Thomas Lowry (February 27, 1843 – February 4, 1909) was an American lawyer, real-estate magnate, and businessman who oversaw much of the early growth of the

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

lines in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

area of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...

, St. Paul, and surrounding communities in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

. He became head of the Minneapolis Street Railway Co., later to become part of

Twin City Rapid Transit The Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT), also known as Twin City Lines (TCL), was a transportation company that operated streetcars and buses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Other types of transp ...

(TCRT). He is not known to be a relative of Sylvanus Lowry, the slaveholder and profiteer of slavery-related enterprise from

St. Cloud, Minnesota St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 68,881 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's 12th-largest city. St. Cloud is the county seat of Stea ...

.Christopher P. Lehman, ''Slavery's Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State'' (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2019), 19. Lowry was born in

Logan County, Illinois Logan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 30,305. Its county seat is Lincoln. Logan County comprises the Lincoln, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included ...

, 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 loans so the railway could be expanded. Lowry had the idea to extend rails out into areas that had not yet been developed, much of that land being owned by him. En-Thomas Lowry

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

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in t ...

made use of it on a visit to Minneapolis around 1900. Thomas Lowry Park Minneapolis

Lowry also served as president of what would become

Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , one of seven U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and S ...

from 1889 to 1890 and again from 1892 to 1909. Lowry married Beatrice Goodrich. The couple had a son, Horace Lowry, on February 4, 1880. 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 Theodore Francis Bitter (December 6, 1867 – April 9, 1915) was an Austrian-born American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work. Life and career The son of Carl and Henrietta Bitter, he was ...

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

. The statue was moved to Smith Triangle Park on Hennepin Avenue in the 1960s due to the construction of the Lowry Hill Tunnel, 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.

References

* Russel L. Olson (1976). ''The Electric Railways of Minnesota''. Minnesota Transportation Museum, Hopkins/H. M. Smyth Co., St. Paul.

External links

Image of the Thomas Lowry Memorial commencement in 1915
*
Thomas Lowry in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowry, Thomas 1843 births 1909 deaths Businesspeople from Illinois Businesspeople from Minneapolis 19th-century American railroad executives Soo Line Railroad People from Logan County, Illinois Burials at Lakewood Cemetery Lawyers from Minneapolis