The Lowell Technological Institute was a public

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

located in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

, United States. It was founded in 1895 as the Lowell Textile School. Its campus is now part of the

University of Massachusetts Lowell The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell and UML) is a public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of Massachusetts public u ...

History

Beginnings

Plans for the school were started when the

Massachusetts State Legislature The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...

passed a law granting $25,000 to each of the four major textile cities in the state as long as they contributed to the building of a school of textiles in Lowell. The Lowell Textile School opened on October 4, 1897. Originally, the first class had over 200 students. The school was modeled on the success of the Polytechnical School at Philadelphia. The school originally opened in three rented rooms on Middle Street in downtown Lowell. The college offered three year diplomas in cotton or wool manufacture, design, or textile chemistry and dyeing. Tuition at the time was one hundred dollars.

New building

In 1903, the school moved to the newly built Southwick Hall. In 1913, the school granted its first bachelor's degree in textile dyeing and textile engineering. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the grounds of the college were used as a military training camp. The school almost went bankrupt due to the increased demand for soldiers and textiles. By 1929, Lowell’s expanded curriculum, larger faculty, and livelier extracurricular program warranted a name change that reflected its evolution from a trade school to a technical college, and it became the Lowell Textile Institute. During World War II, the school almost went bankrupt again as war demanded soldiers and textiles. The enrollment of the school fell to 73 students at one point.

Expansion

In 1953, President Martin Lydon expanded the curriculum to include programs in plastics, leather, paper, and electronics technology, increased the liberal arts, and renamed the school the Lowell Technological Institute. The mission of the college moved towards general engineering, and a bachelor’s program was created in 1956. The textile program was closed in 1971, reflecting the closure of most of the mills in the city. In 1947 the first two dormitories were built, Smith and Eames Hall. In 1967, they were built across the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...

. In 1973, Lowell Technical Institute Dormitory was built near Leitch and Bourgeois Hall. At eighteen stories, the building, which was later renamed Fox Hall, is one of the tallest buildings in Lowell.Skyscraperpage.com - Lowell, Massachusetts. Retrieved 1/30/2010
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Merger

In 1972, a feasibility study was conducted on merging the school with the nearby Lowell State College. The schools merged in 1975 to form the University of Lowell, which changed its name to the

in 1991. Today, Lowell Tech's campus is known as the North Campus of

UMass Lowell The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell and UML) is a Public university, public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of Mas ...

Staff

Notable staff members include: *

Dave Morey David Beale Morey (February 25, 1889 – January 4, 1986) was an American football and baseball player, coach of a number of sports, and college athletics administrator. He was an All-American football player for Dartmouth College in 1912 and a ...

, coach (1916–1917, 1948–1959)

References

External links

Graduate School of Education Umass Lowell-HistoryHistory of Umass Lowell
{{authority control Buildings and structures in Lowell, Massachusetts Defunct universities and colleges in Massachusetts Embedded educational institutions Educational institutions established in 1895 University of Massachusetts Lowell Universities and colleges in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Educational institutions disestablished in 1975 1895 establishments in Massachusetts