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A Walking Tour of Lowell’s Acre, Then and Now

A Walking Tour of Lowell’s Acre, Then and Now

By Leo Racicot

     The Lowell Acre neighborhood streets I walked as a boy are much changed as I walk them now. True, the look of the landscape is pretty much the same –when I stand in my yard or go out the front gate, walk across Fletcher Street, I still see the cathedral-like spire of Saint Patrick’s, my parish church and have a clear view of Saint Patrick’s School which, in those days, was hidden in the shadow of The Morrill School (torn down many years ago). Over to my right is The Marine Club, with its front yard stone statue of a World War I doughboy. In the 1990s, it became Lowell Firefighters’ Club with its hard-to-miss mural depiction of firemen battling a raging blaze. The doughboy remains at its entrance which is nice, I think. That hasn’t changed. Catty-corner from the club was Pappas Funeral home. Pappas was owned and operated by the Zaroulis family, by Eunice Zaroulis and her mother, Gloria. A prominent Greek family, the Zaroulis’ catered mostly to a Greek clientele (when I was a kid, many Acre residents were Greek immigrants and I was blessed to have/know a great many Greek kids and their families as friends). Having a funeral home a couple of houses away from ours, seeing the funerals, the attendees, the pall bearers, the hearses, the limos on such a regular basis, exposed me to the matter of death and dying, and informed my views, I’m sure, about these matters from a very young age. Eunice was always stylishly coiffed, stylishly dressed so that I associated death with a certain glamour. I remember thinking, “It (death) can’t be all bad.”   Pappas’ was torn down years ago. In its place, a plaza devoted to Southeast Asian businesses (shops, laundromats and restaurants) was constructed. I can still look over and see the plaza here from my second-story kitchen window, and it’s always wildly busy, cars and customers coming-and-going constantly, trying carefully to maneuver through its tiny parking lot. I think of it and its takeover of the corner of Cross and Willie streets as symbolic of one race of immigrants making way for the next. In place of the Betses, Lellos, Tournas Zaharakis & Krikoris families I ran into every day, there are Luu, Hoa and Naly families. These days, of the old crowd, I only run into George Bletsis at the market. Along with his late brother, Christos, he ran Star Pizza on Merrimack Street for years, a favorite hangout in those days.      Continuing on across Broadway Street, I see a succession of what were known as Greek coffeehouses, social meeting-places where men (no women or children were allowed inside) could gather, to drink coffee, gossip, talk politics and enjoy one another’s camaraderie. Being as restricted as they were lent a mystery to them and I used to wish I was Greek and grown-up so I could go inside their smoky interiors. By the end of the1970s, certainly by the early 1980s, these significantly important social outlets for the city’s Greek community and economy, had vanished. In their place, I now see a barber shop, an Hispanic eatery, PIkalu’s. George the Tailor’s, owned by our neighbors; Bill and Anna Krikoris’ brother for years and years, is now the site of an upscale modern sign design operation. From my childhood, only Anton’s Cleaners and Olympos Bakery remain on this street.     I can’t find anyone who remembers, as I do, that before George’s Pizza moved to the corner of Broadway and Willie Streets, it was located further up Broadway at the corner of Broadway and School. I’m sure I didn’t imagine it; my mother used to walk Diane and me up regularly to treat us to a pizza or spaghetti lunch or supper. It was there I first heard Barbra Streisand singing People on the jukebox. George’s, at both locations, was a popular eating place for Acre residents and when it closed its doors and was demolished, many Acre-ites were devastated. Who can forget Eddie, the cook, or Dot and Irene, its longtime waitresses?  