Last updated: November 6, 2024
Place
Merrimack House
Quick Facts
Location:
300 Merrimack St, Lowell, MA
Significance:
Luxury Hotel for Lowell
MANAGED BY:
Shell Gas
The rich factory owners who lived in Lowell needed luxurious lodgings for anyone with money coming to visit their city. This need was filled by the Merrimack House, which was constructed as a grand hotel in the early 1830s, directly across from the Boston and Lowell Railroad Depot for easy lodgings for travelers. It included ten private parlors, eighty lodging rooms, and the Academy of Music was housed on the second floor, with a theater seating up to one thousand people! In 1903, the entire building was converted for the use of the Academy. Sadly, after the Railroad Depot burned down, the Merrimack House suffered from much lower visitation and closed in 1920; only two years later, it reopened but burned down April 28, 1924. In 1955, it was rebuilt and subsequently demolished shortly afterwards. In its vacancy, various gas stations have been located there.