Middlesex Canal Museum - Billerica, MA - History Museums on Waymarking.com

In Boston, within a building that was formerly known as the Faulkner Mill, is the Middlesex Canal Museum. This museum has exhibits, dioramas, videos, and a mural on the Middlesex Canal that ran from Lowell to Boston, and passing close by this location.

The museum is at a bend in Faulkner Street, where there is a dam and mill buildings to two factories: The Faulkner Mill and the Talbot Mill. The parking lot is on the dam side of the road. After parking, cross the street to the building on the right. There is a small sign for the museum, along with other signs. After entering, there is a corridor to the museum entrance. The entrance takes you to the counter. There are several kinds of exhibits. There are maps and images of the development of the building of the canal and the locks on the Merrimack River. There are also severl dioramas that show the canal when it was operational, including the Shawsheen Aqueduct, which is a stone bridge that carried the canal over the Shawsheen River. There are also videos about the canal, including a review of sites that show evidence of the canal, today. In the back, there is another exhibit about the Billerica and Bedford Narrow Gauge Railroad, the country's first two foot railroad that also ran nearby.

The museum is located at a place where the canal crossed the Concord River. Unlike other crossings that involved aqueducts, this one used a submerged towline within the river itself, and walkway where horses pulled the barges across. There is, at present, not much to show the crossing, but there are plans by the museums to create a park at one end of the crossing.

The admission was free, but donations are gratefully accepted. There are a couple excellent books about the canal, one of which has maps that you can use to trace the canal.

The Middlesex Canal was one of the earliest transportation canals in the United States. It was built in 1793-1803 and stretched initially from Boston to Lowell. Later, the canal would incorporate locks on the Merrimack Canal beyond Manchester, New Hampshire. The canal would eventually be replaced by the Boston and Lowell Railroad in 1835, and would stop collecting tolls in 1851.

Source:

Wikipedia (Middlesex Canal):
(visit link)

Theme: Cultural history, industrial history. Street Address: 71 Faulkner Street North Billerica, MA 01862 Food Court: no Gift Shop: yes Hours of Operation: year-round Saturday Noon-4pm Sunday Noon-4pm except holidays. Weekdays by appointment Cost: 0.00 (listed in local currency) Museum Size: Small Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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