Where it stood, across from Anton’s, is now occupied by an Asian Restaurant and Bakery, not bad food but certainly not George’s steak-and-cheese or its unforgettable spaghetti with pepperoni.  A little way up from George’s stood the odd architecture of Cote’s Paint Store where our next-door neighbor, Clem Brissette, worked for years. That staple of the Acre closed and was taken over by, first, a bookstore, then a second-hand thrift store. When I was a kid, I hung around with the Brissette kids, Vivian, Diane, Denise and Michael, and one of the images I never can shake is of the day Anna Krikoris and I were chatting with their mom, Rita Brissette in the driveway that separated 5 from 7 Willie. As if out-of-nowhere, Rita’s face turned deep blue and she dropped to the ground, dead in a split second. On the spot where Cote’s Paint Store stood is now an abandoned, weed-heavy lot.      Wending my way up Broadway Street, I come to Macheras Auto Body Shop. Lowell fixture, George Macheras, is long gone but his shop still stands, maintained by the Macheras family. From there, the road then bends onto Dummer Street, a street we spent a lot of time on as kids. On Dummer, the original DeMoulas Market stood, a small place but in those days, it seemed big and carried all the goods our family needed. It closed in 1997 when a new, larger store opened up on the corner of Broadway and Fletcher, to accommodate bigger crowds. The new store, under the name Market Basket was built on the site of a Gulf Gas Station (or was it a Mobil?). My one memory of that gas station is of the time I pulled up to one of the pumps to make sure I had enough gas to get to Worcester; I was on my way to see Truman Capote who was appearing at Worcester State College. Diane had very generously said I could borrow her car. I was so excited. But after I filled her tank, I got back in the car and it wouldn’t start. A station attendant checked it and said the battery had died. Bummer. I was crestfallen for weeks after; Capote being one of my favorite writers. Also, on Dummer Street was McCord’s Drugstore, close enough so that any of us could walk there when a medical emergency required a prescription pickup, Alka Seltzer, cough drops, Pepto Bismol. It later changed its name to McCord-Sweeney. Marie’s Oyster House was on Dummer. Our mother often took Diane and me there, either to eat or for take home. I’ve never since tasted a fish batter that so ambrosial, and you’ll still hear Lowell residents on buses or on street corners talking about how wonderful Marie’s was.  Going to this area, I’d often take a shortcut leading from Saint Patrick’s Church past the Greek Orthodox Church through O’Brien Terrace over to Dummer. Then, the Greek Church gated its property to create more parking space so — no more shortcut. I still grouse about having to “go around”, especially in bad weather. Dummer Street led to Lower Merrimack where a stop-off at Pollard Memorial Library was always a treat. On the way home from high school, Anthony Kalil and I would head into Elias Bros. Tobacco Shop; In addition to cigars, cigarettes and pipes, the brothers sold quite a variety of sweets: penny candies, candy bars. I can still see the brothers’ kind Middle Eastern faces. Good people. Further up from there was The Royal Theater which, by that time, had seen better days. I went there only once, to see WIlliam Castle’s The Tingler with the great Vincent Price. The rumor was that The Royal was home to something like a million rats. For The Tingler, Castle had come up with a gimmick (he was known for inventing these) whereby when the creature, the tingler, appeared on the screen, theater seats were rigged to give the audience members a sudden jolt. When my seat buzzed, closer to my leg than to my rear end, I thought a rat had rushed over my foot and I screamed louder than anybody. I ask you — how do you forget something like that?!! Further up the street was Henry Poirier’s Hobby Shop where we kids bought chemistry sets, monster models like Frankenstein and The Mummy and ship-building and kite-making kits. I still have in the attic the cool Viking boat I put together from Poirier’s for Mrs. Dalton’s fifth grade history project.

