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For anyone who needs a reminder about the distinctive region around us, just check the new issue of the New Yorker magazine with two major articles about historical happenings and people from our general area. Our local history keeps making news. Pulitzer Prize-winner Stacy Shiff writes about “The Witches of Salem:…
Read More »Last night City Manager Kevin Murphy provided an update on the Hamilton Canal District to about 40 people gathered in the Enterprise Bank’s Community Room at 18 Palmer Street. Councilors Corey Belanger, John Leahy, Jim Milinazzo, and Bill Samaras attended as did Celeste Bernardo, the Superintendent of Lowell National Historical…
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With the eleventh installment of Lowell Walks completed yesterday, we’ve surpassed the 1000 mark – 1097 to be exact. That’s how many people have participated in these Saturday morning walking tours of downtown Lowell. Blogging colleague Paul Marion speculates that the collective good will of all these participants has influenced…
Read More »Yesterday’s beautiful weather drew me out of the Superior Courthouse for a downtown walk at lunchtime. The highlight of the walk down Gorham Street was reaching the intersection of Middlesex and Central where the pedestrian crossing light now works after several months of being out of action. With a very…
Read More »Here’s a throwback thing to the pioneer days of festival-making in Renaissance Lowell. This was “Expo ’79, Art/Music” at Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Lowell CityFair was part of the federal jobs program (imagine that) called C.E.T.A. (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) wherein a dozen or so Lowell artists were hired to…
Read More »Good news for those researching or just interested in the St. Patrick’s Cemetery burial and other information for the Irish individuals and families who came to Lowell in the 19th century. Access to this information is an important addition to Lowell’s cultural/historical resources. Thanks and kudos to Dave McKean and…
Read More »Web photo courtesy of Wikipedia The new issue of the New Yorker magazine has a short article about James Whistler’s durable portrait of his mother, speculating on why the painting is on the short list of iconic images in art history. The reporter, unfortunately, skips a mention of where the…
Read More »Yesterday morning I joined nearly 40 others at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum courtyard for a Ranger-led walk to the Pawtucket Gatehouse at the O’Donnell Bridge on School Street. Our path was along the Riverwalk and the Northern Canal Walkway. The Riverwalk portion took as behind the Tsongas Center, the…
Read More »My Tuesday blog post recounting my search for lunch in downtown Lowell was so well-received that I thought I would do it again. Well that’s not entirely true. Not everyone received it well, but no matter. Today was still sunny and warm at noon, but the air was much more…
Read More »Web photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org With purple loosestrife spread across the region, I thought I’d re-post this prose poem from years ago.–PM . Long Purples People write letters to writers, and sometimes the mail is a gift. Not long ago, Bill Martin wrote to tell me that he’d read a…
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