Pawtucket Canal, Guard Locks, Lowell, Middlesex County, MA

Significance: The Guard Locks were the first set of locks constructed in the Lowell System which are still in existence. They have, however, been altered and added to since first put into use. The Guard Locks complex now includes not only the locks, but also a sluice gatehouse dating from 1870, a navigation lock gatehouse (1881), and the Great (or Francis) Gate, a portcullis-type gate constructed in 1848-50 to keep flood waters from entering the canal system.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-3

Survey number: HAER MA-2-A

Building/structure dates: 1792- 1796 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1798 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1803 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1822-1823 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1832 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1839 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1848-1850 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1870 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1881-1900 Subsequent Work

locks hydraulic facilities brick buildings wooden buildings hydraulic engineering water power textile industry manufacturing toll collection navigation transportation floods lowell pawtucket pawtucket canal locks guard locks middlesex middlesex county massachusetts kirk boott jack boucher uriah boyden thomas clark michael f conner j b francis monica e hawley historic american engineering record jonathan jackson patrick tracy jackson joel lewis patrick m malone merrimack manufacturing company proprietors of the locks and canals on the merrimack river louis r scurci joseph tyler leslie ventsch photo ultra high resolution high resolution manufacturing plants united states history library of congress

1900

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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