Local News

Lowell’s iconic ‘Sun’ signs get a new glow

After years of fading neon and rising costs, the owners, with the city's help, will restore the historic rooftop signs with LED lights.

The "Sun" signs in Lowell. Courtesy of the Lowell Historic Board

June 11, 2025

2 minutes to read

The iconic twin “Sun” signs perched on top of the historic Sun Building in Lowell were beginning to lose their neon glow. And years of ongoing maintenance had become too costly for the former owners, so in 2018, the Lowell Sun newspaper inquired about removing them.

But, the Lowell Historic Board administrator, Stephen Stowell, had a different idea for them — to restore the signs using LED lights.

Beginning this week, work will commence to remove the neon tubing and replace the two signs with LED lights.

“It’s like our Citgo sign,” Stowell said. “Everyone kind of equates it.”

The signs are reminiscent of the City Hall clock tower and the gold dome on top of Holy Trinity Church in Lowell, Stowell said.

“These signs are iconic,” he said.

History of the building:

The Sun Building, situated in Kearney Square, is a 10-story, early 20th-century structure built in 1914. The purpose of the building was to house the Lowell Sun, a newspaper the founders established in 1878.

By the 1960s, the Lowell Sun had moved to a nearby building. The Sun Building continued to be used for rental offices as late as the 1970s, before being converted to senior housing.

The building did not initially have the twin neon “Sun” roof signs, though.

A look back in period newspapers shows an advertisement for “the office address of distinction” with the signs for the first time in December 1934.

A Feb. 1, 1937, edition of the Lowell Sun boasted that the “signs on the Sun Building roof contain the largest neon letters in Middlesex county.”

Signs Now in New Hampshire regularly maintained the two signs, but as time passed, the neon became increasingly challenging to maintain. As soon as the company repaired one part, another section of the neon would fail.

The Downtown Lowell Historic District protects the signs. So, when the newspaper asked about removing them, the board suggested refurbishment instead.

Another quirk was that the newspaper no longer owned the building, but they continued to own the signs through a 99-year lease.

In late January 2025, the owners finalized legal documents to transfer the signs from the newspaper to the current building owner.

To seal the deal, Lowell’s Economic Development department secured a $60,000 American Rescue Plan Act Store Improvement Program grant to restore the lights and convert them to LEDs.

The project includes removing neon components, patching holes in the neon writing, cleaning the letters, installing clips for the LEDs, and scraping, priming, and painting the letters. Work will be done by mid-July.

Stowell said Lowell has worked over the past 40 years to preserve historic things in the downtown area, and these signs are a part of that progress.

“Losing something like this … would have been sad, I think, for the community,” he said.