Lawrence walking tour focuses on alleyways

Aug. 1—LAWRENCE — The city's newest walking tour, Architecture and Alleyways, steps off on a Thursday in late July with an eye out for contrasts.

Lawrence Heritage State Park interpreter Rich Padova and supervisor Britton Boughner are on their maiden trip, a demonstration tour of their charted ramble; seeking fresh looks in common sights and hidden views in downtown corners.

First stop: a dirt and grass lot between Essex Street buildings.

Here, wall murals of musicians and young dreamers face off, the works painted by students almost a decade ago under the direction of teacher Eric Allshouse in the Essex Art Center's summer mural program.

In the middle of the space, a family with small children sit on a granite slab bench and chat, casual as a summer's day.

The tour guides stand near a Bob Marley portrait, still vibrant in bright Jamaican greens and yellows. The Marley song lines, "In this bright future, you can't forget your past" come to mind.

Near the sidewalk, a masked and bearded man in sunglasses looks on, curious, and listens to Padova recite the mural's musicians, including Lawrence-born Leonard Bernstein, Romeo Santos, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and Prince.

Boughner points a finger above and traces a line along a building top where in faded paint are what look like century-old advertisements for a cleaning product and Quaker Oats.

He compares the ads with the pop art of the musicians and wonders what might appear on the walls and buildings in years to come.

"History is important," Boughner said. "Taking the old, comparing it with the present and looking at, perhaps, the future."

The tour moves from the lot to the abutting alley.

The surface changes from packed dirt and pebbles that crunch underfoot to asphalt and enduring cobblestones.

Alleys were, by design, purposefully hidden, Padova says, a place to store the unsightly and noxious such as trash cans. Horse stable doors once opened on this alley.

Now, there are rectangular rubbish bins, broken pallets, bedsprings and discarded containers, wrappers and bottles. Utility lines drape the brick buildings from which downspouts poke.

Banks of gas meters face outward near ground level, some of them bearing metal tags labeled Columbia Gas.

Few folks can forget the gas explosions that rocked Lawrence, Andover and North Andover and took a young Lawrencian's life on Sept. 13, 2018.

Boughner says the alley, which extends about a mile and runs between Essex and Common streets, serves many of the same purposes it did from the start.

The first public sale of land in Lawrence was near here in 1846 at Essex and Jackson streets.

The initial buildings went up fast, constructed of wood, but were soon replaced by brick structures.

Padova looks down at alley cobblestones, noting how they slope to the middle from each side to channel rainwater, snow melt and wastewater to the canals or river or sewers.

Ahead, a garbage truck has backed into the alley to empty rectangular trash containers.

One hundred twenty years ago, horse-drawn wagons likely hauled junk and garbage from these spaces, Boughner says.

Several nearby buildings are being renovated. Carpenters haul lumber through alley back doors. Masons work from staging at the nearby Sweetser Building, once a downtown hotel.

The present bumps up against the past even as it edges into the future.

The walk ends by City Hall and Essex County Superior Courthouse, built in 1860 on land donated by the Essex Company, Padova said.

The original courthouse was built in 1858 but destroyed by fire the same year. In 1903, an addition designed by George G. Adams was built, Padova said.

It has a granite foundation and red masonry exterior shaped with moldings. Towering columns stand like sentinels at the wide entrance, giving a feeling of confidence and optimism.

The original City Hall remains only in parts, among them the clock tower. The golden eagle atop it is a metal replacement for the first eagle carved by John Smith of the Essex Company.

Lawrence Civil War recruits drilled inside City Hall, Padova said. It also served as a hospital and morgue during the horrific Pemberton Mill collapse on Jan. 10, 1860, killing and injuring hundreds of workers.

This tour takes place each Thursday morning in August from 10 to 11:30, stepping off from the Heritage Park visitor center, 1 Jackson St.

It joins the other tours in August:

* Tuesdays, Walk to the Great Stone Game, 10 to 11:30 a.m.

* Thursdays, Architecture and Alleyways, 10 to 11:30 a.m.

* Fridays, Bread and Roses Strike Walking Tour, 10 to 11:30 a.m.

* Saturdays, Boat tour of the Merrimack River, (reservations needed)

For more information, call 978-794-1655.