Merrimack Millvilles (ongoing)
In the summer of 2019, I took a five-day drive along the Merrimack River, starting at its beginning in Franklin, NH, and finishing at its mouth in Newburyport, Mass. My plan was to begin to look closely at the mill cities along the river where so much of this region’s early industry flourished and where, today, these communities are struggling to reinvent themselves and survive.
Each city—Concord, Manchester, Lowell, and Lawrence among them—has its own feel, but their common denominator is the massive brick mills rising on or near the banks of the river, the source of their original power. Museums, housing, shops, offices, and small manufacturing outfits now occupy many of the buildings. But so does a feeling of emptiness. It’s that emptiness, and the fluidity of change, as sure as the river’s current, that draws me to these communities.