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Today December 17 is the birthday of American poet and editor John Greenleaf Whittier – born in Haverhill in 1807. He was also an ardent advocate for the abolition of slavery in the United States. hittier worked in Lowell as an editor for the Middlesex Standard in the mid-1840s. During this time…
Read More »Sixty-seven years ago today, early in the morning of December 16, 1944, a half million German soldiers achieved complete surprise by attacking the thinly held American lines along the Belgium-Luxembourg border. By the time it was over weeks later, 80,000 American soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured. In his…
Read More »Finally – FERC – the Federal Energy Regulatory Comission – has accepted the declaration of the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places (National Register) that the Pawtucket Dam has – without question – historic and engineering significance and is individually eligible for the Historic Register. This finding is huge with FERC…
Read More »The chatter surrounding the possibilities in the Lowell Mayoral race that arose the very night of the election led some to lament such early talk about the job. When Kevin Broderick fairly quickly took a pass – newly re-elected Councilor Patrick Murphy threw his hat into the ring and promptly…
Read More »Just back from an inspiring “performance” by Billy Joel in Durgin Concert Hall on UMass Lowell’s South Campus. For two hours the music mega-star engaged in a lively conversation with the audience, using a green laser pointer to call on this or that eager person in a sea of hands.…
Read More »I drove downtown about 30 minutes ago and stopped near City Hall. In my side mirror, the mid-section of Merrimack Street behind me sparkled. People sometimes say Lowell is a “little big city”—and that’s what it looked like at 5 p.m. with the going-home traffic filling the intersections and the Christmas…
Read More »Thirty-four years ago today, ten students died in an early morning fire in Aquinas Hall at Providence College. The following is a post I wrote several years ago. The original post along with the comments it received, is located here: Early in the morning of December 13, 1977, a fire…
Read More »I thought of Lowell and the power of “place” to speak to us through sights that are beautiful, stirring, wondrous, or calming when I read NYTimes writer Frank Bruni’s essay this morning—about visiting past homes and the importance of seeing what’s in front of us. Read his Op-Ed piece here,…
Read More »While in Washington this past summer, I finally made it to the National Postal Museum (pictured above and below) which is part of the Smithsonian Institution and is located right next to Union Station in what was once the city’s main postal building. Although small, the museum was inspirational, showing…
Read More »This one is for all the people going back to work tomorrow via the highway. “Commute” by Richard Marion (c) 2011 See more artwork at www.richardmarion.net
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