Thomas Lowry

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 lines in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding communities in Minnesota. He became head of the Minneapolis Street Railway Co., later to become part of Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT). He is not known to be a relative of Sylvanus Lowry, the slaveholder and profiteer of slavery-related enterprise from St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Early life Lowry was born in Logan County, Illinois, where he attended country schools. At age 17, he attended Lombard University in Galesburg, Illinois but left the college at age 20 due to tuberculosis. He spent a year traveling along the Missouri River before finishing his education, reading law at the office of Judge John C. Bagby in Rushville and passing the bar in 1867.

Career He then came to Minneapolis in 1867. He entered a law partnership with Austin H. Young who became Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Hennepin County in 1871. Around the same time, Lowry married Beatrice Goodrich and began investing in real estate. During the 1870s, more than one-third of the property that is now Minneapolis passed through Lowry's hands. He built his family's home in the Minneapolis neighborhood still known as Lowry Hill, then at the edge of the city.

Lowry was involved in labor disputes as a company owner, including the 1889 Twin Cities streetcar strike. Closeup view of the Thomas Lowry Memorial statue in Smith Triangle Park at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue, Emerson Avenue, and 24th Street in Minneapolis. The inscription reads: "The lesson of a public-spirited life is as a tree ever bearing new fruit."Lowry also served as president of what would become Soo Line Railroad from 1889 to 1890 and again from 1892 to 1909. He also worked with William de la Barre and Charles Alfred Pillsbury on the Lower Dam Hydro Plant below St. Anthony Falls, with the TCRT using the plant power as soon as it was completed.

Personal life 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).

Lowry was a member of the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences from its inaugural year and sent for two mummies from Egypt "for the entertainment of children".

During the last four years of his life, Lowry again battled tuberculosis. He gradually withdrew from public life and spent the winter months in Arizona and Texas for his health. Lowry died on February 4, 1909, at his home in Minneapolis. He was buried at the Lowry mausoleum in Lakewood Cemetery.

Legacy Built in 1924, part of seven cascading pools in Thomas Lowry Park at 900 Douglas Ave. S., Minneapolis

Several sites in Minneapolis are named for Lowry because of his efforts to expand the rail system in the area. Thomas Lowry Park is located at Douglas and Mount Curve Avenues in Lowry Hill, also in memorial of Thomas Lowry.

A memorial by Karl Bitter 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, which reconfigured the Hennepin/Lyndale intersection.