Lowell (Percival) is born in Boston.

The son Augustus and Katherine (Bigelow) Lowell, Percival Lowell grows up at 171 Commonwealth Avenue and in Brookline, graduates from Harvard College, and after traveling in the Far East, becomes interested in astronomy and builds an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1894. Based on his observations, he becomes convinced of the existence of the planet Mars, marries Constance Savage Keith in 1908, suggests the existence of a new planet in 1914.* Lowell dies in Flagstaff on November 12, 1916, and is buried there on what has come to be called Mars Hill.