The following real estate sales took place in Lowell last week: January 11, 2016 – Monday 4 Ardell St for $217,500. Prior sale in 2003 for $215,000 129 Remington St for $300,000. Prior sale in 1987 820 Bridge St Unit 6 for $115,000. Prior sale in 2013 for $100,000 1431…
By Vincent Valentine, founder of the Telephone Museum: In 1877, Boston was the global epicenter of innovation and Lowell was a prominent industrial complex supplying granite for canals and factory foundations. Rudimentary electrical componentry such as telegraph and alarm systems were leading edge. Charles Williams Jr’s electrical shop in Boston…
The entry below is being cross-posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The past and future came together in the nation’s Capitol last night. It was a Paul Gauguin moment: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? The President of the United States gave the…
Coverage of the presidential election is increasing as the first electoral events draw near. The Iowa Caucus is on February 1, 2016, the New Hampshire Primary is on February 9, 2016, and the Massachusetts Primary is on Super Tuesday, March 1, 2016. With that in mind, I decided to review…
Unfinished business: By Councilor Elliott to reconsider denial of grant of an easement to benefit property at 155 Mansur Street. Also vote to take out of order a petition by property owners (the Rombergs) to reconsider the denial of the petition to grant an easement onto his property from Fairview…
Okay, here’s another one of those Lowell connections. There’s a scene in the brilliant new film “The Martian” in which astronaut Mark Watney (actor Matt Damon of Massachusetts) travels to a remote location to uncover a craft sent to Mars long before his space mission. According to sources, it’s actually…
There’s always a Lowell connection, right? Farewell, David Bowie, rock star, pop star, culture star, endlessly inventive artist. When I heard the news today, I was reminded of a story told to me by Lowell singer-songwriter extraordinaire Bob Martin. He was breaking into the music business in the early 1970s,…
Random observations leftover from last week: Temperature Swings and Tires – Yesterday’s 57 degree high temperature provided quite a contrast to the 5 degrees at 6 a.m. on Tuesday with a stiff wind from the northwest. The tires on my car didn’t like it: the dashboard sensor read “Low Tire…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Brilliant Irish satirist Jonathan Swift was said to have loved individuals but loathed mankind. Specifically, he wrote, “I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.” In that…
Donald Trump Rally Last night I finished reading Foreign Correspondent: A Memoir by H.D.S. Greenway who wrote for Time, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe in a career that spanned five decades. Greenway’s specialty was reporting from war zones and he visited plenty of them, from Vietnam to Afghanistan.…