Ryan W. Owen, Writer and Photographer
With spring finally here, if you are looking for
family-friendly (and dog-friendly) hiking trails in the Merrimack Valley, don’t overlook Chelmsford’s Thanksgiving Forest, sometimes also known as the Thanksgiving Ground Forest.
At the Lowell Historical Society, we run across some interesting items in our collection of historical artifacts. Recently, we came across this pocketwatch, dated 1900, with its old-timey reference tag still attached.
Read MoreAt the Lowell Historical Society, we get to see and study some really interesting artifacts, like the wooden stake from the Central Bridge fire of 1882 or the Hi Hat Guy from Lowell’s Hi-Hat Rollaway, or even the Box of Cinders from the Pollard’s Department Store fire of 1926. A lot of these, we inherited from long […]
Read MoreWe made the latest issue of Merrimack Valley Magazine, with an article featuring Lowell’s Prince Macaroni Company! With all the talk around Sacred Heart lately: the changes to the old school and parish grounds, and the Neighborhood Endowed Scholarship at UMass Lowell, as well as the sale of the old Prince Macaroni pasta plant last June, […]
Read More
Do you remember shopping at Lowell’s Giant Store? For decades, the Giant Store promised ‘giant savings’ and helped form the core of Downtown Lowell’s department store heyday that included other iconic shops like the Bon Marché, Pollards, and Cherry & Webb.
Read More
During these last few weeks, we’ve been busy at the Lowell Historical Society. As we near the end of our 2013-2014 year, we had our annual meeting last weekend at Lowell’s Pollard Memorial Library where our society’s Vice President Kim Zunino spoke about some of the fascinating finds she’s encountered in the attic of Lowell’s City […]
Read MoreIn our last post, we revealed how we learned that the Hi Hat figurine within our collection was carved in the likeness of former Hi Hat owner, Mo Rochette, who was also famous as the ‘old guy’ behind the snack bar at the Hi Hat during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. But to get there, […]
Read MoreWe call him Hi Hat Guy, at the Lowell Historical Society, after the name of roller skating rink that is lettered across his red tie. To the modern eye, Hi Hat Guy looks a little like Phil Dunphy, at least at first glance. He’s the father figure played by Ty Burrell on ABC’s Modern Family. Hi […]
Read MoreWe’ve been active lately, at the Lowell Historical Society. Among the responsibilities of my role as curator of the society’s art and artifacts is not only to figure out and document what we have, but also to share this information with the public, many of whom have parents and grandparents (and maybe great-grandparents too) who […]
Read MoreMy fingers first brushed across the small metallic oval a few weeks ago. It was right next to Officer Lee’s Lowell PD badge. This very different badge was light, too old to be plastic. I figured it was probably aluminum. As I slid out the drawer at the Lowell Historical Society’s archive, the flourescent […]
Read More
Forgotten New England 