The Top 10 Things To Do and See in Lowell, MA

As a landmark and museum, commemorating one of the city’s most famous natives, painter James McNeill Whistler, the Whistler House Museum of Art is a great place to start a trip to Lowell, MA. Renovated since its construction in the 19th century, this museum commits itself to the preservation of Whistler, other 19th century artists and regional artists in the Greater Merrimack River Valley area. Be sure to stop on the top floor to visit the artist in residence.

Halfway between Lowell and Boston lies deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the tribute to the self-made, Jamaican-born capitalist Julian de Cordova. Encompassing an enormous 30 acres of sculpture, hills and woods, this park makes for a great stop en route to or from Lowell or Boston. With over 3,400 works in deCordova’s holdings, come away from a visit here reinvigorated, culturally satisfied and ready for the trip ahead.

Bursting at the seams with everything from historic fabrics, to period clothing pieces to great, galumphing pieces of factory machinery that illuminate times gone by, the American Textile History Museum is arguably the largest museum of its kind in the world. A fine calendar of touring exhibitions combines with some immersive and hands-on displays here to create a truly interesting day out no matter the traveller in question.

Built in 1908, the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Lowell was the first Byzantine Greek church built stateside. The church is a great source of pride for the Hellenic-American population of Massachusetts, and for good reason. The inside of the church is stunning, and definitely worth a stop for pictures, or a mass.

As one of Lowell’s fully operating cotton mills for over a century, it is fitting that this once powerhouse in the textile industry has become a mill museum. There is no better place to see the conditions of a historic cotton mill than the Boott Cotton Mills Museum, which devotes an entire floor to conveying what a fully functioning textile mill used to look like. Another portion of the museum preserves the memory of the Lowell Mill Girls, who shattered stereotypes of women at work in their day.