Lowell, Massachusetts (Part 6)

Neighborhoods (Inner)

So far we've been focusing almost exclusively on the industrial history of Lowell, so we took a few pictures of some of the city's neighborhoods. This is going to take at least two pages, so I will start with the ones that ring downtown.

The Acre

The Acre is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. For the past 180 years, it has served as the gateway to America for waves of immigrants from Ireland, Quebec, Greece, Puerto Rico, Cambodia, and many other countries. Each has left their mark on the city.

As mentioned back on page 1, the Acre is obviously much larger than an acre in terms of area. However, the Irishmen who came to Lowell to build the canals were given an acre of land to build their Catholic church on, and the name stuck for the whole neighborhood. Not surprisingly, the church was named Saint Patrick's. I've heard that the somewhat haphazard layout of the Acre is due to how the clans of Irish settled around the parish. Some streets off of Broadway (major road in the Acre) recently had their names reverted to their older, Irish names (Cork and Dublin Streets). This is the second St Patrick's Church on this site, and today they have Spanish, Vietnamese, and Khmer (Cambodian) masses in addition to English.

Unfortunately, a few years ago about half of the thirteen Catholic churches in Lowell were closed, since many parishioners have moved to the suburbs, or simply stopped going to church. The church I was (technically) a member of was on the list. Even sadder, the church my father originally belonged to was closed when I was very young. They cited structural problems with the facade. It was demolished in 1996, after they were unable to sell it for one dollar. Like many 19th century Lowell churches, Saint Peter's (Gorham St) was a massive, ornate building. I'll always remember the signs on the fences outside the church, watching them demolish it: "NOT EVEN HITLER WOULD DO THIS." A bit extreme maybe, but seeing the inside the building, where thousands must have gotten married, or been baptized, or had their funerals, for the first time visible from the street, was pretty depressing.

Not too far from St Patrick's is Holy Trinity. This Greek Orthodox church was, like Saint Patrick's, surrounded by the homes and the businesses of its parishioners. In the 30s, the tightly packed and decrepit neighborhood around this church was replaced with the housing project you see today. Today, the Greeks have moved all over the city and the suburbs, but the Acre, in addition to the churches, still is home to many Greek restaurants, bakeries, and a dwindling number of places named "George's." A classmate of mine once told me that in her ancestor's part of Greece, the locals don't know anything about Boston, but they know all about Lowell.

"City Stables, 1877" Now that the city doesn't have too much use for horses ("haahses" to the locals) this is the senior citizen's center. On Broadway.

Being an immigrant neighborhood, the Acre is fairly poor. Some parts are well-maintained...

...and some are not.

On the other side of the Acre, away from Downtown, is Wannalancit Street, home of the famous Round House. This part of the city, by the Pawtucket Falls, was envisioned as the elite neighborhood for the city at one point, but Belvidere ultimately won out. Some houses, like this one and the Ayer Mansion (Franco American School) survive today.

Back Central

The Merrimack River flows north of Downtown Lowell, where most of the pictures on previous pages have been taken. To the west of downtown is the Acre, and to the south is Back Central (To the east is the Concord River). Named after the well, part of Central Street that is back from Downtown, this is another particularly old part of the city - a place where city employees and other people not housed by the mills would live. The center of the area is Chapel Hill, which Central Street and Gorham Streets curve around. As the city expanded, this area became home to many immigrants, the Polish and the Portuguese to name the most visible groups. Recently a large number of Brazilians have moved in. Being part Portuguese, I have family who was born here many years ago.

This picture is taken from Lawrence Street, on the banks of the Concord River, looking up towards Central Street. Notice how varied and dense the buildings here are, never mind the incline of the hill. It's not uncommon to see houses on back lots here. This part of town is far, far older than the car, and people generally park on the sidewalk (The car in the foreground being a brave exception). The more careful ones fold their mirrors in.

A view upriver (south) of the Concord River, just off of Lawrence Street where the Rogers Street Bridge is. A nice little park. The crumbling smokestack in the distance is located further up Lawrence St in South Lowell.

Lower Highlands

South of the Acre and separated from it by the Pawtucket Canal is the Lowell Highlands. This is the city's largest neighborhood, and is home to everything from densely packed tenements to suburban tract homes. Since on this page I'm focusing on the "inner" neighborhoods of the city, I'm going to show the part closest to downtown and the Acre, the Lower Highlands.

Cupples Square. Not nearly as romantic as "Couples" square, which is what I thought the name was growing up. This is the intersection closest to downtown (there's two...) of Westford and Pine Streets, and is home to not only Lowell's best attempt at copying the Flatiron Building of New York, but the center of the city's large Cambodian community. Thousands of Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge found homes and jobs on just about the other side of the world here in Lowell. Lowell is home to America's second largest Cambodian community, behind Long Beach, CA. The resolution of this photo isn't all that great, but many of the signs here are in Khmer. For those from outside of New England, that sign that says "Lowell Package Store"...if the Miller and Bud logos didn't give it away, "Package" is Massachusettish for "Liquor."

Lower Belvidere

Belvidere is Lowell's wealthiest neighborhood, but the "Lower" sections of a neighborhood seem to be closest to the river, and thus closer to downtown. Lower Belvidere is just east of downtown, on the far bank of the Concord River, and is quite different from the mansions this section of town are known for.

The name Belvidere is apparently slightly older than the city of Lowell - having formerly been part of Tewksbury. For its first 50 years or so, Lowell grew by annexation. Lower Belvidere has some impressively long and straight uninterrupted rows of houses. This picture reminds me of a flat San Francisco for some reason.

Centralville

"Sennaville" is directly across the Merrimack River from downtown. To the West is Beaver Brook, and Pawtucketville beyond that. The eastern part of Centralville is called Christian Hill.

Crossing the Bridge St (Cox) Bridge from downtown. There are six bridges across the Merrimack today, there has been one here the second longest, the oldest being the one between the Acre and Pawtucketville at the Pawtucket falls, to the west of Centralville. Construction of this bridge's predecessor eventually lead to Lowell annexing Centralville from Dracut, and it became home to factory workers who wanted to (and could) live away from the company housing.

Bridge Street at the VFW Highway and Lakeview Ave. Like all major intersections in New England, this one has a Dunkin Donuts. Fortunately, it's a 24 hour one. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a drive-thru and turning left out of there back to downtown is far too difficult. If you continue up Bridge Street, after a short while you'll enter the town of Dracut. A few miles more and you're in New Hampshire. This side of the Merrimack has zero highway access, causing all sorts of backups at any roads leading to bridges. A very un-New England characteristic of the neighborhood off of Bridge Street is that the cross streets are all numbered. There's talk about tearing down that low green building on the left and an apartment building next to that and building a huge CVS. There's one right downtown!