Thomas Lowry
Encyclopedia
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, real-estate magnate, and businessman who oversaw much of the early growth the streetcar lines in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, St. Paul, and surrounding communities in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. He became head of the Minneapolis Street Railway Co., later to become part of Twin City Rapid Transit
Twin City Rapid Transit
The Twin City Rapid Transit Company , also known as Twin City Lines , was a transportation company that operated streetcars, and buses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Minnesota...
(TCRT).
Lowry was born in Logan County, Illinois
Logan County, Illinois
Logan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 30,305, which is a decrease of 2.8% from 31,183 in 2000...
, and came to Minneapolis in 1867 after passing the bar to become a lawyer. He set up shop and quickly found much of his work to be related to real-estate deals. Soon, real-estate became his primary focus. In 1875, he was recruited to join the Minneapolis Street Railway, which was rushing to begin operations. Two years later, in 1877, he had a controlling interest in the company. He managed the company and organized finances, while his brother-in-law Calvin Gibson Goodrich handled other details. In the early days, Lowry spent a lot of time arranging loan
Loan
A loan is a type of debt. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower....
s so the railway could be expanded. Lowry had the idea to extend rails out into areas that had not yet been developed. Of course, his actions weren't entirely noble in expanding the rail system—much of that land was owned by him.
His company merged with the rail line of St. Paul after the first "interurban" line connected the Twin Cities. The merger became effective at the beginning of 1892. In 1898, TCRT began building a number of its own streetcars, rather than purchasing them from other companies. The first one of these was a special car for Lowry that had large window panes at one end so that he could see more as the car traveled through the region. It was used by the company on several special occasions, and United States President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
made use of it on a visit to Minneapolis around 1900.
Lowry also served as president of what would become Soo Line Railroad
Soo Line Railroad
The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , controlled through the Soo Line Corporation, and one of seven U.S. Class I railroads. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste...
from 1889 to 1890 and again from 1892 to 1909.
Lowry married Beatrice Goodrich. The couple had a son, Horace Lowry, on February 4, 1898. Horace would eventually follow in his father's footsteps, becoming president of Twin City Rapid Transit until his death on August 22, 1931. Lowry Sr. was a member and benefactor of the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis (a.k.a. Church of the Redeemer).
Several sites in Minneapolis are named for Lowry because of his efforts to expand the rail system in the area. A memorial by Karl Bitter
Karl Bitter
Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born United States sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work.- Life and career :...
was dedicated to him at the intersection of Lyndale and Hennepin Avenue in 1915. Originally, the memorial was meant to serve as a welcome to the southwest neighborhoods of Minneapolis. The statue was moved to Smith Triangle Park on Hennepin Avenue in the 1960s due to the construction of the Lowry Hill Tunnel
Lowry Hill Tunnel
Lowry Hill Tunnel is a tunnel accommodating the Interstate 94 freeway near downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota that was completed in late 1971. It is placed at a near-right-angle turn in the highway, forcing the three lanes of traffic in each direction to slow down...
, which reconfigured the Hennepin/Lyndale intersection. Thomas Lowry Park is located at Douglas and Mount Curve Avenues in Lowry Hill, also in memorial of Thomas Lowry.