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St. Joseph's Convent
St. Joesph’s Convent
Built 1911
Building History
The red brick convent, built 1911, is three stories high and designed in the Colonial Revival style. It served as the living quarters for the nuns that taught at the St. Joseph School (1883), which served Lowell’s large Catholic French-Canadian community for over 100 years. The property on which the convent and school sit was purchased in 1881 and was formerly the home of Luther D. Sawyer. The Sisters of Charity of Ottawa, also known as the Grey Nuns of the Cross, inhabited the Sawyer House until 1900 when they moved into the George Harris house at the corner of Moody and St. James Streets. The architect F.X. Morin designed the new convent, which had 31 sisters living there by 1936. By 1924 the old Sawyer house had been removed, which left the large space in the front of the school. The convent remained in use by the sisters until 1980.
In 1980, the Sisters of Charity were no longer able to provide staffing for the school, and the sisters left the convent. The convent became the Missionary Oblate Center, a residence for oblate fathers working with the Hispanic community of Lowell. The school closed its doors in 1993, and the fathers left the convent building the following year. The building was sold to the Coalition for a Better Acre in 1995.