Editing Lawrence, Massachusetts (section)

==History==

=== Indigenous history ===
[[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] lived along the Merrimack River for thousands of years before [[European colonization of the Americas]]. Evidence of farming at Den Rock Park and arrowhead manufacturing on the site where the Wood Mill now sits have been discovered.<ref>Maurice B. Dorgan, ''Indian History and Traditions'' (1918)</ref>

At the time of contact in the early 1600s, the [[Pennacook]] or Pentucket had a presence north of the Merrimack, while [[Massachusett]], [[Naumkeag people|Naumkeag]], and [[Agawam people|Agawam]] controlled territory south of the river.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Perley|first=Sidney|url=http://archive.org/details/indianlandtitles00perl|title=The Indian land titles of Essex County, Massachusetts|date=1912|publisher=Salem, Mass. : Essex Book and Print Club|others=The Library of Congress}}</ref> The territory which would later be aggregated into the city of Lawrence was purchased from Pennacooks Sagahew and Passaquo in 1642 for the English settlement of Haverhill, and from [[Massachusett]] [[sachem]] [[Cutshamekin]] in 1646 as a post-hoc payment for the lands surrounding the English settlement of [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]] (modern-day [[North Andover, Massachusetts|North Andover]] center).<ref name=":0" />

===Founding and rise as a textile center===
{{See also|1922 New England Textile Strike}}[[Image:New England factory life -- 'Bell-time.' (Boston Public Library).jpg|thumb|Washington Mills in Lawrence (1868), by [[Winslow Homer]]]]
[[Image:1876 map Lawrence Massachusetts by Bailey and Hazen BPL 10363.png|thumb|Map of Lawrence, 1876]]
[[File:Thumbs abbott-lawrence-painting-after.jpg|thumb|upright|Ambassador [[Abbott Lawrence]], by [[George Peter Alexander Healy]]]]
[[Image:1912 Lawrence Textile Strike 1.jpg|thumb|Massachusetts National Guardsmen with fixed bayonets surround a parade of strikers during [[1912 Lawrence textile strike]]]]

Europeans first settled the Haverhill area in 1640, colonists from Newbury following the [[Merrimack River]] in from the coast.<ref>Joseph Sidney Howe, ''Historical sketch of the town of Methuen: from its settlement to the year 1876'' (1876), p.4</ref> The area that would become Lawrence was then part of Methuen and Andover. The first settlement within present-day city limits came in 1655 with the establishment of a [[blockhouse]] in Shawsheen Fields, now South Lawrence.

The future site of the city (formerly parts of [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]] and [[Methuen, Massachusetts|Methuen]]), was purchased by a consortium of local industrialists. The Water Power Association members: [[Abbott Lawrence]], Edmund Bartlett, [[Thomas Hopkinson]] of [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]], [[John Nesmith]] and [[Saunders family#Daniel Saunders, Sr.|Daniel Saunders]], had purchased control of Peter's Falls on the Merrimack River and hence controlled Bodwell's Falls the site of the present [[Great Stone Dam]]. The group allotted fifty thousand dollars to buy land along the river to develop.<ref name=Hayes>Jonathan Franklin Chesley Hayes, ''History of the City of Lawrence'' (1868)</ref>{{rp|11}} In 1844, the group petitioned the legislature to act as a corporation, known as the [[Essex Company]], which incorporated on April 16, 1845. The first excavations for the Great Stone Dam to harness the Merrimack River's water power were done on August 1, 1845.<ref name=Hayes/>{{rp|17}} The Essex Company would sell the water power to corporations such as the [[Arlington Mills]], as well as organize the construction of mills and build to suit. Until 1847, when the state legislature recognized the community as a town, it was called interchangeably the "New City", "Essex" or "Merrimac".<ref name=Hayes/>{{rp|23}} The post office, built in 1846, used the designation "Merrimac". The city was incorporated in 1853, and named for Abbott Lawrence.

Canals were dug on both the north and the south banks to provide power to the factories that would soon be built on its banks as both mill owners and workers from across the city and the world flocked to the city in droves; many were Irish laborers who had experience with similar building work. The work was dangerous: injuries and even death were common.<ref>Skulski, Ken. ''The History of Lawrence Massachusetts, Volume 2'', page 7.</ref>

