The Town & the City: Lowell before and after The Civil War

The Lowell Museum and Moses Kimball

Maps

The building

Chronology

Excerpt from Charles Cowley's History of Lowell (1868)

Excerpt from Coburn's History of Lowell and Its People (1920)

Excerpt from Cowley's History of Lowell (1868)

Excerpt from Loom and Spindle: Or, Life among the Early Mill Girls by Harriet H. Robinson (1898)

Excerpts from Mill and Mansion: Architecture and Society in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1820-1865

Petitions (Original City documents related to the Lowell Museum)

The Lowell Museum, from the 1851 City Directory.
The Museum began on the fourth floor of the first Wyman's Exchange, and moved to this building in 1846.

1841 Map of Lowell (detail). The First Freewill Baptist Church is # 12, located on Merrimack Street (running east an west) at the head of Central Street (running north and south). The section of the map is N,O on the left and right margins, and 28,29 on the top and bottom margins.

 1850 Map of Lowell (detail). "Museum" is marked on the map.  

These are two images of the same building about 11 years apart.
On the left is the First Freewill Baptist Church from an edition of the Lowell Offering in 1840.
On the right is the Lowell Museum from a full-page ad in the 1851 City Directory. See the full-page ad below.

From the 1851 Lowell City Directory

Lowell Museum Chronology

1837 - First Freewill Baptist Church constructed

1840 - The Lowell Museum founded by Moses Kimball as an art exhibit hall and entertainment venue on the fourth story of the first Wyman's Exchange. [See CONSTITUTION & BY-LAWS OF THE MIDDLESEX COUNTY SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY in The Lowell Directory 1840]

1840 - First performance on July 4th

1841 - Rev. Theodore Edson et al submit a petition to protest the Lowell Museum.

1842 - Moses Kimball petitions for license to exhibit Indians

1842 – Petition of James G. Carney & 394 others against the licensing of exhibitions at the Lowell Museum

1842 - Petition of Alex'r Wright & 614 others re: Lowell Museum & Exhibitions

1843 (April) - Mr. Harrington of Boston "The original, well-known, and justly celebrated Ventriloquist, and Professor of Ledgerdemain" performs. The advertisement in the Lowell Courier announces: "Laughable, Comical, Quisical, Mysterious, Magical, Wonderful, Astonishing Experiments of Ventriloquism, Imitations, etc, etc, etc."

1845 - Noah F. Gates purchased the Museum from Moses Kimball

1846 - Due to ". . . financial difficulties and embarrassments . . ." the First Freewill Baptist Church sold the building to the Lowell Museum. The spire was removed that same year.

1846 – The Lowell Museum moves into the building formerly owned by the First Freewill Baptist Church
 

From The Lowell Advertiser, January 7,1847
“. . . Ladies can visit the Museum with or without Gentlemen, with perfect propriety”
“No Boys admitted unless accompanied by parents or guardians.”

1847 - The City Council refuses to license any more plays at the Museum

1847 - A petition, signed by twenty-two hundred legal voters, was presented to the City Council, requesting a renewal of the license The debate ended with the granting of the license.

From The Lowell Advertiser, January 4,1849
 

From The Lowell Advertiser, February 1, 1849
 

1850 - Museum was incorporated in 1850, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars, but it was soon destroyed by fire

Lowell Museum Broadside March 22, 1851 (Lowell Historical Society)

1853 – The Museum was again burned, however, it subsequently reopened

1853 - On the evening of May 26 during one of the performances, an actor named Wheeler was accidentally stabbed with a bayonet over the eye, entering his brain, and killing him instantly, in front of a full house.

From the New York Times, March 26, 1853

1856 (January 30) - The Lowell Museum was destroyed by fire. The fire destroyed the museum and several of the stores on the street level including; C.W. Pratt dry goods, the Abel Whitney bookstore, R.B. Randall & Co. clothing store, and the law library of Benjamin Butler next door. The building was rehabilitated to house a lecture hall, offices, and a post office.

From The Lowell Advertiser, January 30,1856

Advertisement from the Lowell City Directory

1865 – A fourth fire, forced reconstruction, after this the building was known as the Post Office or Block, which was a five-story commercial structure.

