Lawrence smokestacks' implosion to be on TV show

Merrimack Valley

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October 13, 2009

TV show will film implosion in Lawrence

By Crystal Bozek

LAWRENCE — More than 100 years of history will come crashing down Thursday morning, and television crews will be there to capture every second of it.

Cable network channel TLC will be in Lawrence filming when two smokestacks at 290 Merrimack St. are imploded this week. The demolition will be part of a new reality program profiling the lives of Lisa Kelly and her husband, Eric, who run Idaho-based Advanced Explosives Demolition Inc.

The show is tentatively being called "The Dynamite Family."

The final details were hammered out late last week.

Crews will be on site all week preparing for the demolition, with the implosion scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday.

Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Gregory Bialecki is expected to be there to push the ceremonial plunger. There are rumors Gov. Deval Patrick also might show up, city officials said.

"It's exciting," said John MacDonald, vice president of corporate strategy at Lupoli Companies. "Things are going to explode somehow and come down. ... Everyone wants to see things come crashing down."

The smokestacks are coming down as part of Sal Lupoli's Riverwalk revitalization project.

Lupoli initially wanted to preserve the smokestacks, like he did with two others down the street, closer to the highway. But these two smokestacks, attached to the old boiler plant that provided power to the neighboring century-old Wood Mill, are structurally unsound.

"We were told they would have fallen down either way," MacDonald said. "There was no way to save them. It's unfortunate."

It's taken awhile to get to the demolition phase.

There were a series of challenges by union workers over allegations of improper bidding, as well as problems with the building's safety. There also was an initial effort to save the smokestacks and the building.

City officials said although filming a television show might be exciting, they are more enthusiastic about what the demolition means for the city's future. Once Lupoli removes the smokestacks and building, the area will be transformed into a parking garage, office complex, public park and retail strip mall — a $50 million project.

MacDonald called this the second phase of the Riverwalk project, or Riverwalk II. They have already converted mill buildings on Merrimack Street into restaurant and office space.

"We're reclaiming section by section, inch by inch," MacDonald said.

In the last few years, the smokestacks had gone from being historical icons to the poster child for everything bad about Lawrence, officials said. They are eyesores, blight.

"The implosion of the smokestacks means progress. It means another somewhat underutilized building is coming down," Mayor Michael Sullivan said. "There's the creation of hundreds of new jobs and millions reinvested in the city.

"That's the excitement," he said.

TLC producer Jennifer Hutchins said the show is set to premiere in December. She was not sure when the Lawrence episode would air. They last filmed in Phoenix.

Barbara Brown, executive director of the Lawrence History Center, said she is happy Lupoli promised to document what the structure looked like inside before it is demolished. And with TLC filming, there will always be a record of the demolition itself.

The building and its smokestacks were considered a state-of-the-art mill power system in its time. The mill opened in 1907.

"It's so historical," Brown said. "And we've lost a lot of smokestacks in Lawrence. We're down to a few left."

"It's exciting but it's sad," she said.

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Imploding the smokestacks

The smokestacks were part of the powerhouse for the city's largest mill, the Wood Mill.

The Wood Mill opened in 1907.

Wood Mill had one of the most sophisticated power systems of the time.

The smokestacks are no longer structurally safe.

There are only a few smokestacks left in the city.

There still will be two smokestacks left at the Riverwalk.