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Dave Perry on Lowell Walks via UMass Lowell website
Dave Perry takes to the UMass Lowell website to share his observations from last Saturday’s Lowell Walks kickoff tour. The next tour is tomorrow morning at 10am from the National Park Visitor Center at 246 Market Street. “Lowell Public Art Collection” is the topic and Paul Marion and Rosemary Noon will be the tour guides.
Here’s some of what Dave wrote about last week’s tour:
Early on the Saturday morning tour, Fred Faust told a crowd of 81 a story about the mix of federal and local funding for sculptor Mico Kaufman’s Homage to Women statue in the courtyard along Market Street in downtown Lowell. Decades ago, Lowell’s progressive workhorse U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas secured $75,000 in federal funding for the bronze statue, which celebrates the labor of women in Lowell’s industrial revolution.
Tsongas assigned his then-aide Faust to get the other $25,000 from local sources. The door through which Faust had to pass was Joe Tully, the crusty city manager and political cog who turned or froze the faucet of power and money in the city.
It was a fascinating insider’s tale (in which the funding eventually appeared, via Tully, but not before he pronounced the sculptor’s design, “like a bunch of lobsters dancing”) and brought the city’s rich history to life. [read more]
“The series’ June 6 maiden voyage was loaded with nuggets. There was the mighty Bon Marche building, St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, a canal stop, cupolas, Greek Revivals, and the time Tsongas called up a bank president whose modernization was “incredibly ugly,” according to Faust. The bank had promised to clean up its act but had done nothing. “If you don’t take that down,” Tsongas finally barked, “I’ll be standing outside announcing you’re going to do it anyway.”
This is good sh*t. It’s no wonder Tsongas is so revered. He had absolute power and used it to do good.