LOWELL -- The first
clue is painted above the foyer doorway of the 1925 brick colonial at 591 Andover St.: "Art is the Handmaid of Human
Good," the motto of the city of Lowell.
Step over the threshold, and there is no question where you are. You are engulfed in the city's history.
On all four inside walls and up the stairs of the house, the city's
most prominent landmarks have been carefully painted by prominent Lowell artist Janet Lambert-Moore.
At first sight, Mike Espinola thought the mural encapsulating the home's foyer was a little ... overwhelming.
"My
first instinct was to paint over it," said the third-generation Lowellian, who purchased the house from retired Lowell
teachers Paul and Deborah Flanagan earlier this year. "But I quickly came to my senses and saw it for what it is -- something
uniquely Lowell."
Plus, his girlfriend, photographer Maggie Judd, would never allow such a crime against art to be perpetrated.
The two-dimensional Lowell that Espinola comes home to every night includes:
The Pawtucket Falls, the powerful, 34-foot, 10,000-horsepower drop that lured industrialists Nathan Appleton and Patrick Jackson to the farmland of what was then East Chelmsford in 1821, inspiring the construction of the mills that bore a city.
Lowell High School, the Kirk Street building that has served as the city's educational cornerstone since being built
in 1840. The school, the second-largest high school in the state (Brockton High is the largest), was the first co-educational
and racially integrated high school in the country.
The Old Worthen House, the city's oldest tavern and restaurant,
opened by John O'Donnell in 1889. It remained an active bar even during Prohibition, as evidenced by the secret hiding
place that easily fits several bottles of spirits behind the bar. The watering hole, located in the shadow of City Hall, has
proudly served a bevy of famous patrons over the years, including Lowell native Jack Kerouac, Edgar Allen Poe, Allan Ginsburg
and Jimmy Breslin.
Immaculate Conception Church. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate came to Lowell from Canada in
1868 at the bequest of Bishop John Williams of Boston. Their mission was to work with the city's French-Canadian Catholics
because the Irish were already served by St. Patrick's and St. Peter's. In 1871, the Immaculate Conception Church
was built on land purchased from the Massachusetts Cotton Mills on East Merrimack Street.
City Hall. The
city bought the land on which to build its new city hall, once the site of the Old Fletcher Farm, from the Merrimack Manufacturing
Company for $85,300. The 69-room, 4 1/2-story, 61,280-square-foot building, designed by the architectural firm of Merrill
Cutler, cost $361,000 to build in 1893.
The Nesmith House. The 22-room Greek Revival mansion on Andover Street was built in 1843 for John and Harriet Nesmith. It is currently owned by Middlesex Community College and is utilized for various social gatherings.
Kittredge Park. The 1.8-acre green space at Andover and Nesmith streets, named
for Capt. Paul E. Kittredge, who was killed in World War I in November 1918, was a favorite spot of the late Sen. Paul Tsongas,
who could often be seen pulling weeds there on Saturday mornings.
Cawley Stadium. Named for outstanding Lowell High School athlete and LHS Hall of Famer Edward Cawley (class of 1912), the field is the home of the LHS Red Raiders football team. The stadium enjoyed sellout crowds during the tenure of legendary Red Raiders coach Ray Riddick, who led the team to eight undefeated seasons in his nearly 30-year coaching career.
Lowell Memorial Auditorium, a 2,800-seat
venue, dedicated to veterans of the American Armed Services, that has hosted hundreds of concerts, comedy shows and, most
famously, the annual Golden Gloves boxing tournament. Over the years, the Lowell crowd has had the pleasure of packing the
auditorium to watch Rocky Marciano, Marvin Hagler and Micky Ward pummel their opponents.
Keith Academy: The imposing stone structure on Thorndike Street now houses condos, but from 1926 to 1970, it was the most prominent private all-boys Catholic school in the region. The building was formerly the Middlesex County Jail, which was purchased by Lowell native Cardinal William O'Connell, using money donated by the son of theater magnate B.F. Keith.
Late last year,
Espinola was house-hunting. Recently divorced, he had been living in Groton for several years, but knew "I would always
come back to Lowell."
The director of the traffic-management group at Raytheon in Marlboro, Espinola
was looking for an abode closer to work, but "I kept getting pulled back to this area."
He was
on the verge of making an offer on another Andover Street manse when he stumbled upon a listing for 591 Andover St., at Craigslist.com.
"The Flanagans put it up on Craigslist as a joke," Espinola said. "I came to see it that
Sunday and couldn't let it go. We closed in two months, two weeks and two days."
When the Flanagans
bought the house in 2004 the foyers were covered in white wallpaper. They began brainstorming on how to spruce it up and make
it their own.
"We love the mural Janet Lambert-Moore did at the Nesmith House, own a couple of prints
of her work and always admired her style," Deborah Flanagan said. "We knew that had to be it."
Lambert-Moore
completed the mural over a five-week period.
Keith Academy was added because Paul Flanagan graduated from
the school, Lowell High for Deborah, an alumnus and teacher there. In addition to the city landmarks, the mural also includes
a home the couple once owned at 567 Andover St., and another on Garden Road.
The Flanagans retired to Cape
Cod. When they decided to put their Lowell home on the market, they were a little nervous about the future of the beloved
mural.
"Paul and I talked about it a lot and realized we would feel terrible if someone painted over it," Deborah Flanagan said.
"The day we met Michael, we knew the mural was safe," she added. "Hopefully,
he will add to it and make it his own."
That is the plan, said Espinola, who revealed that he has been in touch with Lambert-Moore about adding the Franco American School, near the Pawtucket Falls, to the painting. He went to school there. He is also interested in adding the Superior Court building.
