Tag: Jack Kerouac

LOWELL — By next October, fans of Beat writer Jack Kerouac will be able to add the building located at 484 Merrimack St. to their homage itinerary during the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac 2026 Fall Festival.

In his youth, Kerouac spent afternoons at the old Royal Theater that was attached to the rear of the rooming house that fronted Merrimack Street in the Acre neighborhood.

The Lowell-born Kerouac memorialized those days in his semiautobiographical novel “Dr. Sax,” in which the main character, Jackie Duluoz, describes afternoons at the theater waiting for “Tim McCoy to jump on screen, or Hoot Gibson, or Mix, Tom Mix” and looking up at the cherubs in the “pink and gilt and crystal-crazy ceiling.”

The theater was demolished 30 years ago, but the four-story brick boarding house Kerouac undoubtedly walked past on his way to the box office is being gut renovated and restored by Lowell-born Patrick Tighe, a Los Angeles-based architect.

In August, Tighe’s project, New Royal LLC, received $1.3 million in Housing Development Incentive Program tax credits for 24 market-rate housing units during an awards ceremony in Revere.

“We are thrilled to have received the tax credits,” Tighe said by email.

HDIP is a tool for the state’s Gateway Cities to create more market-rate housing championed by the Healey-Driscoll administration to support economic development, expand diversity of housing stock and create more vibrant neighborhoods.

The building dates to 1915 and was built in the Colonial Revival style. Tighe said the massive granite foundation walls and first-floor brick walls of the theater still remain and will be incorporated into a sunken garden for the first-floor commercial development.

Tighe’s building is listed on the national and state registry of historic places through its inclusion in the Lowell National Historical Park and Preservation District and the Downtown Lowell Historic District. The building has been vacant for years and was condemned by the city. Tighe bought it in 2016.

Tighe said the abandoned and derelict 7,000-square-foot building stood the test of time thanks to a robust steel frame with wood construction and a masonry exterior. He said the design will restore many of the unique period features and bring the building back to its “original splendor.”

“The façade at the street is a tan glazed brick in decorative patterns, with red brick at the sides,” Tighe said. “Distinct to the building are two three-story oriel windows clad with sheet metal. The bay windows create a rhythmic streetscape pattern continued at the adjacent building. The oriels and the original oak door are details which give the building its Colonial Revival spirit.”

The building originally housed a market on the street level and Tighe said he was working closely with Sophia’s Greek Pantry (a shop that is currently on an adjacent site on Market Street) to occupy the 2,600-square-foot space.

The historic project joins housing developments underway throughout the city that were granted HDIP funds in an April round of funding. Lowell received $7.5 million to build 132 units including $5 million to the Mullins Company’s Mass Mills IV development for a total of 95 units; and $2.5 million to Heritage Properties to build 37 units at The Emery, on a vacant lot at Pearl and Middlesex Streets.

In July 2024, Lowell received $4.5 million for two downtown housing developments, again, the largest share of the $27 million distributed to 14 projects from the HDIP program, to create 547 total new units in 11 Gateway Cities across the state.

The Hildreth Building, built in 1884 on Merrimack Street, received $2.5 million in HDIP funding. The historic building is being redeveloped to create 50 units on the upper floors and a retail space on the first floor, a part of which will be occupied by businesses displaced by the closure of Mill No. 5.The other Mill City HDIP project, the 26-unit Isobel Lofts on Middlesex Street, was awarded $2 million.

“When Kerouac fans come to visit they can stand in the sunken garden surrounded by the massive granite walls of the Royal Theater and imagine what it was once like,” Tighe said.

The Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Fall Festival runs from Thursday, Oct. 9 through Monday, Oct. 13. A variety of public events are scheduled in Lowell and the surrounding area, including music, poetry and tours. The festival features a mix of free, donation- and fee-based events. For more information, visit lowellcelebrateskerouac.org.