Country singer Zach Bryan helps secure Jack Kerouac's legacy in Lowell

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Amidst the news of arts institutions and organizations losing funding, there was some positive news out of Lowell last week.

Grammy-winning country artist Zach Bryan purchased a 20,439-square-foot building that will become the Jack Kerouac Center, a creative hub and performance space. The center will honor the memory and work of author and Beat poet Jack Kerouac, who was born in Lowell in 1922, and penned seminal works like “On the Road” and “Big Sur.”

“He was a pivotal figure in the creation of the counterculture, opposing the materialism, militarism and conformity of the 1950s and early 1960s,” said Jim Sampas, the literary executor of the Jack Kerouac Estate. Five of Kerouac’s novels are largely set in Lowell, including “The Town and the City.”

The site that Bryan purchased is the historic Saint Jean Baptiste Church, where Kerouac served as an altar boy and where his funeral mass was held in 1969. The former church, built in 1890, was once an important place for the area’s French Canadian and French American populations, who settled in Lowell toward the end of the 19th century. However, many residents were pushed out during urban renewal efforts in the 1950s, and by the 1990s, the church closed.

TMI Properties purchased the property from the Archdiocese in 2006. It was originally slated for commercial development if the company, who wanted to help save the church, couldn’t find a buyer to help preserve it. “The local community was looking for the best way to repurpose the space,” Sampas said.

Local community leader Dave Ouellette had been working on saving the historic site and brought the possibility of purchasing it to the Jack Kerouac Estate several years ago, Sampas recalled. “We realized that if we could secure the proper funds, we could buy the church and utilize its natural function as a gathering and performance space, while paying homage to its place in Lowell’s history and connection to Kerouac.”

Plans for the center were originally announced in 2022, but the process stalled due to the pandemic and funding issues. The Kerouac Estate and Bryan started talks in October 2024 about purchasing the former church and it came to fruition in May. “Zach’s incredibly generous gift to the world has been to help preserve this magnificent structure, which is a glorious part of Lowell’s heritage,” Sampas said.

Now that the property is secured, first steps include getting the building up to code before revitalizing and adding some modern elements to the current structure. The Jack Kerouac Center will include a museum showcasing a variety of materials that explore Kerouac and his connection to his hometown. Sampas and others imagine the museum having permanent and rotating exhibits on view. Plans also include transforming the main sanctuary area into a large performance space that the estate hopes will help support local creative endeavors while drawing in artists from across the world.

Sampas said that Bryan’s purchase of the site is an important model for how those with access to wealth and resources can support local creative efforts. “In seeing the way art funding is currently being decimated, it’s truly shameful. I do think this is a bright spot. It’s good for Lowell, certainly… but it also offers a vision for such projects in urban communities across the country.”