====Bread and Roses Strike of 1912====
{{Main|1912 Lawrence textile strike}}
The [[Pemberton Mill]] collapse occurred on January 10, 1860, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The five-story textile mill, built in 1853, was a major employer, particularly for Irish immigrants, many of whom were women and children. At the time of the collapse, around 600–800 workers were inside, though exact numbers vary. The official death toll was 88, with estimates of 116–145 deaths and hundreds injured, many permanently disabled. The disaster was one of the deadliest industrial accidents in U.S. history.  Investigations pinned the collapse on substandard construction, specifically defective cast-iron columns that were too weak to support the mill’s weight. Poor oversight, cost-cutting by owners, and overloading the structure with heavy machinery exacerbated the issue. The mill was known to vibrate heavily during operation, a warning sign ignored.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902E6DC1638E533A2575BC1A9629C94679FD7CF |title=The Fall of the Pemberton Mill |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 18, 1886 }}</ref> As immigrants flooded into the United States in the mid to late 19th century, the population of Lawrence abounded with skilled and unskilled workers from several countries. Protesting conditions, in 1912 they walked out of the mills. The action, sometimes celebrated as the [[Bread and Roses]] Strike, was one of the more important, widely reported, labor struggles in American history.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Klein|first=Christopher|title=The Strike That Shook America|url=https://www.history.com/news/the-strike-that-shook-america|access-date=2020-01-13|website=HISTORY|date=26 November 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (the "One Big Union", the "Wobblies") defied the common wisdom that a largely female and ethnically divided workforce could not be organized, and the strike held through two bitterly cold winter months. The young 15-year mill hand [[Fred Beal]], who was drawn by the experience into a lifetime of labor organizing, recalls that contrary to expectations, it was the most recent immigrant groups, "the Italians, Poles, Syrians [Lebanese] and [[Walloons|Franco-Belgians]]", who "kept it alive.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Beal|first=Fred Erwin|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b332369&view=1up&seq=11&skin=2021|title=Proletarian journey: New England, Gastonia, Moscow.|date=1937|publisher=Hillman-Curl|location=New York|pages=52}}</ref>

After hundreds of the strikers' hungry children had been sent to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, and the U.S. Congress was induced to hold hearings, the mill owners decided to settle, giving workers in Lawrence and throughout New England raises of up to 20 percent.<ref name="weir">{{cite book|last=Watson|first=Bruce|title=Bread & Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream|publisher=Penguin Group|year=2005|location=New York|page=12}}</ref> However, as a young Massachusetts Senator, [[John F. Kennedy]] was later to record, in the decades that followed the mill owners moved their capital and employment out of Lawrence and the region to the non-union South.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kennedy|first=John F.|date=1954-01-01|title=New England and the South|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1954/01/new-england-and-the-south/376244/|access-date=2022-01-10|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}</ref>

===Post-War history===
Lawrence was a great wool-processing center until that industry declined in the 1950s. The decline left Lawrence a struggling city.  The population of Lawrence declined from over 80,000 residents in 1950 (and a high of 94,270 in 1920) to approximately 64,000 residents in 1980, the low point of Lawrence's population. Much of the population relocated to nearby [[Methuen, Massachusetts|Methuen]].

====Urban redevelopment and renewal====
[[Image:Lawrence Pan Dec 21 2021.jpg|thumb|Merrimack River at Lawrence]]
[[Image:2010 Lawrence Massachusetts aerial 4361131115.jpg|thumb|upright|Aerial view of Merrimack River and Lawrence, 2010]]

Like other northeastern cities suffering from the effects of post-[[World War II]] [[deindustrialization|industrial decline]], Lawrence has often made efforts at revitalization, some of them controversial. The Lawrence Redevelopment Authority and city officials utilized eminent domain for a perceived public benefit, via a top-down approach, to revitalize the city throughout the 1960s. Known first as urban redevelopment, and then urban renewal, Lawrence's local government's actions towards vulnerable immigrant and poor communities, contained an undercurrent of gentrification which lies beneath the goals to revitalize Lawrence. There was a clash of differing ideals and perceptions of blight, growth, and what constituted a desirable community. Ultimately the discussion left out those members of the community who would be directly impacted by urban redevelopment.<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Pernice|first=Nicolas M.|date=2011|title=Urban Redevelopment of Lawrence, MA. Retrospective Case Study of the Plains Neighborhood|degree=MSc|access-date=June 3, 2024|publisher=University of Massachusetts Lowell|url=https://lawrencehistory.org/sites/LHIST-D10-PR1/files/uploads/Urban%20Redevelopment%20of%20Lawrence%2C%20MA.%20Retrospective%20Case%20Study%20of%20the%20Plains%20Neighborhood%20by%20Nick%20Pernice.pdf}}</ref>

Under the guise of [[urban renewal]], large tracts of downtown Lawrence were razed in the 1970s, and replaced with parking lots and a three-story parking garage connected to a new Intown Mall intended to compete with newly constructed suburban malls. The historic Theater Row along Broadway was also razed, destroying ornate movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s that entertained mill workers through the [[Great Depression]] and the Second World War. The city's main post office, an ornate Federalist-style building at the corner of Broadway and Essex Street, was razed. Most of the structures were replaced with one-story, steel-frame structures with large parking lots, housing such establishments as fast food restaurants and chain drug stores, fundamentally changing the character of the center of Lawrence.{{Citation needed|reason=Original ref dead and removed|date=November 2009}}

Lawrence also attempted to increase its employment base by attracting industries unwanted in other communities, such as waste treatment facilities and incinerators.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} From 1980 until 1998, private corporations operated two trash incinerators in Lawrence.  Activist residents successfully blocked the approval of a waste treatment center on the banks of the Merrimack River near the current site of Salvatore's Pizza on Merrimack Street.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}}

Recently the focus of Lawrence's urban renewal has shifted to preservation rather than sprawl.