1882-1884 - Hildreth Building constructed on the site

Hildreth Building - American Architect and Architecture, Volume 14, 1883

“Several attempts had heretofore been made for the establishment of a theatre or museum in Lowell, but had failed. In 1840, this project was renewed with better success. The Museum was first started in the fourth story of Wyman's Exchange, by Moses Kimball, now of the Boston Museum. The first performance was on July 4th, 1840, and was an excellent substitute for the blarny usually indulged in on that day. The first collection of curiosities was procured from Greenwood's old New England Museum in Boston. But the business did not pay. In 1845, Noah F. Gates purchased the Museum of Mr. Kimball; and the removal by him, in 1846, of the Museum into the building formerly owned by the First Freewill Baptist Church, provoked "strong indignation in Zion." The church was at once fitted up for dramatic entertainments; but so great was the opposition to it, that in 1847 the City Council refused to license any more exhibitions of this kind.

A petition, signed by twenty-two hundred legal voters, was hereupon presented to the City Council, praying for a renewal of the license. A prolix debate on the moral tendency of the drama ensued before the City Council. John P. Robinson and Thomas Hopkinson appeared in behalf of the petitioners; while Rev. Messrs. Thurston and True argued against the drama on "Bible grounds." The debate ended by the granting of the license as desired. The Museum was incorporated in 1850, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars; but it was shortly afterward destroyed by fire. Between 1845 and 1851 it flourished; but after 1851, it passed through various hands, and rapidly declined. In 1853, it was again burned. It was, however, subsequently reopened, and carried on till the thirtieth day of January, 1856, when not a vestige escaped the third attack of the devouring flames. During the period of its prosperity, it found employ for some thirty persons, and its salaries averaged over three hundred dollars per week. Some of the best plays of the ablest dramatists were successfully introduced. The stock companies were superior to those of most country theatres; and some of the brightest "stars" in the Thespian firmament appeared upon its boards.”
- Charles Cowley, History of Lowell (1868)

When American Drama Was at Its Best - During the great age of the American drama; that is between about 1840 and the advent of vaudeville in the eighties, Lowell had certainly better theatrical entertainments than are now vouchsafed it by the New York managers.

Boston was then far more important, relatively. in the theatrical world than it is to-day, and as the nearest large town to the Hub. Lowell was often favored with the presence of the greatest contemporary actors and actresses.

Much of the old-time prejudices against theatres survived, and entertainments were sometimes perforce given under disguises that were as transparent as is the name of “sacred concerts” more lately applied to Sunday evening variety shows. Both amateur and profes­sional drama, nevertheless, was familiar to such of the Lowell public as liked to see plays.

A particularly instructive chapter of Lowell history is concerned with the attempts to maintain here a stock company generally similar in quality to the celebrated Boston Museum Stock Company. The plan started in 1840, when David [Moses] Kimball, of Boston, brought to a room in Wyman's Exchange a collection of curiosities from Greenwood's old New England Museum. In Lowell, as at the New England capital, the "educational value" of the "curios" exhibited was relied upon to overcome the antipathy of many people toward the dramatic entertainment to which the admission fee also entitled the ticket holder. The curiosities in this "museum" consisted of objects of natural history, oil paintings, engravings, wax figures and other works of art. It cost twelve and a half cents to enter. Minors were not admitted unattended.

The Kimballs did not long continue their interest in this venture, and in 1845 they sold the entire collection and fixtures to Noah F. Gates for $5,000.

This gentleman at once removed the curios, improved the theatrical accessories, obtained a license and engaged six or seven professional people among whom were George Wyatt, Mary Gannon and Master Meyer. Adelaide Phillipps, opera singer, and Freeman, the giant, were secured as special attractions. Under such auspices the house at once began to draw sizable audiences.

Then, in 1846, Mr. Gates aroused, as Cowley puts it, "strong indignation in Zion," by leasing for his theatre the building formerly owned by the First Freewill Baptist Society, on the site of the present Hildreth building at Merrimack Square. Despite initial opposition the place was fitted up as a museum and theatre and was opened on November 24, 1846, with a company from the Boston Museum, which included Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Germon, George E. Locke, Messrs. Davis, Currier and Rogers, F. W. Germon, Mr. and Mrs. Altemus, Mr. and Mrs. Bryant, Mrs. C. Groves, Mrs. Perkins, Miss Downs, Messrs. J. Brooks Bradley, Robinson, W. F. Johnson and Warner. The opening piece, appropriately, was "Raising the Wind."     

The whirlwind followed. The anti-theatre forces put pressure on the city government and the manager was forbidden to give any more exhibitions, the license for 1847 being revoked. As a parting performance on the last day of 1846 Mr. Gates had a stellar attraction in the person of Tom Thumb in a play called "Much and Little."

