A City Hall Darkroom the Way Annie Left it
A Photographer Helps Commemorate Another’s Workplace
Growing up, Kevin Harkins would hang out in the City Engineers office, finding documents for his father’s real estate business. We asked the well-known Lowell photographer to capture the spirit of Annie Powell’s former darkroom so we could create a poster for our 100 Posters Project.
In October 2023, I discovered Annie Powell’s darkroom in Lowell City Hall, exactly as she left it a century earlier.
My guide that morning was Joe Cady, a staff engineer at the third floor City Engineers (CE) office. He was my host as I combed through ancient drawers to document growing evidence of Annie’s work for the CE from about 1900–45.
I spoke to him yesterday and he recalled me saying, “I bet she had a darkroom in City Hall.” He said I was surprised when he responded, “Do you want to see it?” The staff didn't know who processed photos in that room when it was last used in the 1970s. It became a closet for Christmas decorations but to the staff it was still “the darkroom.”
At 10 am this Friday, March 21, engineer Ting Chang will become the host of the 22nd poster in the Chasing Annie Powell 100 Posters Project. Poster #22 celebrates the darkroom and Annie’s contribution of thousands of Lowell photographs,
Incredibly the darkroom remains intact with nearly everything except the enlarger. In a pleasant accident of history, the CE is one of the few departments at City Hall that has never been renovated. Lowell photographer Kevin Harkins, who captured the details of the beautiful preserved wooden drawers, wide sink, and photo print clothespins, will be on hand Friday along with me as executive director of by Annie Powell.
Annie took thousands of city scenes for CE and Proprietors of Locks & Canals (PLC). PLC did not own a darkroom and some of their images can be traced to the CE darkroom. Annie owned or borrowed other darkrooms over the years, but seems to have returned to the City Engineers space on occasion. She also used the views from the City Engineers offices to capture scenes, including parades, taking place on the streets below. She would have been a colorful fixture to generations of engineers.
In a freaky coincidence, the same question I asked Joe led to my discovery of Annie’s primary darkroom from 1923 to the 1940s. Four years ago, I met Alexandrea Healey, who grew up in the Lowell Highlands house where her great-great-great grandaunt died in 1952. After she and other family members shared Annie’s final effects with me, I said something like, “I bet she had a darkroom…” Sure enough, the basement laundry room still had her large cement sink, storage cabinets for supplies glass plate negatives, and even an antique chair which is likely where she placed her enlarger.
Annie’s niece, Annie Devno, would have built the Highlands darkroom with her husband, Harold Devno, when they moved there in 1923. In that darkroom, Annie continued her life-long practice of creating photos with glass plate negatives, skillfully retouching them to improve composition and lighting. She continued to send the glass plates and prints to PLC. But probably for storage reasons, CE asked her to send acetate copies of the original glass negatives.
Today, many of her acetate and glass negatives are stored at UMass Lowell’s Center for Lowell History (CLH). In future articles, I will share new sources of a strong paper trail from the Highlands darkroom to the CLH to the CE collection, as well as the Camara Collection of Portuguese-American portraits from circa 1908–23.
The concrete sink and vintage plumbing from 1923 found in the second of Annie Powell's darkrooms. This artifact is from a basement in Lowell Highlands.
This poster will hang in the waiting area of the third floor City Engineers office. It is the first in the series to depict a current day scene.
Bernie Zelitch is an investigative journalist, historian, composer, and by Annie Powell founder and executive director
Published in our newsletter 3/19/2025
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