Belvidere, year by year
When the stone house went up on Fairmount Street in 1883, the hill around it was mostly open land. Press Play, or drag the slider, and watch the neighborhood fill in around it, house by house, in the year each was built. Tap a building to see its address and date.
Where the dates come from
The outline of every building is from OpenStreetMap. Each one’s year built comes from the City of Lowell’s assessor, as published in the state’s parcel data for 2026, except where our own research has confirmed a date, as for the house itself (1883, from the date plaque on its front) and its carriage house.
Assessors often enter 1900 for any house they know is old, so the many buildings that appear together in 1900 may be older. Garages and sheds take the date of the house on their lot.
What comes next
This map starts from today and works backwards, so for now it shows only buildings that still stand. Next we add the ones that are gone, and the streets as they were laid out, from the old atlases of 1879 to 1936, which you can compare directly on the atlas plates page. Each house’s date is being checked against deeds, directories and the state’s historic inventory, street by street, starting with Fairmount Street.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Parcel data: MassGIS, Massachusetts Property Tax Parcels, fiscal year 2026.