Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 288
•
Trim: 7⅜ x 10¼
978-1-4422-3628-8 • Hardback • September 2014 • $110.00 • (£85.00)
978-1-4422-3630-1 • eBook • September 2014 • $104.00 • (£76.00)
Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT),
Architecture / Historic Preservation / General,
Business & Economics / Museum Administration & Museology,
History / United States / 19th Century,
History / United States / 20th Century,
History / United States / 21st Century,
Art / Museum and Historic Sites / Historic Sites and Houses
Paul Marion was born in Lowell and graduated from the University of Massachusetts -Lowell. In the 1980s, he was an administrator with the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, U.S. Department of the Interior, helping to develop the programs and properties of the Lowell National Historical Park.
A co-founder of the Lowell Folk Festival and Lowell Heritage Partnership, he was instrumental in the development of the Lowell Cultural Plan, Mogan Cultural Center, and the Jack Kerouac Commemorative.
He is currently executive director of community relations at the University of Massachusetts - Lowell.
Foreword
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
[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