Louis J. Tullio, Born May 17, 1916, a Democrat, was the Mayor of Erie for eight terms from 1966 until 1989. He was the first Italian-American elected to this position.
Tullio had a childhood goal of becoming Mayor of Erie. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, on a football scholarship, and received a master's degree in education from Boston University. After serving in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II, he opened a restaurant in Erie and became a high school teacher and football coach. He lost the 1965 Democratic primary for mayor to Mike Cannavino, who died 11 days before the general election. This allowed Tullio to replace Cannavino on the ballot and defeat Republican incumbent Charles Williamson. Although his victory was partly by chance he went on to become an Erie legend.
As mayor, Tullio was credited with helping slowing, but not stopping, Erie's decline as a manufacturing town and preserving it as a port city and commercial center. Being a politically persuasive and popular politician, especially with the business community, he had master the art of securing State and Federal funds for the city —nearly $300 million dollars. He easily won re-election five times, and unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1976. During his long administration, the city of Erie drastically lost population and was plagued by terrible urban planning decisions, which resulted the demolition of numerous downtown blocks of buildings. Among them, many of the city's most historically-significant and architecturally-notable buildings, and the entire six-block stretch of the western side of State Street, between 8th and 14th streets. While revered by some locals, Tullio is known in public policy and urban planning circles as one of the worst US mayors in terms of failed urban redevelopment programs. Tullio's redevelopment programs succeeded mainly in paving over large portions of downtown Erie for parking lots —a legacy that still is readily apparent today, and the cause of Erie being a poster child in urban planning textbooks for failed urban redevelopment schemes.
Only the retrospective eye-of-history will reveal in time if Tullio’s efforts in preserving a declining industrial-based economy, the redevelopment of downtown and the pumping of State and Federal funds into the city helped or hindered the growth of the local economy. Perhaps a fair assessment will be that he made the best of a bad situation, with little to work with, in an economy that was making a dramatic shift away from manufacturing.
In October 1987, Tullio was diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare disease that also struck then-Pittsburgh mayor Richard Caliguiri and then-Pennsylvania governor Robert P. Casey. Despite his illness, which forced him to cut back on his workload and schedule, Tullio stayed in office and did not appoint an Acting Mayor until November 12, 1989, shortly before the end of his term. He eventually succumbed to his illness in his home on April 17, 1990. He was 73 years old. Regardless how history may write and rewrite his legacy he will remain one of the most important and influential politician in the history of Erie.
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| Ralph Battaglia shown here as the sponsor of young Louis Tullio, whom one day will be the Mayor of Erie, on his confirmation day. |
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| Mayor Louis Tullio campaigning during his first run for mayor (1965) |
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| Mayor Louis Tullio in his office. |
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| Mayor Tullio, along with the Police Chief, meeting with local Civil Rights (July 1967) |
The photo above: Erie's Rag Processing Plant, M.P. Radov Corporation, located at 1925 Holland Street, was gutted by arson on July 18, 1967. Six African-American men were arrested on suspicion of arson and inciting a riot. The following day Mayor Tullio, along with the Police Chief, met with local Civil Rights Leaders who assured the Mayor and the Police Chief that demonstrations regarding the incident of the following day would be peaceful, orderly and lawful.
