11 Centre Street

William Nichols house at 11 Centre St. Lowell.
  • Historic Name: William Nichols House
  • Uses: Residential
  • Date of Construction: Circa 1840
  • Style/Form: Greek Revival
  • Architect/Builder: Unknown
  • Foundation: Granite
  • Wall/Trim: Wood frame with vinyl siding
  • Roof: Gable roof
  • Major Alterations: Additions of the back; split system ac installed
  • Condition: Good
  • Included in Hengen survey? Yes
  • Related oral interview? No
  • Portuguese owned? No
  • Recorded by: Gregory Gray Fitzsimons and Marie Frank
  • Organization: UMass Lowell
  • Date: August 2023

Description

This house is without doubt one of the finest Greek Revival structures in Back Central despite the vinyl siding. A textbook temple front residence with a portico of four fluted Doric columns rising two stories to a pedimented gable roof. The columns rest directly on the porch with no plinth. The house is three bays wide with the main entrance in the left bay. The entry has sidelights and a transom (made blind after 1981); all surrounded with a decorative molding. The pediment has a window (originally arched but fitted with a standard sash after 1981). Extensions added off the rear (see below). The house is set back from the street with granite curbing and three steps to the porch. Alterations were made at least twice—aluminum siding before 1981 and vinyl siding more recently.

History

The staid dignity and elegance of the front façade belies the rather tumultuous history of residents on the site. The house changed hands a remarkable number of times and also served as a tenement property for decades. William Nichols, Jr., b. 1818-1890, purchased the site in 1841 from “J. Tyler et al.” The house may have already been on the site at that time (it is shown in the 1841 map and the 1842 city directory lists Nichols as residing there). Nichols arrived in Lowell at age 10 and apprenticed with the grocer Ransom Reed who operated a store at the corner of Central and Green. By the mid-40’s Nichols established his own business, “William Nichols Jr. and Co., W.I goods” [West India] and made money rapidly. In 1848 he purchased a number of additional lots on William and Green streets for his grocery and went into partnership with E.D. Fletcher. Nichols and Fletcher operated until 1888 (Nichols died in 1890). However, Nichols ceased to live at 11 Centre Street after he purchased a larger home on Nesmith Street near Harrison Street in 1851; he eventually sold the Centre Street home in 1857 to Timothy Ricker. Ricker worked at the Lowell foundry. In 1863 he sold the house to Jacob Nichols who in turn sold it to Stephen Cutter who in 1871 sold it to John J. Donovan. Donovan also operated a grocery and served as a mayor of the city (see entry on 512 Central Street). Donovan lived in the house until 1884 (the year he served as mayor) and during his tenure put multiple extensions off the rear of the house; the 1879 atlas indicates the extent. In 1885, Donovan moved to a new home in the Highlands neighborhood at 256 Branch Street.

In 1890 the house went up for auction. Either Donovan drove a hard bargain or the changing character of the neighborhood put off upper class single family buyers, because the first attempt to sell the house in June of 1890 failed; by November, an ad was taken out in the Sun touting the property’s potential as a tenement: “the large house of 14 rooms and 3,000 square feet” was on the market for “just what it will bring” and described the house’s amenities: bathrooms, closets, pantries and an excellent cellar; bath and dining room finished in black walnut; piped for steam but radiators and boiler removed. The ad concluded: “By laying out a little money and putting on an additional ell, the house could be very easily converted into a four tenement block….There isn’t a better place in the city for a large boarding house or a tenement block; within 125 feet of Central Street and within five minutes’ walk of Tower’s corner; neighborhood good and locality healthy.” The 1896 atlas still lists Donovan as the owner, but real estate magnate A.C. Wheelock purchased the property at some point in the 90s and ran it as a tenement; by 1904 he sold it to fellow magnate William B. Spaulding. Spaulding ran the property as a tenement and lodging house through 1941. The Sun regularly ran ads for rooms to let. The birth and death notices in the Lowell Sun in these decades suggest a mostly Irish occupancy with a handful of Yankees; older widows, young families, single men all filled the various sized apartments. The lodging house matrons, such as Mrs. Nellie Sweeney or Mrs. Eliza McBride, were also Irish.

