Indigenous history Native Americans lived along the Merrimack River for thousands of years before
European colonization of the Americas. Evidence of farming at Den Rock Park and arrowhead manufacturing on the site where the Wood Mill now sits have been discovered. At the time of contact in the early 1600s, the
Pennacook or Pentucket had a presence north of the Merrimack, while
Massachusett,
Naumkeag, and
Agawam controlled territory south of the river. The territory which would later be aggregated into the city of Lawrence was purchased from Pennacooks Sagahew and Passaquo in 1642 for the English settlement of Haverhill, and from
Massachusett sachem Cutshamekin in 1646 as a post-hoc payment for the lands surrounding the English settlement of
Andover (modern-day
North Andover center). The area that would become Lawrence was then part of Methuen and Andover. The first settlement within the present-day city limits came in 1655 with the establishment of a
blockhouse in Shawsheen Fields, now South Lawrence. The future site of the city (formerly parts of
Andover and
Methuen) was purchased by a consortium of local industrialists. The Water Power Association members:
Abbott Lawrence, Edmund Bartlett,
Thomas Hopkinson of
Lowell,
John Nesmith and
Daniel Saunders, had purchased control of Peter's Falls on the Merrimack River and hence controlled Bodwell's Falls the site of the present
Great Stone Dam. The group allotted fifty thousand dollars to buy land along the river to develop. In 1844, the group petitioned the legislature to act as a corporation, known as the
Essex Company, which incorporated on April 16, 1845. The first excavations for the Great Stone Dam to harness the Merrimack River's water power were done on August 1, 1845.
Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 The
Pemberton Mill collapse occurred on January 10, 1860, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The five-story textile mill, built in 1853, was a major employer, particularly of Irish immigrants, many of whom were women and children. Around 600–800 workers were inside at the time of the collapse, though estimates vary. The official death toll was 88, with estimates of 116–145 deaths and hundreds injured, many permanently disabled. The disaster was one of the deadliest industrial accidents in U.S. history. Investigations pinned the collapse on substandard construction, specifically defective cast-iron columns that were too weak to support the mill's weight. Poor oversight, cost-cutting by owners, and overloading the structure with heavy machinery exacerbated the issue. The mill had been known to vibrate heavily during operation, a warning sign that had been ignored. As immigrants flooded into the United States in the mid-to-late 19th century, the population of Lawrence abounded with skilled and unskilled workers from several countries. Protesting conditions, in 1912 they walked out of the mills. The action, sometimes celebrated as the
Bread and Roses Strike, was one of the more important, widely reported, labor struggles in American history. The
Industrial Workers of the World (the "One Big Union", the "Wobblies") defied the common wisdom that a largely female and ethnically divided workforce could not be organized, and the strike held through two bitterly cold winter months. The 15-year-old mill-hand
Fred Beal, who was drawn by the experience into a lifetime of labor organizing, recalls that contrary to expectations, it was the most recent immigrant groups, "the Italians, Poles, Syrians [Lebanese] and
Franco-Belgians", who "kept it alive". After hundreds of the strikers' hungry children had been sent to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, and the U.S. Congress was induced to hold hearings, the mill owners decided to settle, giving workers in Lawrence and throughout New England raises of up to 20 percent. However, in the decades that followed, the mill owners moved their capital and employment out of Lawrence and the region to the non-union South—as a young Massachusetts Senator,
John F. Kennedy, was later to record.
Post-War history Lawrence was a great wool-processing center until that industry declined in the 1950s. The decline left Lawrence a struggling city. The population of Lawrence declined from over 80,000 residents in 1950 (and a high of 94,270 in 1920) to approximately 64,000 residents in 1980, the low point of Lawrence's population. Much of the population relocated to nearby
Methuen.
Urban redevelopment and renewal Like other northeastern cities suffering from the effects of post-
World War II industrial decline, Lawrence has often made efforts at revitalization, some of them controversial. The Lawrence Redevelopment Authority and city officials utilized eminent domain for a perceived public benefit, via a top-down approach, to revitalize the city throughout the 1960s. Known first as urban redevelopment, and then urban renewal, Lawrence's local government's actions towards vulnerable immigrant and poor communities, contained an undercurrent of gentrification which lies beneath the goals to revitalize Lawrence. There was a clash of differing ideals and perceptions of blight, growth, and what constituted a desirable community. Ultimately the discussion left out those members of the community who would be directly impacted by urban redevelopment. Under the guise of
urban renewal, large tracts of downtown Lawrence were razed in the 1970s, and replaced with parking lots and a three-story parking garage connected to a new Intown Mall intended to compete with newly constructed suburban malls. The historic Theater Row along Broadway was also razed, destroying ornate movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s that entertained mill workers through the
Great Depression and the Second World War. The city's main post office, an ornate Federalist-style building at the corner of Broadway and Essex Street, was razed. Most of the structures were replaced with one-story, steel-frame structures with large parking lots, housing such establishments as fast food restaurants and chain drug stores, fundamentally changing the character of the center of Lawrence. Lawrence also attempted to increase its employment base by attracting industries unwanted in other communities, such as waste treatment facilities and incinerators. From 1980 until 1998, private corporations operated two trash incinerators in Lawrence. Activist residents successfully blocked the approval of a waste treatment center on the banks of the Merrimack River near the current site of Salvatore's Pizza on Merrimack Street. Recently the focus of Lawrence's urban renewal has shifted to preservation rather than sprawl.
