Lowell, Massachusetts (Part 2)

JAM, March 2006

JAM is the name of a neighborhood just outside of the core downtown. The acronym stands for the three long parallel streets that traverse it: Jackson, Appleton, and Middlesex. The first two are mill owner names, the third is the name of the county Lowell is in. Residential and Industrial throughout Lowell's earliest years, during the late 19th century downtown began to creep into Appleton and Middlesex streets. However, the 2nd half of the twentieth century was not kind to this part of town. Downtown contracted, leaving many buildings abandoned or demolished. As industry left, the same could be said for many of the stores. Today, JAM is considered a "gateway" into Lowell, being a major way into and across the downtown. Serious urban renewal dollars are planned for what can really only be called an eyesore. Click here for the city's page on the project. A subsection of this project is the Hamilton Canal District. It's just across the Pawtucket canal from where I live, so I got up early this morning and went picture taking.

Jessica Hosman, a local art photographer, has lived in and used this area as one of her subjects for the past few years. Visit her site at http://www.jessicahosman.com

Since I first wrote this page in March 2006, many things that were just being planned have actually happened. A lot of them are discussed on Page 9, but I have notes here in Italics.

This building is your federal dollars at work: This was the Boston and Maine Railroad station on Central Street long ago. It has since been a telephone exchange, a movie theater, and a bowling alley. It got extremely run down over the years, its towers and roofline removed. The National Park bought it up and is rebuilding it, and across from it is Middlesex Street.

The windows are no longer boarded up, and this building has been bought by Middlesex Community College as a dance studio.

Middlesex Street. This must've been a movie theater at some point. Actually, there are no movie theaters in downtown Lowell today and it is one of the most obvious omissions. This building houses a gym, a lighting store, and a small food store.

The Marston Building. This building has been bought and will be renovated, but for now, it sits next to a halfway house in rough shape.

I have pictures of this same scene on later pages as it has progressed.

I love the nice "LOWELL!" banner next to this buildingless wall.

This wooden structure look really old. It's clearly condemned, I'm not sure what its fate is.

Amasingly, this building will be rehabbed...

There's some nice architecture down here - seems this building has been at least sort of taken care of. I belive this is a rooming house.

Between Middlesex and Appleton Streets on Elliot Street, named for the preacher who was the first settler in this area (preaching to Indians), is the 80+ year old Lowell institution - Elliot's Hot Dogs. The counter is tile, and has the place misspelled "Elliott's"

Sadly, in 2008, Elliott's closed without warning, and I never got my last pair of grilled-bunned All-Around dogs with onion rings...

Some buildings at the far end of Middlesex Street. These buildings I believe are all being torn down. Until recently, one was an illegal sea urchin processing plant! After this, Middlesex and Appleton go into a rotary-like mess called the Lord Overpass, emerging in the Lower Highlands neighborhood (and the train station to Boston) on the other side. I hate walking on that thing. Part of the JAM project is to build a pedestrian shortcut from this area to the train station.

The building in picture #2 has since burned down. One fewer for the wrecking ball.

Appleton Street is a different story than Middlesex - it's much more suburbanized (who knows what it was like before), so there's not much to take pictures of. However, it is home to the JAMs other culinary institution - The Owl Diner.

There are still a few operating factories in JAM - this (the middle one) is Adden Furniture. They make stuff for dorms. The building behind them is apartments and I think the one in front is the Cambodian Cultural Center. Unfortunately, the list of the big three when this project was first discussed is now only one. The back building that is apartments was Joan Fabrics until recently, and further down the street was Freudenburg Nonwovens (Pellon). Joan Fabrics closed, and Freudenburg was both closed and torn down. I briefly talked about the demolition of the steel sided Freudenburg plant back on page 1. Sometime in the future, both Adden and the Cultural Center are slated to be turned into condos.