     The Acre of today is populated by a large group of Southeast Asian residents. The streets I walked so often — Butterfield, Varney, Adams, Cross, Rock, Rockdale Avenue, are now heavily decorated by typical ivy- and vine-covered canopies. It’s a common sight, when passing by, to glance into people’s driveways, alleys and enclaves and see Southeast Asian gardens, little Buddhas, incense sticks.  I find the many thatched or timbered louvers dotting the Lowell landscape, protectors against rain and shade, a delight. There’s a certain area at the end of Suffolk Street leading to Dutton where, in summer, I see and smell orchids, bromeliads, Rangoon creepers, catalpa, Hoya, Rafflesia and ginger in bloom. I imagine I am walking in Laos or Vietnam.

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First DeMoulas Store on Dummer Street

George’s Pizza being torn down

George’s Pizza by Janet Lambert Moore

Greek Coffee House

Macheras Service Mart

Marie’s Oyster House

Olympos Bakery

Pappas Funeral Home, 120 Cross St

Royal Theatre

St. Patrick’s Church spire

WWI Doughboy statue

Seen & Heard: Vol. 17

Book Review – Kent State: An American Tragedy, by Brian VanDemark (2024). On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired upon students at Kent State University in Ohio who had gathered for a protest against the Vietnam War. Four students were killed and nine others wounded, including two who were paralyzed. This book provides a minute-by-minute account of what happened in the larger context of American politics at that time, and also offers some timeless lessons. Discontent with the Vietnam War was rising in America. In his successful campaign for the presidency in 1968, Richard Nixon had promised to end the war, but his actions upon taking office seemed to do the opposite. That was especially true at the end of April 1970 when news broke that U.S. ground forces had invaded Cambodia thereby expanding the geographic scope of the war. This triggered widespread protests across the United States, especially on college campuses. On Friday evening, May 1, 1970, in conservative Kent, Ohio, students from the adjoining university held a protest in the town that escalated to significant property destruction. The following night, other students set fire to  the school’s ROTC building which burned to the ground. That all prompted the state’s governor, who was running for the U.S. Senate on a “law and order” platform, to call out the National Guard and to decree that any gathering of students, either in the town or on the campus, was henceforth illegal. On Monday, May 4, 1970, students organized a large protest on campus. A National Guard general at the campus with approximately 100 troops tried to force the students to disperse. This inflamed the students who moved closer to  the guardsman with some students throwing rocks. The Guard used tear gas but a breeze made it ineffective. The general, whose judgment was later deemed both incompetent and reckless, maneuvered the soldiers into a vulnerable position which heightened their fear. Armed with bayonet tipped M1 rifles with live ammunition and no less-than-lethal tools for crowd control, one of the guardsmen fired which led many others to do the same. Some purportedly fired over the heads of the students but others purposely fired into the students. A few of the rock throwers were hit, but those who were killed were far away, felled by the high velocity bullets fired from the Guard weapons. Most in the country, including President Nixon, were shocked by the violence. But many weren’t, including plenty of people from Ohio whose main criticism was that the Guard didn’t kill enough of the “Communist” protesters. The surviving victims and the families of the deceased received hundreds of pieces of hate mail with similar sentiments, reminding us that horrible people are not a recent phenomenon in America. Another broader takeaway from this book is the need for specialized training and equipment for law enforcement organizations that confront civil protests. Many large city police forces seem to have learned that lesson and try to do it correctly. But as we saw this past year in Minnesota, putting heavily armed, poorly trained, and incompetently (or evilly) led paramilitary forces up against peaceful protesters is a recipe for disaster. 

Magazine Article – “How to Lose a War” by Louis Menand, New Yorker, April 20, 2026. With online newsletter, websites, print journals, newspapers and books, I have access to far more prose than I have time to read. My first layer of triage is to identify the author since, for some favored writers, I will read anything they publish. That’s the case with Louis Menand, a Harvard literature professor and New Yorker staff writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2002 for The Metaphysical Club and his 2021 book, The Free World was an outstanding cultural history of the U.S. post World War II. This month, Menand compares the quagmire of Vietnam to the current war against Iran. He contends that the decisive event in Vietnam came on March 8, 1965, when the first U.S. ground troops arrived in the country. It’s easy to stop bombing, he observes, but once troops on the ground start getting killed, it’s much tougher to walk away from a war that is likely impossible to win. The paramount U.S. objective in Vietnam quickly became saving face, an effort that dragged on for seven years and cost more than 50,000 American lives. Menand ends his story by drawing a comparison to our current conflict, writing, “Much like Vietnam, only a lot faster, the American war in Iran has reduced itself to saving face. Within two weeks, the United States was trying to figure out how to end the war without losing it.”

Newspaper Op-Ed – “My dog doesn’t read your lawn signs” by Stephen O’Connor, Boston Globe, April 26, 2026. Lowell writer and dog owner Steve O’Connor hits a home run with this essay in last Sunday’s Globe in which he laments the increasing number of lawn signs ordering passersby to “keep your dog off the grass.” Steve, always a close observer of what’s going on around him and a long-time dog owner, gets into the mindset of the dog who is intent on sniffing interesting scents the way we consume interesting content online. Although Steve doesn’t use the term, I’ve heard this described as “pee-mail” and see it in operation each time I walk my dog. Before leaving the house, I shoo her into our back yard to “do her business” which she does so we set out, each with relatively empty bladders. Along the way, my dog will vigorously sniff until she suddenly pauses in one spot, sniffs even more intently, then squats and, as Steve puts it, “squeezes out a drop.” I’m not sure what message she is sending, but I am fully convinced she is communicating with another dog. In the age of email, many of us have acquaintances that we know only through our online communications. We may have never met in person, but the information we share is interesting and fulfilling. My dog’s actions are the canine equivalent of that. To be fair, as a homeowner with a lawn bordering the street, I am always supremely annoyed to find unidentified dog poop in my yard so I sympathize with the sentiment, but every dog owner I know scrupulously cleans up after their dog when walking the neighborhood. Anyway, congratulations to Steve on another terrific article.

