Caring for Architecture, Nature and Culture: Lowell Heritage Partnership Projects 2000-2020
Our Park, Our Cities, Our Stories: Next Generation Project
From 2013-2014, The Lowell Heritage Partnership and Lowell National Historical Park worked on on a multi-year community engagement project to produce the next generation of cultural programming at Lowell National Historical Park.
Abraham Lincoln Monument Restoration
The monument was “Erected by The School Children of Lowell” in 1909 as a memorial to our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. Through the cooperative effort of the Lowell Heritage Partnership and the City of Lowell the monument had been restored and refurbished in the spring of 2010.
Special thanks to the staffs of the City Manager’s Office, Lowell Historic Board, and City’s Parks and Recreation Dept. for their efforts in overseeing the monument restoration and site spruce-up. Funding from the Human Services Corp. Endowment at the Greater Lowell Community Foundation allowed the Lowell Heritage Partnership to contribute to the project. In recent years, the LHP has continued to honor President Lincoln’s connections to Lowell during President’s Day Weekend.
Canalway & River Walk Maintenance Endowment
The LHP has an endowment at the Greater Lowell Community Foundation whose purpose is to support maintenance of the Riverwalk, Canalway, and Concord River Greenway. To donate, please contact the Community Foundation.
Doors Open Lowell
The buildings are the bones of the Lowell story.
The high-ceilinged brick mills that powered
American’s Industrial Revolution, the Italianatestyle former gaslight building reborn as a museum and now a law firm, the Federal/Greek-revival style home turned museum where one of America’s most treasured artists was born.
Downtown Lowell is an architecture lover’s playground. In 2002, Doors Open Lowell, a collaboration between the Lowell National Historical Park, the Lowell Historic Board, the Cultural Organization of Lowell and the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, was launched, providing one weekend each May for people to snoop around in more than two dozen historic buildings, many of which are not usually open to the public.
The LHP serves as Doors Open Lowell’s fiscal agent. “Doors Open started about the same time the LHP was becoming visible in the community,” Stowell says. “Doors Open became like a coming out party for the LHP, legitimizing and solidifying it as an organization.”
Lowell Heritage Partnership also co-sponsors the Community Excellence Awards during Preservation Week.
Lowell’s Special Places: Exploring the Neighborhoods
In 2003, with the support of the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation and the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, the Lowell Heritage Partnership published a special guide, “Lowell’s Special Places: Exploring the Neighborhoods.”
The brochure encourages residents and visitors to investigate the less well-known parts of the city after they have seen the centerpiece downtown historic district. Lowell’s Special Places features detailed directions for walking tours in the Acre, Back Central, Belvidere, Centralville, the Highlands, Pawtucketville, and South Lowell.
Stewardship Development: Empowering Lowell’s Leaders
One of the priorities of the LHP is to support the development of a new generation of leaders. Over the years, the LHP has been a strong supporter of the Public Matters community leadership development program in Lowell and has worked with the Smithsonian Institution on internship programs in collaboration with the National Park Service.
The Lowell Bell
In the 19th century there were no Google calendar alerts, alarm clocks or radio bulletins to mark the top of the hour. There were bells. Residents of 1800’s Lowell relied of the clanging of the metal to mark when the work day started, when it was time to break for lunch, when it
was time to head home or go to for church. Bells were used to spring fire and police crews into action.
But, over the years as technology advanced, the old bells were retired from
service. One found its way to the city’s Centralville neighborhood where it spent eight decades as a planter. The gigantic bell, flipped over and partially sunk into the earth in front of the Draper family’s Jewett Street home, where it had sat since 1923, was unearthed by a crane and donated to the
LHP in 2004.
Five years and $25,000 later, the restored bell, mounted on a stone base, was unveiled at the renovated 500-square foot V-shaped lot at the corner of Central and Prescott Streets donated by Eastern Bank as a memorial
to the mill workers of Lowell.
Historians believe the bell, created by the Naylor Vickers Company of Sheffield, England, in 1860, was used at the Old Market House at 40 Market Street and served as a fire alarm before the Palmer Street firehouse (now Fuse Bistro) was built.
City Hall Portrait Restorations
Lowell Heritage Partnership has supported the restoration of several historic portraits that hang in Lowell City Hall, including the portrait of Lowell’s first mayor, Elisha Bartlett. City Hall is home to portraits of over 40 former mayors and other famous dignitaries.
Most recently, in 2013, LHP restored the portrait of Governor Frederic Greenhelge
Remembering Peter Stamas: A Celebration of Community and Service
On November 15, 2012, Lowell Heritage Partnership co-sponsored an evening celebrating the life of Lowell educator and community leader, Peter S. Stamas. Remembering Peter Stamas: A Celebration of Community and Service featured guest speakers familiar with Peter’s life and work, a video tribute to the Human Services Corporation and a panel of emerging leaders in Lowell. The event also announced the creation of the Peter S. Stamas Community Fund at the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.
Lowell: The Entrepreneurial City
On September 25th, 2013 the Lowell Heritage Partnership celebrated Lowell’s uniquely innovative past, present, and future with an expert panel discussion, Lowell: The Entrepreneurial City.
Speakers included representatives from The City of Lowell, UMass Lowell, and Entrepreneurship For All.
Roots, Realities, and Dreams Community Video Contest
In 2013, the Lowell Heritage Partnership sponsored a community video contest entitled, Roots, Realities, and Dreams, in which the LHP and LNHP invited participants to “share their Lowell story.”