Kirk Street Agents' House: Historic Structure Report
Phillips MK. 1997. Kirk Street Agents' House: Historic Structure Report. Historic Structure Report. Building Conservation Branch, Northeast Cultural Resources Center; National Park Service. Lowell, Massachusetts
The Kirk Street Agents' House (fig. 1) is a significant structure in the Lowell National Historic Park, both architecturally and historically, as an example of the architecture of Lowell's early corporate housing. I The Agents' House is an excellent embodiment-and one of the last of the philosophy of the founders of Lowell. This philosophy viewed the mill agent as an all-powerful and paternalistic figure. The Agents' House was built to house the agents and executives of the Boott Cotton Mills and Massachusetts Cotton Mill, two of the largest and most important mills in Lowell. In terms of style, the Agents' House is simply a more elaborate version of other mill housing; by situating it near the mills and mill housing, the mill owners sought to emphasize the close relationship of the mills' agents to their mill workers. But at the same time, by situating the Agents' House apart and above the other mill buildings, the mill owners emphasized their agents' elite status. Some of the context of the structure has been lost over the last 50 years. This occurred through the removal of several related mill buildings (such as the Boott Overseers' Block on French Street), and through the replacement of residential row housing along Kirk Street with the ca.-1920 high school addition. Enough of its original setting remains, however, to make the Kirk Street Agents' House an integral part of the interpretation of mill life in the first decades of manufacturing at Lowell.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Phillips, Maureen
- Date of Issue
- 1997
- Publisher
- Building Conservation Branch, Northeast Cultural Resources Center; National Park Service
- Units
- HIST , LOWE
- Keywords
- CARE, Data, ehistory, Historic structure, History, Man-made structure, Planning, Proposal, Research, significance, Structure, Treatment