Party & Pay

Party & Pay – (PIP #104)

By Louise Peloquin

From January 20 to March 3, seven peeks into the past presented L’Etoile’s coverage of Lowell’s centennial celebrations. See the links below. (1)

Here is a financial follow-up.

L’Etoile – April 3, 1926

CENTENNIAL BILLS SUSPENDED

__________

The mayor provisionally suspends payment of the nine centennial bills he finds excessive.

__________

NO COMMENT

__________

     Among a batch of centennial celebration invoices presented to him yesterday at City Hall, mayor John J. Donovan suspended payment of nine for a total of approximately $2,500.

     His Honor sent a letter to the Budget Commission to explain that he had retained these invoices for further examination.

     Here is the complete list of unapproved invoices:

• Whitehead-Hoag Co. of Newark, N.J., badges and buttons: $742.81
• William Trottier, professional services: $562.50
• B. Thomas, centennial cake: $32.50
• Sullivan Brothers Printers: $405.25
• Page Catering Co., banquet for guests: $174
• Samuel G. Lyness, centennial punch: $187.50
• Ladydon Catering Co., orchestra: $37.50
• Lillian Abbott, professional services: $154.45
• Kershaw Music Store, professional music: $136.45

     Last Wednesday, centennial invoices totalling $7,700 were presented to the Budget Commission which examined and validated them before sending to mayor Donovan for approval. The mayor questioned nine. When asked about it yesterday, he did not comment but simply said that he wished to study them further before issuing the payment order. These bills will probably not be paid before the beginning of next week. (2)

1) PIP #93 – https://richardhowe.com/2026/01/20/it-was-a-very-good-year/

PIP #94 – https://richardhowe.com/2026/01/27/planning-lowells-centennial/

PIP #95 – https://richardhowe.com/2026/02/03/centennial-spending-objections/

 PIP #96 – https://richardhowe.com/2026/02/10/having-a-ball/

PIP #97 – https://richardhowe.com/2026/02/17/that-is-what-matters-most/

PIP #98 – https://richardhowe.com/2026/02/24/happy-100th-to-the-town-become-a-city/

PIP #99 – https://richardhowe.com/2026/03/03/speeches-songs-poems-prayers-and-much-more/

2) Translation by Louise Peloquin.

Lowell Politics: April 26, 2026

Perhaps the most important thing to arise at last Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was an announcement that City Manager Tom Golden, on behalf of the city, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Solar International Core Canada Ltd (SICC) of Toronto, Canada, in which SICC will serve as the “Master Investor and Capital Partner” for development projects within the Hamilton Canal Innovation District (HCID) and will provide a pool of investment money worth up to $2 billion.

Because this was just a “for your information” item, councilors were not required to take any action, but most of them spoke about it. Their responses brought to mind a community theater production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears with some councilors acting like the MOU was “too hot” (as in, this is the greatest thing that has ever happened in Lowell) and others deeming it “too cold” (as in, I can’t be overtly against it but I’m skeptical of the whole thing). To be fair, a couple of councilors thought it was “just right” (as in, this is a tremendous opportunity but let’s not plan the ribbon cutting just yet) which was the most reasonable approach.

I’ve read the agreement several times and still find it difficult to comprehend, although I suspect anyone who is not an investment banker would feel similar. Here is how I understand it to work:

Last year, Lowell was designated the first Frontrunner City in the United States. The Frontrunner City program is a strategic international partnership led by the Urban Economy Forum (UEF) and the United Nations to foster sustainable urban economies and advance UN Sustainable Development Goal 11, which aims to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

One of the benefits to Lowell of this designation is to unlock significant international funding for urban development projects in the city, which is where SICC comes in. My initial guess was that SICC was not a bank or private equity company sitting on billions of dollars to invest. Instead, it seemed like a pass through for foreign investors seeking stable opportunities in which to invest (and earn interest from) their wealth.

Poking around online, there seems to be a connection between SICC and Oman, an Arab nation much in the news recently because it’s across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran.  Although Oman’s incredible wealth comes from oil and gas, the country’s leaders, like every other nation in the world other than the United States under the current regime, understand that the age of oil is dying and that their country must diversify into green energy technologies to strengthen it for the future. In the meantime, Oman still derives enormous wealth from petroleum sales, so the country desires stable investment opportunities that will help preserve and grow that wealth.

