By MATT WICKENHEISER
Sun Staff
LOWELL -- For years, the two connected
buildings on Middle Street have played
host to the city's night scene, first as
A.G. Pollards and then, more recently, as
Smithwick's Tavern.
The lower levels of the buildings are familiar to many city residents and hundreds of former and present University of Massachusetts Lowell students, patrons who passed away the hours in the warm wooden setting, listening to bands or spending time at the long, inviting bar.
Few, however, have seen the upper floors and the potential they hold.
That's something building owner Suleyman Celimli wants to change.
Celimli, of Saugus, looks at 92-98 Middle St. and sees 24,000 square feet of promise. He sees a cafe on the first floor, in the space where bars and bands held sway for years.
On each of the upper floors, he sees the arts. He envisions performance space for dancers, actors and musicians, workshop areas for artists, sculptors, film editors and composers and massive, well-lit galleries displaying the latest works from the area.
"I'm thinking of a billion different things," says Celimli with a slight smile. "This is going to be nice, when we finish it."
Celimli came to the U.S. from his native Turkey in 1967. He earned a master's degree in management from Penn State, worked in New York as a financial consultant and came to Massachusetts in 1973. He worked for several large hotel and restaurant chains and bought Godfrey's, a restaurant in Saugus, in 1976.
In 1981, he bought the two Lowell buildings, at the time the home to Pollards. He operated the bar for about eight years, and then leased the space to Smithwick's in 1995.
For several years, he's been thinking of using his property to support the arts, says Celimli. His son, Evren, 29, is a composer in New York City. Through Evren and his friends, Celimli has learned that art space is always at a premium.
Celimli says he brought one of his son's artist friends to look at the space on Middle Street, and she loved it. He began clearing out the upper floors, and, with Smithwick's closing recently, has begun to focus on improving all of the buildings.
The fourth floor of the larger building is cavernous, with 40-foot-high ceilings, exposed beams and light streaming in from banks of windows. Each floor underneath is home to several large rooms, each with high ceilings and impressive square footage.
Each floor in the larger building consists of 4,600 square feet; each in the small building 1,600.
The larger building bears a sign outside, naming it as the Institute Building, built in 1891.
According to the city's Historic Board, the building was not part of the Lowell Textile Institute, as is commonly believed. Instead, it was built to house the Burke Temperance Institute, one of the many such anti-alcohol societies in Lowell at the time. It is part of a trio of late Victorian commercial buildings that includes the Derby Electric Co. and Plaistow buildings.
The Plaistow building is adjacent to the Institute Building, and is the other part of 92-98 Middle St., the smaller structure that formerly housed the main bar area of both Smithwick's and Pollards.
Originally known as the W.H.I. Hayes building, it was built in 1893, despite the date 1896 stamped on the outside, according to historical documents. Hayes manufactured cigars at the building until his death in 1907.
Arthur G. Pollard bought the building in the early 1920s, affixed the incorrect construction date to the outside and renamed it the Plaistow building, in honor of his New Hampshire birthplace.
Celimli says he hopes to tackle the buildings a bit at a time, doing what work he can afford. He's financing the project by himself now, but may look for funding later. His great hope, he says, is to fit a mix of artists into the building and have it open to the public, so all can enjoy the arts, and young artists can get the support they need.
"There's no end to what we can do," he says. "Bit by bit, I have to do it."
The first priorities are upgrades of the fire alarm and heating systems, he says.
The name of the development, says Celimli, will be an amalgam of his two sons' names, Evren and Osman, 11. With luck and more than a little hard work, Celimli will begin opening the "Evos Arts Institute" bit by bit over the near future.
Science and Technology reporter Matt Wickenheiser may be reached by email at mwickenheiser@lowellsun.com
All rights to republication of special dispatches herein are reserved.
This story ran in The Lowell Sun on 12/2/2000.