Lowell Post Office

The Warren Fox Building is a historic commercial building in Lowell, Massachusetts. The four-story brick building was built in 1884 by Warren Fox, and is a good example of commercial Queen Anne architecture. The building is nine bays wide; brick piers rise surrounding the central bay, where the main entrance is, and rise above the level of the flat roof to form a cornice.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989; it was included in the bounds of the Lowell National Historical Park in 1978.

The Howe Building is a historic commercial building at 208 Middlesex Street in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. The four story brick building was built in 1883, and is one of the city's finest Queen Anne commercial buildings. Its architecturally prominent features include a mansard roof (unusual for the style and period), and a large central stepped gable with an arched window at the center. It was built by John F. and Henry C. Howe, brothers who were heavily involved in the commercial development of downtown Lowell who also sat on the city council.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Lowell Heritage State Park is a public recreation area and historical preserve located in Lowell, Massachusetts, that protects and promotes the city's seminal role in the American Industrial Revolution. The state park was established in 1974 as a precursor to Lowell National Historical Park, which was created in 1978. Aside from the functions the national park also serves, the state park maintains additional sites around the city such as the Sampas Pavilion.

The South Common Historic District of Lowell, Massachusetts, encompasses the city's South Common and the various public, religious, and private residential buildings that flank its borders. The South Common, about 22.5 acres (9.1 ha) in size, was purchased by the city in 1845 in an auction by the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, who owned much of the city's industrial area. Although the common was landscaped, it was not apparently done so to a plan. It quickly became lined with fashionable residences, and several iconic public buildings, including the 1850 courthouse, a Romantic Revival structure designed by Ammi Young, and a series of Gothic Revival churches. Highland Avenue was built out with a series of fine Italianate houses.Per the January, 1981 Massachusetts Historic Commission application, in the 1850s a land owner living on the east side of the proposed South Common, Patrick Manice, refused to sell his property to the City of Lowell. The city then enclosed his property, with he and his family within with a wooden fence. Friends supported Manice by slipping food through the slats of the fence. He surrendered his house in 1856 for $3500, and the parcel was subsequently nicknamed "Manice's Spite". In 1905, the city built a running track a baseball field and a children's gymnasium on the common as a 'city experiment'. In addition to the common, the historic district encompasses many of the surrounding buildings including: 7 residential buildings on Highland Street,7 properties on Summer Street including the Eliot Church,Eliot School on Favor Street,Hood's Laboratory (Thorndike Street) - Originally built to produce 'Hood's Sarsaparilla', the former Lowell Jail (Thorndike Street) later housing Keith Academy Catholic High School,St. John's Church (Gorham Street), St. Peter's Church and Rectory (Gorham Street) and, the Middlesex County Courthouse (Gorham Street). The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The Rex Center was an arena and entertainment center in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts, existing from 1933 to 1960. Entrepreneur and car dealer Charles Dancause created the Rex, which opened in 1933 in a renovated mill building, the old Prescott Division Plant of Mass Cotton Mills. The architect of the conversion was Harry Prescott Graves.Among the entertainments offered at the Rex was dining (the Rex Grille, which also offered floorshows), bars, a dancing ballroom, duckpin bowling (65 lanes), roller skating, pool (30 tables), and Turkish baths. There were five banquet halls; banquets, wedding receptions, and other events were held there. The Rex Center constituted an important part of Lowell social life in the mid 20th century; the Lowell Sun described it as "one of Lowell's landmark spots" and "the sports and dining showplace of Lowell".The Rex Arena in the center seated 1,000 or 2,000 and hosted boxing matches, and also wrestling matches (featuring appearances by Jim Londos, Ed "Strangler" Lewis, The French Angel, Man Mountain Dean, Dropkick Murphy, Bull Curry and many others), particularly after the older Crescent Rink on Hurd Street burned down. Semi-pro basketball games were played there, and the Harlem Globetrotters appeared there.The Rex Center burned down on June 25, 1960. The huge fire raged out of control for several hours, and of the more than 300 firefighters from Lowell and 14 other towns, sixteen were injured. The derelict building was torn down in 1971 and replaced with a parking lot. Wang Laboratories built a training center at the site in 1984, which in 1990 was purchased by Middlesex Community College and is now used as its Lowell campus.

The Lowell Museum, located in Lowell, Massachusetts, was founded by Moses Kimball in 1840, as an art exhibit hall and entertainment venue.

