Personal Writing: Response to My Visit to the Boott Cotton Mill Before visiting the Boott Cotton Mill, I thought about what it would look like. Everybody knows what a mill looks like, especially an old mill. I expected a large brick building with smoke stacks outside, inside I expected fully functional product producing facility. When I got there I was quite surprised. I walked to the mill from the Visitor Center, and as I walked through downtown Lowell there were a lot of people. When I got to John Street, there wasn't anybody in sight. As I got closer to the mill, the place looked deserted. When I saw the canal in front of the mill, I was su