes, forcing the BNS's managers to cut labor and operating costs to stay in business. 

The Fall of Industry

An Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway car in the 1920s,
like the ones running Lowell at the time.
(Queen City Massachusetts)

Like any and all street railways in America, the downfall of the Boston & Northern Street Railway came with the automobile and motor buses. The BNS had declared bankruptcy in 1918 following a failed merger with the Bay State Railway Company, and so the public stopped using their streetcars. Service out to Canobie Lake was also ended and, by the 1920s, the railroad was a managerial mess. No amount of mergers and reorganizations could help, and even the city started feeling it as Lowell's dependence as a mill town waned in the 1920s. Industries had moved south and by the Great Depression, Lowell had become an "industrial desert" in 1931. Its deep brick canyons fell silent as the years wore on, and in 1935, the street railways that ran like steel rivers fell silent too. 

Seashore Trolley Museum

Ex-Connecticut Company No. 858, a 15-bench "Breezer"
built by the Jones Car Company, works a service at
Seashore in the 1960s. The motorman is museum
trustee Celia Clapp.
(Ernest A. Barstow)

In another part of the Northeast, specifically Kennebunkport, Maine, a new invention had found its way into the tapestry of history. Starting in 1939, the "Seashore Electric Railway" was established to save the streetcars of the Biddeford and Saco Railroad. Founded by the New England Electric Railway Historical Society (NE-ERHS) and led by Theodore F. Santarelli de Brasch, the museum was located on an old farm property near the abandoned Atlantic Shore Line route between Kennebunk and Biddeford, and from there the world's first trolley museum grew to encompass trolley cars from all over America, and even all over the world. After all, there was nothing else like it in the world at the time. One special car, ex-New Orleans "Perley" No. 966, arrived at the now-Seashore Trolley Museum in 1984 from the "Heart of Dixie" chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Birmingham, AL. The arrival of this car also heralded the start of new trolley operations in Lowell, and one that Seashore would soon be involved in.

The Spirit of Industry and Street Railways

A ticket to see the American Freedom Train roll into
Lowell in 1975.
(The 1975-1976 American Freedom Train)

The American Bicentennial brought with it a spirit of reappreciation and restoration all over the country. Many cities began reevaluating the good-old-ways of architecture, industry, and transportation all in the name of the American ideal, and nothing was more American than the electrified streetcar. Many of these street railways ran after the Bicentennial was over, enthusiasm and zeal led the way in many legislation establishing new historic parks. Lowell City Council originally planned on having a "Historic Mill & Canal District" in 1972 and in 1976, opened their first city museum. However, the intervention of a prominent Lowell native, Paul Tsongas, led the United States Congress to establish the entire area as the "Lowell Historical Park" in 1978. This meant the area was now funded and cared for under the National Park Service.

A map of the Lowell NHP as it looks today.
(Lowell NHP)

Interestingly, this was not enough for the Lowell Historical Park, which needed a major draw to transport tourists in and around the 141-acre historic district. After the Boston & Maine Railroad ended local freight service to Lowell's mills in the 1950s, miles and miles of industrial railroad tracks were left behind and this gave the Lowell Historical Society an idea: what better way to transport huge numbers of tourists over a large area than to have a streetcar line like before? Over the first couple years of the 1980s, railroad tracks were rehabilitated and 600V DC were was strung up in preparation until 1.2 miles of track were constructed between Suffolk Mill to the Northwest, Boott Mills to the east, and Mack Plaza to the South.

The Gomaco Roster

Cars 1602 (left) and 1601 (right) open the new street
railway in 1984. The track that No. 1601 is on leads
to the carhouse that also now houses the National
Streetcar Museum as of 1998.
(Gomaco Trolley Company)

To populate its route, the Lowell NHP turned to the Gomaco Trolley Company of Ida Grove, IA. The company originally went as the "Godbersen Manufacturing Company" and was founded in 1965 to build concrete paving equipment, so trolleys were certainly not their forte. In 1982, Lowell NHP put out a bid to build new streetcars for them, and Gomaco was the winning bid. After an initial period of design and construction, the first two historic-newbuild streetcars left the Ida Grove shops in 1984. Cars 1601 (yellow) and 1602 (green) were modeled after 15-bench open-sided "breezer" cars originally built by J.G. Brill in 1902 for the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway (EMSR), one of the later streetcar companies to reach and ran interurban services between Boston and Lowell.

