Where is this Ghost Sign?

When the sign was in full view

From the 1906 Lowell Atlas

It is still visible if you are five stories above street level

Nelson's Colonial Department Store

When Barristers' Hall burned in 1905, Joseph L. Chalifoux had the Colonial Building erected on the site. Due to ill health, he elected to keep his store in the Central Block, and leased his new building to Nelson's, a five-and-ten-cent retail enterprise. Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS) – LOW.97, Click for a pdf download of this document

Nelson's gave Green Stamps!

A couple of buildings were built next to Nelson's

A postcard

D. L. Page Company ad from the City Directory

The D. L. Page Company Building

Remember Brigham's?

For more about this building, click on the link below -

Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS) – LOW.97, Click for a pdf download of this document

The first building on the site was a corner church, built in 1843 by the Third Universalist Church. The building was successively occupied by the Second Wesleyan Methodist Church (ca. 1853), and the Central Methodist Episcopal Church (ca.1855-1861).

By 1865, the church had been converted, elaborated, and expanded into Barristers' Hall, a lawyers' office building

In 1914 the Chalifoux department store moved to its Merrimack Street building.

Central Street from Merrimack Street in 1917 . . .

and one of the most remarkable streetscape photos ever taken (newsletter editor's opinion)

This photo and the pdf version available for download below have been adjusted for color and brightness

Download this photo as a pdf and use "zoom" or "pan and zoom" to see amazing details in this photograph.

You can even do some window shopping at Chalifoux's!

CLICK HERE to download a pdf of this photo.



For the unadjusted version of the photo, see -

City Engineers Collection [UML]

CE #246.5_Central_at_Merrimack_Street_1917_neg_[UML]_050