Events of the 1980s and 1990s Immigrants from the
Dominican Republic and migrants from
Puerto Rico began arriving in Lawrence in significant numbers in the late 1960s, attracted by cheap housing and a history of tolerance toward immigrants. In 1984, tensions between remaining working-class whites and increasing numbers of Hispanic youth flared into a riot, centered at the intersection of Haverhill Street and Oxford Street, where several buildings were destroyed by
Molotov cocktails and over 300 people were arrested. Lawrence saw further setbacks during the recession of the early 1990s as a wave of arson plagued the city. Over 200 buildings were set alight in eighteen months in 1991–1992, many of them abandoned residences and industrial sites. The
Malden Mills factory burned down on December 11, 1995. CEO Aaron Feuerstein decided to continue paying the salaries of all the now unemployed workers while the factory was being rebuilt.
Recent trends A sharp reduction in violent crime starting in 2004 and massive private investment in former mill buildings along the Merrimack River, including the remaining section of the historic
Wood Worsted Mill—to be converted into commercial, residential and education uses – have lent encouragement to boosters of the city. One of the final remaining mills in the city is
Malden Mills. Lawrence's downtown has seen a resurgence of business activity as Hispanic-owned businesses have opened along Essex Street, the historic shopping street of Lawrence that remained largely shuttered since the 1970s. In June 2007, the city approved the sale of the Intown Mall, largely abandoned since the early 1990s recession, to
Northern Essex Community College for the development of a medical sciences center, the construction of which commenced in 2012 when the InTown Mall was finally removed. A large multi-structure fire in January 2008 destroyed many wooden structures just south of downtown. A poor financial situation that has worsened with the recent global recession and has led to multiple municipal layoffs had Lawrence contemplating
receivership. On February 9, 2019, in recognition of the role the town has played in the labor movement, Senator
Elizabeth Warren officially announced in Lawrence her candidacy for President of the United States.
Gas explosion On September 13, 2018, a series of gas explosions and fires broke out in as many as 40 homes in Lawrence,
Andover, and
North Andover. The disaster killed one resident and caused over 30,000 customers to evacuate their homes. A year after this first incident on September 27, 2019, there was another gas leak, causing people to evacuate their homes again.
Timeline • 1845 • Essex Company begins construction of the dam and
canal on
Merrimack River. • 1846 •
Essex Company Machine Shop built. • Lawrence Street Church organized. • Church of the Immaculate Conception established. • 1847 • Town of Lawrence incorporated from
Methuen and
Andover; named after businessman
Abbott Lawrence. •
Lawrence Courier newspaper in publication. •
Bellevue Cemetery established. • Franklin Library Association formed. • First Baptist Church, First Free Baptist Church, First Unitarian Society, Church of the Good Shepherd, and First Methodist Episcopal Church established • 1848 •
Boston & Maine Railroad depot established in South Lawrence. • St. Mary's Church organized. • 1849 •
Manchester and Lawrence Railroad begins operating. •
Lawrence Sentinel newspaper begins publication. • Lawrence Paper Company incorporated. • 1855 –
Pemberton Company in business. • 1860 • January –
Pemberton Mill building collapse. • Population according to decennial
United States Census: 17,639. • 1861 –
Massachusetts state militia called up by
Governor in response to a proclamation by 16th President
Abraham Lincoln of a state of rebellion in the South following firing on
Fort Sumter in
Charleston harbor in
South Carolina Confederate forces on April 12. Sixth Regiment earliest to respond with men from Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, Stoneham, Boston. Heads south by train and is attacked by mobs of Southern sympathizers in Baltimore along Pratt Street while being pulled through on horse cars and later marching between the
President Street Station of the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad on the east of the harbor to the
Camden Street Station of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on way to the national capital at
Washington, D.C. on Friday, April 19. Four soldiers were killed and numerous wounded among Baltimorean civilians as city police and officials attempted to escort troops. Considered the "First Bloodshed of the Civil War". • Second
Baptist Church established. • 1864 –
