{"nrhp_refnum":"85000027","name":"St. Patrick's Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"284 Suffolk St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lowell","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.645388162000074,"lon":-71.31873509299999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-01-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Gothic Revival Roman Catholic church at 284 Suffolk Street in The Acre neighborhood of central Lowell, Massachusetts, built between 1853 and 1874 to designs by Patrick C. Keeley.","why_significant":"It was the first Catholic church built to serve Lowell's large population of Irish textile workers and is tied to the city's industrial and immigrant history. It is also the earliest local work of nationally known ecclesiastical architect Patrick C. Keeley and a well-preserved example of Gothic Revival design. It stands on the site of Lowell's first Catholic church.","narrative":"St. Patrick's Church, at 284 Suffolk Street in Lowell's Acre neighborhood, is a Gothic Revival church built between 1853 and 1874. Designed by Patrick C. Keeley, it has a cruciform plan, coursed rubble masonry walls with granite trim, and a 160-foot steeple at the east end. The nave seats just over 1,200 people. A fire in 1904 gutted the interior, which was rebuilt and rededicated in 1906, while the exterior survived. The church replaced a small wood-frame building of 1830-1831, Lowell's first Catholic church, which served the Irish laborers who arrived to work in the textile mills. Their growing numbers and wealth made a grander church possible by 1853. It is significant for its link to Lowell's immigrant and industrial development and as the earliest local work of Keeley, who designed hundreds of Catholic churches in New York and New England. It remains a well-preserved example of ecclesiastical Gothic Revival design.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899 and 1900- (specific dates 1853, 1906)","architect_builder":"Patrick C. Keeley","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival (derived from 13th century English Gothic)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied and in religious use; condition listed as excellent. The interior was rebuilt after a 1904 fire and rededicated in 1906, and the exterior is intact.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.176755-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/74/7955/63795574/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85000027.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000027/d6ecd1fb1b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000027/d6ecd1fb1b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Emw","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Patrick_Church;_Lowell,_MA;_2012-05-19.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Emw</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Patrick_Church;_Lowell,_MA;_2012-05-19.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"78003149","name":"Lowell National Historical Park","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/lowell-national-historical-park-78003149/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795574","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick%27s_Church_(Lowell,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7590929"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/st-patricks-church-85000027/"}