Little Library honors longtime Grecian Festival volunteer
Harry Stamas remembered for love of family, church and books
LOWELL >> Harry Stamas had three great joys in his life: his family, his church and his books.
In May, his trinity of delights was celebrated during a ceremony in which the family dedicated a Little Free Library in Stamas’ honor outside of his longtime spiritual home, the Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church off Fletcher Street in the Acre neighborhood.
Stamas, of Tyngsboro, died in 2021, but his love of reading lives on through the outdoor-based library, his daughter, Sandra Gulezian, said.
“My dad was an avid reader and we wanted to honor him by doing something to benefit the community near the church,” she said.
The church sits adjacent to North Common Village, a housing development for low-income families owned and managed by the Lowell Housing Authority.
Today, more than 500 families, primarily Hispanic, but with a large Cambodian population, call the complex home. But in the early 19th century, Lowell was home to the thirdlargest Greek population in America. According to a history of the area by the National Park Service, the Greek settlement in the Acre “became known as ‘Greektown’ or ‘Acre-acropolis.'”
The community centered their religious and social life around churches like Transfiguration and Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on Lewis Street, located at the other end of the housing complex.
“Dad was an active member and volunteer (at Transfiguration) throughout his life,” Gulezian said.
Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization that believes in books for every reader. They achieve that mission by bringing the standalone libraries to communities through fundraising efforts, as well as by making the libraries available to purchase by individuals and groups.
The almost 84-year-old bibliophile lived in Lowell most of his life, and graduated from Lowell High School. Gulezian said her father read until macular degeneration took his sight.
Macular degeneration is a progressive eye disease that damages central vision. While people may retain some peripheral vision, detailed, focused and straight-ahead vision is lost, which makes reading difficult to impossible.
The red-painted box, with a side-open latched door, holds two shelves filled with paperback and hardcover books. The first shelf features children’s books, with the top shelf offering a selection of adult novels such as “A Man Called Ove,” by Swedish author Frederik Backman.
“We hope the neighboring community will benefit from this as it will be supplied with books for many years to come,” Gulezian said.
Besides serving on the Parish Council for 40 years, as its president from 1989 to 1992, and singing in the choir, Stamas worked the
annual Grecian Festival for over 30 years.
That annual event kicked off Friday, and runs through Sunday, rain or shine. Food will be sold under the huge white tent that fills the parking lot off Market
Street, including such fare as spanakopita (spinach pie), pastitsio (Greek lasagna) and desserts like baklava. Beer and wine will also be for sale. The celebration includes live Greek music and dancing.
Inside Lowell host Teddy Panos said that even though he is a parish member of Holy Trinity, he wasn’t ashamed to say that Transfiguration
throws the “best Greek festival in town … though my mother might strike me dead from the beyond!”
There are also guided tours of the sanctuary with its floor-to-ceiling mosaic tiling featuring religious iconography.
The festival runs Saturday, June 3, from noon to 9 p.m. and Sunday, June 4, from noon to 6 p.m., with
free admission and free parking.
The church is located at 25 Father John Sarantos Way, off of Fletcher Street. For information, call 978458-4321 or email info@ transchurch.org.
And don’t forget to check out the Stamas Little Free Library just past the Kacavas Pavilion sign across the street from the church.