"Breezer" Car No. 1602 loads at Mack Plaza, next to ex-Boston & Maine
switcher No. 410 placed on display.
(Atticus Van Astikatus)

Lowell NHP No. 4131 poses for a builder's photo at
Ida Grove, IA, shortly before delivery. Unlike her open
kin, she's the only car equipped with a people catcher.
(Gomaco Trolley Company)

After the line opened in May 1984, the success of Nos. 1601 and 1602 prompted Lowell NHP to contract Gomaco again for a third car. This one, No. 4131, was all new from trucks to trolley pole (the two open cars ran on ex-Melbourne W2 trucks and other components) and was built in 1986 as a St. Louis and Laconia Car Company "semi-convertible" car, complete with a flashy yellow scheme courtesy of the Bay State Railway Company. The "semi-convertible" meant that with the addition of removal of windows, one end can be an open section and another end can be an enclosed section. The car sat significantly less people than the open cars, 48 people instead of 90, but this still proved to be a success for Lowell.

Car No. 1602 swings around a curve, showing off its
immense 15-bench length and a lack of side protection.
Don't jump off!
(Atticus van Astikatus)

Perley Streetcar No. 966, framed by one of Lowell's
many canal footbridges, passes by the
American Textile History Museum. 
(Atticus Van Astikatus)

However, come the 1990s, this still wasn't enough for the line. They now wanted a fourth car to run at the site, and like the 4131, this one had to be all-enclosed too. In 1998, the Seashore Trolley Museum approached the Lowell NHP about creating a satellite museum in the densely-visited town of Lowell. As the park was looking to further expand its streetcar line, a deal was reached and New Orleans Perley No. 966 was sent with a crew of volunteers to Lowell to run on the line. Seashore's new satellite museum was established at Mack Plaza, filled with a replica trolley front and photos and paraphernalia of the historic streetcars of Massachusetts. 

The National Streetcar Museum at Mack Plaza, run by the Seashore Trolley Museum.
That little slide I teased is under the tree, to the right of the building)
(Atticus van Astikatus)

A New Industry - Tourism

A man waves at 1602 passing by along the Eastern Canal,
departing Boott Mills.
(Atticus Van Astikatus)

Today, Lowell continues to be a model industrial city of America, but its industry now is tourism. Its enormous brick buildings and little trolleys entertain and educate over 500,000 people annually, teaching them where America had come from and what remained of this legendary site. The trolleys work in conjunction with canal boats for tourism and transport, helping No. 966 (who used to run on Louisiana's Canal Street) feel at home. The streetcars hit their peak ever year with the Lowell Folk Festival, an enormous (and free) event where music, food, and streetcars come together to fill the industrial town with culture and entertainment. Due to the bitter northeast winters, the cars only run from March through November, but they remain free and additional studies have shown that not only can the cars be modernized with new wheelchair lifts, but also the line can be expanded to help out local businesses. Only time will tell if this is successful.

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today include the Seashore Trolley Museum's profile on Car No. 966, the National Park Service website on the Lowell Cars (adapted from an article written by Seashore Trolley Museum), and Railway Preservation's profile on the Lowell NHP. Many of the photos found here are thanks to Atticus van Astikatus, a local Massachusetts railfan and modeller. On Thursday, we look at Massachusetts's other historic streetcar line, the Mattapan-Ashmont High Speed Line! For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) The streetcar sprites used in our blog can be found on Brian Clough's "Banks of the Susquehanna" website. Until next time, ride safe!