History
The Lowell Public Library was established on May 20, 1844 [2] with between 3,000-3,500 volumes. [3] [4] It was originally named the City School Library. [3] [4] The state of Massachusetts provided $1,200 for the budget and the city provided $2,300. [3] It was set up in the first floor of the Old City Hall, 226 Merrimack St and opened for the first time on February 11, 1845. [3] [4] The library was renamed the City Library of Lowell in 1860. [3] [4] In 1872, the expanding collection was relocated down the street to the Hosford Building at 134 Merrimack St. In 1890–1891. [3] The City of Lowell hired local Architect Frederick W. Stickney to design the new Lowell City Library, also known as Memorial Hall, in honor of the city's men who lost their lives in the American Civil War. [3] [4] [5] The building was in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. [6] The cornerstones of the building, along with those of City Hall next door, were laid on October 11, 1890 and it took three years to complete the building. [5] The grand opening of Memorial Hall was on June 3, 1893. [4] [5]
In 1915 the second floor of the building was destroyed by a fire. [4] [6] [7] The reported loss for the library was $67,627.20 worth of material as well as artifacts and relics. [8] The building was rebuilt with Stickney and Harry Prescott Graves hired to plan the reconstruction. [9] [10] Military murals by French artist Paul Philippoteaux were installed on the second floor. [4] [6] In 1981, the library was renamed the Pollard Memorial Library in memory of the late Mayor Samuel S. Pollard. [4] [5] [11] In 2000–2002 the building was remodeled for $10 million to modernize the building. [6]
Jack Kerouac was a frequent visitor to the library as a teenager. He often skipped classes to read at the library. [12] In February 2015 the library dedicated a spot in the library as the Kerouac Corner in honor of the author. [13]
In early January 2018, pipes burst in the reference room of the library, causing extensive damage throughout the building. [14] The alarm system failed to notify city officials, leaving the water pouring over the course of a weekend until it was discovered on Monday. The flood destroyed countless books and records, some of which were sent to archivists to be restored. The library underwent construction to repair the damaged rooms, remaining closed for several weeks until it reopened near the beginning of March. [15]
Past library directors
- Josiah Hubbard 1845–1860 [3]
- Frederick A. Chase 1897 [3]
- Hugh Downey 1943–1969
- Mary Johnson-Lally 1995–2003
Currently
Front and Side entrance to PML
South Entrance Pollard Memorial Library
Memorial hall entrance to Pollard Memorial Library
Second relief pollard memorial library
Entrance to Pollard Memorial Library
Stained glass Pollard Memorial Library
Dedication plaque for Pollard Memorial Library; Lowell, MA; 2011-08-20
Pollard Memorial Library; Lowell, MA; north (back) side; 2011-08-20
In the mid-2000s the century-old National Historic building underwent a major $8.5m renovation.[85] The city also, recently expanded the library system to include the Senior Center Branch, located in the City of Lowell Senior Center.
In fiscal year 2008, the city of Lowell spent 0.36% ($975,845) of its budget on its public libraries, which houses 236,000 volumes, and is a part of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium. Currently, circulation of materials averages around 250,000 annually, with approximately one-third deriving from the children's collection.[83][87] In fiscal year 2009, Lowell spent 0.35% ($885,377) of its budget on the library—some $8 per person. As of 2012, the Pollard Library arranges access for its patrons to databases owned by: EBSCO Industries; Gale, of Cengage Learning, Inc.; Heritage Archives, Inc.; New England Historic Genealogical Society; OverDrive, Inc.; ProQuest; and World Trade Press.
In 2012 the library unveiled a collection of art discovered in the library and restored by local resident Peter Kostoulakos. Items included Brook in the Snow by Rockport landscape painter Aldro T. Hibbard and a portrait of library architect Frederick Stickney.
Art and artifacts collection
- Venezia by David Neal (local artist from 1883 to 1915) located on the ground floor of the building.
- Edith Nourse Rogers Proclamation located on the ground floor of the building.
- The Art of Painting and The Textile Industry by Vesper Lincoln George located on the first floor.
- Copy of Washington at Dorchester Heights by Samuel P. Howes (local artist and student of Gilbert Stuart who painted the original)located on the first floor.
- Daniel Webster by Thomas Bayley Lawson (local artist and founder of the Lowell Art Association in 1878) located on the first floor.
- Various Audubon prints from the Lockwood edition of Birds of America located on the first floor.
- Samuel S. Pollard by Helen F. Dube located on the first floor.