====Events of the 1980s and 1990s====

Immigrants from the [[Dominican Republic]] and migrants from [[Puerto Rico]] began arriving in Lawrence in significant numbers in the late 1960s, attracted by cheap housing and a history of tolerance toward immigrants. In 1984, tensions between remaining working-class whites and increasing numbers of Hispanic youth flared into a riot, centered at the intersection of Haverhill Street and Oxford Street, where several buildings were destroyed by [[Molotov cocktail]]s and over 300 people were arrested.<ref>{{Cite news| title = Crackdown by police cools Lawrence riots| newspaper = [[Spokane Chronicle]]| location = Spokane, Washington| page = 4| date = August 11, 1984| url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M8USAAAAIBAJ&pg=5550,2277710&dq=lawrence+riots+1984&hl=en| access-date = 4 November 2009}}{{Dead link|date=February 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title = Two Nights of Rioting Bring a Curfew to Lawrence Mass.| newspaper = [[The New York Times]]| page = 4| date = August 10, 1984| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/11/us/two-nights-of-rioting-bring-a-curfew-to-lawrence-mass.html| access-date = 23 May 2014 }}</ref>

Lawrence saw further setbacks during the recession of the early 1990s as a wave of arson plagued the city. Over 200 buildings were set alight in eighteen months in 1991–1992, many of them abandoned residences and industrial sites.<ref>{{Cite news| last = McGhee| first = Neil| title = Arson epidemic continues in Massachusetts town| newspaper = National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management| publisher = The National Underwriter Company| date = August 24, 1992| url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-12533408.html| access-date = 4 November 2009}}{{dead link|date=February 2019|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The [[Malden Mills]] factory burned down on December 11, 1995. CEO Aaron Feuerstein decided to continue paying the salaries of all the now unemployed workers while the factory was being rebuilt.<ref>60 Minutes: The Mensch Of Malden Mills</ref>

====Recent trends====

A sharp reduction in violent crime starting in 2004<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2011/10/17/41306/Lawrence-Massachusetts-mayor-faces-the-wrath-of-residents |title=Lawrence, Massachusetts mayor faces the wrath of residents - DominicanToday.com |access-date=2014-01-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150201115752/http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2011/10/17/41306/Lawrence-Massachusetts-mayor-faces-the-wrath-of-residents |archive-date=2015-02-01 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and massive private investment in former mill buildings along the Merrimack River, including the remaining section of the historic [[Wood Worsted Mill]]—to be converted into commercial, residential and education uses – have lent encouragement to boosters of the city.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} One of the final remaining mills in the city is [[Malden Mills]]. Lawrence's downtown has seen a resurgence of business activity as Hispanic-owned businesses have opened along Essex Street, the historic shopping street of Lawrence that remained largely shuttered since the 1970s.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} In June 2007, the city approved the sale of the Intown Mall, largely abandoned since the early 1990s recession, to [[Northern Essex Community College]] for the development of a medical sciences center, the construction of which commenced in 2012 when the InTown Mall was finally removed.<ref>InTown Mall demolition begins today, making way for college health technologies building, by Keith Eddings, Eagle-Tribune, 3 January 2012</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://departments.necc.mass.edu/newsroom/2012/01/04/intown-mall-comes-tumbling-down/| title=InTown Mall Comes Tumbling Down| work=Newsroom – Northern Essex Community College| date=2012-01-04}}</ref> A large multi-structure fire in January 2008 destroyed many wooden structures just south of downtown.<ref>{{Cite news | last1 = Allen| first1 = Scott | last2 = Ryan| first2=Andrew | title = 150 left homeless from Lawrence fire| newspaper = [[The Boston Globe]] | location = Boston, Massachusetts| date = January 21, 2008| url = http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/01/fire_engulfs_do.html| access-date = 4 November 2009}}</ref> A poor financial situation that has worsened with the recent global recession and has led to multiple municipal layoffs had Lawrence contemplating [[receivership]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x1412996113/Lawrence-fiscal-crisis-prompts-talk-of-bankruptcy-receivership |last= Kirk| first= Bill |title=Lawrence fiscal crisis prompts talk of bankruptcy, receivership| location=  North Andover, MA  |work= [[The Eagle-Tribune]] |date= 14 February 2010| access-date=August 10, 2010}}</ref> On February 9, 2019, in recognition of the role the town has played in the labor movement, Senator [[Elizabeth Warren]] officially announced her candidacy for President of the United States in Lawrence.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-2020.html|title=Elizabeth Warren Formally Announces 2020 Presidential Bid in Lawrence, Mass.|last=Taylor|first=Kate|date=2019-02-09|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-02-10|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==== Gas explosion ====
{{Main|Massachusetts gas explosions}}
On September 13, 2018, a series of gas explosions and fires broke out in as many as 40 homes in Lawrence, [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]], and [[North Andover, Massachusetts|North Andover]]. The disaster killed one resident and caused over 30,000 customers to evacuate their homes.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/09/13/multiple-gas-explosions-set-more-than-homes-ablaze-across-three-communities-north-boston/|title='How did this happen?': Gas blasts set homes ablaze, triggering chaos in Massachusetts|newspaper=Washington Post|date=September 13, 2018}}</ref> A year after this first incident on September 27, 2019, there was another gas leak causing people to evacuate their homes again.

