Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review[M]any . . . non-native Lowellians . . . followed the hard work of several remarkable people who believed that Lowell was worth saving from the ash heap. Marion, who has deep roots in the city and today is the executive director of community and cultural affairs at UMass Lowell, skillfully tells the stories of these individuals, from Mogan to the late Paul Tsongas, a congressman from Massachusetts who helped push through the legislation that established Lowell National Historical Park when President Jimmy Carter signed the bill on June 5, 1978. . . .Marion includes a number of striking photographs in Mill Power. Many show what downtown Lowell looked like before the creation of the park, illustrating the city’s dramatic transformation in a way no narrative can. The book, a solid, well researched history of the city — from the Pawtucket and Wamesit Indians to the early 21st century — should be on every Lowellian’s shelf. * Merrimack Valley Magazine *
Table of ContentsForeword Acknowledgements Introduction: Lightning Strikes Twice Part One: The Intentional City Pawtucket and Wamesit “Wonderful Machine” Waterpower Mile of Mills First Blood of the North Battered Hive Neighborhood Nations Running on Empty Part Two: Urban Laboratory Model City Mogan Speaks Revitalization Living History: David McKean College Town Part Three: Making the Park “Lowell Has Done It” A National Park Stands Apart Stairway to Park-dom From Alternative School to Urban Cultural Park The Park Bill Becomes Law: A Staff Diary An Act Establishing a Park Building the Park: First Moves Taking Shape Realizing the Idea The Canalway and Beyond Into the Twenty-first Century Yellowstone and Lowell Part Four: Bricks and Mortar, Then and Now Part Five: The Economics of Heritage Urban Destruction Fear Not Preservation Adaptive-Reuse Economics Lowell: By the Numbers Heritage Reclamation: Public-Private Sectors, Investment and Development “The Long View” Preservation Tax Credit Tool Stand-off at the Dam Two Cases: Market Mills and Hamilton Canal District High-Tech Hive Public-Private Partnership Creative Place-making Gathering the Lowell Honey Part Six: Telling the Story If the Falls Could Speak A Counter-Narrative “The Danger of a Single Story” The Power of Water Riding the Paul Moody Walk This Way: A Canal Hike Mill Work Moulin Rouge The City as a Classroom The Everywhere School Tsongas Industrial History (and Science) Center Lowell Folk Festival Traditions Connect Us Cultural Affairs Lowell Summer Music Series Sculpture Trail Kerouac Comes Home Part Seven: Stewardship and Leadership Youth Stewardship Public Matters A Note about the Author Notes Bibliography Index
