City Hall Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Also known as: See Also:City Hall Historic District
Why it's listed
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.
Significance in brief: 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.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 88001906, listed October 13, 1988. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 165 Market St., Lowell |
|---|---|
| County | Middlesex County |
| Listed | October 13, 1988 |
| Reference number | 88001906 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1858-1938 |
| Architect / builder | Unknown |
| Architectural style | Renaissance Revival |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Commerce, Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | 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. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Within district | Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District |
| Coordinates | 42.64453, -71.31224 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 88001906.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q5123202
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.