Mill Towns (Lowell, Lawrence, Salem: hotel, live in, manufacturing)

[Massquatch]

I live in Southbridge and we used to be a mill town. We had the American Optical company in town for years and years. They closed down a few years ago, and since then the town has gone to pot. Anyone know of a similar situation where the town recovered from such a thing? Can anything be done to fix Southbridge?

[hiknapster]

Hello! I was born in Southbridge and my mom worked at the AO. I remember it when it was a beautiful little town. I still look at pictures of it on the internet.

I wish I had an answer for you.

[missionhill]

Not too many examples, and none at all where manufacturing has come back to revive the town. North Adams has come back with its Mass MOCA in the old Sprague Electric mill. Lowell has had some success turning its mill district into a museum of industrial heritage. Holyoke, Lawrence, Waterbury, and a lot of other places are still trying to figure out a regeneration formula. Most of the really lively smaller cities in New England these days are not the mill towns but the old waterfront commercial towns that predate the industrial revolution and never became factory cities-- especially Newport, Newburyport, Salem, Portsmouth, and Portland. Then there's Burlington, Brattleboro, and Northampton--don't know if there's any common thread there. I hear good things these days too about Pawtucket and Troy, NY.

[Massquatch]

There was some hope a few years ago when the DOD (department of defense) took over the old AO complex and decided to put in a training center and a hotel for the trainees. At first, it was said that it would provide the town with a whole bunch of jobs, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be working out that way. Its a shame cause it would have brought alot of money into the town, but that hasn't happened either.