Mid-Century Modern

• Volume: The emphasis is on lightness, openness, and space rather than solidity. Designers use large expanses of glass and thin moldings of new metals such as aluminum. “Volume” is in stark contrast to the Brutalist Style that relied on copious amounts of concrete. 
• Balance and geometry: Strong geometric shapes guide the design—especially arrangements of rectangles and diagonals. Buildings often have extended eaves or employ cantilevers to elongate the lines of the building. 
• Materials: Rather than rely on applied historic ornament, designers let the materials provide visual interest. Bricks of different colors create patterns; metals and glass provide shiny, reflective surfaces. Thin steel or concrete columns reinforce a sense of buoyancy or volume.

Central Plaza

Steady economic decline through the first half of the century hit all areas of the city.  By the 1950s, all but two of the major textile mills had left Lowell and civic administrators and business leaders looked for ways to revitalize its industry. There was no interest in historic preservation, only future development. To that end, Lowell’s City Planner, Charles Zettek, oversaw the “Church Street Project” urban renewal effort (now known as Central Plaza). This entailed demolishing 7 acres of Back Central buildings in 1957: everything between Church Street and the north side of Charles Street, and between Lawrence and Central streets. An article in the Lowell Sun in 1956 included an aerial shot with the targeted area. Tyler Street—with residences dating back to the 1840s—was entirely razed. Local photographer Foley took this shot of 61-63 Church Street before it was demolished (the building can be seen in the aerial at the bottom right). The project also originally included plans to demolish the c. 1830 Baptist Church (enlarged in 1900) but strong local opposition saved it. The church remains today as an “island” surrounded by the parking lot of the plaza.

In 1958, Edward Saunders was hired by the Lowell Housing Authority to provide an appraisal of one of the properties taken in eminent domain for the Church Street project—the Lithuanian Citizens Social Club at 16 Tyler St., a three-story French Second Empire wood frame structure. As part of the appraisal, Saunders provided an overview of the character of the neighborhood that includes valuable details. The large mansions of Tyler Street had largely been converted to multi-family units or tenements, and rental spaces for clubs and halls. Prices in the area remained competitive and high because of the convenient location to downtown and the mills. Residents included Lithuanians but also a small group of African American families connected to soldiers at Fort Devens. The Portuguese also had a social club in the area—at 388 Central run by John F. Silva. Although not mentioned by Saunders, a significant number of Armenians had immigrated to Lowell earlier in the century and took up residence in the Tyler and Charles streets area (they built a church, St. Vartanantz, on Lawrence St., still extant). Thus, the area was multi-cultural, crowded and the housing stock aged. Racism however, is also evident in Saunders’ report and for him and city officials demolishing the “blighted residential area” took little account of the people that lived there that would be displaced.

For Zettek and his team, the Church Street project gave them the chance to bring in modern businesses with plenty of parking: a Stop and Shop Grocery chain and a Zayre Discount Store. The city manager at the time, Frank Barrett, called it “breathtaking in scope.” The new stores were constructed in one continuous strip with the entrances and the parking lot facing Church Street to the north. The project is a very early example nationally of “strip development” inserted directly into the urban fabric of an older city. The style of the buildings is modern with no applied historic ornament. The building occupied by the Stop & Shop for example relies on concrete, large plate glass windows, and large diamond patterns created by alternating colors of bricks; most audacious, a sweeping rigid-steel frame supported the roof permitting a vast open interior free of columns. The plaza also included a new branch for the Union National Bank at the corner of Church and Central streets; designed by Lowell architect Eugene Weisberg, it also intentionally brought modern design to the city. Construction completed in 1963 and the complex, christened “Central Plaza,” opened with great fanfare. 

The plaza was, however, far from “central” to the neighborhood that bordered it. In planning the location and orientation of the buildings, no thought was given to integrating the new development with the Back Central community. From Church Street, the continuous strip of new stores created both a visual and physical barrier to the neighborhood behind it. Residents of Charles Street looked out upon the back wall of the complex with no access except by walking either down to Lawrence or up to Central and around the corners of the new plaza. 

Two other urban renewal projects impacted the northern end of Back Central. In 1955, the Lowell Housing Authority constructed the Bishop Markham Village projects to the west of Gorham Street. And in 1977, the north-west edge of Back Central was further cut off from direct access with downtown by the reconfiguration of Gorham Street and the construction of the Crescent Housing Project in the 1980s. Central Street, for so long the major artery between Back Central and downtown, now peters out amidst expanses of asphalt parking lots.

In a way, by cutting off Back Central from downtown, these three projects helped intensify the identity of the neighborhood.  Off the radar for future development, the second wave of Portuguese immigrants began to purchase the houses and commercial businesses of Back Central ; buildings were re-purposed and shrines, arbors, and memorials became part of the streetscape.

For more information on Central Plaza, check out the Pleasant Family Shopping blog.