5 things to know about living in Lowell
Known for its industrial past, Lowell stills contains remnants of its once-prominent mills. Plenty of activities in the Middlesex county city relate to the Industrial Revolution and its famous “mill girls,” but Lowell is also focused on the present.
As The Boston Globe explains, Lowell suffered a period deindustrialization and “rapid economic decline,” eventually starting to revitalize in the 1980s.
The Globe noted:
Lowell is an exemplar of the ‘creative economy’ model of urban revitalization, with museums and galleries, a popular summer music festival, a thriving restaurant scene, a commemorative sculpture park dedicated to native son Jack Kerouac, and a wave of attention from the motion picture ‘The Fighter,’ based on the life of boxer Micky Ward.
Check it out.
1. You’ll live in…
… or near plenty of history. The Lowell Historic Board monitors 11 unique neighborhood districts, each with its own set of rules and regulations for exterior changes or proposed demolitions. Most of these areas within Lowell’s many neighborhoods have historic homes and character.
Given the number of repurposed factory buildings, there is also the opportunity to live in luxury apartments or lofts. For example, the Lofts at Perkins Park, the Apartments at Boot Mills, or Loft 27 all offer exposed brick luxury apartment in old factories with plenty of amenities.
2. You’ll pay…
… much less than areas closer to Boston. The Zillow Home Value Index puts Lowell’s median home value at $230,400. Home values in the city went up 5.8 percent over the past year and are expected to rise another 1.3 percent in the next year.
For $200,000 to $300,000, you can get a home with quite a bit of character and around 2,000 square feet, or a loft-style condo. Lowell’s WalkScore is 62, so you don’t need a car all the time. The most walkable neighborhoods in the city are Downtown, Back Central, and The Acre. There is also some public transit.
3. You’ll hang out…
…basking in Lowell’s historic past. Of the many historical sites to see in town, Lowell National Historic Park is Trip Advisor’s No. 1 thing to do. The park has a variety of tours, exhibits, and museums all dedicated to educating people about Lowell’s water-powered textile mills during the Industrial Revolution.
If you don’t want to make the trip into Boston, you can also see the Lowell Spinners, a minor league baseball team, play at LeLacheur Park, right on the Merrimack River.
For those who prefer art to sports, Lowell has the Western Avenue Studios, which has monthly open studios and other events to showcase local art, and the Whistler House Museum of Art, which was the birthplace of painter James McNeill Whistler.
When you are hungry, Lowell has a bustling food scene downtown. The top-rated Yelp restaurant is Marko’s Mediterranean Grill, which gets five stars. The owners started their restaurant on an air force base in Italy and eventually opened stateside in 2012. When it’s time for dessert there are plenty of candy stores and cafes to satisfy your sweet tooth.
4. Your kids will…
… potentially go to some good and some not-so-good schools. Lowell is a city with over 100,000 people, so there are quite a lot of schools, ranging from a 7 on the 1-10 GreatSchools rating to a 1. There are also a few private school options in the city.
Entertaining kids on the weekend shouldn’t be hard, as most of the museums and the National Park have plenty of activities geared toward the young ones.
5. You’ll love…
… the downtown walking tour of Jack Kerouac’s Lowell. The famous writer of the 1950s wrote On the Road, which led to him being called the “Father of the Beat Generation,” and lived in Lowell. Because of this, the National Park Service has created a walking tour where you can see many of the spots he used to frequent around the city. Kerouac is also buried in Lowell and in 2014, the Globe reported that a local monument company put a memorial stone on his grave site so it would be more visible to visitor.
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