By Michael Lafleur, mlafleur@lowellsun.com
LOWELL — The Lowell National Historical Park will officially celebrate its 30th anniversary with a formal breakfast on June 6, tentatively scheduled to be held at Lowell Memorial Auditorium.
The event will feature the unveiling of the park’s vision for how to continue its mission of telling Lowell’s story and preserving historic buildings in a way that appeals to a new generation of museum visitors, and appeals to the needs and issues of the Mill City in the 21st century.
“The National Park has made great strides over its tenure in the city, and lots of people have recognized it,” said park Superintendent Michael Creasey. “But the last plan is nearly 100 percent complete. So where do we go in the future?”
Park officials are focusing on two main themes: making Lowell’s story relevant to children and new immigrants, and rethinking how visitors will interact with the park and its facilities.
The idea is for that process to result in a new park plan and development proposals that will coincide with the run-up to the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary in 2016.
President Bush has pledged to increase national park funding by $100 million per year through 2016 and to match one-for-one, up to an additional $100 million, any private donations to the park service. Lowell park officials would like to take advantage of that funding.
Creasey has tasked a Community Insight Committee — made up of park staff, representatives of local businesses, government and educational institutions, as well as community members — to help craft the park’s 21st century vision. Park officials also have organized focus-group discussions around the two major themes, assisted by park-commissioned research papers on those subjects.
On Thursday, the issue of telling Lowell’s story was up for debate in the second-floor conference room at UMass Lowell’s portion of the Wannalancit Mill complex on Suffolk Street.
Last week, another group of panelists considered recommendations for carrying out the park’s historic preservation and development mission into the future.
The breakfast on June 6 is being sponsored jointly with the Lowell Plan local economic development think tank.
This story appeared in the Lowell Sun on Tuesday, March 11, 2008