{"nrhp_refnum":"88001906","name":"City Hall Historic District (Boundary Increase)","other_names":["See Also:City Hall Historic District"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"165 Market St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lowell","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.64452906100007,"lon":-71.31223835199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-10-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Ayer-McCartin Block is a four-story brick commercial building at 165 Market Street in Lowell, Massachusetts, built in two phases: the western ten bays around 1858 and the eastern four bays around 1867. It was added to the existing City Hall Historic District as a boundary increase.","why_significant":"The building is a well-preserved example of mid-nineteenth-century local commercial architecture, with an Italianate-style facade, granite and cast-iron storefronts and a projecting wooden cornice. It is also historically tied to J. C. Ayer & Co., the patent medicine firm that used it as a laboratory from 1859 until about 1917. It was found significant at the local level under Criteria A and C.","narrative":"Fronting Market Street in downtown Lowell, the Ayer-McCartin Block is a four-story brick commercial building fourteen bays wide. Its western ten bays were built around 1858 and its eastern four bays were added around 1867 with nearly identical details. The facade has granite and cast-iron storefronts, pressed red brick upper stories, arched windows with Italianate hoods and a projecting wooden cornice. Traces of brown paint or mastic on the window hoods show an early attempt to imitate brown sandstone. The building served as the laboratory of J. C. Ayer & Co., a patent medicine firm whose products, including Ayer's Cherry Pectoral and Ayer's Almanac, were sold worldwide. It was once linked by a bridge to the company's headquarters on Middle Street, which already lay inside the City Hall Historic District. The block was added to that district for its architecture and its commercial association with the Ayer company, and it was undergoing rehabilitation at the time of listing.","period_of_significance":"1858-1938","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Renaissance Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The property was undergoing rehabilitation following the Secretary of the Interior's Standards; it has been occupied by an electrical supply company and various offices since about 1929.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:02.287524-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/78/7956/63795678/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/88001906.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88001906/d2d475ec4c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88001906/d2d475ec4c-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lowell_City_Hall.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lowell_City_Hall.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"76001972","name":"Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/lowell-locks-and-canals-historic-district-76001972/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795678","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Hall_Historic_District_(Lowell,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5123202"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/city-hall-historic-district-boundary-increase-88001906/"}