Photo courtesy Views of Lowell and Vicinity, Library of Congress.

by Bernie Zelitch

In my by Annie Powell Substack article, titled “Lowell was a ‘shire’,” I concluded that she contributed numerous images and captions to the 1904 souvenir book, Views of Lowell and Vicinity. One of the pages features an exterior image of St. John Hospital in the Belvidere neighborhood. I suggest the photo also illuminates Annie’s personal beliefs about Lowell’s diverse population.

As the hospital advertised its low rates, “varying from $6 to $20 per week,” (Lowell city directory p. 28), Annie seemed to look beyond commerce to make a social observation remarkable for the time:

To further support Annie’s authorship of the caption, we have a public record of her enthusiasm for St. John Hospital. Seven years earlier, she donated “reading matter” to its patients (Lowell Sun).

That report suggests another biographical detail. Despite an elementary school education, reading must have been important to her. I imagine her personal library was large enough to be able to gift her less favored books and magazines.

Incorporated in 1867, the hospital was run by Sisters of Charity with funds from philanthropic groups and individual Catholic and Protestant donors (The Boston Pilot).

The building in the above image was located at 14 Bartlett Street in the Belvidere neighborhood.

St. John eventually merged with St. Joseph Hospital, and in 2012, the two merged again with Lowell General Hospital at One Hospital Drive.

Annie’s photography was aligned with the social concerns of the time and progressive individuals, most notably Rev. George Kenngott who wrote critically of Lowell housing conditions in his 1912 book The Record of a City.

The Primitive Methodist Church, where Annie was an active member, supported the women’s and labor movements at their outsets allowing her, a married woman, to list herself as “head of household.”

This was a home composed of herself and of her two unmarried sisters. Her photographic subjects included members of the Black, Asian, Portuguese, Swedish, Greek, and French Canadian communities.

Bernie Zelitch is founder and executive director of by Annie Powell charitable nonprofit. Formerly an investigative journalist, he is a songwriter, historian, and member of the Photographic Historical Society of New England board of directors.