With the basis of the Frontrunner Program being the advancement of the UN’s sustainable development goals and, with the United States (despite the trepidation most of us feel when we awake each morning about what craziness has come out of Washington overnight) still seen as a stable and profitable venue for investment, the underlying framework of this agreement makes sense to me.

As for what’s in it for Lowell, I see two things: This deal potentially provides funding to a real estate developer who wants to construct something at an interest rate lower than what might be obtained from more traditional US lenders; and the partnership arrangement between the city and SICC, particularly the Advisory Joint Task Force committee, could accelerate the concept-to-completion timeline by providing the big-project equivalent of a pre-approved mortgage right from the start. Together, these two things would increase the odds of HCID projects happening.

I envision representatives of the Department of Planning and Development going to developers and saying, “We understand you plan to construct a building in community X, but if you come to Lowell and build it here, we have a lender offering favorable terms already lined up and ready to proceed.” Between a slightly lower interest rate than could be obtained elsewhere and the speed and ease of approval, it could be an attractive enough proposition for the developer to shift their project to Lowell.

That’s viewing this MOU in the most favorable light. Still, it’s understandable (and prudent) to have some concerns. The MOU provides some level of exclusivity to SICC so there’s a risk that projects with funding from other sources might be blocked and go elsewhere.

For example, what if an irrational war with no strategic goals was to break out in the Persian Gulf and paralyze that region’s economy? That might cause investors in that region to keep their funds closer to home rather than invest them in a distant country. With the intended money pipeline shut off by extenuating circumstances, the city might be locked into a funder – SICC – that doesn’t have any funds to lend. I believe the MOU doesn’t grant totally exclusive rights to SICC, but it’s probably enough of an obligation to make using another funder a messy undertaking.

Still, notwithstanding the thrilling announcement of the Draper project on the old National Park surface parking lot in the HCID to create a LINC Annex just a few weeks ago, in the context of a quarter of a century’s worth of effort to maximize the HCID’s potential, not much has happened, certainly nothing that meets the aspirations of the community back in 2001 when this project was conceived.

In the absence of anything better, why not give SICC a try?

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The council also received an interesting presentation from Bridget Cooley, the director of the Pollard Memorial Library. She highlighted the library’s role as a vital community hub that provides essential services to Lowell residents. She also presented data about circulation, program attendance, and the library’s digital and physical collections. Although most library patrons in Lowell prefer tangible mediums such as printed books, the library continues to grow its digital holdings with e-books, databases and online resources. A bright spot has been the success of the relatively new bookmobile which has brought the library’s resources to neighborhoods and community events.

As a longtime user of Lowell’s library – I’m approaching the 60th anniversary of obtaining my library card – I’m thrilled to hear of the institution’s success. While I don’t use it weekly, I’m probably a monthly user. More importantly, whenever I need it, the library has always been there for me. From the comments of city councilors on Tuesday night, many of them see the value in the library and support its mission. Hopefully that will carry forward through coming budget deliberations.

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Last week in “Seen & Heard” I wrote about my recent visit to the Massachusetts Historical Society and its “1776: Declaring Independence” exhibition now on display; I reviewed the book, Battle Green Vietnam: The 1971 March on Concord, Lexington, and Boston, by Elise Lemire (whose family roots are in Lowell), which is the story of an anti-war protest by local chapters of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War that gained national attention; I noted the obituary of Norman Bussel, a World War II POW who in later years wrote about PTSD and whose B-17 crewmate, Vasilios Mpourles of Lowell, died when their plane was shot down; and finally, an article on former NBA coach Dick Motta not being selected for the Basketball Hall of Fame led me to recall my enthusiasm for the Boston Celtics of the early 1970s.

Also, on richardhowe.com, on Marathon Monday, I reposted my April 22, 2013, article about the days-earlier Boston Marathon Bombing; and on Friday, I posted a new poem by the stellar poet and Lowell-native Michael Casey about the Olympia Restaurant.

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One week to go until this spring’s Lowell Cemetery tours. They are on Saturday, May 2, and Sunday, May 3, both starting at 10am from the Knapp Avenue entrance of the cemetery. It’s free and there is no need to sign up in advance. Just show up. It’s the same tour both days.