Moseley Truss Bridge built. • 1865 • Eliot Congregational Church organized. • Arlington Mills in business. • Wright Manufacturing Co. formed. • 1867 – Lawrence Flyer and Spindle Works in business. • 1868 •
Lawrence Daily Eagle newspaper begins publication. • South Congregational Church and First Presbyterian Church established. • 1871 • Archibald Wheel Co. incorporated. • Parker Street Methodist Episcopal Church and St. Anne's Church organized. • 1872 – Free Public Library established • 1873 – St. Laurence's Church dedicated. • 1876 – YMCA formed. • 1877 • Lawrence Bleachery established. • Tower Hill Congregational Church organized. • 1878 – German Methodist Episcopal Church organized. • 1879 • Parts of
Andover and North Andover annexed to Lawrence. • German Presbyterian Church organized. • Lawrence Bicycle Club formed. • 1880 • Globe Worsted Co. incorporated. • Bodwell Street M.E. Church organized. • 1881 • Lawrence Line Company incorporated. • Munroe Felt and Paper Company incorporated. • Merrimac Paper Company incorporated. • 1882 • L'Institute Canadien Francais founded. • Stanley Manufacturing Co. incorporated. • 1884 – Emmons Loom Harness Company organized. • 1887 –
Lawrence Experiment Station established by the Massachusetts State Board of Health. • 1888 • Duck Bridge built. • Board of Trade organized. • 1896 –
High Service Water Tower built • 1890 •
Public Library building constructed. •
Evening Tribune newspaper begins publication. • July – Cyclone. • 1899 – 20,899 people employed in manufacturing in Lawrence. • 1905 –
American Woolen Company builds Wood Mill. • 1910 –
Everett Mill constructed. • 1911 –
Lawrence bathhouse tragedy • 1912 – Famous nationally known
1912 Lawrence Textile Strike occurs with strife and casualties. Later known as the "Bread and Roses Strike". • 1918 - Central Bridge constructed. • 1919 - 30,319 people employed in manufacturing in Lawrence. • Walter A. Griffin becomes mayor. • 1935 –
Central Catholic High School opens. • 1943 –
Climatic Research Laboratory for
United States Army in operation. • 1966 – Daniel P. Kiley, Jr. becomes mayor. • 1972 –
John J. Buckley becomes mayor. • 1975 –
Paul Tsongas becomes
Massachusetts's 5th congressional district representative. • 1978 • Immigrant City Archives at Lawrence History Center was established for local history and culture with exhibitions. • Lawrence P. LeFebre becomes mayor. • 1985 – Greater Lawrence
Habitat for Humanity organized. • 1986 –
Kevin J. Sullivan becomes mayor. • 1991 –
Northern Essex Community College active in Lawrence. • 1995 –
Malden Mills fire. • 2001 –
Michael J. Sullivan becomes mayor. • 2004 –
Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School opens. • First observance of
Civil War Weekend at central Compeigne Common in October remembering local casualties then nationally famous and considered first "martyrs for the Union" of the noted Sixth Massachusetts volunteer state militia regiment in infamous
Baltimore riot of 1861 (also known as the "Pratt Street Riots") as the "First Bloodshed of the Civil War" on April 19, 1861. Various military reenactment units and heritage groups including from the Baltimore Civil War Museum at the historic
President Street Station participate in memorial ceremonies at the Soldiers Monument in Common and gravesites at historic
Bellevue Cemetery, sponsored by the Lawrence Civil War Memorial Guard. • 2005 –
Lawrence (MBTA station) reopens for the
Boston commuter train, subway and transit system. • 2007 –
Niki Tsongas becomes
Massachusetts's 5th congressional district representative. • 2010 • Population: 76,377. •
William Lantigua becomes mayor of Lawrence, first of Hispanic ancestry. • 2012 • School Superintendent convicted of fraud and embezzlement. • Centennial observed of infamous
1912 Lawrence Textile Strike, later known as "Bread and Roses" labor strife.
History of Lawrence immigrant communities Lawrence has been aptly nicknamed the "Immigrant City". It has been home to numerous different immigrant communities, most of whom arrived during the great wave of European immigration to America that ended in the 1920s.
Immigrant communities, 1845–1920 Lawrence became home to large groups of immigrants from Europe, beginning with the Irish in 1845, Germans after the social upheaval in Germany in 1848, Swedes fleeing an overcrowded Sweden, and French Canadians seeking to escape hard northern farm life from the 1850s onward. A second wave began arriving after 1900, as part of the great mass of Italian and Eastern European immigrants, including Jews from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and neighboring regions. Immigration to the United States was severely curtailed in the 1920s with the
Immigration Act of 1924 when foreign-born immigration to Lawrence virtually ceased for over 40 years.
