Thanks to Fred Faust who organized and led the inaugural Lowell Walks of 2016, “Preservation Success Stories.” Kindly lending their assistance to Fred were two key players in the early days of Lowell National Historical Park, Sarah Peskin and Nancy Woods. Thanks also to Winn Development and Larry Curtis who…
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The Lowell Historic Board has installed green signs, 9 inches square, on the sides of several buildings in downtown Lowell. Each sign explains the historic significance of the building. Nine signs have been erected thus far. Up to 75 of them are planned by the end of the year. Recently…
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Lowell Walks begins this Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 10 am at Lowell National Park Visitor Center at 246 Market Street with “Preservation Success Stories” led by Fred Faust. The walk is free, requires no advance registration, and lasts about 90 minutes. Fred has written a description of what he…
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This is the fifth in a series of reports about wild and cultivated things on my property in the South Common Historic District, close to the Lowell Connector and Thorndike-Dutton gateway into the city. These updates are offered in the spirit of The Flowering City, a concept about 20 years…
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I read a Memorial Day Facebook post about Michael J. Monahan of Dracut, a Keith Academy graduate and Boston College student who enlisted in the Marines and was killed at Quang Tri in South Vietnam in 1966. He was a radio operator, nineteen years old. There’s a playground on Pleasant…
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This is the fourth is what will be an occasional series of bulletins about the cultivated and wild things on my property in the South Common Historic District, upland from Hale’s or River Meadow Brook and the Concord River, just at the edge of the industrial core of the city.…
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Rourke Bridge: Councilor Belanger reports that the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments and the member communities of NMCOG are all lobbying the state to raise the priority of a Rourke Bridge replacement. He also warns that the initial feasibility study is several years old and that if the follow-on environmental…
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After the Transgender Anti-Discrimination Resolution Last Tuesday’s motion by Councilor Rodney Elliott that the council “vote to adopt a resolution to oppose the transgender bill adopted by the State Senate, which allows access to women’s bathrooms and locker rooms” drew a large crowd and many speakers to the city council…
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This is a big weekend for walking tours in Lowell. On Friday, May 20, 2016 at 1 pm, I will lead a 90-minute walking tour of Lowell Cemetery. The tour will begin at the Lawrence Street gate. Many of the stops and stories this year are brand new to these…
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Congratulations to everyone at Do-It-Yourself Lowell for the excellent downtown Lowell history trail they launched this weekend. The group’s website says this about the trail: IDEA: A short trail, marked with temporary paint, signs, or another design method that reaches from the Boott Cotton Mills Museum to the NPS Visitor…
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