The Middlesex Canal, built 1793-1803, was a dug by hand marvel. It ran 27 ¼ miles, connecting The Merrimack River with The Charles River in Boston.
The Middlesex Canal Museum and Visitor Center opened in July 2001. It was built primarily by the Billerica members of the Middlesex Canal Association, who refinished the ceilings and floors in a section of the first floor of the Faulkner Mill building located at the Concord River Mill Pond in North Billerica, MA.
The Museum is designed to share the story of the Middlesex Canal’s origins, engineering, important historical figures involved, and its rise and fall. It was the Canal that ushered in the canal building frenzy of the first half of the 19th Century in the United States. The Museum helps to illustrate this great leap forward in freight and passenger transportation.
The Museum also includes:
• An Introductory 24 minute video, “Journey Along the Middlesex Canal”
• Original artifacts associated with the building and operation of the Canal as well as the commercial/financial aspects of the business
• An interactive, working model of a lift lock
• Historically accurate maps which help trace the route the Canal took through the 9 familiar towns between the Charles River in Boston and the Merrimack River in what is now known as the City of Lowell
• A Children’s Play Area, where they can use Legos, animal figures, and other accessories to construct their own canal path.
•Professional illustrations and murals depicting the construction tools available in the late 18th Century; engineering innovations, including the ingenious “floating towpath;” and typical scenes one would behold during a Packet Boat ride along the Middlesex Canal’s route.
We are here to educate people about and preserve the Middlesex Canal.