In 1941, the Spaulding estate sold the property to Eleanor Daniels who continued to rent out the apartments. Occupants now included a number of Polish families and the lodging house matron was Mrs. Francis Baranowski. In 1950, Walter Wisminiti purchased the house from Daniels. He served as a sergeant in the Korean War and earned a number of medals for his bravery. He removed some of the additional structures at the back of the property. However, in 1955 he sold the house to Henry Kazmarczyk. Kazmarczyk’s son was a football star at Keith Academy and won a scholarship to study chemical engineering at UMass Amherst. Apartments were still rented out—in 1958, the Sun reported that Mrs. Bertha Paradis, 31, of 11 Centre Street, narrowly missed death by lightning when traveling by car during a violent electrical storm. In 1960, just five years later, the house was sold again—this time to Alice Duffy. She lived there until 1968 when she sold to Andrew Demers. The Demers would live in the house for the next twenty-five years. In 1968, their daughter Andrea married Louis Silva of Cherry Street. Andrea worked as a nurse at D’Youville Manor and Louis worked for Spray Engineering in Burlington. The Demers’ son Robert won a City Manager scholarship to attend Lowell State. In 1983 Virginia Demers sold the house to Jessie Horne and James Jackson; Jackson became the longest single owner of the house, staying there until selling in 2016. The house was purchased and renovated by a real estate firm and then sold in 2020 to its current owner, Esi Adeborna of Ghana.

Sources

  • U.A. Boyden, Plan of Lowell Village, 1834
  • Beard and Hoar, Map of Lowell, 1841.
  • Sidney and Neff Map of Lowell, 1850.
  • Lowell atlases 1879, 1882, 1906, 1924 and 1936.
  • Lowell city directories.
  • Courier Citizen, Illustrated History, p. 187
  • Lowell Sun, July 12, 1958, p. 12. “Lightning Stuns Lowell Woman,”
  • Lowell Sun, Jan 22, 1953, p. 16. Walter Wisminiti
  • Lowell Sun, August 13, 1955, p. 8, William Kazmarcik
  • Lowell Sun, Dec. 22, 1968, p. 70, Demers engagement
  • Lowell Sun, Nov. 1, 1890, p. 8 “Auction” [Donovan former home]
  • Registry of Deeds.
  • Additional references in the Lowell Sun:
  • Lowell Sun, March 5, 1903, p. 1--announcement for death of John S. Mosher.
  • Lowell Sun, Sept. 10, 1908, p. 8—Mrs. Theresa Mosher living there.
  • Lowell Sun, Sept. 18, 1908, p. 13—a William A. Severance living there.
  • Lowell Sun, April 5, 1911, p. 5—Theresa Mosher funeral. St. Paul’s M.E. Church; no children listed.
  • Lowell Sun, May 19, 1917, p. 11—a daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Scully
  • Lowell Sun, Sept. 29, 1917, a daughter born to Philip O’Keefe
  • Lowell Sun, July 10, 1918, p. 14—a daughter, Margorie, born to Tobias L. Blackstock and wife, the former Bertha Mellor
  • Lowell Sun, June 26, 1919, p. 18 John Patterson, 22, carriage shop, of 11 Centre to wed Gertrude Smith.
  • Lowell Sun, Jan. 2, 1925 p. 3 Mrs. Mary F. Mellor, 73, died at her home, 11 Centre Street.
  • Lowell Sun May 11, 1929, p. 3 Miss Catherine Casey dies at 11 Centre—parishioner of St. Peters and buried in St. Patricks
  • Lowell Sun, June 10, 1935, p. 29—James F. McAleer, 25, and a buddy found guilty of drunkenness and ringing a false alarm for fire.
  • Engagement announcement: Julius Harannaski of 11 Centre Street to Regina Branco; Lowell Sun, Feb. 11, 1944.
  • Lowell Sun, Feb. 25, 1949, p. 14 engagement announcement: Josephine Sokoloska engaged to John Silva of 23 C Street. Bartender.
  • Lowell Sun, Jan 22, 1953, p. 16—during the Korean War, Mary, the wife of Sergeant Walter Wisminiti lives at 11 Centre street.
  • Lowell Sun, May 17, 1971, p. 38—Robert Demers wins City Manager award ($200) to go to Lowell State. Note—a Maureen Coleman also living there and also wins one of the awards.