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Ayer Mill (Lawrence, Massachusetts)

USA / Massachusetts / Lawrence / Lawrence, Massachusetts
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The Ayer Mill Clock Tower is the world's largest mill clock. Its four big glass faces are only 6 inches smaller than Big Ben in London. It is the treasured icon and landmark of Lawrence, Massachusetts and its endowment and maintenance is managed by ECCF.

A brief history of Lawrence and the tower

Lawrence was formed in 1843 from land purchased from Methuen and Andover by successful business men from Lowell to establish a new textile manufacturing industry on the banks of the Merrimack River. Periods of boom followed periods of financial difficulty for the huge mills that attracted immigrant workers from all over Europe. By the 1890's a solution to stability appeared to be consolidation and in 1899 under the direction of Frederick Ayer, eight textile companies merged under a new trust: The American Woolen Company.

In 1906, president of the American Woolen Company, William Wood, Frederick Ayer's son-in-law, completed construction of a huge new mill intended to produce all the yarn for the company and named it the Wood Worsted Mill. Just one wing of this new mill was half a mile long. The mill spun the fleece of 600,000 sheep in just five hours, but even with this capacity Wood soon realized that it could never produce all the yarn requirements of the company, so he began construction of the Ayer mill, named after his father-in-law, in 1909.

The Ayer Mill, built to spin and dye yarn, was opened on October 3, 1910. Its grand, illuminated clock tower immediately became the architectural focal point of the Merrimack Valley.

www.eccf.org/ayer-mill-clock-tower

The inner workings of Ayer Mill Clock Tower
www.lussierphoto.com/2010/10/21/ayer-mill-clock-tower-2...
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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Woolen_Company
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   42°42'10"N   71°9'16"W

Comments

  • Plytheman (guest)
    The clock face on the Ayer Mill is the second laregest four-face clock in the world second only to Big Ben's clock.
  • jerry (guest)
    really?
This article was last modified 11 years ago