Author Archive

BUILDING YEAR By Terry Downes Five of six they lost last week Just two in ten they won in streak The wins come hard, the cost is dear: Baseball’s tough in a building year. The outfield we last season knew All have bid the game adieu; The rookies who now…

Longtime Lowell writer, scholar and teacher moved to Cambodia in January 2022 and has resided and worked there since. This is the first in a series of occasional essays called Letters from Cambodia in which George will provide a glimpse of everyday life in Cambodia and will also take on…

Please welcome Melissa Franks, our newest contributor to richardhowe.com. In this post, Melissa shares stories from her dad, Bill Franks, but Melissa and I also hope that this is the first of many “Lowell Stories” in which we capture in writing the spoken word stories that breathe life into the…

Long Ago Lowell Labor Day – (PIP #78) By Louise Peloquin 1924 Labor Day speeches ring true today. Lowell celebrated Labor Day Beautiful program of music, speeches and athletic games executed at South Common yesterday. – Mayor Donovan, Rev. P. Corrigan and Rev. Bakeman spoke.      Labor Day was celebrated…

There was no Lowell City Council meeting this week so in anticipation of our city’s coming bicentennial, I’ll take a break from current city affairs and look back 200 years to the founding of Lowell. Earlier this month I gave a talk on this topic at the Pollard Memorial Library,…

The Parker Lectures By Leo Racicot The Parker Lectures have been around for more than 100 years, Established as a trust fund in 1917 by their founder, Moses Greeley Parker, a Dracut physician and much-decorated Civil War surgeon, the Lectures offer the Greater Lowell area programs of a wide-ranging and…

 Paperbacks By Susan April Paperback books I stole from the Beaver Brook Mill when it was a department store: The Grapes of Wrath Up the Down Staircase Gone With the Wind. Collinsville. I was twelve. Our house had telephone books and Liberty Mutual pamphlets like First Aid for Slightest Injury…

In last week’s newsletter, I reported on two items from the August 12, 2025, Lowell City Council meeting. These were the upcoming trip to Switzerland by a city delegation and the Lowell Housing Authority versus vagrants discussion. Today, I’ll cover some other topics from that same meeting. The August 12…

Bookstores I Have Known By Leo Racicot College City Book Mart was the first bookstore I discovered and grew to love. It was located in what is now Francis Gatehouse Mills, on Broadway Street. The reason I’d found myself in that neck of the woods is: our Aunt Marie had…

The Underpass By Susan April The Underpass was a fearful place. A literal underpass of the Boston & Maine railroad at the foot of Middlesex Street by the Lord Overpass. You had to be brave or crazy to take that shortcut. I was both. I never understood the spaghetti of…