Wamesit Canal-Whipple Mill Industrial Complex

	Wamesit Canal-Whipple Mill Industrial Complex
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. Historic district
Location	Lowell, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°37′57″N 71°18′3″W / 42.63250°N 71.30083°W
Built	1821
Architect	Loammi Baldwin
NRHP reference No.	82001994
Added to NRHP	August 11, 1982

The Wamesit Canal-Whipple Mill Industrial Complex is a historic mill and canal at 576 Lawrence Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. This industrial area of Lowell, located on the Concord River, underwent a major expansion from a more modest millworks in the mid-19th century by Oliver Whipple, a manufacturer of gunpowder.

Gunpowder mill

Oliver Whipple was a grandson of

Loammi Baldwin, Jr. on the matter. Whipple manufactured Boston Gunpowder at the improved mill until 1855 although he began moving gunpowder manufacturing operations to a more remote location on Maine's Cumberland and Oxford Canal in 1833 to minimize risks of accidental explosions and to be closer to supplies of charcoal.^[2]

Preservation

The area was further developed in the second half of the 19th century by Benjamin Butler's Wamesit Power Company, which acquired most of Whipple's properties and water rights. Portions of Whipple's gunpowder mill built in the 1820s are among the oldest surviving industrial structures in the city.^[3]

The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.^[1]