The Lowell Book, published by the First Unitarian Church and featuring the Spalding House, 1899

It’s plausible to imagine that on a beautiful day in 1899, three Lowell women gathered around a large camera and tripod in front of what is now Spalding House, 383 Pawtucket St.

Annie Powell, 38, behind one of the finest cameras in the city, would have been the center of attention as she focused on the house. For eight years, she contributed images to local souvenir books and the project of that moment wasThe Lowell Book. The First Unitarian Church was planning a collection of historical essays with photographs to publish and sell in local bookshops.

Active church member and the book designer, Katharine C. Burrage, 32, was likely there. She was Powell’s established customer and possibly, her friend.

The oldest in our fictional party scene on the south bank of the Merrimack River would have been the sole resident of the house, Sarah R. Spalding, 77. She was the last of three Spalding generations to occupy what was then called the Spalding Homestead. She was described as “a woman of strong intellectual ability and a most entertaining conversationalist.” (Lowell Daily Courier, April 22, 1902).

Even at her advanced age, she traveled the world first class, having returned months earlier from a trip to England. She was a founding member of the Molly Varnum Chapter, Daughters of American Revolution (D.A.R.) whose 1899 membership included Burrage. They were both members of the First Unitarian Church, although Spalding moved to St. Anne's Episcopal Church a few years earlier. Three years after the photo session in front of her house, Spalding died on the U.S.S. Niagara en route from Jamaica to Brooklyn. The death certificate listed "old age" as the cause. A misplaced will and a dispute among heirs ensued and her personal property was auctioned before the property passed in 1906 to the D.A.R.

At that time, the chapter had 250 members and the house was a social center until 1996 when membership dwindled and they deeded it to Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust, Inc. (LPCT). It is now open once a month for property tours.

I recently loaned poster #21 featuring The Lowell Book jacket cover and the Spalding House page to Jane L. Calvin, executive director of the trust. The image of the house is presumed to be the handiwork of Powell. We are pleased that Jane decided to display the poster in her office at 660 Suffolk St.,and also take it to the Spalding House during the house tours.

Interestingly, the LPCT office is near the site of the First Unitarian Church before it moved to Kirk St. in 1840. Members were socially progressive and community-minded, and The Lowell Book was surely their most ambitious outreach project.

As was the convention of the time, article writers received bylines but photographers and artists did not. Burrage is listed on the planning committee of six women but we owe more details to a newspaper review of the time: “The cover was designed by Miss Burrage, a recent graduate of the Lowell Textile school, and cleverly introduces, if you have noticed, Lowell's motto, ‘Art is the handmaid of human good.’” We also learned that Rachel Abbott, an amateur photographer and likely a parishioner, took the photo of the staircase next to the one of Spalding House. (Lowell Daily Courier, Nov. 18, 1899)

At the time, the Lowell Camera Club claimed there were 200 local amateur photographers and many of The Lowell Book images seem to come from their ranks. Some of the other images display high technical competence, and also have the same characteristics as Annie Powell 's photography, like creative perspective and composition, and heavy retouching to the negatives. In this context, I attribute the Spalding House photo to Annie Powell.

There are other personal connections between the three women in our imagined scene by the Pawtucketville Bridge (now the O’Donnell Memorial Bridge). Annie Powell or her husband, John, took a portrait of Burrage and there were strong mutual connections to early Textile School staff and events. Their respective churches were socially progressive and proponents of alcohol prohibition. John was a Mason and the Spalding House in 1807 was the consecration site for Lowell’s first Masonic lodge. Sarah’s brother, the highly esteemed Dr. Joel Spalding, who died in 1888, was an officer in Pentucket Lodge.

Burrage would have known Sarah Spalding as a fellow member of the D.A.R. chapter. But Spalding’s pedigree would have been unmatched. Her great-grandfather, Joel Spalding, had been witness to the British surrender at Saratoga. He was the Spalding who in 1790 bought the property which was for years a tavern and inn for Merrimack River boat crews. And his father, Col. Simeon Spaulding, lived nearby and was also a distinguished military man.

On Spalding's death, a Molly Varnum officer called her one of the “ladies of the old school,” adding some observations that don’t hold up well today. Sarah Swan Griffin said: “Her beautiful dignity, her serenity, and calm repose, set her distinctly apart from the rush and rapid living of the present generation. She deeply regretted the ever increasing foreign population of Lowell, the desecration and destroyal of the old landmarks, and the gradual dying out or removal of the old families. Lowell was ever her dearly loved home, and she had a peculiar attachment to the house which had sheltered her family for three generations.”

Bernie Zelitch, by Annie Powell executive director

Thanks to Richard Howe, Middlesex North register of deeds, for property history; and Kathryn Brush, Distinguished University Professor Emerita at the University of Western Ontario, for insight on the Burrage book jacket style.

This article appeared in our newsletter Dec. 13, 2024