Friends of the American drama, however, were not wanting in Lowell, and in the first four days of 1847 they circulated a petition, urging that Mr. Gates' license be restored. This secured upwards of 2,200 names. The city council yielded to the point of holding a hearing. The petitioners engaged Hon. Thomas Hopkinson, one of the most distinguished lawyers of the city. The case against the drama was presented by two clergymen, Messrs. Thurston and True, who based their argument solely "on Bible grounds." Many of the council were "professors," but the petitioners won a qualified victory. A license was granted on condition that the house close at ten-thirty and "that moral plays only should be produced."

Thenceforward. despite recurrent fires that every now and then threatened to bankrupt the management, Lowell for a number of years saw some of the best actors of the time who would come down from Boston for a week's engagement, playing to the support of the stock company. The enterprise in 1850 was regularly incorporated with a capital of $60,000, and with the following officers: President, Noah F. Gates; clerk, W. A. Richardson; treasurer, G. L. Pollard; directors, the foregoing and B. H. Weaver, F. A. Hildreth, A. B. French and Henry Reed. The prices were increased to fifty cents for the box seats and reserved seats. On May 10, 1850, was presented "William Tell.'' with Joseph Proctor in the title role. The week following came Mr. and Mrs. McFarland and Mrs. Nichols in the “Wife and Claudare." A notable week in September, 1850, was given by Junius Brutus Booth, then sixty years old, presenting Richard II. and other Shakespearean pieces. In November of that week Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Wallack gave several classic plays, and Mr. and Mrs. Dibdin Pitt appeared in Charles XII and Hamlet. George E. Locke, J. B. Booth and Charlotte Cushman succeeded one another as popular visitors.

In 1851 the director manager discharged his old company and engaged a new one, having as its principal members: Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Ayling, Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Herbert, Mr. and Mrs. M.A. Tyrrel, Messrs. Steele, Lubey, Joyce, Howe, Mrs. Groves Rainforth, Misses Steele and Parker. Professor Herman Eckhardt was signed as leader of the orchestra.

There may have been local feeling regarding the discharge of the former company. It is recorded, at all events, that the new organization ''never were the favorites, nor did they do the business of the original one." The house was regularly open, however, until September 30, 1853, when a fire of unknown origin gutted the place.

Nothing daunted, the owners rebuilt the theatre at an expense of nearly $5,000 and reopened on January 2, 1854, with W. L. Ayling as manager and with a company comprising Mrs. Ayling, Mrs. Forbes, Mrs. Bryant, Messrs. Karnes, Linden, Madigan, Kavanaugh, Benson and others. Such pieces were presented as "London Assurance," "Raising the Wind," "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "The Loan of a Lover," "The Lady of Lyons," "The Spectre Bridegroom" and various Shakespearean dramas. Mr. Gates personally resumed the management in October, 1854. In that season several famous visitors played at the house. A drama entitled "The Five Masks," written by a local amateur, was staged successfully. The stock company's season closed the latter part of April, but several traveling shows rented the house during the summer season. In November, 1855, the house reopened under a new management which Mr. Gates soon displaced. In the second week of December, Mr. Wallack brought Shakespearian roles. Then came Mrs. Vincent in "The Merchant of Venice." She was followed by the National Theatre Company of Boston, who were playing, when on January 30, 1856, another fire broke out and completely destroyed the playhouse. It was not rebuilt and thus passed Lowell's most famous and artistically meritorious stock company. During its prosperous period, so Cowley states, it employed an average of thirty people at salaries aggregating about $300 a week, which certainly would not figure out at a high average.

- Fredrick W. Coburn, History of Lowell and Its People (1920)

The Freewill Baptist Church was organized in 1834. The proprietors were incorporated in 1836. The spacious edifice on Merrimack street, opposite Central street, was erected in 1837, at a cost of $20,000, which was largely contributed by the factory girls. There preached the somewhat famous Elder Thurston, now no more; an honest man, and popular as a preacher, but incapable of managing important matters of business, such as he was foolishly encouraged to undertake, in connection with this church. Through his incapacity, more than ten thousand dollars was lost, in the course of six years, and a tremendous panic ensued. He was denounced as a thief, and indicted and convicted of cheating; but the Supreme Court set the verdict aside, and the prosecution of the elder was stopped.

