Prince Spaghetti of Lowell, Massachusetts

Prince Spaghetti of Lowell, Massachusetts

Home of Prince Spaghetti and Prince Grotto Restaurant, Lowell, Massachusetts

I am including my employment at Prince Spaghetti as one of the things I like about Lowell. When I got the job, my mother-in-law was thrilled, since she had worked there in the 40s. I began working there the 8th year of being owned by Borden and lasted just two years before Borden sold the company in 1997. Below are various photos I took during my employment.

The building in red brick is the original plant (where shipping, quality control, mini grocery store, and the Prince museum are ) and the large white/grey building was where the pasta was manufactured and executive offices. The party picture shown below was on the 2nd floor of the new building.

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The courtyard of The Prince Grotto Restaurant faces the old and new buildings. Below are two railroad cars. There was also a fleet of large trucks with the same logo.

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Original business envelope.

A cook's paper hat, front and back. Some employees got together for dinner the week after the plant closed, and we signed our names.

Paper placemat (above).

Here is an iconic ad: Prince Spaghetti commercial, starring Anthony.

 The small book, Prince Treasury of Italian Recipes has 305 pages.

The above items were used for advertising the Prince Spaghetti Company and their restaurant, The Grotto Restaurant in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Some of the employees shown are Geoffry Ireland, Plant Manager in yellow shirt with tie; Dennis Hovland, Plant Engineer; Kathy Blair, Edmund T. Nelson, Systems Manager, Tony Iria, and Vincent Federici (Vinny). Gabriel Cannata. I am in the rose jacket, looking elsewhere.

Other employees I knew were Connie Gath, Larry LeCam, and briefly Margaret Carnevale (I replaced her when she left).

These two photos show what the area looks like in December 2021. The old factory and restaurant were torn down. There is a black iron fence around the entire facility. Photo taken on Newhall Street.

The above photo was taken on October 18, 2015.

The entrance to the new company, Markley, on Moore Street. The photo was taken on April 23, 2017.

Update:  A rare look inside the largest data center in Massachusetts (as reported by WBZ Boston and shared by YouTube. (As reported June 21, 2026)

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/inside-lowell-markley-data-center/

Prince Spaghetti of Lowell, Massachusetts Fame -- Wordless Wednesday

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Home of Prince Spaghetti, Lowell, Massachusetts

In 1912, in the North End of Boston, three immigrants from Sicily began making spaghetti and sold it to customers. The business was so fantastic that they needed more space, so in 1941 they moved to Prince Street in Lowell. In 1987 the company was sold to Borden, Inc., whose headquarters are in Ohio.

The stipulation between Borden and Prince was that nothing would change for ten years; no major changes and no layoffs. It was one huge family, mostly of hard-working Portuguese employees, many who worked there 30-40 or more years on one of the three shifts. When I began working there, into the 8th year of being owned by Borden.

It came to no huge surprise, that when the 10 years was up, Borden had no need for Lowell's plant, but they wanted the name. They had other plants, incl. one in St. Louis. Word of our closing spread like wildfire, I received phone calls from the press, and everybody wanted to know all the details.

Fortunately, I had more information and warning than most people, since I worked for the Plant Manager. Over 400 employees lost their jobs. We received nice severance packages and other benefits, but the pride of working for one of the most well-known companies in Massachusetts was no more.

The building in red brick is the original plant (where all offices, shipping, quality control, mini grocery store, and the Prince museum) and the large white/grey building was where the pasta was manufactured.

Prince Pasta / Spaghetti is now owned by New World Pasta in Pennsylvania. I can still buy the same blue Prince box in any local store. It didn't go away, just changed several hands and locations.

I shared some advertising products from the company in a recent post, see HERE. 

Nice article about the history from Mass Moments.

Courtyard facing the old and new buildings. Below are two railroad cars. There was also a fleet of large trucks with the same logo.

Update: On June 25, 2014, there was an article in The Lowell Sun newspaper about the old Prince plant and property being up for sale again.  See article at HERE.

Update #2 on October 15, 2014. Lowell Five buys former Prince building. http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_26732377

Photo of building from the back, Lawrence Street side (November 2014).

Advertising for Prince Spaghetti

Above is a paper place-mat.

They were given out when large groups were having spaghetti meals for a fund raising event.

Here is an iconic ad: Prince Spaghetti commercial, starring Anthony

UPDATE for February 3, 2016: The mother from the classic Prince pasta commercial has died (click on the link to read the article about her death. "Mary Fiumara, the woman who shouted “Anthony! Anthony!” in an iconic Prince pasta commercial, died on February 2 at 88 years old.

Prince Spaghetti began 100 years ago in Boston, MA, this week, and later moved to Lowell, MA. I was lucky to have a great job working directly under the Plant Manager and was able to have all the spaghetti I wanted.

 The small book, Prince Treasury of Italian Recipes has 305 pages.

The above items were used for advertising the Prince Spaghetti Company and Restaurant in Lowell, Massachusetts. The large paper place mats were still given away at the time the plant closed in 1997, 10 years after Borden, Inc. bought them out (my check came from Borden, employees always called it Prince). The bottom two items are much older things from Prince's past. I have a few other items, taken at the time the company closed, which I'll have to dig out and post some day.

UPDATE:  I located a pen with Prince advertising, and decided to post here on this page for Prince products.

Originally posted January 12, 2012.