Technology
Sun signs shine once more over Lowell
LOWELL — A long-missing feature of Lowell’s nighttime skyline has finally returned after the twin Sun signs on top of The Sun building at 15 Kearney Square were lit up for the first time in years following a restoration project.
The project began in 2017 with an effort by the Lowell Historic Board. By this point the neon lights that had illuminated the two signs had faltered and gone dark, save for isolated sections. The signs were installed over the building in 1934, and have often been likened to the iconic Citgo sign in Boston.
While The Sun moved its newspaper operations to another nearby building in the 1960s, and left the building altogether in the 1970s, the newspaper and the new owners of the building agreed on a 99-year lease for the signs to be maintained.
As part of the restoration effort, in January The Sun finalized a transfer of ownership of the signs to the building’s owner, while the city provided $60,000 in funding to help cover the cost of the new lights.
As the last sunlight dimmed Monday evening, dozens gathered in front of the Lowell Memorial Auditorium for a ceremony and countdown to turn the sign’s lights back on. There, City Manager Tom Golden called it “a historic moment” for the city.
“It’s just another step, another opportunity where the city of Lowell once again is rising to where it should be, rising above all other communities,” said Golden.
Lowell Historic Board Chair George Villaras called Lowell “a unique and celebrated city.”
“And the whole is not possible without the sum of its parts,” Villaras said Monday evening. “We have the gold dome of Holy Trinity, we have the mills and their smokestacks, we have City Hall and the majestic eagle on its tower, and we have the Lowell Sun sign.”
Alex Costello once served as the editor for The Sun’s editorial page for more than a decade, and is the son and brother of former Lowell Sun Publishers John H. Costello and John H. Costello Jr. The Costello family had owned the newspaper for 119 years before it was sold to Colorado-based MediaNews Group in 1997.
Alex Costello said even after The Sun left the building, the signs remain as more than “the neon emblem of the city’s newspaper.”
“Indeed, The Sun signs became an iconic symbol of the city of Lowell,” said Alex Costello. “Now as we all know, the city of Lowell has long been a city of ups and downs, highs and lows, good times and bad times. A lot of things have changed since 1934, but The Sun signs? They have not changed, until today. They have always been there.”
He said the signs have come to symbolize “the grit, the tenacity and the resilience of this city.”
“As well as the hardworking people of Lowell who have proved just as constant, steadfast and indomitable as those signs,” said Alex Costello. “The sun rises every day, and so do the people of Lowell.”
After a five-second countdown, the signs were lit one by one. The first was the green one facing the LMA, now with bright white LED lights. Don Corson of Signs Now New Hampshire in Pelham was on top of the building, and after the first sign was online, he climbed down its scaffolding and moved to the other side of the roof to get the red sign prepared to light with its red LEDs.
The new LED lights will only use about 15% of the electricity the old neon lights required, and Historic Board Administrator Stephen Stowell told The Sun they should be far less prone to failure.
LOWELL — A long-missing feature of Lowell’s nighttime skyline has finally returned after the twin Sun signs on top of The Sun building at 15 Kearney Square were lit up for the first time in years following a restoration project.
The project began in 2017 with an effort by the Lowell Historic Board. By this point the neon lights that had illuminated the two signs had faltered and gone dark, save for isolated sections. The signs were installed over the building in 1934, and have often been likened to the iconic Citgo sign in Boston.
While The Sun moved its newspaper operations to another nearby building in the 1960s, and left the building altogether in the 1970s, the newspaper and the new owners of the building agreed on a 99-year lease for the signs to be maintained.
As part of the restoration effort, in January The Sun finalized a transfer of ownership of the signs to the building’s owner, while the city provided $60,000 in funding to help cover the cost of the new lights.
As the last sunlight dimmed Monday evening, dozens gathered in front of the Lowell Memorial Auditorium for a ceremony and countdown to turn the sign’s lights back on. There, City Manager Tom Golden called it “a historic moment” for the city.
“It’s just another step, another opportunity where the city of Lowell once again is rising to where it should be, rising above all other communities,” said Golden.
Lowell Historic Board Chair George Villaras called Lowell “a unique and celebrated city.”
“And the whole is not possible without the sum of its parts,” Villaras said Monday evening. “We have the gold dome of Holy Trinity, we have the mills and their smokestacks, we have City Hall and the majestic eagle on its tower, and we have the Lowell Sun sign.”
Alex Costello once served as the editor for The Sun’s editorial page for more than a decade, and is the son and brother of former Lowell Sun Publishers John H. Costello and John H. Costello Jr. The Costello family had owned the newspaper for 119 years before it was sold to Colorado-based MediaNews Group in 1997.
Alex Costello said even after The Sun left the building, the signs remain as more than “the neon emblem of the city’s newspaper.”
“Indeed, The Sun signs became an iconic symbol of the city of Lowell,” said Alex Costello. “Now as we all know, the city of Lowell has long been a city of ups and downs, highs and lows, good times and bad times. A lot of things have changed since 1934, but The Sun signs? They have not changed, until today. They have always been there.”
He said the signs have come to symbolize “the grit, the tenacity and the resilience of this city.”
“As well as the hardworking people of Lowell who have proved just as constant, steadfast and indomitable as those signs,” said Alex Costello. “The sun rises every day, and so do the people of Lowell.”
After a five-second countdown, the signs were lit one by one. The first was the green one facing the LMA, now with bright white LED lights. Don Corson of Signs Now New Hampshire in Pelham was on top of the building, and after the first sign was online, he climbed down its scaffolding and moved to the other side of the roof to get the red sign prepared to light with its red LEDs.
The new LED lights will only use about 15% of the electricity the old neon lights required, and Historic Board Administrator Stephen Stowell told The Sun they should be far less prone to failure.
