Lowell law firm featured in Mass Lawyers Journal

Congratulations to Gallagher and Cavanaugh LLP for an excellent profile of the firm and its offices that appears in the most recent edition of Massachusetts Lawyers Journal.  "Bearers of the Light" plays on the prior history of the 22 Shattuck Street law office which was once the headquarters of the Lowell Gas Light Company. 

While we take artificial lighting in our homes and on our streets for granted, back in the mid-ninteenth century, it was a novel concept.  The gas that was used was manufactured from coal which was heated in large ovens at the Lowell gas works at School and Broadway.  The flamable gas given off by the coal was trapped and stored in the large cylindrical tanks that once sat in the vicinity of today's Stoklosa School.  The tangible residue of the super-heated coal was called coke which was sold as fuel for home furnaces and stoves.  The abundance of other waste products were dumped into the city sewer system until houses downstream started reeking of foul odors and sometimes exploding.  After that, the waste was simply dumped into the Western Canal. 

Eventually, electric light supplanted gas light entirely.  The Gas Light Company became simply the gas company, focused on heat and cooking and not illumination.  Post-gas company occupancy, the Shattuck Street building served as a law office, then a medical office and now a law office once again.

Please be sure to read the full article about Gallagher and Cavanaugh and the city of Lowell.