Look to your right down the street about a block to the building with the 'Father John's' advertising sign painted on the side. In the 19th- and early 20th-centuries, Lowell's second most important industry (after textiles) was patent medicines. The Carleton & Hovey Company evolved from a local apothecary shop in the 1820s to one of the largest medicine firms in Lowell by 1890. Their success was due, in part, to sales of 'Father John's Medicine,' touted as a cure for influenza and most other ailments. Carleton & Hovey moved its headquarters and main laboratory here in 1920, and continued in operation until 1976 (Father John's medicine is now produced in Cody, Wyoming). The name of the company still appears on a plaque at the top of the building, and its most famous product is still spelled out in metal letters just above the second floor. Today the street level is occupied by various storefronts, with 38 subsidized housing units for the elderly on the upper floors.