Then arose controversies about the church property, which was under more than fifty attachments at once. These suits ended adversely to the society; and on July 29th, 1846, the deacons were forcibly ejected from the church by Joseph Butterfield, a Deputy Sheriff, on an execution issued upon a judgment belonging to Benjamin F. Butler, Thomas Hopkinson, and Tappan Wentworth, who personally assisted in ousting the deacons.

That comedy might follow tragedy, the new proprietors, Benjamin F. Butler and Fisher A. Hildreth, converted the church into a museum and theatre. After being used thus for nine years, once struck by lightning, and three times burned, in 1856, this ill-starred edifice was fitted up for a dance-hall, a bowling alley, lawyers' offices, a newspaper office, an exchange, etc.

Attempts have been made to use one part of it as a lecture-hall, but without success; though the famous Lola Montez, the discarded mistress of the late king of Bavaria, delivered her lecture on Beautiful Women here. Nor have the attempts to use this edifice as a caucus-hall been any more successful. The last attempt of the kind was made in 1860. On that memorable occasion, Theodore H. Sweetser began a speech; but just as he was capping his first climax, a gentleman who disapproved of his remarks, suddenly turned off the gas, and “brought down the house’ in the wildest merriment and confusion.

The strategical maneuverings by which this edifice was transferred from the ecclesiastical proprietors to their lay successors, were none too creditable to the consciences of the manipulators. But perhaps they did not fully realize the scandalousness of their proceedings, and failed to hear the still, small voice of conscience in following the more clamorous calls of avarice and ambition.

More than twenty years have now elapsed since the perversion of this edifice into a museum, Let us hope that before another twenty years have rolled by, this church-the monument of the piety of the factory girls of Lowell-will be restored to its original purposes, and reconsecrated to the worship of the everliving God.

In 1853, another edifice was built on Paige street, costing $16,700, now occupied by this church. The pastors of this church have been-Revs. Nathaniel Thurston, Jonathan Woodman, Silas Curtis, A. K. Moulton, J. B. Davis, Darwin Mott, (a wolf in sheep's clothing, who finally ran away with another man's wife,) George W. Bean, and J. B. Drew.

- Cowley's History of Lowell (1868)

The Freewill Baptist Church was built largely of money belonging to over one hundred factory girls, who were induced by Elder Thurston's promises of large interest to draw their money from the savings-bank, and place it in his hands. These credulous operatives did not even receive the interest of their money, but, believing in him as an elder of the church, they were persuaded, even a second time, to let him have their savings. This building has had a curious and eventful history, “from grave to gay, from lively to severe.'' According to Mr. Cowley’s history of Lowell, nothing had succeeded in it; and, to a believer in retributive. justice, it would seem as if even, the building deserved to be under a ban till those hard earnings were restored. The money wasted there represents so much of lost opportunity of education, lost means of comfort and maintenance, lost ability to keep or help the dear ones at home.

- Loom and Spindle: Or, Life among the Early Mill Girls by Harriet H. Robinson (1898)

Lowell had its [architectural] eclectics too. The First Freewill Baptist Church built in 1837, was similar to St. Paul's except that several of the windows were pointed, and an attempt was made to carry the tower down to the ground by means of double pilasters at the center, and pilaster strips running through the pediment . . . The spire was exceptionally tall, quite the most prominent landmark in Lowell. Moreover, the church was placed on the axis of Central Street, at Merrimack, probably the most expensive certainly the most dramatic, site in town. Nor did its unorthodoxy end there, for the church was built as a real-estate speculation with savings which a scamp of a minister wheedled from the mill girls. Truly the fabulous forties were near at hand.

______________________

''The Freewill Baptist Church was built largely of money belonging to over one hundred factory girls, who were induced by Elder Thurston's promises of large interest to draw their money from the savings-banks, and place it in his hands. These credulous operatives did not even receive the interest of their money, but believing in him as an elder of the church, they were persuaded even a second time, to let him have their savings." H.J. H. Robinson, Loom and Spindle, pp. 21, 22.  Quoted by permission of the publisher. Less than ten years after the building was finished, it was attached for debt, and the minister narrowly escaped being arrested on a charge of swindling. Ben Butler and Fisher Hildreth, two aggressive young bourgeois, took it over after a lawsuit and converted it into a theater. To this a museum was added. The two were not profitable and in 1856 it was rearranged as a lecture hall and offices. Finally, in 1865, as the lecture hall did not pay, it was entirely devoted to offices. The building was struck by lightning and caught fire on three different occasions.

 - Mill and Mansion: Architecture and Society in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1820-1865 by John Coolidge (1942, 1993)