Doors Open Lowell

Doors Open Lowell offered a free weekend celebration of the preservation of Lowell, Massachusetts' architectural heritage. This year, thirty historic buildings throughout the city opened their doors. Many participating buildings are not normally open to the public or have limited public access.

Lowell, known internationally for its preservation-based economic development and tourism efforts, hosts Doors Open Lowell as a chance for local people and visitors to catch a behind-the-scene's glimpse of this success. Participants experienced everything from artist lofts in 19th century commercial buildings to offices and homes within former textile mills to 100 year old civic and institutional buildings still in use today.

As a special twist (and fundraiser for the event and arts community), local artists were invited to transform 20 ordinary six-paneled doors into something incredible. The result was ‘Doors Unhinged’, an exciting exhibition and silent auction of the whimsical assortment of those artistically enhanced doors.

Doors Open Lowell is organized by the Lowell National Historical Park, Lowell Historic Board, City of Lowell, Lowell Heritage Partnership, COOL (Cultural Organization of Lowell), and the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. In 2002, Lowell was the first city in the United States to launch this prestigious event dedicated to built heritage, architecture, and design. The inspiration for DOORS OPEN LOWELL came from Toronto who launched the first Doors Open event in North America in 2000.

Doors Open originated as part of European Heritage Days in 1991 with the number of participating countries increasing in ten years from 11 to 47 and the number of visitors reaching the 20 million mark in 2000. This Council of Europe initiative, now run jointly with the European Union, has enjoyed growing success over the years. Toronto's Doors Open event was inspired by Glasgow, Scotland, the first United Kingdom community to launch its program over a decade ago. Building on this success, Sydney, Australia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil recently launched their own Doors Open programs and the Ontario Heritage Foundation launched Doors Open Ontario in 2002. In 2003, New York City launched Open House New York and in 2005 Denver held their first Doors Open event.