[4] The city is also part of a smaller Massachusetts statistical area, called Greater Lowell, and of New England's Merrimack Valley region.

[5] During the Cambodian genocide (1975–1979), the city took in an influx of refugees, leading to a Cambodia Town and America's second-largest Cambodian-American population.

Cawley Stadium, home of the Lowell High School Red Raiders, also played host to the Boston Patriots during their first season.

The Pawtucket Falls, which provided the hydropower for Lowell's industry in the 1800s, also served as an important seasonal fishing site for native people at the time of European colonization in the 1600s.

[8] In the mid-1600s, English efforts to convert native people to Christianity led to the founding of the "praying town" of Wamesit at the confluence of the Concord and Merrimack Rivers in what is today Lowell,[7] however the population of Wamesit was reckoned at only 75 people just prior to King Phillip's War,[7] which significantly altered relations between English colonists and indigenous groups in New England, and led to the abandonment of many praying towns.

Founded in the 1820s as a planned manufacturing center for textiles, Lowell is located along the rapids of the Merrimack River, 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Boston in what was once the farming community of East Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Many of the men who composed the labor force for constructing the canals and factories had immigrated from Ireland, escaping the poverty and Great Famine of the 1830s and 1840s.

"[11] The city continued to thrive as a major industrial center during the 19th century, attracting more migrant workers and immigrants to its mills.

Later waves of immigrants came to work in Lowell and settled in ethnic neighborhoods, with the city's population reaching almost 50% foreign-born by 1900.

The former mill district along the river was partially restored and became part of the Lowell National Historical Park, founded in the late 1970s.Although Wang went bankrupt in 1992, the city continued its cultural focus by hosting the nation's largest free folk festival, the Lowell Folk Festival, as well as many other cultural events.

[17] The HCD is a major redevelopment project that comprises 13 acres of vacant, underutilized land in downtown Lowell abutting former industrial mills.

Trinity Financial was elected as the Master Developer to recreate this district with a vision of making a mixed-use neighborhood.

Development plans included establishing the HCD as a gateway to downtown Lowell and enhanced connectivity to Gallagher Terminal.

The Pawtucket Falls, a mile-long set of rapids with a total drop in elevation of 32 feet, ends where the two rivers meet.

At the top of the falls is the Pawtucket Dam, designed to turn the upper Merrimack into a millpond, diverted through Lowell's extensive canal system.

The glacial deposits that redirected the flow of the river left the drumlins that dot the city, most notably, Fort Hill in the Belvidere neighborhood.

Like the Merrimack, the Concord, although a much smaller river, has many waterfalls and rapids that served as power sources for early industrial purposes, some well before the founding of Lowell.

The Centralville neighborhood, ZIP Code 01850, is the northeastern section of the city, north of the Merrimack River and east of Beaver Brook.

Other minor neighborhoods within this ZIP Code are Ayers City, Bleachery, Chapel Hill, the Grove, Oaklands, Riverside Park, Swede Village, and Wigginville.

The northwestern portion of the city includes the neighborhood where Jack Kerouac resided around the area of University Avenue (previously known as Moody Street).

Pawtucketville is the official entrance to the Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsborough State Forest, the site of an historic Native American tribe, and in the age of the Industrial Revolution was a prominent source of granite used in canals and factory foundations.

The Government of Cambodia opened up its third U.S. Consular Office in Lowell, on April 27, 2009, with Sovann Ou as current advisor to the Cambodian Embassy.

[96] As of 2012, the Pollard Library purchases access for its patrons to databases owned by: EBSCO Industries; Gale, of Cengage Learning; Heritage Archives, Inc.; New England Historic Genealogical Society; OverDrive, Inc.; ProQuest; and World Trade Press.

The building is named in honor of former History Professor and then President O'Leary, whose vision helped merge the Lowell colleges during his tenure in the 1970s and 1980s.

The city's auditorium hosts the annual New England Golden Gloves tournament, which featured fighters such as Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Marvin Hagler.

In July 2012, Lowell youth led a nationally reported campaign to gain voting privileges for 17-year-olds in local elections; it would have been the first municipality to do so.

Other service includes Merrimack Vallery Regional Transfer Authority (MVRTA) Route 24 to Lawrence, and the Coach Company bus to Foxwoods Resort Casino.

The Massachusetts State Police and Middlesex County Sheriff's Office also work with local law enforcement to set up driver checkpoints for alcohol awareness.

With the growth of UMass Lowell and the impact of its faculty and students in areas of scientific research, engineering, and nursing, the city has seen rapid gentrification of several neighborhoods.

Lowell Telecommunication Corporation[138] (LTC) – A community media and technology center, as well as the first public access television station in Massachusetts to unionize,[139] despite opposition from the nonprofit organization's board of directors.