Participants can walk around and explore the outside of the buildings that once housed the Boston Manufacturing Company (BMC) and see the progression though the years from a small company site to a sprawling manufacturing complex.

Then visitors visit the nearby early workers' housing used by the individuals who worked at the BMC. This portion of the tour describes the historical development of the living accommodations of both workers in the mill and their neighbors along River, Jackson, and Central Streets. View and discuss some houses from as early as the 1830s that are still on their original foundations, along with others that have been moved and renovated to accommodate changes in use. The latter include the earliest mill-girl boarding houses in the nation, from 1817, and the mansion of Patrick Tracy Jackson, a founder of the BMC and a giant of the American Industrial Revolution.