Germans The first sizable German community arrived following the revolutions of 1848. The German community was characterized by numerous school clubs, shooting clubs, national and regional clubs, as well as men's choirs and mutual aid societies, as well as several Protestant churches including The German Methodist Episcopal Church, Vine Street, organized in 1878; and the German Presbyterian, East Haverhill Street, organized in 1872, from which the Methodist church split in 1878. Although most of the participants live in neighboring towns, the Feast of Three Saints festival continues in Lawrence today. Many of the Italians who lived in the Newbury Street area had immigrated from
Trecastagni,
Viagrande,
Acireale, and
Nicolosi, Italy.
French Canadians French Canadians were the second major immigrant group to settle in Lawrence. They erected their first church, St. Anne's, in 1872 at the corner of Haverhill and Franklin streets. Within decades, St. Anne's established a "missionary church", Sacred Heart on South Broadway, to serve the burgeoning
Québécois community in South Lawrence. Later it would also establish the "missionary" parishes in Methuen: Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Theresa's (Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel et St-Thérèse). The French-Canadians arrived from various farming areas of Quebec where the old parishes were overpopulated: some people moved up north (
Abitibi and
Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean), while others moved to industrial towns to find work (
Montreal, Quebec; but also in the United States). Others who integrated themselves into these French-Canadian communities were actually
Acadians who had left the Canadian Maritimes of
New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia also in search of work.
Lebanese ("Syrians") Lawrence residents frequently referred to their Arabic-speaking Middle Eastern community as "
Syrian". Most so-called Syrians in Lawrence were from present-day
Lebanon and were largely
Maronite Christian. and St. Joseph's Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, as well as
St. George's
Antiochian Orthodox Church.
Jews Jewish merchants became increasingly numerous in Lawrence and specialized in dry goods and retail shops. The fanciest men's clothing store in Lawrence, Kap's, established in 1902 and closed in the early 1990s, was founded by Elias Kapelson, born in
Lithuania. Jacob Sandler arrived in Lawrence in June 1891 (1906, his two brothers (Isaac and Sundel arrived), and 3 other brothers also arrived in the early 1900s. Jacob opened a shoe business at 434 Broadway and earned enough income to purchase the property at 256–258 Essex St, opening Sandler's Department Store; it later became Sandler's Luggage, which continued under his son Simon Sandler, and later his grandson Robert Sandler, until 1978. In the 1880s, the first Jewish arrivals established a community around Common, Valley, Concord, and Lowell streets. As of 1922, there were at least two noteworthy congregations, both on Concord Street: Congregation of Sons of Israel (Jewish), organized on October 3, 1894. Synagogue on Concord Street built in 1913; and Congregation of Anshea Sfard (Jewish), organized on April 6, 1900. The synagogue on Concord Street was built in the autumn of 1907.
Lithuanians Lawrence had a sizable enough
Lithuanian community to warrant the formation of both Lithuanian Catholic and
Lithuanian National Catholic churches. St. Francis (Lithuanian Catholic Church) on Bradford Street was formed in 1903 by Rev. James T. O'Reilly of St. Mary's, in a building previously occupied by St. John's Episcopal Church. The church closed in 2002, merging with Holy Trinity (Polish) and SS. Peter and Paul (Portuguese). Sacred Heart Lithuanian National Catholic Church was established in 1917 and located on Garden Street until its closure and sale in 2001.
English A sizable English community, composed mainly of unskilled laborers who arrived after 1880, sought work in the textile mills where they were given choice jobs by the Yankee overseers on account of their shared linguistic heritage and close cultural links.
Yankee farmers Not all immigrants to Lawrence were foreign-born or their children. Yankee farmers, unable to compete against the cheaper farmlands of the
Midwest that had been linked to the East Coast by rail, settled in corners of Lawrence.
Congregationalists were the second Protestant denomination to begin worship in Lawrence after the
Episcopalians, with the formation of the
Lawrence Street Congregational Church in 1847, and the first in South Lawrence, with the erection in 1852 of the first South Congregational Church on South Broadway, near the corner of Andover Street. St. Mary's of the Assumption Parish is the largest Catholic parish in Lawrence by Mass attendance and number of registered parishioners. It has the largest multi-lingual congregation in the city and has been offering Spanish masses since the early 1990s. Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of former Catholic churches, closed since the 1989s when their Irish or Italian congregations died out, have been bought by Hispanic
evangelical churches. The 2000 Census revealed the following population breakdown, illustrating the shift toward newer immigrant groups: Dominican Republic, 22%; other Hispanic or Latino, 12%; Irish, 7%; Italian, 7%, French (except Basque), 5%; Black or African American, 5%; French Canadian, 5%; English, 3%; Arab, 2%; German, 2%; Lebanese, 2%; Central American, 1%; Polish, 1%; Portuguese, 1%; Guatemalan, 1%; Vietnamese, 1%; South American, 1%; Spanish, 1%; Cambodian, 1%; Scottish, 1%; Cuban, 1%; Scotch-Irish, 1%; Ecuadoran, 1%. ==Geography==