=== Timeline ===
{{hidden begin
|title = Timeline of Lawrence, Massachusetts
|titlestyle = background:#F8F8FF;width:90%
}}
* 1845
** Essex Company begins construction of the dam and [[North Canal|canal]] on [[Merrimack River]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Museum of American Textile History: Archival Sources for Business History |author=Dorothy Truman |journal=Business History Review |volume= 60 |date=Winter 1986 }}</ref>
* 1846
** [[Essex Company Machine Shop]] built.
** Lawrence Street Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
** Church of the Immaculate Conception established.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1847
** Town of Lawrence incorporated from [[Methuen, Massachusetts|Methuen]] and [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]]; named after businessman [[Abbott Lawrence]].{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
** ''Lawrence Courier'' newspaper in publication.<ref name="lc">{{cite web |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/results/?state=Massachusetts&city=Lawrence&rows=50&sort=date |title=US Newspaper Directory |location=Washington DC |work=[[Chronicling America]] |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=September 25, 2012}}</ref>
** [[Bellevue Cemetery]] established.
** Franklin Library Association formed.<ref name=davies>{{cite web |url=http://www.princeton.edu/~davpro/databases/index.html |title=American Libraries before 1876 |author= Davies Project |publisher=Princeton University |access-date=September 25, 2012}}</ref>
** First Baptist Church, First Free Baptist Church, First Unitarian Society, Church of the Good Shepherd, and First Methodist Episcopal Church established{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1848
** [[Boston & Maine Railroad]] depot established in South Lawrence.<ref name=queen />
** [[Great Stone Dam|Lawrence Dam]] constructed across Merrimack River.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Nineteenth-Century Hydropower: Design and Construction of Lawrence Dam, 1845–1848
|author= Peter M. Molloy |journal=Winterthur Portfolio |volume= 15 |date=Winter 1980 }}</ref>
** Bay State woollen mills begin operating.<ref>{{Citation |publisher = American Woolen Co. |title = A Sketch of the Mills of the American Woolen Company |date = 1901 |oclc = 3286127 |ol = 23521562M }}</ref>
** St. Mary's Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1849
** [[Manchester and Lawrence Railroad]] begins operating.
** ''Lawrence Sentinel'' newspaper begins publication.<ref name="lc" />
** Central Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
** Atlantic Cotton Mills starts in business.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}
** Lawrence Gas Company formed.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}
** Lawrence Brass Band formed.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}
* 1850 – Population: 8,282.
* 1851 – [[Grace Episcopal Church (Lawrence, Massachusetts)|Grace Episcopal Church]] built.
* 1853
** The City of Lawrence incorporated as a municipal government.
** Charles S. Storrow becomes the first city mayor.{{sfn|Ford|2000}}
** Lawrence Duck Company in business.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}
** Garden Street Methodist Episcopal Church organized as a congregation of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]].{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1854
** Additional part of [[Methuen, Massachusetts|Methuen]] annexed to the City of Lawrence.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
** Pacific Mills starts operating in business.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}<ref>{{Citation |location = Lawrence, Mass |author = Pacific Mills |title = The manufacture, dyeing, printing, and finishing of textiles |date = 1918 |oclc = 15206587 |ol = 24601389M }}</ref>
** Lawrence Paper Company incorporated.<ref>{{cite book |title=Massachusetts Register for the year 1855 |url=https://archive.org/stream/massachusettsreg1855bost#page/n9/mode/2up |publisher=Boston : George Adams |year=1852 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Ballou's Pictorial |url=https://archive.org/stream/ballouspictorial0708ball#page/356/mode/2up |year=1855 |publisher=Boston, Mass. : M.M. Ballou }}</ref>
* 1855 – [[Pemberton Mill|Pemberton Company]] in business.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}
* 1860
** January – [[Pemberton Mill]] building collapse.
** Population according to decennial [[United States Census]]: 17,639.
* 1861 – [[Massachusetts National Guard|Massachusetts state militia]] called up by [[Governor of Massachusetts|Governor]] in response to a proclamation by 16th President [[Abraham Lincoln]] of a state of rebellion in the South following firing on [[Fort Sumter]] in [[Charleston, South Carolina|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 Pratt 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 Station|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 were killed and numerous wounded among Baltimorean civilians as city police and officials attempted to escort troops. Considered the "First Bloodshed of the Civil War".
* Second [[Baptists|Baptist Church]] established.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1864 – [[Moseley Wrought Iron Arch Bridge|Moseley Truss Bridge]] built.
* 1865
** Eliot Congregational Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
** Arlington Mills in business.<ref>{{Citation |publisher = Priv. print. by the Plimpton Press |location = Norwood, Mass |title=Arlington Mills, 1865–1925 |date = 1925 |ol = 16338470M }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |publisher = Press of Rockwell and Churchill |location = Boston |title = The Arlington Mills |date = 1891 |ol = 16339180M }}</ref>
** Wright Manufacturing Co. formed.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1867 – Lawrence Flyer and Spindle Works in business.{{sfn|Hurd|1888}}
* 1868