Whole slew of Hamilton and Appleton mill pictures - Jackson Street. Notice how you can see clear through the boarded up factory. This is the front of the mill with no back in my first picture set. Notice how there's the canal in front of it and the one behind from the first pictures. One is about 10-15 feet higher than the other, and that's how they powered the early machines - the water would be channeled through a tunnel, drop through a turbine, and into the lower canal. Note that one of these buildings is marked 1825 above its door. There are either new things like a Cambodian day care and cultural center in these already (The better kept Hamilton mills), or in the case of the Appletons, they're part of the Hamilton Canal District (and, like many other buildings here, eminent domain proceedings). The big empty lot in the first picture is going to be a new garage with first floor retail.

Pictures of the garage are available on Page 9. Additonally, one of those catwalks was removed before it could fall down, but I heard a rumor that for some reason it'll be replaced?

Dutton/Thorndike/Gorham, March 2006

On the other side of JAM, there's a few more things to see.

This is Comfort Furniture, the "ugly building with the beautiful furniture". Very true on both counts. formerly the Hood Sarsaparilla Laboratory. Different Hood from the milk. The owner of I believe 50 years, Al, passed away in 2007. He seemed like a great guy - he told me that developers are always after his building for loft conversions but that he won't sell. I hope his company stays with that promise.

Keith Academy. Now condos, this castle-like building began life as a jail, and then a boy's school. It faces South Common, where I'm standing

The houses on South Common are very nice. This one is a funeral home, I'm not sure what's in the rest. This part of Lowell hasn't been stylish for a very, very long time though.

Triple Deckers near South Common at Gorham Street. This construction style was popular in New England for decades, because it was seen as being more livable than the stone tenements seen in the rest of the Northeast. They burn great, too. Always forward thinkers, we are. This is the beginning of the (largely Portuguese and recently Brazilian) Back Central neighborhood.

In 2008, a triple-decker hidden by one in this picture did burn...it looks like a total loss. Hope I didn't jinx it...

Middlesex County Superior Courthouse on Gorham Street. Lowell shares the County Seat of Middlesex with Cambridge. Not that that means a lot because counties are more or less just geographical areas and court districts in Massachusetts. You can't see it in this picture, but there are actually two structures here. The front part that you can see is a newer addition to the mid-19th century original courthouse that is in the back. Only the cupola of that red-brick building is visible from the street.

Actually, within a few years, this court should be closing. A new Justice Center is planned for the Hamilton Canal District, replacing both this Superior, the nearby District, and eventually the Juvinile courts.

Downtown, March 2006

I walked through downtown on my way back home, and took some more pictures.

Back downtown, the canals are refilled! It's amazing how much better this looks on a nice day with the water present.

The building on the right with some windows boarded up is now filling up with residents. These condos can go for $400,000+. Many have two floors and a rooftop patio. The building on the left is now really, really nice apartments.

Merrimack Street, Lowell's main street. The Hildreth Building and Page's Clock. The Hildreth building can be considered the most ornate building in Lowell. It occupies the lot on Merrimack opposite the end of Central Street. At one point, this building had many sandstone architectural details, but over the years, they have decayed and been removed, leaving a somewhat scarred facade. Fun fact: While the Hildreth Building is not the original location, the downtown Lowell CVS was the first in the country.

The old Bon Marché building was originally a department store (it later became a Jordan Marsh). After closing years ago, the current tenants include a small Barnes and Noble (that is never open...), La Boniche (a French Restaurant), and a few other stores and offices. Note the Wang logo on the top of the building. I'm not sure why this is here, but Wang Computer was a huge Lowell-based computer company in the 1980s. They built a large office park including a landmark tower (now Crosspoint) on the outskirts of the city in addition to building or buying educational facilities throughout the Lowell area, including the octagon a few pictures up that is now Middlesex Community College. However, eventually the company's fortunes reversed, and they lost it all. That was a newer logo of theirs - it'd be depressing if this is where their offices finally moved.

In the distance, Lowell City Hall is clearly visible.

Some of our busses look like trolleys, and run on natural gas.

Palmer St, there's some good food on this block.

An alley looking from Palmer to Central. If that train ever runs again, there's a lot of dumpsters in big trouble here.

And finally, back in my building, the (de)construction of the Freudenburg plant next door.