The Lowell Sun, “No Time for Romance: Legendary Bonney Lilley Castle Proudly Calls Itself ‘Home’ Again”

Date: December 16, 1957
Type: newspaper
Repository: Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell (page copy sent October 27, 2026); also on NewspaperArchive (subscription)
Locator: Monday, p. 10 (“Design for Women” page, edited by Anna Donaghue)
Access: Copy courtesy of Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell. The page is reproduced on this site in full, with the article enlarged. NewspaperArchive page: lowell-sun-dec-16-1957-p-10. Read the source
Rights: No copyright renewal found (searched October 28, 2026, in the Online Books Page inventory of serial renewals, which covers the Catalog of Copyright Entries and the Copyright Public Records System: “no issue renewals found” for the Lowell Sun; the only Lowell Sun renewals found are for syndicated features of 1948–49, not on this page). Published as public domain for want of renewal.

The Battles Home’s open house of Sunday, December 15, 1957: 24 rooms and eight baths, “eight huge fireplaces, each made with tiles imported from Italy,” and the home’s officers. The article’s history is wrong where it says the house was “built in 1883 and originally the home of the late Judge Charles S. Lilley” (C-1058). The photograph below it on the page belongs to another story.

The document

Newspaper article across three columns headed Legendary Bonney Lilley Castle Proudly Calls Itself Home Again — “Legendary Bonney Lilley Castle Proudly Calls Itself ‘Home’ Again,” The Lowell Sun, December 16, 1957, p. 10. Copy courtesy of Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell.

Open full size · No copyright renewal found (searched October 28, 2026, in the Online Books Page inventory of serial renewals, which covers the Catalog of Copyright Entries and the Copyright Public Records System: “no issue renewals found” for the Lowell Sun; the only Lowell Sun renewals found are for syndicated features of 1948–49, not on this page). Published as public domain for want of renewal.

Full Design for Women page of The Lowell Sun, December 16, 1957, page 10 — The Lowell Sun, December 16, 1957, p. 10, the full page. Copy courtesy of Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell.

Statements this record supports

C-1028 — On December 16, 1957 the Lowell Sun marked the house's new use with a feature headlined 'No Time for Romance: Legendary Bonney Lilley Castle Proudly Calls Itself "Home" Again'. It calls the house 'the legendary Bonney Lilley castle on Fairmount street', recalls it as the home of the late Judge Charles S. Lilley, and reports that it had become the home of the Battles Home for Aged Men, whose directors held an open house there on Sunday, December 15, 1957.
C-1058 — The Lowell Sun's feature of December 16, 1957 records the house as the Battles Home found it: 'The castle has 24 rooms and eight baths, with a comfortable apartment for the matron', a pleasant game room on the second floor, 'exquisitely tiled floors' and 'eight huge fireplaces, each made with tiles imported from Italy', and old dark woodwork painted white in many rooms. The open house for directors, their wives and guests was held on Sunday, December 15, 1957, with tea in the dining room. The article says the house had in recent years 'served as an apartment house, providing lovely residences for several families'.
C-1060 — The Battles Home's officers in 1957-1958 were Atty. William T. Sheppard, president (for more than fifty years by 1958), Herford N. Elliott, Norman P. Mason and H. Bailey Trull, vice presidents, Eric J. Anderson, treasurer and clerk, and J. William Etzel, chairman of the trustees of permanent funds; four physicians sat on the board. At the annual meeting held at the house on the evening of Monday, February 10, 1958, Norman P. Mason, whom the Sun calls commissioner of the federal housing authority, unveiled a portrait of Sheppard, and the Lowell Sun printed a photograph of the two men ('Unveils Portrait').