128 Chapel Street

Vinyl sided two-story home in Greek Revival style.

To the right of 128 Chapel Street is the former Chapel Street Primary School, converted into a tenement in 1916.

  • Historic Name: None
  • Uses: Single-family home
  • Date of Construction: Circa 1850s
  • Style/Form: Greek Revival
  • Architect/Builder: Unknown
  • Foundation: Rubble stone
  • Wall/Trim: Vinyl siding
  • Roof: Gable roof
  • Major Alterations: Most notable are new vinyl windows and shutters; and vinyl siding
  • Condition: Good
  • Included in Hengen survey? No
  • Related oral interview? No
  • Portuguese owned? Yes (1924)
  • Recorded by: Gregory Gray Fitzsimons and Marie Frank
  • Organization: UMass Lowell
  • Date: July 2023

Description

This 2-1/2 story wood-frame house was constructed in the 1850s in the Greek Revival style. It is one of many similar antebellum Greek Revival dwellings built prior to the Civil War in the Chapel Hill neighborhood. It has a gable roof with a gable end fronting Chapel Street. A wood-frame ell with a gable roof extends off the rear (east) façade; it was probably built in the 19th century. The dwelling rests on a stone foundation. Many alterations to the house have been carried out in recent years including vinyl siding, windows, and decorative shutters, and a new roof. The off-center entrance on the main façade features its original decorative wood brackets supporting a small hood with a flat roof.

History

In 1850 a one-block section of Chapel Street, north of Walnut Street, had only three houses. Over the next decade several more were built, including this Greek Revival dwelling on the east side of Chapel. In addition, the neighborhood population had grown to such an extent that another primary school, on Chapel Street was built by 1855 immediately behind the larger Central Street Primary School (erected in the 1840s and rebuilt in 1896). Theophilus C. Blaisdell (1814-1883), one of Lowell’s early members of the police department, purchased a lot and Chapel Street and had a house constructed for his family. Born in Orange, New Hampshire, Blaisdell moved to Lowell in his twenties and married Harriet Wadleigh (1819-1897), from Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1841. They had one son, Theophilus (1849-1885), who was born in Lowell.

The Chapel Street property remained in the estate of Blaisdell family, which rented the house. By the early 1900s, it had become a two-family dwelling. One of the earliest Portuguese immigrants to live here was Joao Andrade, a tenant in 1906. Other renters included Irish-American Patrick J. Frawley, a construction worker, and his family.

In 1908, an executor of the Blaisdell estate sold the property to Mrs. Emma F. Donnelly, a grocer who operated a store in Lowell’s Centerville neighborhood and owned property in various sections of the city. For a number years she rented the larger part of the house to Ellen Murphy, a widow, and her adult children. In the early 1900s this part of Back Central still had a large Irish, middle-class population and the Murphy males worked in sales and in various white-collar occupations. In the smaller (rear) part of the house Donnelly rented to various tenants, including a streetcar operator and a lunch-cart owner. In 1924 she sold the property to Portuguese immigrant John Abreau. For many years Abreau rented the smaller part of the house to the Frawley family. Also renting a room in the house was Portuguese immigrant José Figueira, who worked as a laborer in a textile fabric recycling mill.

Born in Funchal, Madeira, John (João) Francisco Abreau (1892-1989) immigrated to the United States and settled in Lowell in 1916. He married Beatrice Jardin (1897-1988), who was also from Madeira but had immigrated with her family in 1911. John and Beatrice had four children, all daughters. The oldest, also named Beatrice, born in Lowell in 1921, became well known in the city. At the age of 18, while employed in a small Portuguese bakery on Gorham Street, she protested to the owners, Manuel J. Gonsalves and his wife, Della R. Gonsalves, for requiring her to work 11-1/2 hour days, while paying her only six dollars a week. Della Gonsalves promptly fired Beatrice Abreau who then reported this action to a state labor inspector. A court ruling resulted in a stiff fine for Manuel Gonsalves.

About three years later Beatrice Abreau received widespread sympathy among Lowellians when her fiancé, Charles Pereira, was one of the first American casualties in World War II. Killed in action during the American landing in North Africa in 1942, Pereira had written a letter to Beatrice shortly before his death, stating that he hoped they would be married as soon as he received a furlough. They had met when both attended the Butler Grammar School on Gorham Street and became engaged shortly before Pereira had joined the Army. The Lowell Sun published a feature article on Beatrice and Charles, and a few months later Lowell’s City Council soon named a park an honor of Charles Pereira (see entry of Charles Pereira Park).

Throughout much of his life John Abreau worked as a carder at the Boott Cotton Mills. He and his wife lived in the Chapel Street house for many years, finally passing it in 1988 to their youngest daughter, Dolores, who had married John “Jack” Dahlgren of Chelmsford. In more recent years the property has been owned by the Lopez family.

Sources

  • Sidney and Neff Map of Lowell, 1850
  • Lowell atlases, 1882, 1879, 1906, 1924 and 1936.
  • Federal census, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1850, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1930 and 1940.
  • Lowell city directories, 1853, 1858, 1916, 1926, 1936, 1950 and 1985.
  • “Will Sell School Houses,” Lowell Sun, March 7, 1916.
  • “Real Estate Boom,” Lowell Sun, July 15, 1916.
  • “Baker Fined $250 for Labor Law Violations,” Lowell Sun, January 9, 1940.
  • “Young Athlete First Casualty of No. African Drive,” Lowell Sun, December 15, 1942.
  • Obituary of Nicholas Cazanas, Lowell Sun, November 17, 1959.
  • Property deed, Fletcher to Blaisdell, October 10, 1855, book 1, page 441, Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds.
  • Property deed, Blaisdell to Blaisdell, July 26, 1888, book 198, pages 384-385, Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds.
  • Property deed, Donnelly to Abreau, October 27, 1924, book 713, pages 505-506, Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds.
  • Property deed, Abreau to Dahlgren, August 4, 1988, Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds.