St. Joseph's Roman Catholic College for Boys/High School

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, St. Joseph's Roman Catholic College for Boys/High School is located at 760 Merrimack Street.  Also known as St. Joseph High School, the Romanesque Revival style building was built in 1892 and designed by Irish-American church architect Patrick Ford.  Lowell had a large and thriving French-Canadian population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and as a result, St. Joseph's Parish built a parish school (1883) located a few blocks away on Moody Street in Little Canada.  Soaring enrollment caused issues with space and a new building was considered for older grades.

This new building on Merrimack Street had 15 classrooms and two large halls. By 1900, there were  1100 pupils and 18 teachers instructing middle school as well as freshmen and sophomores.  By 1907 the high school studies were supplemented with business training.
  1. 1
  2. 2
In 1966, St. Joseph's became co-educational when the girls' school was displaced due to urban renewal in Little Canada and renamed St. Joseph's High School.  In 1991, St. Joseph's closed after merging with other local Catholic schools to become Lowell Catholic High School.  In 2010, the Coalition for a Better Acre rehabilitated the building into 22 units of affordable housing.