** ''[[The Eagle-Tribune|Lawrence Daily Eagle]]'' newspaper begins publication.
** South Congregational Church and First Presbyterian Church established.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1871
** Archibald Wheel Co. incorporated.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
** Parker Street Methodist Episcopal Church and St. Anne's Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1872 – Free Public Library established<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lawrencefreelibrary.org/About2.html |title=History of the Lawrence Public Library |publisher=Lawrence Public Library |access-date=September 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319200929/http://www.lawrencefreelibrary.org/About2.html |archive-date=March 19, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* 1873 – St. Laurence's Church dedicated.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1876 – YMCA formed.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1877
** Lawrence Bleachery established.{{sfn|Hurd|1888}}
** Tower Hill Congregational Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1878 – German Methodist Episcopal Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1879
** Parts of [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]] and North Andover annexed to Lawrence.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
** German Presbyterian Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
** Lawrence Bicycle Club formed.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1880
** Globe Worsted Co. incorporated.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
** Bodwell Street M.E. Church organized.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1881
** Lawrence Line Company incorporated.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}
** Munroe Felt and Paper Company incorporated.<ref name=queen>{{cite web |url=http://queencityma.wordpress.com/ |title=Queen City Massachusetts (blog) |author=Lawrence Public Library Special Collections |access-date=September 25, 2012}}</ref>
** Merrimac Paper Company incorporated.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}
* 1882
** L'Institute Canadien Francais founded.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
** Stanley Manufacturing Co. incorporated.{{sfn|Sampson|1883}}
* 1884 – Emmons Loom Harness Company organized.{{sfn|Merrill|1894}}
* 1887 – [[Lawrence Experiment Station]] established by the Massachusetts State Board of Health.
* 1888
** Duck Bridge built.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma1422/ |title=Duck Bridge, Spanning Merrimack River on Union Street, Lawrence, Essex County, MA |publisher=Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress) |access-date=September 25, 2012}}</ref>
** Board of Trade organized.{{sfn|Dorgan|1918}}
* 1896 – [[High Service Water Tower and Reservoir|High Service Water Tower]] built
* 1890
** [[Old Public Library|Public Library]] building constructed.
** ''[[The Eagle-Tribune|Evening Tribune]]'' newspaper begins publication.
** July – Cyclone.{{sfn|Dorgan|1918}}
* 1899 – 20,899 people employed in manufacturing in Lawrence.<ref name=wallace1961>{{cite journal |title=Merrimack Valley Manufacturing: Past and Present |author= William H. Wallace |journal= Economic Geography |volume= 37 |date=October 1961 }}</ref>
* 1905 – [[American Woolen Company]] builds Wood Mill.
* 1910 – [[The Everett Mills|Everett Mill]] constructed.
* 1911 – [[Lawrence bathhouse tragedy]]
* 1912 – Famous nationally known [[1912 Lawrence Textile Strike]] occurs with strife and casualties. Later known as the "Bread and Roses Strike".<ref name=brenner2009>{{cite book|editor1= Aaron Brenner |editor2= Benjamin Day |editor3=[[Immanuel Ness]] |title=Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History|year=2015 |orig-year=2009 |publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-45707-7 |chapter= Timeline |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xmVsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PR17 }}</ref>
* 1918 - Central Bridge constructed.{{sfn|Dorgan|1918}}
* 1919 - 30,319 people employed in manufacturing in Lawrence.<ref name=wallace1961 />
* 1920 – Population: 94,270.
* 1927 – [[Veterans Memorial Stadium (Lawrence)|Stadium]] opens.
* 1931 – [[Boston & Maine Railroad]] depot active off Parker Street.
* 1934
** [[Lawrence Municipal Airport (Massachusetts)|Lawrence Municipal Airport]] established.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lawrencemunicipalairport.com/ |title=Lawrence Municipal Airport |access-date=September 25, 2012}}</ref>
** Walter A. Griffin becomes mayor.
* 1935 – [[Central Catholic High School (Lawrence, Massachusetts)|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 (mayor)|John J. Buckley]] becomes mayor.
* 1975 – [[Paul Tsongas]] becomes [[Massachusetts's 5th congressional district]] [[United States House of Representatives|representative]].
* 1978
** Immigrant City Archives at Lawrence History Center was established for local history and culture with exhibitions.<ref name=LHC>{{cite web |url=http://www.lawrencehistorycenter.org/timeline |title=Lawrence History Timeline |author=Lawrence History Center |access-date=September 25, 2012}}</ref>
** Lawrence P. LeFebre becomes mayor.
* 1985 – Greater Lawrence [[Habitat for Humanity]] organized.<ref>{{citation |title=Recycling old housing: Volunteers rehab vacant property |work=Boston Globe |date=March 8, 1992 }}</ref>
* 1986 – [[Kevin J. Sullivan (mayor)|Kevin J. Sullivan]] becomes mayor.
* 1991 – [[Northern Essex Community College]] active in Lawrence.
* 1995 – [[Malden Mills]] fire.
* 2001 – [[Michael J. Sullivan (mayor)|Michael J. Sullivan]] becomes mayor.
* 2004 – [[Notre Dame High School (Lawrence, Massachusetts)|Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School]] opens.
** First observance of [[American Civil War|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 in memorial ceremonies at the 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]] [[United States House of Representatives|representative]].
* 2010
** Population: 76,377.
** [[William Lantigua]] becomes mayor of Lawrence, first of Hispanic ancestry.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/2012/02/city-of-the-damned-lawrence-massachusetts |title=Lawrence, MA: City of the Damned |author=Jay Atkinson |date=February 2012 |work=Boston Magazine }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Meet the Mayors |publisher=[[United States Conference of Mayors]] |location=Washington, DC |url=http://usmayors.org/meetmayors/mayorsatglance.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627104834/http://www.usmayors.org/meetmayors/mayorsatglance.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 27, 2008 |access-date=March 30, 2013 }}</ref>
* 2012
** School Superintendent convicted of fraud and embezzlement.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x1437237125/UPDATE-Laboy-apologizes-gets-90-days-in-jail-for-fraud |date=March 23, 2012 |title=Eagle Tribune }}</ref>
** Centennial observed of infamous [[1912 Lawrence Textile Strike]], later known as "Bread and Roses" labor strife.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/a-massachusetts-city-tries-to-change-its-image.html |date=May 29, 2012 |title=New York Times |last1=Bidgood |first1=Jess }}</ref>
{{hidden end}}

