The doors of Lowell Elementary School first opened in September 1913, named for James Russell Lowell,who was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor and diplomat. With a degree from Harvard, Lowell usedJames Russell Lowell his poetry to express his anti-slavery views. He was appointed as an ambassador to Spain and later England in 1877. His use of dialect and satires was an inspiration to writers like Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken.

During the school's first years, Lowell served only students in grades one through four. Students in the area in grades five through eight attended Washington School. The school was built at a cost of $3,600 and consisted of four classrooms and a basement. Lowell had no library, no formal PE program and no playground equipment. Since the playground was all dirt, one thing Lowell did have was plenty of mud any time it rained. Although there were no formal PE programs, several students each year got informal swimming lessons when they fell into Sand Creek, which flowed along the north edge of the playground. The creek provided further excitement by flooding Lowell's basement twice each year!