Second Shift: New Bedford's Industrial and Immigrant Heritage
Listen closely and you might still hear the footsteps of the workers who tramped between their tenements and the textile mills. New Bedford is known mostly for…
location_fill Start tour24 stops
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1
Samuel Rodman Candle Workslocation_fillForget beeswax. The prized ingredient in Samuel Rodman’s candle works was spermaceti, the waxy head matter of …
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2
Wamsutta Millslocation_fillIn 1847, a building without precedent in New Bedford began to rise north of the harbor in a grassy field along… -
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Wamsutta Brick Double-Houses (Demolished)location_fillWith the new Wamsutta Mill rising on the banks of the Acushnet River, its proprietors tried to attract a new w… -
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Wamsutta Four-Tenementslocation_fillIn 1892, the Reverend William J. Potter referred to the Wamsutta four tenements as a "pestiferous excresence."… -
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Alfred Benoit's House (Demolished)location_fill“Ever Since I Can Remember, I’ve Been Working”—Alfred Benoit Alfred Benoit was one of many youths who spent t… -
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Whitman Millslocation_fillBefore discount department stores became popular, New Bedford had Mars Bargainland. In the 1960s and 70s, the … -
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Manomet Millslocation_fillBuilt in 1903, Manomet Mills was “equipped with every improvement for the manufacture of combed yarns from the… -
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Nashawena Mills Weave Shedlocation_fill“We went back with what we thought was a 10% cut. Once we got inside it was 20%, and in some crafts it was mor… -
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Feast of the Blessed Sacrament Archlocation_fillThis metal archway welcomes 100,000 attendees each year to New Bedford’s Feast of the Blessed Sacrament. It is… -
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Portuguese Feast Groundslocation_fillIf it’s the first weekend in August, it’s time for “The Feast.” New Bedford’s Feast of the Blessed Sacrament… -
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Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Churchlocation_fillMore than 100 years after its founding, the Feast still begins and ends at Our Lady of Immaculate Conception C… -
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St. Anthony of Padua Churchlocation_fillNew Bedford was a city of smokestacks. The coal-fired boilers that powered the textile mills left a layer of g… -
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Brooklawn Parklocation_fill“The American holly is quite common here,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. “I heard a lark sing, sweet and strong, … -
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Beacon Mill (Demolished)location_fillIn 1932, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that Beacon Manufacturing Company used misleading practices to vio… -
15
Temple Landinglocation_fillRainbow-colored homes spring up from the street grid in New Bedford’s West End like children’s play blocks. Ho… -
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Bay Villagelocation_fill“Bay Village First to Go Solar, Makes History Again!” shouts the enthusiastic headline on the New Bedford Hous… -
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Potomska Mills Housinglocation_fillListen closely and you might hear the footsteps of hundreds of mill workers who lived in tenements on the bloc… -
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Acushnet Mills Housing (Partially demolished)location_fillShortly before nine o’clock on the morning of February 27, 1897, a 16-foot boiler at Acushnet Mills exploded. … -
19
Orpheum Theater and French Sharpshooters Halllocation_fillAs patrons poured into the Orpheum Theater on opening night, April 15, 1912, the celebration may have been mut… -
20
Berkshire Hathaway (Partially demolished)location_fillWarren Buffet’s empire started with a fit of pique. In 1964, Buffet acquired shares in a failing New Bedford t… -
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Howland Millslocation_fillWilliam D. Howland witnessed the decline of whaling and the rise of textiles in New Bedford, and he embodied t… -
22
Howland Mill Villagelocation_fillCome in and have a slice, courtesy of William Howland and his utopian mill village. The famous Ma Raffa’s rest… -
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Three-deckers on Roosevelt Streetlocation_fillThe failure of the Howland Mill Village experiment may have been the final straw for New Bedford mill owners. … -
24
Whaling and Industry Monumentlocation_fillNew Bedford has long been conflicted about its historical identity. The city has been, at different times, a w…
24 mapped stops