Timeline of Lawrence, Massachusetts

The following is a timeline of the history of Lawrence, Massachusetts in the United States.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

19th century

• 1845
  • Essex Company begins construction of dam and canal on Merrimack River.^[1]
• 1846
  • Essex Company Machine Shop built.
  • Lawrence Street Church organized.^[2]
  • Church of the Immaculate Conception established.^[2]
• 1847
  • Town of Lawrence incorporated from Methuen and Andover; named after businessman Abbott Lawrence,^[3]
  • Lawrence Courier newspaper in publication.^[4]
  • Bellevue Cemetery established.
  • Franklin Library Association formed.^[5]
  • First Baptist Church, First Free Baptist Church, First Unitarian Society, Church of the Good Shepherd, and First Methodist Episcopal Church established^[2]
• 1848
  • Boston & Maine Railroad depot established in South Lawrence.^[6]
  • Lawrence Dam constructed across Merrimac River.^[7]
  • Bay State woollen mills begin operating.^[8]
  • St. Mary's Church organized.^[2]
• 1849
  • Manchester and Lawrence Railroad begins operating.
  • Lawrence Sentinel newspaper begins publication.^[4]
  • Central Church organized.^[2]
  • Atlantic Cotton Mills starts in business.^[9]
  • Lawrence Gas Company formed.^[9]
  • Lawrence Brass Band formed.^[9]
• 1850 - Population: 8,282.
• 1851 - Grace Episcopal Church built.
• 1853
  • City of Lawrence incorporated as a municipal government.
  • Charles S. Storrow becomes first city mayor.^[10]
  • Lawrence Duck Company in business.^[9]
  • Garden Street Methodist Episcopal Church organized as a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church.^[2]
• 1854
  • Additional part of Methuen annexed to the City of Lawrence.^[3]
  • Pacific Mills starts operating bin business.^[9][11]
  • Lawrence Paper Company incorporated.^[12][13]
• 1855 - Pemberton Company in business.^[9]
• 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 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 watfront 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 killed and numerous wounded and among Baltimorean civilians as city police and officials attempt to escort troops. Considered the "First Bloodshed of the Civil War".
• Second Baptist Church established.^[2]
• 1864 - Moseley Truss Bridge built.
• 1865
  • Eliot Congregational Church organized.^[2]
  • Arlington Mills in business.^[14][15]
  • Wright Manufacturing Co. formed.^[2]
• 1867 - Lawrence Flyer and Spindle Works in business.^[16]
• 1868
  • Lawrence Daily Eagle newspaper begins publication.
  • South Congregational Church and First Presbyterian Church established.^[2]
• 1871
  • Archibald Wheel Co. incorporated.^[2]
  • Parker Street Methodist Episcopal Church and St. Anne's Church organized.^[2]
• 1872 - Free Public Library established^[17]
• 1873 - St. Laurence's Church dedicated.^[2]
• 1876 - [YMCA formed.^[2]
• 1877
  • Lawrence Bleachery established.^[16]
  • Tower Hill Congregational Church organized.^[2]
• 1878 - German Methodist Episcopal Church organized.^[2]
• 1879
  • Parts of Andover and North Andover annexed to Lawrence.^[3]
  • German Presbyterian Church organized.^[2]
  • Lawrence Bicycle Club formed.^[2]
• 1880
  • Globe Worsted Co. incorporated.^[2]
  • Bodwell Street M.E. Church organized.^[2]
• 1881
  • Lawrence Line Company incorporated.^[9]
  • Munroe Felt and Paper Company incorporated.^[6]
  • Merrimac Paper Company incorporated.^[9]
• 1882
  • L'Institute Canadien Francais founded.^[2]
  • Stanley Manufacturing Co. incorporated.^[2]
• 1884 - Emmons Loom Harness Company organized.^[9]
• 1887 - Lawrence Experiment Station established by the Massachusetts State Board of Health.
• 1888
  • Duck Bridge built.^[18]
  • Board of Trade organized.^[19]
• 1896 - High Service Water Tower built
• 1890
  • Public Library building constructed.
  • Evening Tribune newspaper begins publication.
  • July - Cyclone.^[19]
• 1899 - 20,899 people employed in manufacturing in Lawrence.^[20]

20th century

• 1905 - American Woolen Company builds Wood Mill.
• 1910 - Everett Mill constructed.
• 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.^[19]
• 1919 - 30,319 people employed in manufacturing in Lawrence.^[20]
• 1920 - Population: 94,270.
• 1927 - Stadium opens.
• 1931 - Boston & Maine Railroad depot active off Parker Street.
• 1934
  • Lawrence Municipal Airport established.^[21]
  • 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 established for local history and culture with exhibitions.^[22]
  • Lawrence P. LeFebre becomes mayor.
• 1986 - Kevin J. Sullivan becomes mayor.
• 1991 - Northern Essex Community College active in Lawrence.
• 1995 - Malden Mills fire.

