History / Sources

The Lowell Directory, 1931

Creator

Sampson & Murdock Co.

Date

1931

Type

book

Repository

Internet Archive (lowellma-directory-1931); a copy is in the house library

Locator

Cited pages: scan leaves 493, 557, 735, 746, 844

Access

The title page and the pages cited on this site are reproduced here from the copy in the house library (owner’s ruling, October 28, 2026); the whole volume can be read at the Internet Archive. Read the source · Original at archive.org

Rights

Published 1931 by Sampson & Murdock Co. with a copyright notice. No renewal was found in a quick check of the renewal records (October 28, 2026); city directories were generally not renewed. Reproduced under the owner’s ruling of October 28, 2026; it will be removed on request.

Statements this record supports

• C-114 — The Kerwins were the Lilleys' neighbors across the street: the 1906 Lowell directory lists 'Kerwin James J lawyer 20 Hildreth bldg h 239 Fairmount', and the 1926 directory lists him with his wife Irene P. at 239 Fairmount. In May 1920 Judge Charles S. Lilley, his daughter Bonney L. Dunbar and Irene P. Kerwin won a Superior Court verdict against the Lowell Gas Light Company for shade trees on their Fairmount Street properties killed by gas escaping from a broken service pipe. The Lilley plaintiffs were awarded $1,250; Mrs. Kerwin was awarded a three-figure sum, probably $400.
• C-139 — Owen J. Tansey, the Bonneys' coachman, declared in his naturalization petition of November 1893 that he lived at No. 172 Fairmount Street and that his occupation was that of a coachman. Born at Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland (the petition gives August 13, 1870; other records 1867), he arrived at Boston on May 15, 1888, married Kate E. Burns at Ayer in 1892, and died June 16, 1955. He left service with the house before 1900, when the directory lists him as a fireman at Wyman's Exchange, living at 286 High Street, and became a Lowell police officer: from 1906 to 1931 the directories list 'Owen J police Market bldg', and the police department rosters of 1906, 1916 and 1926 name him among the patrolmen. He lived at 25 Bowden Street (1906–16) and then at 68 Loring Street with his wife, Catherine A. (1926–31), where he is still listed in 1950.
• C-140 — John J. McGowan was the Lilleys' coachman and later chauffeur and lived with his family on the estate in two spans, about 1897-1906 and 1916-1931 (James Dunn was the coachman in 1910; C-395, C-406): the Lowell birth registers give his occupation as coachman at 236 Fairmount Street in June 1897 and June 1903; he was there in 1920 and 1921 (in 1916 and 1921 described as chauffeur), and in 1928 and 1931 he was the caretaker. The 1930 census lists the McGowans at 'rear 234 Fairmount'; the 1931 directory gives 'rear 236'. His mother, Mary (McHugh) McGowan, the 'widow' of the 1900 directory, came from Ireland in 1896 and died in Lowell on February 25, 1921.
• C-161 — The estate's rear dwelling, the coachman's and later the caretaker's home, appears under No. 236 in the directories: the coachman (by 1916 a chauffeur) is listed at 236, 'house do.', in 1900, 1906 and 1916, and a rear dwelling, 'r 236' or 'rear', in 1926, 1931 and 1936, when it was let to a tenant. It no longer appears under No. 236 in 1946, the first directory after the 1944 division of the estate, and that is also the first directory with a 222 Fairmount Street, which is absent in 1926, 1931 and 1936.
• C-176 — The directories trace C. Brooks Stevens's offices and homes. He was superintendent of the United States Bunting Company in 1894 and its treasurer from 1900; treasurer also of the Middlesex Company by 1916; president of the Ames Worsted Company by 1926; president and treasurer of the Lawrence Manufacturing Company by 1931; and in 1946 treasurer of the Heinze Electric Company. He boarded at 24 Huntington Street in 1894, lived at 403 Andover Street in 1900 and 1906, and at Tewksbury from 1916; he never had a directory residence at 236 Fairmount Street.
• C-243 — David Nichols lived on Belmont Street near West Pine in 1886 and at 30 Talbot Street in 1894; in 1900 'Emeline A. widow of David' is listed there. The Kerwins of 239 Fairmount lived at 30 Talbot Street by 1931.

Events on the timeline that cite it

• The coachman becomes a chauffeur (1906–1916)
• The chauffeur’s family (January 1920)