Food Tours, Lowell Walks, and Bird Watching
October has a wide variety of walks and tours to get us moving as the weather cools down. Opportunities to examine and explore the historical city will give new perspectives of how Lowell’s mill manufacturing city developed over the years. Off the Beaten Path brings their unique food tour to Lowell. The tour explores restaurants and history, to share delicious food and support local businesses. Off the Beaten Path’s Mill No. 5 specialty food tour opens in November with Sunday tours beginning at 3 p.m. The tour of local and independent restaurants allows for a unique opportunity to discuss the history of mills that have now been renovated. Learn about bitters, vinegars, pastries, milk shakes, soda, and a wide variety of cheeses made by local businesses.
Continuing the movement, two upcoming walks in early October explore Lowell and explore history in a unique way. Beginning with the Lowell Cemetery Mausoleum Walk, tour guides will lead you to seven different mausoleums and other notable monuments within the Lowell cemetery. This self-paced tour begins from Knapp Avenue or Lawrence Street gates where guides will help point you in the right direction and share stories of the monuments and the people interred within them. This tour begins October 5th at 10 a.m. and runs to 1 p.m.
Following the Mausoleum tour, the Lowell Cemetery hosts a bird watching event presented by The Brush Art Gallery and Studios and is part of a series of activities to bring awareness to urban environments. Funded by the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation, this event starts at 8 a.m. on October 6th.
Finally, another Lowell walk focuses on Ben Butler. A 90 minute walk around downtown visits several places that influenced the life of Benjamin F. Butler, a Civil War general, governor of Massachusetts, and member of Congress. The tour begins at 1 p.m. on October 12th and runs to 2:30.
For more info visit
Lowell National Historical Park Tours
If you are looking for more ways to explore Lowell and its sights, the Lowell National Historical Park hosts several tours throughout October. Beginning with the Archaeology of a Textile Mill Walking Tour on October 5th and a second tour on October 19th, the event explores the insides of several prominent mills and highlights past technologies and architecture.
Following on October 11th and October 26th, Decoding Recent LGBTQ+ History in Lowell Walk focuses on important people and places within the mid-nineteen hundreds. Similarly, Wellness on the Walkways, discusses women’s history with a hike through the city that begins at the corner of Thorndike and Summer Streets. The hike visits locations where women’s suffrage activists gave lectures, held meetings, and supported their cause. This is a great opportunity to learn about local activism and follow their footsteps, honoring the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. This walk will be held on October 20th.
Finally, ending October, Wellness on the Walkways holds their downtown photography walk. Join park rangers and explore significant downtown locations for photography and historical discussion. The tour starts at the Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center on October 27th, at 10 a.m.
For more info visit the National Park Service Calendar
The Trolley
If you prefer to relax with a movie instead of walking around Lowell, you can take in “The Trolley,” a film about the history of electric trolleys throughout several cities in America, once one of Lowell’s most memorable features. Learn about a most amazing invention as Lowell celebrates with a trolley presentation by operator Ryan Boucher that follows the screening. Presented by the Moses Greeley Parker Lectures and the Lowell National Historical Park, the screening and presentation will be held starting at 2 p.m. on October 6th.
For more info visit Parker Lectures.