My recent article in the local history section of Howl in Lowell (Andrew Jackson, Charles Dickens and Lowell) told the story of visits to Lowell by President Andrew Jackson in 1833 and English novelist Charles Dickens in 1842. My story prompted Eileen Loucraft to compile a list of all US Presidents who have visited Lowell through the years, either as president, before being elected president, or after serving as president.
Before I post Eileen’s list below, I have to ask two questions: (1) Does anyone know of any other Presidential visits to Lowell; and (2) what else should we do with this information:
Andrew Jackson, our 7th president (1829-1837) visited Lowell on June 26-27, 1833 while serving as President
Martin Van Buren, our 8th president (1837-1841) while serving as Vice President, accompanied Jackson to Lowell in 1833
John Tyler, our 10th president (1841-1845) visited Lowell on June 19, 1843 while serving as President
James Polk, our 11th President (1845-1849), visited Lowell on June 30, 1847 while serving as President
Franklin Pierce, our 14th President (1853-1857) visited Lowell multiple times (he had relatives living here)
Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President (1861-1865) visited Lowell on September 18, 1848 while serving as a Congressman from Illinois to campaign for Zachary Taylor for President.
Ulysses S. Grant, our 18th President (1869-1877) visited Lowell on December 4, 1868 while still an Army general
Benjamin Harrison, our 23rd President (1889-1893) visited Lowell on August 15, 1889 while serving as President
Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th President (1901-1909) came to Lowell several times including April 29, 1912
William Howard Taft, our 27th President (1909-1913), visited Lowell on April 29, 1912 while serving as president
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President (1923-1929) visited Lowell on September 21, 1922 while serving as Vice President for the Lowell Memorial Auditorium dedication
Franklin D. Roosevelt, our 32nd President (1933-1945), visited Lowell but it’s not clear when
Harry Truman, our 33rd President (1945-1953), visited Lowell on October 16, 1952 for a campaign stop at the Depot
John Kennedy, our 35th President (1961-1963) visited Lowell as a Senator and as a Congressman
Bill Clinton, our 42nd President (1992-2000) visited Lowell twice, once as President (in 1998? for a Marty Meehan fundrasier) and again in 2007 as an ex-president for a Niki Tsongas rally.
—– Post-post contributions from our readers:
From Kevin Harkins: “Dick I remember photographing President George W. Bush “41″ and his wife Barbara when they visited Lowell at the Middelsex Community College Celebrity Forum in 2001.”







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