Completed in 1796, the Pawtucket Canal was originally built as a transportation canal to circumvent the Pawtucket Falls of the Merrimack River in East Chelmsford, Massachusetts. In the early 1820s it became a major component of the Lowell power canal system. with the founding of the textile industry at what became Lowell.The Pawtucket Falls are a mile long series of falls and rapids over which the Merrimack River drops 32 feet. The falls hampered the shipment of inland goods, mostly lumber, to the mouth of the Merrimack and Newburyport, Massachusetts. Newburyport was then one of the largest shipbuilding centers in New England, and a steady supply of wood from New Hampshire was critical to its industry. The original canal was built by wealthy Boston merchants who formed a limited liability corporation called the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, one of the first of its kind in the United States. However, within a decade of its construction the Middlesex Canal was completed, connecting the Merrimack directly with Boston, Massachusetts. Bringing goods directly to Boston was more advantageous for merchants, and the Pawtucket Canal fell out of favor for inland transport. The investors in the Boston Manufacturing Company having successfully built upon Francis Cabot Lowell and Paul Moody's work in building a successfully integrated cotton mill at Waltham, Massachusetts on the Charles River were looking for a site that offered more waterpower and the Pawtucket Falls offered what they needed. In 1821 they bought the Proprietors of Locks and Canals and with it the water rights of the Merrimack River upstream from the Pawtucket Falls. The Pawtucket Canal was deepened to become a power canal, and the first of 5.6 miles of canals in the soon to be named City of Lowell, Massachusetts. The first canal built off the Pawtucket Canal was the Merrimack Canal, which powered the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, thus starting the Lowell experiment, and the first planned industrial city in the United States. The canal is operated today by Boott Hydro, LLC.

The Bon Marché was a department store in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts, in business from 1878 to 1976.Frederic Mitchell founded a dry goods store in 1878 under the name "This is Mitchell's". His brother Charles Mitchell operated a shoe store. Both stores were on Merrimack Street. In 1887, Frederick and Charles combined their operation, under the name The Bon Marché.Of the building that became the Bon Marché store, the small righthand section was built around 1874 (before Bon Marché existed). The large central section was built in 1887 to house the new Bon Marché Dry Goods store. The addition on the left side (matching the original right side building) was built in 1927.In the manner of the day, wares were sold outside on the street. Customers included the workers of the city's many textile mills. The store was on Merrimack Street in the heart of the commercial district of what was then the prosperous and growing city of Lowell.Even in its early days, Bon Marché billed itself as the largest department store in New England. Their Rock Bottom Basement Store featured an actual rock, a large glacial erratic which the basement was built around. The store was an anchor of Lowell's mercantile downtown. Its fortunes declined with the city as the mills closed. The last day of business was January 10, 1976. The building was taken over by the Jordan Marsh chain, which itself became defunct in 1996; the building now houses the UMass Lowell bookstore and other businesses.

The Owl Diner, formerly known as the Monarch Diner is a historic diner at 246 Appleton Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. The diner was built by Worcester Lunch Car Company as #749 in 1940, and was originally located in Waltham, Massachusetts, where it operated as the Monarch Diner. In 1951 the diner was moved to its present location in Lowell. The manufactured portion of the diner is nine bays wide and four deep, with enamel wall panels and a metal monitor-shaped roof; it is a rare regional example of a semi-streamlined form. Its present center entry was probably built when the diner was moved, as was the concrete block addition in the rear which houses the kitchen and restrooms. A second addition on the diner's south end adds seating space; it was probably added between 1952 and 1966. The diner is the last (out of sixteen) that once operated in the city.The diner was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

The F. Bradford Morse Federal Building, formerly the United States Post Office is a historic post office at 50 Kearney Square in Lowell, Massachusetts. The building was designed by George Augustine Daidy and was built in 1930. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The building was acquired in 1996 by Middlesex Community College, which renovated the facility for $11 million. It was renamed in honor of local Congressman and statesman F. Bradford Morse on December 8, 2006.Today, the building houses the MCC Lowell campus library, the Honors Center, and art studio and classrooms.It is distinct from 1895 Lowell Post Office, which is also listed on the National Register.

The New England Quilt Museum, founded in 1987, is located in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts and is the only institute in the Northeastern United States solely dedicated to the art and craft of quilting. It is the second-oldest quilt museum in the United States. It houses special and permanent exhibits, a library, a museum shop, and classrooms. Collections are strong in 19th century quilts, with a geographic focus on New England.

The Colburn School is a historic former school building at 136 Lawrence Street in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. Built in 1848, it is a fine example of institutional Greek Revival architecture, and is one of the city's older surviving school buildings, built during the rapid population growth that followed the city's industrialization. Now converted to apartments, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.