Lowell school Dedication

Lowell School (Picture found at Jamaicaplain.com)



Bromley, George Washington; Bromley, Walter Scott, 1895 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection

The Lowell School, at the corner of Centre and Mozart streets.



Boston Daily Globe November 12, 1874


The Lowell School-House

Ceremonies of its Dedication, Yesterday - Address by Rev. George Putnam, D.D - Sketch of the Building.


The building just completed by the city on Centre street, in the Highland District, and known as the Lowell school-house, was dedicated, yesterday afternoon, with appropriate services. It stands very near the Lowell mansion, which enjoyed high celebrity for its social attractions in years past. This fact suggests the name, which derives added fitness from the important services which by various members of the Lowell family have been rendered to the city and the community at large. The building is one of the largest and best-planned school-houses that have been erected in this vicinity.

Its external material is of faced brick with Nova Scotia stone trimmings, the front extending eighty-six feet on Centre street, with a depth of 108 feet. Front and rear are projecting wings and covered porches. The principal facades are well broken up with pavilions terminating in coped gables, the style of architecture being the secular gothic. The building is of two stories and a hip roof, the latter being surmounted in the center with an ornamental ventilating cupola. The front porch has an inscription of the name and date. In the basement are play rooms, heating apparatus, etc. The two stories above contain six school-rooms each in dimensions 29x31 feet, and provided with closets, wardrobes, etc. The hip roof contains two school-rooms, besides the exhibition hall. In addition to the ground occupied by the building, there are about 9000 feet for playground and outbuildings. The total cost of land and building was about $147,000, of which sum from $20,000 to $25,000 was for the former item.

The exercises of dedication included prayer by the Rev A.H. Plumb; delivery of the keys by Alderman Emery, Chairman of the Building Committee, to his Honor Mayor Cobb, by him to Mr. George M. Hobbs, Chairman of the District Committee, and by him to Mr. Daniel W. Jones, principal of the school. The dedicatory address was by the Rev. George Putnam, D.D. Other addresses were made by the Rev. John W. Olmstead, and Mr L.N. Chase, principal of the Dudley School. The singing was by the pupils, and was conducted by Mr. L.W. Mason.

The address of Dr. Putnam consisted mainly of a sketch of the Lowell family, in which he made personal reference to Judge John Lowell, who was appointed by President Washington first Judge of the United States District Court for Massachusetts; John Lowell, the founder of horticulture in this section of the country; Francis C. Lowell, eminent in the early manufacturing history of New England, in honor of whom the City of Lowell was named; John Lowell Jr., the founder of the Lowell Institute; John A. Lowell, an active and public-spirited citizen of the present time; James Russell Lowell, the present Judge Lowell, the great-grandson of the first-named Judge Lowell; Charles Russell Lowell, James Jackson Lowell and W. Lowell Putman, who fell in battle in the recent civil war. The address was delivered in the accustomed eloquent manner of the reverend gentleman, and was much applauded.