History / The carriage house

The carriage house

Down the slope toward Whitman Street stands the estate’s other stone building: the stable of 1883, with its own round tower under a conical roof. It is a private home now, at 222 Fairmount Street, and not part of Chateau Fairmount — but for its first sixty years it was, and it is the one building of the estate whose architects we can name.[sources]

Please respect the owners’ privacy. The carriage house is a private residence with no connection to this website or to Halloween at the castle. Everything on this page comes from published drawings, public maps and recorded plans.

Engraved 1883 elevation and first-floor plan of a stone stable with a round tower under a conical roof and a carriage porch — “Stable for Mr A. T. Atherton, Fairmount St, Lowell — Merrill & Cutler, Architects.” American Architect and Building News, 16 June 1883. Public domain.

A stable with a tower

The plate the American Architect published in June 1883 shows a stable in the same rock-faced stone as the house, with a round tower at one corner, a steep roof, and a carriage entrance under a porch. The plan beside it gives the arrangement: carriage room, stalls, harness room, and stairs to the quarters above — where, in Judge Lilley’s time, a coachman like John J. McGowan would have lived with his household.[sources]

Its architects were Merrill & Cutler of 115 Central Street, Lowell — Otis Merrill and Arthur Cutler, partners from 1883, the firm that would go on to design Lowell’s Central Fire Station (1889), the Armory (1890) and City Hall (1893). For some years the plate was taken to be a design for the house itself; it is not, and the correction is explained here.

Black-and-white 1981 survey photograph of the former stable, a stone house with a conical-roofed round tower among trees — The same building in the 1981 state survey, by then “used as a private residence”. Lowell DPD / Massachusetts Historical Commission. Low-resolution copy.

On the maps

Detail of the 1906 atlas: the Bonney estate parcel with the house and a smaller building near Whitman Street — 1906: the estate with both buildings — the house on its curved drive, the stable toward Whitman Street. Richards atlas, plate 10. Boston Public Library.

Surveyor’s plan of 1944 showing Lot 1 of 1.623 acres toward Whitman Street and Lot 2 of 4.69 acres on Fairmount Street — 1944: “Plan of Land in Lowell, Mass., surveyed for Charles Brooks Stevens” by Brooks, Jordan & Graves — Lot 1 (1.623 acres, with the stable) and Lot 2 (the house). Recorded 10 June 1951, Plan Book 79, Plan 45. Middlesex North Registry of Deeds.

How it became a separate house

For as long as the Athertons, Bonneys and Lilleys held the estate — and through the Stevens ownership — the stable belonged to the house. The 1906 and 1936 atlases show one parcel of 247,170 square feet with two buildings on it.[source]

The division came with the Stevens sale. In June and July 1944 the engineers Brooks, Jordan & Graves surveyed the land into two lots: Lot 1, 1.623 acres toward Whitman Street, with the stable; and Lot 2, the house and its lawn. The deed of 28 June 1944 to Grace L. Murphy conveyed portions of Lot 2 only. Lot 1 and the stable stayed behind — and from that summer the two buildings have had separate owners. The plan was not recorded until 10 June 1951, which is why the 1951 and 1957 deeds for the house cite it.[source]

By the state survey of 1981 the stable was “now used as a private residence”, and the National Register nomination of 1995 lists it as a contributing building of the Belvidere Hill Historic District in its own right: “Arthur Bonney Estate Carriage House, 222 Fairmount St., 1883”.[sources]

What we have not yet read

The deed by which Stevens sold Lot 1, and the chain of owners since — all at the Middlesex North Registry, but not yet pulled.
When the stable was first converted to a dwelling (between 1944 and 1981, on present evidence), and by whom.
Later plans referenced in the research compilation — a 2001 plan adding land from Whitman Street (Plan Book 206, Plan 149) — which would show how the grounds reached their present shape.

Photographs wanted — the right way

The owner of Chateau Fairmount has collected photographs of the carriage house from real-estate listings over the years. Those pictures belong to the photographers and agencies that made them, so they are not reproduced here. What this page can use: the 1883 plate and the 1981 survey photograph (above), a photograph taken from the public street, and any image whose owner gives permission. If you have an older photograph of the stable — in the Bonney, Lilley or Stevens years especially — please get in touch.