Lowell History: Smith Baker Center dedicated

I recently came across this 1969 press release about the Smith Baker Center:

Dedication of Acre community center planned for Sunday

The Smith Baker Community Center of the Acre Model Neighborhood Organization (AMNO) will be dedicated Sunday, December 14, 1969 at 5 p.m. in the former First Congregational Church, located across from City Hall on Merrimack Street.

To initiate the building as a Community Center, AMNO would like to invite the public to a special ecumenical dedication and open house coffee hour. Participating in the service will be Rt. Rev. Thomas E. Green, chairman of AMNO; Rev. Bernard Belley of St. Joseph’s Shrine, Rev. Thomas E. Dipko, Ph.D. of Christ Church United and Rabbi Benjamin Tumin of Temple Beth-El, along with laymen from the community and a full choir.

Among guests invited are Congressman F. Bradford Morse, Senators Edward Brooke and Edward Kennedy, the Lowell City Council and Council-elect, School Committee and Committee-elect, City Manager Gallagher and Supt of Schools Dr. Wayne Peters, to name a few.