21st century

• 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 with memorial ceremonies at 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.^[23][24]
• 2012
  • School Superintendent convicted of fraud and embezzlement.^[25]
  • Centennial observed of infamous 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike, later known as "Bread and Roses" labor strife.^[26]

See also

• History of Lawrence, Massachusetts
• List of mayors of Lawrence, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Lawrence, Massachusetts
• Labor history of the United States
• Baltimore riot of 1861
• Timeline of Baltimore history
• History of Baltimore
• Timeline of Boston
• Timeline of Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Gloucester, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Haverhill, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Lowell, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Lynn, Massachusetts
• Timeline of New Bedford, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Newburyport, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Salem, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Somerville, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Waltham, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Worcester, Massachusetts

References

1. Dorothy Truman (Winter 1986). "The Museum of American Textile History: Archival Sources for Business History". Business History Review 60.
2. Lawrence Directory: 1883. Boston: Sampson, Davenport & Co.
3. "Lawrence", The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.), New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910, OCLC 14782424
4. "US Newspaper Directory". Chronicling America. Washington DC: Library of Congress. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
5. Davies Project. "American Libraries before 1876". Princeton University. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
6. Lawrence Public Library Special Collections. "Queen City Massachusetts (blog)". Retrieved September 25, 2012.
7. Peter M. Molloy (Winter 1980). "Nineteenth-Century Hydropower: Design and Construction of Lawrence Dam, 1845-1848". Winterthur Portfolio 15.
8. A Sketch of the Mills of the American Woolen Company, American Woolen Co., 1901, OCLC 3286127
9. The Lawrence Gazetteer, containing a record of the important events in Lawrence and vicinity from 1845 to 1894, Lawrence, Mass.: Charles G. Merrill, 1894, OCLC 8678542
10. Peter A. Ford (2000). ""Father of the Whole Enterprise": Charles S. Storrow and the Making of Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1845-1860". Massachusetts Historical Review 2. line feed character in |title= at position 81 (help)
11. Pacific Mills (1918), The manufacture, dyeing, printing, and finishing of textiles, Lawrence, Mass, OCLC 15206587
12. Massachusetts Register for the year 1855.
13. "Ballou's Pictorial". 1855.
14. Arlington Mills, 1865-1925, Norwood, Mass: Priv. print. by the Plimpton Press, 1925
15. The Arlington Mills, Boston: Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 1891
16. D. Hamilton Hurd (1888), "Lawrence", History of Essex County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co., OCLC 3106590
17. "History of the Lawrence Public Library". Lawrence Public Library. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
18. "Duck Bridge, Spanning Merrimack River on Union Street, Lawrence, Essex County, MA". Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress). Retrieved September 25, 2012.
19. Maurice B. Dorgan (1918), Lawrence yesterday and today: 1845-1918, Lawrence, Mass.: Press of Dick & Trumpold, OCLC 10625548
20. William H. Wallace (Oct 1961). "Merrimack Valley Manufacturing: Past and Present". Economic Geography 37.
21. "Lawrence Municipal Airport". Retrieved September 25, 2012.
22. Lawrence History Center. "Lawrence History Timeline". Retrieved September 25, 2012.
23. Jay Atkinson (Feb 2012). "Lawrence, MA: City of the Damned". Boston Magazine. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
24. "Meet the Mayors". Washington, DC: United States Conference of Mayors. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
25. "Eagle Tribune". March 23, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
26. "New York Times". May 29, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2012.

Further reading

Published in the 19th century

• Jeremiah Spofford (1860), "Lawrence", Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of Massachusetts (2nd ed.), Haverhill: E.G. Frothingham
• J. F. C. Hayes (1868), History of the city of Lawrence, Lawrence, Mass: E.D. Green, OCLC 3700952
• "Lawrence Business Directory". Merrimack River Directory, for 1872 & 1873, containing a complete business directory of Concord, Manchester, Nashua, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Amesbury and Salisbury, and Newburyport. Boston: Greenough, Jones. 1872.
• H. A. Wadsworth (1880), History of Lawrence, Massachusetts, Lawrence, Mass.: Printed by Hammon Reed, Lawrence Eagle Steam Job Print. Office, OCLC 7185272
• "City of Lawrence", Industries of Massachusetts: historical and descriptive review of Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Salem, Beverly, Peabody, Danvers, Gloucester, Newburyport, and Amesbury, and their leading manufacturers and merchants, New York: International Pub. Co., 1886, OCLC 19803267

Published in the 20th century

• Benjamin F. Arrington (1922), "City of Lawrence", Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, New York: Lewis historical publishing company, OCLC 1619460

External links

• Digital Commonwealth. Materials related to Lawrence, Mass., various dates.
• Library of Congress. Images related to Lawrence, Mass., various dates.

Images

• 

  Washington Mills, Lawrence, Mass., 1868

• 

  Map of Lawrence, 1876

• 

  Lawrence Common, 1877

• 

  Pacific Mills, c. 19th century

• 

  Aerial view of Merrimack River and Lawrence, 2010