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L’Etoile and Women – (PIP #22) By Louise Peloquin On March 8th, International Women’s Day, we remember the women who shaped our lives. Here is an example, kindly provided by Bob Vandenbulcke, whose father worked at L’Etoile. (1) Women were always an integral part of L’Etoile. PIP #10, posted on…
Read More »On Tuesday night, Assistant City Manager/DPD Director Yovani Baez-Rose made an excellent presentation to the City Council on Lowell Forward 2040, the city’s comprehensive master plan update that will now be considered by the Council. The executive summary and the full plan are online. At more than 200 pages, the…
Read More »Here is the legislative measure that created the town of Lowell in 1826. The language and punctuation is true to the original document. **** CHAP. CXII An Act to incorporate the town of Lowell. Sec. 1. BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and…
Read More »Malcolm Sharps: an appreciation By Peter Bendall Malcolm Sharps, a frequent contributor to the Richard Howe site, died recently at the age of seventy after suffering symptoms of long Covid, though the exact cause of death is not yet known. I knew him for nearly forty years and he was…
Read More »Helpful hints from La ménagère (1) – (PIP #21) By Louise Peloquin Among L’Etoile’s briefs were helpful hints for the homemaker – tips on cleaning, sorting, sewing, anything to facilitate household management. These appeared regularly for an all-inclusive target readership – from the Maman of a large family to the immigrant who crossed…
Read More »The continued existence of the Smith Baker Center was back before the Lowell City Council on Tuesday night. For several years, the demolition of this former church has seemed inevitable, but the Council struggles with making the formal decision to tear it down. As I wrote on this same topic back in…
Read More »One Man’s Trash Is A Young Boy’s Treat By Ed DeJesus It’s funny how certain things can trigger a series of memories. We live in a thirty-three-story high-rise in Florida and place our garbage down a trash chute—but haul recyclables down to our dumpsters on level one’s covered garage. I…
Read More »Notre Dame of Paris: Spire Update By Louise Peloquin Two months ago, Notre Dame offered the best perch in Paris to a golden rooster. The brief Gift-wrapped in steel, posted here on December 18th, provides details on the topic. On February 12th, the dismantling of le Coq’s (1) 48-level,…
Read More »“Indifferent to the war” – (PIP #20) By Louise Peloquin The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022 and the war is about to enter its third year. The Hamas attack on Israel occurred over four months ago, on October 7, 2023, and the fighting continues. Conflicts…
Read More »The Lowell Senior Center came up at Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting. Councilor Erik Gitschier raised the topic and the discussion covered inadequate maintenance, slow repairs, responsibilities under the lease, and the longer-term ownership status of the facility. Because the Council meeting was otherwise brief, I decided to focus today’s…
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