Building History
Actually two buildings, the Ayer Lofts consists of the Barker Building and
the J.C. Ayer Company Building. The Barker Building was built between 1890-95
by Horace Barker to house a variety of commercial and light industrial uses.
It is typical of buildings that were built along Middle Street in the late
1880s/early 1890s when the street's smaller buildings were rapidly replaced
by four and five story structures built to serve mostly wholesale service
and light-industrial trade. Through the years the Barker Building housed many
businesses including printers, a brass foundry, and a harness manufacturer.
The J.C. Ayer Company Building was also built between 1890-95 and along with
165 Market Street (1858-59), housed one of Lowell's largest patent medicine
companies. Ayer's company used the Market Street building as its laboratory
and the Middle Street building as its office. Ayer was instrumental in the
development of Lowell's patent medicine industry in the 19th century when
he marketed his "Cherry Pectoral" and Ayer Cathartic Pills"
beginning in the 1840s. By the time of his death in 1878, his company was
one of the largest non-textile businesses in the city.
The company continued to expand and operate until it went out of business
in the 1930s but in its nine decades of operation, it spread Ayer's, and Lowell's,
name worldwide. "Ayer's Cherry Pectoral," "Ayer's Hair Vigor,"
and other products were sold around the world, and millions of copies of Ayer's
Almanac were distributed each year, free of charge, in eight languages including
Chinese. After the company went out of business, the building housed a variety
of light manufacturing companies up through the 1980s.
