St. Anne's Episcopal Church

St. Anne's Church in Lowell, MA

Quick Facts

Location:

8 Kirk St, Lowell, MA

Significance:

First church in Lowell

MANAGED BY:

St. Anne's Episcopal Church

In December of 1822, Kirk Boott, along with other directors of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, agreed to finance a church in downtown Lowell, so that the operatives of the factories would have a place of worship. Not only was this the first church to be built in Lowell, but it was also the first church to be started by companies rather than worshippers. The directors enacted a “pew rent” on their employees, meaning that they took 37 ½ cents off the paychecks every month to pay for the establishment of the church. Workers used unearthed stones from the Merrimack Canal to construct the church. On March 16^th, 1825 – only a year after they began building St. Anne’s - it was consecrated as an Episcopalian church. However, the majority of the workers were Unitarians, while the Boott family belonged to the former branch of Christianity. Therefore, when other churches were erected in 1826, the number of worshippers at St. Anne’s fell to only twenty-six! Despite these challenges, the church remains a central part of Lowell’s downtown area with beautiful stained glass windows and architecture for all to enjoy.