===History of Lawrence immigrant communities===
Lawrence has been aptly nicknamed the "Immigrant City".<ref name="Cole">{{cite book |last=Cole |first=Donald B. |title=Immigrant City: Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1845–1921 |url=https://archive.org/details/immigrantcitylaw00cole |publisher=[[the University of North Carolina Press]] |year=1963 |isbn=0-8078-0876-8 }}</ref> It has been home to numerous different immigrant communities, most of whom arrived during the great wave of European immigration to America that ended in the 1920s.

====Immigrant communities, 1845–1920====
Lawrence became home to large groups of immigrants from Europe, beginning with the Irish in 1845, Germans after the social upheaval in Germany in 1848, Swedes fleeing an overcrowded Sweden, and French Canadians seeking to escape hard northern farm life from the 1850s onward. A second wave began arriving after 1900, as part of the great mass of Italian and Eastern European immigrants, including Jews from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and neighboring regions. Immigration to the United States was severely curtailed in the 1920s with the [[Immigration Act of 1924]] when foreign-born immigration to Lawrence virtually ceased for over 40 years.<ref name="Cole"/>

In 1890, the foreign-born population of 28,577 was divided as follows, with the significant remainder of the population being children of foreign-born residents: 7,058 Irish; 6,999 French Canadians; 5,131 English; 2,465 German; 1,683 English Canadian.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}} In 1920, toward the end of the first wave of immigration, most ethnic groups had numerous social clubs in the city.  The Portuguese had 2; the English had 2; the Jews had 3; the Armenians, 5; the Lebanese and Syrians, 6; the Irish, 8; the Polish, 9; the French Canadians and Belgian-French, 14; the Lithuanians, 18; the Italians, 32; and the Germans, 47.<ref name="Skulski"/>  However, the center of social life, even more than clubs or fraternal organizations, was churches.  Lawrence is dotted with churches, many now closed, torn down, or converted into other uses. These churches signify, more than any other artifacts, the immigrant communities that once lived within walking distance of each church.<ref name="Skulski">{{cite book |last1=Skulski |first1=Ken |last2=Dengler |first2=Eartha |last3=Khalife |first3=Katherine |title=Lawrence, Massachusetts |publisher=Arcadia Pub |location=[[Dover, NH]] |year=1995 |isbn=0-7524-0229-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lawrencemassachu00deng }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://lucieslegacy.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/history-of-lawrence-ma-immigrant.html| title=Lucie's Legacy: History of Lawrence, MA - Immigrant Communities| work=lucieslegacy.blogspot.co.uk| date=2013-01-18}}</ref>

=====Germans=====
The first sizable German community arrived following the revolutions of 1848.<ref name="Cole"/> However, a larger German community was formed after 1871, when industrial workers from [[Saxony]] were displaced by economic competition from new industrial areas like the [[Ruhr]].<ref name="McCaffery">McCaffery, Robert Paul, "Islands of Deutschtum: German-Americans in Manchester, New Hampshire and Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1870–1942". ''New German–American Studies, Vol 11''. Peter Lang, 1996.</ref> The German community was characterized by numerous school clubs, shooting clubs, national and regional clubs, as well as men's choirs and mutual aid societies,<ref name="McCaffery"/> many of which were clustered around the Turn Verein, a major social club on Park Street.<ref name="Skulski"/>  Germans had a considerable number of churches in Lawrence, including Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish (German Catholic) formed in 1887 on Lawrence Street,<ref name="ReferenceA">Municipal History of Essex County in Massachusetts, Tercentenary Edition, Benj. F. Arrington, Editor-in-chief, Volume II 1922 Lewis Historical Publishing Company New York</ref> as well as several Protestant churches including The German Methodist Episcopal Church, Vine Street, organized in 1878; and the German Presbyterian, East Haverhill Street, organized 1872 from which the Methodist church split in 1878.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