- Elizabeth Sterns Davis and John Davis by Edward C. Tarbell located on the first floor.
- Frederick W. Stickney by Ernest L. Ipsen located on the first floor.
- Imari Vase attributed to Kanzo located on the first floor.
- Abraham Lincoln by Samuel P. Howes located on the second floor.
- Daniel Webster by Thomas Bayley Lawson located on the second floor.
- Brook in the Snow by Aldro T. Hibbard located on the second floor.
- Harriet Farley by Marisha Guttman located on the second floor.
- Battle of Shiloh, Lee's Surrender at Appomattox, and Siege of Fort Donelson by Paul Philippoteaux located in Memorial Hall.
- Various Terra Cotta Friezes by Henry F. Plasschaert located on the Merrimack St. exterior of the building.
Lowell is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, it is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of the last census, and the third most populous in the Boston metropolitan statistical area. The city also is part of a smaller Massachusetts statistical area, called Greater Lowell, and of New England's Merrimack Valley region.
Lowell National Historical Park is a National Historical Park of the United States located in Lowell, Massachusetts. Established in 1978 a few years after Lowell Heritage State Park, it is operated by the National Park Service and comprises a group of different sites in and around the city of Lowell related to the era of textile manufacturing in the city during the Industrial Revolution. In 2019, the park was included as Massachusetts' representative in the America the Beautiful Quarters series.
The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of Massachusetts public university system and has been accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) since 1975. With 1,110 faculty members and over 18,000 students, it is the largest university in the Merrimack Valley and the second-largest public institution in the state. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Hudson is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is located along the Massachusetts state line. The population was 25,394 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-largest municipality in the state, by population.
Canisius College is a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 master's and certificate programs.
LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer information. During the 1970s, LexisNexis began to make legal and journalistic documents more accessible electronically. As of 2006, the company had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records–related information.
Middlesex Community College is a public community college with two campuses in Massachusetts, one in Lowell and the other in Bedford.
Lowell High School is a single-campus public high school located in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. The school is a part of Lowell Public Schools. The mascot is the Red Raider and the colors are maroon & gray. Current enrollment is over 3,000 students.
The history of Lowell, Massachusetts, is closely tied to its location along the Pawtucket Falls of the Merrimack River, from being an important fishing ground for the Pennacook tribe to providing water power for the factories that formed the basis of the city's economy for a century. The city of Lowell was started in the 1820s as a money-making venture and social project referred to as "The Lowell Experiment", and quickly became the United States' largest textile center. However, within approximately a century, the decline and collapse of that industry in New England placed the city into a deep recession. Lowell's "rebirth", partially tied to Lowell National Historical Park, has made it a model for other former industrial towns, although the city continues to struggle with deindustrialization and suburbanization.
The Jerathmell Bowers House is believed to have built circa 1673, at 150 Wood Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is the oldest known home in Lowell. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River in the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in New England and has helped to define the livelihood and culture of those living along it for millennia.
Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) is a non-profit professional theatre located in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. Known for its productions of contemporary work and world premieres, the company presents a September - May season of seven plays at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre in the historic Liberty Hall, a 279-seat theatre located adjacent to the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. MRT is the only professional theatre company in the Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and one of three League of Resident Theatres (LORT) members in Massachusetts.
Frederick Warren Stickney was an American architect.
The Yorick Club was a private social club in Lowell, Massachusetts, which twenty prominent young Lowell men founded in February 1882. The club went bankrupt in 1979 and was dissolved; its former clubhouse is now Cobblestones Bar & Restaurant.
Patrick Óisin Murphy is an American politician, a former city councillor and formerly a Mayor of Lowell, Massachusetts.
The Merrimack Valley Library Consortium (MVLC) is an American library consortium created by Nancy Jacobson and Evelyn Kuo in 1982. MVLC manages the resource sharing of 36 automated and partially automated libraries in Merrimack Valley region of northeastern Massachusetts, ensuring unified access to all of their catalogs, which represent almost three million items and more than six hundred thousand titles.
The New Hampshire Savings Bank Building is a historic commercial building at 97 North Main Street in downtown Concord, New Hampshire, across Capitol Street from the New Hampshire State House. The five story granite building was built in 1926-27 for what is now the oldest bank in the city, and was the only bank building built in the city in the first half of the 20th century. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Henri "Henry" Beaudry was a local business person and a Franco-American politician who served as the sixty-first mayor of Lowell, Massachusetts.
Pawtucketville is a neighborhood and village within the city of Lowell, Massachusetts.
