1920s/30s

Image Credit: Lowell National Historical Park

The city's once-thriving textile industry collapses, resulting in empty mill buildings and a decaying downtown.  Older factories and machinery could not compete with more advanced steam powered factories and lower taxes in the south as it began to industrialize.  Lowell’s textile companies moved south or shut down.  World War II boosted Lowell’s economy but the boom was short lived as the last of the original textile companies closed in 1956.