=====Italians=====
Some Italian immigrants celebrated Mass in the basement chapel of the largely Irish St. Laurence O'Toole Parish Church, at the intersection of Essex Street and Union Street. When St. Laurence O'Toole Parish had collected sufficient funds to build a new church in 1905 at the nearby intersection of East Haverhill Street and Newbery Street, the Italian population formed Holy Rosary Parish.<ref name="Skulski"/> Immigrants from [[Lentini]] (a ''comune'' in the Sicilian [[the province of Syracuse]]) and from the Sicilian province of [[Catania]] maintained a particular devotion to three Catholic martyrs, [[Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus|Saint Alfio, Saint Filadelfo and Saint Cirino]], and in 1923 began celebrating a procession on their feast day.<ref>[http://www.centamore.it/TreSanti/WithTrueFaith_Testo.asp Festa of Saints Alfio, Filadelfo, and Cirino<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Although most of the participants live in neighboring towns, the Feast of Three Saints festival continues in Lawrence today.  Many of the Italians who lived in the Newbury Street area had immigrated from [[Trecastagni]], [[Viagrande]], [[Acireale]], and [[Nicolosi]], Italy.

=====French Canadians=====
French Canadians were the second major immigrant group to settle in Lawrence. In 1872, they erected their first church, St. Anne's, at the corner of Haverhill and Franklin streets. Within decades, St. Anne's established a "missionary church", Sacred Heart on South Broadway, to serve the burgeoning [[French-speaking Quebecer|Québécois]] community in South Lawrence. Later it would also establish the "missionary" parishes in Methuen: Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Theresa's (Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel et St-Thérèse). The French-Canadians arrived from various farming areas of Quebec where the old parishes were overpopulated: some people moved up north ([[Abitibi-Temiscamingue|Abitibi]] and [[Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean]]), while others moved to industrial towns to find work ([[Montreal]], Quebec; but also in the United States). Others who integrated themselves into these French-Canadian communities were actually [[Acadians]] who had left the Canadian Maritimes of [[New Brunswick]] and [[Nova Scotia]] also in search of work.

=====Lebanese ("Syrians")=====
Lawrence residents frequently referred to their Arabic-speaking Middle Eastern community as "[[Syrian]]". Most so-called Syrians in Lawrence were from present-day [[Lebanon]] and were largely [[Maronite Christian]].<ref name="Skulski"/> Lebanese and Syrians mostly settled in the neighborhoods of North Lawrence such as Tower Hill along with Prospect Hill. [[Lebanese people|Lebanese]] immigrants organized [[Anthony the Great|St. Anthony]]'s [[Maronite Church]] in 1903 on the corner of Lebanon Street and Lawrence Street,<ref>[http://www.stanthonylawrence.org/history1.htm St. Anthony's Maronite Church website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705144205/http://www.stanthonylawrence.org/history1.htm |date=2008-07-05 }}</ref> and St. Joseph's Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, as well as [[St. George]]'s [[Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch|Antiochian Orthodox Church]].<ref name="Skulski"/>

=====Jews=====

Jewish merchants became increasingly numerous in Lawrence and specialized in dry goods and retail shops. The fanciest men's clothing store in Lawrence, Kap's, established in 1902 and closed in the early 1990s, was founded by Elias Kapelson, born in [[Lithuania]]. Jacob Sandler arrived in Lawrence in June 1891 (1906, his two brothers (Isaac and Sundel arrived), and 3 other brothers also arrived in the early 1900s.  Jacob opened a shoe business at 434 Broadway and earned enough income to purchase the property at 256–258 Essex St starting Sandler's Department Store, it later became Sandler's Luggage which continued under his son, Simon Sandler, and later his grandson, Robert Sandler until 1978. In the 1880s, the first Jewish arrivals established a community around Common, Valley, Concord, and Lowell streets. As of 1922, there were at least two noteworthy congregations, both on Concord Street: Congregation of Sons of Israel (Jewish), organized October 3, 1894. Synagogue on Concord Street built in 1913; and Congregation of Anshea Sfard (Jewish), organized on April 6, 1900. The synagogue on Concord Street was built in the autumn of 1907.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>  In the 1920s, the Jews of Lawrence began congregating further up Tower Hill, where they erected two [[synagogue]]s on Lowell Street above Milton Street, as well as a Jewish Community Center on nearby Haverhill Street. All three institutions had closed their doors by 1990 as the remaining elderly members of the community died out or moved away.<ref name="Skulski"/>

=====Polish=====
The Polish community of Lawrence was estimated to be only 600–800 persons in 1900. However, by 1905, the community had expanded sufficiently to fund the construction of the Holy Trinity Church at the corner of Avon and Trinity streets.<ref name="Skulski"/> Their numbers grew to 2,100 Poles in 1910. Like many of their immigrant brethren from other nations, most of the Poles were employed in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.polishroots.org/paha/polish_farmers_workers.htm |title=PolishRoots - PAHA Articles |access-date=2008-04-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080316165002/http://www.polishroots.org/paha/polish_farmers_workers.htm |archive-date=2008-03-16 }}</ref>

=====Lithuanians=====
Lawrence had a sizable enough [[Lithuanians|Lithuanian]] community to warrant the formation of both Lithuanian Catholic and [[Lithuanian National Catholic Church|Lithuanian National Catholic]] churches. St. Francis (Lithuanian Catholic Church) on Bradford Street was formed in 1903 by Rev. James T. O'Reilly of St. Mary's, in a building previously occupied by St. John's Episcopal Church.<ref>Municipal History of Essex County in Massachusetts, Tercentenary Edition, Benj. F. Arrington, Editor-in-chief, Volume II 1922 Lewis Historical Publishing Company New York.</ref>  The church closed in 2002, merging with Holy Trinity (Polish) and SS. Peter and Paul (Portuguese). Sacred Heart Lithuanian National Catholic Church was established in 1917 and located on Garden Street until its closure and sale in 2001.

