621-627 Central Street

Exterior of triple decker with four doors and Italianate elements.
  • Historic Name: (Charles F. Young) apartment building
  • Uses: Residences
  • Date of Construction: Circa 1908
  • Style/Form: Triple Decker with Italianate elements
  • Architect/Builder: Charles Young (possibly)
  • Foundation: Stone and concrete
  • Wall/Trim: Wood clapboard
  • Roof: Flat roof
  • Major Alterations: Front doors recently installed
  • Condition: Fair
  • Included in Hengen survey? No
  • Related oral interview? No
  • Portuguese owned? Yes (1970s)
  • Recorded by: Gregory Gray Fitzsimons and Marie Frank
  • Organization: UMass Lowell
  • Date: July 2023

Description

This three-story wood-frame building is one of the few triple-deckers in somewhat original condition in Back Central. Its façade on Central Street has projecting bays flanking the entrance (with four doors) along with a three-story recessed porch. Originally the main (Central Street) façade contained alternate belts of clapboard siding with scalloped shingles and this feature extended partially along the north and south façades. (The scalloped shingles were removed at an unknown date and replaced with claphoards.)  Along the north (Elm Street) and south façades  there are also projecting bays. On the north and south side of the building there is a single entrance (also with a newer door) with original ornate wooden brackets supporting the small projecting roof. The rear (west) façade has a three-story recessed porch and entrances on the ground floor.

Historic photo for 621-627 Central Street

History

This triple-decker was constructed around 1908 and stands near the site of Lowell’s first Methodist Church. The church, which was on Elm Street, near Central, appears on the 1832 Benjamin Mather map and was one of three churches on Chapel Hill. By 1841, a larger church on Prescott Street superseded the old Methodist Church. Andrew T. Nute, a manufacturer of weighing scales owned the property of the old church by 1850. Just to the east, was a dwelling on the corner of Elm and Central, owned by a “Brown,” probably Francis Brown, who owned other properties on Chapel Hill. By the 1870s a wood-frame, two-family house occupied the corner lot.  According to the 1896 atlas, Orrin S. Nute, son of Andrew, owned part of this property and Timothy Brown owned the other. This two-family dwelling was still standing in 1906 with the addresses 621 and 623 Central Street. Residing here were mostly Irish Americans, working in the textile mills. 

Living nearby at 733 Central Street was Charles E Young (1868-1968), a well-known interior decorator in the early 1900s. Young operated his business out of his house and one of his commissions entailed the interior design of the New Hampshire state house in Concord. It appears that around 1908 he had constructed, possibly with his own design, the triple decker at the corner of Central and Elm streets. By 1909 he moved there (into 625 Central Street) with his wife, Mary, a well-known and popular vocalist, and family, and ran his business in a room in the apartment building. (Although Young is listed as owner of the property in the federal census of 1910, it seems that Thomas F. Harrington, a local physician, who handled the various Harrington properties in Lowell, held title to part of this lot.) In 1922, Young obtained a deed from Thomas Harrington for this property. He would remain at 625 Central Street until his death in 1968. Young rented the other apartments to various tenants, a number of whom were Irish Americans who worked in various occupations ranging from police officer to pool room proprietor and grocery store clerk to musician. For many years one of the residents was Italian immigrant Silvio Bernardini, a lineman for the telephone company, and his wife. Other long-term residents in the triple decker included the Rousseau family. It appears that the first Portuguese tenants did not reside here until the 1960s. Ernest L. Ramalho, who was assistant treasurer at the Middlesex Bank and an officer in the Holy Ghost Society, resided here (at 625) by 1965 and bought the property before selling it in 1992.

Sources

  • Benjamin Mather map of Lowell, 1832.
  • Lowell Atlases, 1841, 1896, 1924, 1936.
  • Property deed, Harrington to Young, October 20, 1922, book 670, pages 196-197, Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds.
  • Property deed, Ramalho to Gravito, August 25, 1992, Northern Middlesex Registry of Deeds.
  • Obituary of Charles F. Young, Lowell Sun, December 6, 1968.
  • “Local Decorator Mr. Charles F. Young,” Lowell Sun, August 26, 1902.
  • Federal Census, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 & 1940.
  • Lowell city directories, 1900, 1908, 1909, 1922 & 1975.