10 Kearney Square: What It Is Like to Live in the Fairburn Building in Downtown Lowell

Kearney Square is the front porch of downtown Lowell, and 10 Kearney Square, the Fairburn Building, is its living room. The square is a small leafy plaza where Merrimack Street meets the canals, home to some of the city’s most character-filled lofts. If you want historic Lowell with the whole downtown as your amenity package, this is the address.

The Lofts

The homes at 10 Kearney Square are one and two bedroom lofts, never new construction boxes. At the Fairburn Building, the architecture is the amenity. Soaring ceilings, exposed beams, and those arched windows give every room a presence that modern buildings spend a fortune trying to imitate. Inside, expect hardwood floors, open concept layouts, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances, with in-unit laundry and deeded storage in select units.

Downtown at the Door

The location sells itself. Market Street’s restaurants are around the corner, Middlesex Community College and UMass Lowell are minutes away, and the Lowell MBTA station puts Boston within reach for commuters. Parks and recreation are built into daily life here, from the canal walkways to LeLacheur Park, and the Merrimack River runs through the neighborhood. The Hive anchors the creative scene on Merrimack Street, and working from home is easy in buildings where the architecture gives every room a view worth looking at.

A Day on the Square

Life on Kearney Square runs on foot. Morning coffee from a downtown cafe, a walk along the canals through the Lowell National Historical Park, classes or work at the colleges, and evenings that offer real choices: a show at Lowell Memorial Auditorium or Merrimack Repertory Theatre, hockey or a concert at the Tsongas Center, a Spinners game at LeLacheur Park in the summer. In July the Lowell Folk Festival takes over the downtown streets, and square residents are not visiting the festival. They live in it.

Renting and Buying on the Square

Doherty Properties knows this square firsthand. Chris Doherty sold Unit 407 at 10 Kearney Square in June 2026 for $355,000, and the team rents homes in the building as well. Whether you are buying a piece of the square or leasing a loft above it, start with the people already doing deals here. See our Buildings page for more Lowell buildings we cover.

Nobody sells or rents more of these lofts than Chris Doherty. He personally sells 100+ homes a year across Greater Lowell, with 3,000+ career transactions, and Doherty Properties, the company he leads, has handled over $1 billion in real estate transactions and thousands of rental transactions every year.

Doherty Properties, 14 Jackson Street, Lowell, MA 01852, (978) 746-0124.