=====English=====
A sizable English community, composed mainly of unskilled laborers who arrived after 1880, sought work in the textile mills where they were given choice jobs by the Yankee overseers on account of their shared linguistic heritage and close cultural links.

=====Yankee farmers=====
[[File:Lawrence Street Congregational Church - Lawrence, MA - DSC03581.JPG|thumb|Lawrence Street Congregational Church]]

Not all immigrants to Lawrence were foreign-born or their children. Yankee farmers, unable to compete against the cheaper farmlands of the [[Midwest]] that had been linked to the East Coast by rail, settled in corners of Lawrence. [[Congregational church|Congregationalists]] were the second Protestant denomination to begin worship in Lawrence after the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalians]], with the formation of the [[Lawrence Street Congregational Church]] in 1847,<ref name=Quartercentennial>''Quarter-centennial history of Lawrence, Massachusetts: With portraits and biographical sketches of ex-mayors, the board of may...'' [database on-line]. [[Provo, UT]]: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: Wadsworth, H. A. ''Quarter-centennial history of Lawrence, Massachusetts: With portraits and biographical sketches of ex-mayors, the board of mayor and aldermen for the present year, other leading officials, and a representation of business and professional men''. Lawrence, Mass.: H. Reed, Lawrence Eagle Steam Job Print. Office, 1878</ref>{{rp|66}} and the first in South Lawrence, with the erection in 1852 of the first South Congregational Church on South Broadway, near the corner of Andover Street.<ref name="Skulski"/>  Baptist churches included The First Baptist Church, one of the first churches in Lawrence, which was organized in the spring of 1947 and was known as Amesbury Street Baptist Church.  Second Baptist was organized on September 6, 1860; its building was dedicated in 1874.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

====New immigrants, 1970 to present====
Immigration of foreign-born workers to Lawrence largely ceased in 1921 with the passage of strict quotas against immigrants from the countries that had supplied the cheap, unskilled workers.

Although many quotas were lifted after the Second World War, [[Immigration to the United States|foreign immigration]] to Lawrence only increased again in the early 1960s, with Hispanic immigrants from [[Cuba]], [[Puerto Rico]], the [[Dominican Republic]], and other Latin American countries. Immigrants from [[Southeast Asia]], particularly [[Vietnam]], have also settled in Lawrence.

Indicative of immigration trends, several [[Catholic churches]] now conduct masses in two or more languages. [[Saint Patrick|St. Patrick]]'s Church, a Catholic church in Lawrence and once an Irish bastion, has celebrated Spanish masses on Sundays since 1999. A mass in Vietnamese is also offered every other week.<ref>[http://www.mfh.org/newsandevents/newsletter/MassHumanities/Spring2005/parrish.html "Scenes from a Parish" Mass Humanities, Spring 1995] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620015510/http://www.mfh.org/newsandevents/newsletter/MassHumanities/Spring2005/parrish.html |date=2008-06-20 }}</ref> St. Mary's of the Assumption Parish is the largest Catholic parish in Lawrence by Mass attendance and number of registered parishioners. It has the largest multi-lingual congregation in the city and has been offering Spanish masses since the early 1990s.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}

Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of former Catholic churches, closed since the 1989s when their Irish or Italian congregations died out, have been bought by Hispanic [[evangelical]] churches.<ref>{{cite news| last=Betances| first=Yadira| url=http://www.eagletribune.com/homepage/local_story_360094509?keyword=leadpicturestory+page=0| title=Protestant congregations eyeing vacant Catholic church properties| newspaper=Eagle-Tribune| date=December 26, 2006| access-date=April 10, 2008| archive-date=March 16, 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316010003/http://www.eagletribune.com/homepage/local_story_360094509?keyword=leadpicturestory+page=0| url-status=dead}}</ref>

The 2000 Census revealed the following population breakdown, illustrating the shift toward newer immigrant groups:

Dominican Republic, 22%; other Hispanic or Latino, 12%; Irish, 7%; Italian, 7%, French (except Basque), 5%; Black or African American, 5%; French Canadian, 5%; English, 3%; Arab, 2%; German, 2%;  Lebanese, 2%; Central American, 1%; Polish, 1%; Portuguese, 1%; Guatemalan, 1%;  Vietnamese, 1%; South American, 1%; Spanish, 1%; Cambodian, 1%; Scottish, 1%; Cuban, 1%; Scotch-Irish, 1%; Ecuadoran, 1%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genealogyInfo.php?locIndex=2999|title=Lawrence – Lawrence – Ancestry & family history – ePodunk|work=epodunk.com|access-date=2008-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316092930/http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genealogyInfo.php?locIndex=2999|archive-date=2009-03-16|url-status=dead}}</ref>