The High-street Congregational Church was organized in 1846.  Their edifice was built by the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, which was formed in 1842 and was disbanded, in 1844, under the ministration of the Reverend A.D.  McCoy.  The Reverend Timothy Atkinson was pastor from 1846 to 1847; the Reverend Joseph H. Towne, from 1848 to 1853; the Reverend O.T.  Lanphier, from 1855 to 1856; the Reverend Owen Street, from September 17, 1857.

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church was originally built for the Baptists, but was purchased in 1846 by the Reverend James T. McDermott, and consecrated March 7, 1847.

[Illustration:  SCENE BELOW HUNT’S FALLS.]

The Third Universalist Church was organized in 1843, and the edifice known as Barristers’ Hall was built for its use.  It was disbanded after a few years.  The pastors were the Reverend H.G.  Smith, the Reverend John Moore, the Reverend H.G.  Smith, and the Reverend L.J.  Fletcher.  The Central Methodist Church occupied the edifice for a time, before they secured the building of the Third Baptist Society.  The Society was gathered in 1854.  The pastors have been the Reverend William S. Studley, the Reverend Isaac S. Cushman, the Reverend Isaac J.P.  Collyer, the Reverend Chester Field, the Reverend Lorenzo R. Thayer, the Reverend J.H.  Mansfield, the Reverend Andrew McKeown, in 1865 and 1866, the Reverend William C. High, in 1867.  The Reverend Isaac H. Packard is the present pastor.

[Illustration:  FISKE’S BLOCK, CENTRAL STREET.]

In 1850, a Unitarian Society, organized in 1846, built the Gothic Chapel on Lee Street, and occupied it until 1861, when it passed into the hands of a society of Spiritualists.  The Unitarian pastors were the Reverend M.A.H.  Niles, the Reverend William Barry, the Reverend Augustus Woodbury, the Reverend J.K.  Karcher, the Reverend John B. Willard, and the Reverend William C. Tenney.  It became the property of the St. Joseph (French) Roman Catholic Church.

On July 5, 1855, the stone church on Merrimack Street was dedicated as a Methodist Protestant Church.  There preached the Reverend William Marks, the Reverend Richard H. Dorr, and the Reverend Robert Crossley.  The building passed into possession of the Second Advent Society, which had been organized as early as 1842.

[Illustration:  LOWELL MACHINE SHOP.]

St. John’s Episcopal Church was erected in 1861, and consecrated by Bishop Eastburn, July 16, 1863.  The Reverend Charles W. Homer was the first rector.  He was succeeded by the Reverend Cornelius B. Smith, in 1863, who, in 1866, was succeeded by the Reverend Charles L. Hutchins.  The present pastor is the Reverend Leander C. Manchester.

There are in Lowell thirty edifices exclusively devoted to public worship.

[Illustration:  EDSON BLOCK MERRIMACK STREET.]