Country Singer Zach Bryan Buys Historic Massachusetts Church to Honor American Novelist
Country singer Zach Bryan has bought a historic church in Lowell, Massachusetts, to honor the legacy of the late Jack Kerouac, a novelist and poet who was born and raised in the New England community.
Bryan, 29, briefly shared the news with his Instagram followers on Tuesday while reflecting on his recent road trip across the country.
'Coast to coast in eleven days, approximately one church bought,' he
The Grammy Award-winning artist acquired the former St. Jean Baptiste Church from TMI Property Management & Development's owner, Brian McGowan, for nearly $3.5 million, The Lowell Sun
The deal was made in partnership with the Jack Kerouac Estate, who plan to convert the more than 20,000-square-foot building into the Jack Kerouac Center, a cultural hub for live music, various exhibits, and community events.
'Bryan's involvement marks a turning point, bringing vital funding and renewed energy to the years-old project, initially stalled amid funding issues,' the estate shared in a
Related Stories
10/18/2024
5/12/2025
'The collaboration between Bryan and the Jack Kerouac Estate marks a significant step toward honoring the legacy of one of America's most iconic writers while fostering creativity in the heart of Kerouac's hometown.'
Built in 1890, St. Jean Baptiste Church was a landmark in the city of Lowell, which lies about 30 miles northwest of Boston.
Growing up, Kerouac served as an altar boy in the church, where his funeral service was held decades ago. The author died in October 1969 at the age of 47 from an internal hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis of the liver.
Kerouac was best known for his 1957 book 'On the Road,' which was the inspiration for Bryan's 2022 single 'Burn, Burn, Burn.'
In a statement, Sylvia Cunha, a marketing and business leader with the Jack Kerouac Estate, said the deal had been in the works for several months.
'Zach reached out in October, and right from the start, it was clear he shared our passion for honoring Jack's legacy while also creating a dynamic, creative space,' Cunha shared. 'He stepped up and delivered in a big way, showing incredible generosity.
'Our immediate focus is to bring the building up to code so we can start using the space for music and other events while forming new partnerships to help us bring this vision to life and ensure its lasting success.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
30 minutes ago
- Forbes
‘Fallout's Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Heads To Halloween Horror Nights
Fallout is the first all-new experience announced for this year's Halloween Horror Nights. The haunted house inspired by Prime Video's acclaimed smash hit show will appear at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort – and tickets are now on sale. The two-time Emmy-winning TV show, set in 2296, is itself based on an award-winning global video game franchise. For those not familiar with the premise, Fallout takes place two hundred years after a nuclear war destroyed civilization when all that is left is "a highly violent hellscape" known as The Wasteland which is inhabited by mutated animals and creatures, and people live underground in luxury fallout shelters or Vaults. So, what's in store? The twisted minds that have previously delivered immersive experiences based on other hit shows, including Chucky and Stranger Things, promise that this terrifying seasonal attraction will place fans in iconic scenes and face-to-face with their favorite Fallout characters on a journey that begins beneath the surface in Vault 33. From there, they will follow vault-dweller Lucy MacLean, played by Ella Purnell on the show, as she escapes a massacre "only to discover an evil hidden secret." Next, the bravest fans will head to the surface, facing attacks from desperate survivors "who will do anything to remain alive," known as Scavengers and Raiders. Also, expect mutated cockroaches. Next, it's onwards to the Wasteland, which includes iconic locations like the Super Duper Mart as well as The Ghoul, aka Cooper Howard, played by Walton Goggins in the popular series. He's described as "an ageless bounty hunter who has endured radiation exposure for centuries." That's also where Maximus and his T-60 armor enter the picture. Promising "frightful terrors at every turn," Fallout is set to be extremely popular with fans of the game and the show alike. The Fallout haunted house will be a perfect amuse-bouche for people hungry for the series' second season, which will drop on Prime Video in December—filming wrapped in early May. It has already been renewed for a third season as well. It has been two years since Halloween Horror Nights featured an attraction based on a video game that has also become a popular TV adaptation. The last time was in 2023 when The Last of Us delivered high-scoring scares, but that was based on the game rather than the series it inspired. A mecca for horror fans, the screaming starts at Universal Studios Hollywood when Halloween Horror Nights rolls out the blood-red carpet on Thursday, September 4, 2025. Killer chills and thrills kick off at Universal Orlando Resort on Friday, August 29, 2025. In addition to haunted houses, there will be scare zones and live shows at both locations, with more details to be revealed soon. Both parks recently teased on social media that Blumhouse's Five Nights at Freddy's, based on another widely popular videogame IP that inspired a hit movie, will be coming Halloween Horror Nights in some form. The first Five Nights at Freddy's film, or FNAF as it is also known, grossed $291.49 million at the worldwide box office in 2023. The sequel will land in theaters on Friday, December 5, 2025. Both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando are on a roll right now. The California theme park recently celebrated a stellar inaugural run for Fan Fest Nights, which showcased immersive experiences for such iconic IPs as Back to the Future and Star Trek, while in Florida, the proverbial ribbon was cut in spectacular style for the groundbreaking Epic Universe, the location's first new theme park in 26 years.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Jury deliberations begin in Harvey Weinstein's sex crimes retrial
NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors started deliberating Thursday in Harvey Weinstein 's New York sex crimes retrial, tasked with deciding — again — a case that encapsulated the #MeToo movement. The seven-woman, five-man jury is considering two counts of criminal sex act and one count of rape, each relating to a different accuser and a different date. In this case, the criminal sex act charge is the higher-degree felony. The jury got the case after a juror was replaced by an alternate after she couldn't come to court due to illness. Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty. Nearly eight years ago, a series of sexual misconduct allegations against the Oscar-winning movie producer propelled the #MeToo movement. Some of those accusations later generated criminal charges and convictions in New York and California. The New York conviction from 2020 was subsequently overturned, leading to the retrial before a new jury and a different judge. Jurors heard more than five weeks of testimony, including lengthy and sometimes fiery questioning of Weinstein's three accusers in the case. Jessica Mann said he raped her in 2013, when she was trying to build an acting career. Miriam Haley accused him of forcibly performing oral sex on her in 2006, when she was looking for work in entertainment production. Kaja Sokola, who wasn't involved in Weinstein's first trial, told jurors that he forced oral sex on her, too, during 2006. At the time, she was a teenage fashion model trying to break into acting. 'They all had dreams of pursuing careers in the defendant's world, the entertainment industry,' prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told jurors in her closing argument Tuesday. She contended that Weinstein let the women think he was interested in their careers when what actually interested him were their bodies, and "he was going to have their bodies and touch their bodies whether they wanted him to or not.' Weinstein chose not to testify. His defense called other witnesses, including some former friends of Sokola's and Mann's. Weinstein's attorneys argued that all three accusers consented to Weinstein's advances because they wanted help with their Hollywood aims. All three stayed on friendly terms with him afterward, a point the defense emphasized. 'It's transactional, folks. Yes, he wants to fool around with them, and yes, they want something from him,' defense lawyer Arthur Aidala said in his summation Tuesday.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Jury deliberations begin in Harvey Weinstein's sex crimes retrial
Jurors started deliberating on Thursday in Harvey Weinstein's New York sex crimes retrial, tasked with deciding — again — a case that encapsulated the #MeToo movement. The seven-woman, five-man jury is considering two counts of criminal sex act and one count of rape, each relating to a different accuser and a different date. In this case, the criminal sex act charge is the higher-degree felony. Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty. Nearly eight years ago, a series of sexual misconduct allegations against the Oscar-winning movie producer propelled the #MeToo movement. Some of those accusations later generated criminal charges and convictions in New York and California. The New York conviction from 2020 was subsequently overturned, leading to the retrial before a new jury and a different judge. Jurors heard more than five weeks of testimony, including lengthy and sometimes fiery questioning of Weinstein's three accusers in the case. Jessica Mann said he raped her in 2013, when she was trying to build an acting career. Miriam Haley accused him of forcibly performing oral sex on her in 2006, when she was looking for work in entertainment production. Kaja Sokola, who was not involved in Weinstein's first trial, told jurors that he forced oral sex on her, too, during 2006. At the time, she was a teenage fashion model trying to break into acting. 'They all had dreams of pursuing careers in the defendant's world, the entertainment industry,' prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told jurors in her closing argument on Tuesday. She contended that Weinstein let the women think he was interested in their careers when what actually interested him were their bodies, and 'he was going to have their bodies and touch their bodies whether they wanted him to or not'. Weinstein chose not to testify. His defence called other witnesses, including some former friends of Ms Sokola's and Ms Mann's. Weinstein's attorneys argued that all three accusers consented to Weinstein's advances because they wanted help with their Hollywood aims. All three stayed on friendly terms with him afterwards, a point the defence emphasised. 'It's transactional, folks. Yes, he wants to fool around with them, and yes, they want something from him,' defence lawyer Arthur Aidala said in his summation on Tuesday.
