Board Staff

The Board's staff is comprised of preservation professionals who can provide guidance and assistance in a variety of areas.  Please feel free to contact the staff with any questions or concerns.  Contacts can be found on the main page.

The following people comprise the administrative staff of the Board and will be happy to assist you:

Stephen Stowell - Administrator

Stephen Stowell has been Administrator of the Lowell Historic Board, the City of Lowell’s historic preservation agency, since 1994 overseeing design review and development in addition to other preservation and historic resource related responsibilities including state and federal environmental reviews, outreach, education, and survey.  He has overseen an expansion of the number of review districts from one to eleven as well as the review and approval of projects ranging from the small, such as business signage and paint colors, to the large including commercial and mill building rehabilitations, new construction, and even a 6,500 seat multi purpose civic arena.  He has also overseen the listing of an additional five historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places totaling some 565 properties as well as 12 individual National Register listings.

As part of the Board's community engagement and outreach efforts, he helped launch Doors Open Lowell, an event dedicated to creating awareness of preservation, architecture, and design which was the first such program in the United States when begun in 2002.  The event was recognized as an “innovative program” by the White House and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation when Lowell was designated a Preserve America Community in 2004.  Other community engagement and outreach efforts undertaken include the development of house markers in Lowell's neighborhoods, historic building markers for the Downtown Lowell Historic District, electronic newsletter, sign grants for small businesses, and expanded social media platforms.


Mr. Stowell currently serves on the board of the Lowell Heritage Partnership, a coalition of public, private, and non-profit partners dedicated to preserving Lowell’s architectural, cultural, and natural environments that he helped found in 2000 and is a past board member of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions.  He is a 2010 Preservation Massachusetts Paul Tsongas Profiles in Preservation Honoree.


Mr. Stowell is the former Program Manager for Historic Massachusetts, Inc. and has worked at Lowell National Historical Park in addition to serving on historical and historic district commissions in Chelmsford and as an instructor in architectural and local history at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.  He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Lowell (1986) and a M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University (1988).

Vacant - Assistant Administrator
 
stowell