Also recorded as: Battles Home for Aged Men; The Battles Foundation.
The Lowell charity that owned and ran the house as a rest home from 1957 (or 1956) until 2004.[sources]
Mary Battles, widow of James Battles, conveyed her house at 15 Belmont Street to trustees in 1901 to found a home "for the poor, the aged and the friendless"; it opened in April 1902. By 1931 the city directory places the Battles Home for Aged Men at 93 Rolfe Street, with a matron in charge. Fifty-five years after its founding the corporation bought the Fairmount Street house from the Herrons. Press accounts say the home moved in 1956; the 1956 directory still shows it on Rolfe Street and private tenants here; the deed is dated 1 April 1957.
The house served as a rest home for about 47 years. The 1966 directory lists the corporation, its president and treasurer, and five retired men living here; the 1981 survey recorded the use as "rest home"; the 2011 Lowell Sun reported that among its last residents in 2004 were a former mayor and his wife. When it closed in early 2004 the house was sold. The corporation continues as The Battles Foundation, Inc., a Lowell charitable foundation. This website has no connection with the Foundation.
This is the period most living people remember and the one the archive documents least: no photographs of the interior in use, no staff lists, no residents’ recollections have yet been gathered. If you lived or worked here, the owner would like to hear from you.
Mary Battles conveys her house at 15 Belmont Street to trustees to found a home "for the poor, the aged and the friendless"; it opens in April 1902. By 1931 the city directory places the Battles Home for Aged Men at 93 Rolfe Street, where it stays until the move to Fairmount Street. For its first half-century it has nothing to do with this house.[source]
AttributedThe Battles Home
The Herrons convey the property to "The Battles Home, a Corporation duly established by law and located in Lowell". Newspaper accounts from 2001 and 2011 say the home moved in 1956; the 1956 directory still shows private tenants here and the home on Rolfe Street, so the move came late in 1956 or in 1957. By 1966 the directory lists the home, its officers and five retired residents at this address.[sources]
DocumentedThe Battles Home
What is uncertain: 1956 (press) versus 1957 (deed) for the move; not yet resolved.
The owner’s 2022 notes state that in 1957 the main staircase was removed, an elevator installed and new stairs built around it. The 1957 plans in the archive should confirm this; until then it is reported, not verified.[source]
Unverified
What is uncertain: Owner recollection; plans not yet examined.
A Lowell planning-department surveyor completes Form B no. 494 for the Massachusetts Historical Commission: "Arthur Bonney Estate", Chateauesque, "the earliest of Lowell’s major late 19th century stone mansions", present use "rest home". Its photograph is the oldest dated image of the house found so far.[sources]
Documented
After about 47 years at Fairmount Street, housing up to around eleven residents at a time, the rest home closes. The foundation that ran it dated from 1901 — which is how a "104-year" figure sometimes appears in print.[sources]
DocumentedThe Battles Home