Colburn School, 136 Lawrence Street

1848

National Register of Historic Places (5/19/1995)

The Colburn School was designed in the Greek Revival style by a local school principal.  Like other schools of the period, when first built it contained a single school room capable of holding 200 students and two recitation rooms.  Its simple Greek Revival form was the traditional style used for Lowell’s public buildings in the 1830s and 1840s such as the Central Market House (Market Street; 1837) and Old City Hall (222 Merrimack Street; 1831).  The school was named after Warren Colburn, a superintendent at the Merrimack Manufacturing Company in Lowell, and an early, strong advocate of creating a public school system in the community. 

The design of the school employs a standard Greek Revival element of a broad gable facing the street, supplemented by a coherent pattern of granite lintels and sills, modillioned cornices, and banded brick frieze coursing.  Recessed vertical panels at the corners of the two facades appear to be a simplified variation of the Greek Revival pilaster motif.

When closed in 1992, it was the oldest school building in Lowell still in use as a school.  The building was rehabilitated by the Greater Lowell Mental Health Association in the late 1990s for use as housing.

The building is also located within the Lowell National Historical Park & Preservation District.