On January 7, 1889, Mayor Charles D. Palmer delivered his inaugural address to the two branches of the City Council (the Common Council and the Board of Aldermen). The Mayor covered many topics in his remarks, from city finances (cash in the treasury as of Dec. 31, 1888: $59,265.27 [a…
In a ceremony on Thursday, October 1, 1942, at 3 p.m., Rear Admiral W. J. Carter, (S.C.) U.S. Navy, presented to F. A. Flather of the Boott Mills a red, white, and blue pennant representing the Army-Navy Production Award for high achievement in the production of military material needed for…
I was late getting home tonight so I missed the first 45 minutes of the Lowell City Council meeting and I was pulled away from the TV shortly after 9 pm, but the portion of the meeting I watched for nearly two hours was quite a change from what I…
If you haven’t visited Western Avenue Studios, mark your calendar with the first Saturday in February (Feb 2) for Open Studios when artists throughout the complex open their spaces and sell their art to visitors. On that day, or on any Wednesday thru Saturday after January 30, pay a visit…
This is an excerpt from The Big Move: Immigrant Voices from a Mill City (Loom Press, 2011), edited by UMass Lowell history professors Bob Forrant and Christoph Strobel. The book includes nine interviews, selected from the many conducted by the historians and their team for an ethnographic study of Lowell commissioned…
A recent view of the under-construction Richard P. Howe Sr. bridge which will connect University Ave and Merrimack Street. The photo, by Tony Sampas, is taken from the UMass Lowell North Campus, looking east towards downtown.
Following is an excerpt from an interview with Fred Faust, who has worn a lot of hats and coats in Lowell since he came to town as a radio reporter at WCAP. In 2003, historian Mehmed Ali, then on the staff of Lowell National Historical Park, sat down with Fred to…
The email arrived late Friday. Immediately my pulse quickened and my breath became short. The book I had ordered from the Pollard Memorial Library had arrived and was waiting to be picked up. My physiological reaction wasn’t due to excitement about the book, it was due to my apprehension about…
A very generous anonymous donor saved the famine-era St. Brigid’s Church in New York City’s East Village from the wreakers ball. The Gothic-style church was designed by Patrick Keely – a Tipperary man – who moved to New York as a young man had a long and distinguished career as an architect. The work of…
Writer and painter Chath PierSath, a former Lowell resident who still lives in the region, crossed the Thai-Cambodian border in 1979 with members of his family on the way to Aranyaprathet Refugee Camp. With the help of his brother and aunt, he and his sister came to America in 1981,…