Matthew Grant Thorsen Credit: Melanie Maria Goodreaux

A late Seven Days staffer will be “Thorever” remembered in downtown Burlington after a city council vote Monday night.

The alley between Red Square and Akes’ Place off Church Street is now known as Thorsen Way in honor of staff photographer Matthew Thorsen, who died from cancer at age 51 on New Year’s Day 2019.

The council unanimously approved a resolution renaming Mechanics Lane as a way of recognizing Thorsen’s artistic contributions to the Queen City.

Related

“Matt’s work helped to tell the stories of thousands of Vermonters,” associate publisher Colby Roberts told the council. “If you picked up a copy of Seven Days over the past 24 years, you will have almost exclusively seen Matt’s work. And for any of you who knew him, he was an incredibly unique individual.”

Roberts and Thorsen’s wife, Seven Days art director Diane Sullivan, began pursuing the project this spring. Roberts gathered signatures from abutting property owners and asked for the change last week at a meeting of the city council’s license committee. It was warmly welcomed, he said in an interview Monday.

Colby Roberts and Diane Sullivan standing on what is now Thorsen Way Credit: Courtney Lamdin

The spot is meaningful, too. The paper hosted a music series in the alley for 10 years, and Thorsen and the early Seven Days crew frequented Red Square. Thorsen exhibited his work there and at nearby City Hall, Burlington City Arts and other spots, Roberts said.

The street renaming comes ahead of a planned event in Thorsen’s memory. “Thorever: A Celebration of the Life & Times of Matthew Thorsen” kicks off at Red Square at 4 p.m. on July 20 and will feature a city proclamation, musical performances, poetry readings and showings of the late photographer’s work. The celebration will spill into the alley and to nearby Nectar’s and Club Metronome.

Roberts hopes the street sign is ready for unveiling that day. It will be installed at the intersection with Church Street, according to the resolution.

“He just leaves a big footprint behind,” Roberts said of Thorsen. “I think that’s why it’s so fitting for there to be this street so that people see his name and maybe remember who he was.”

Sullivan is ecstatic that her late husband will be forever immortalized in the city he loved.

“I don’t think I’ve known anybody a street was named after,” she said. “That’s kind of a first.”

Related Stories

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!

Courtney Lamdin was a staff writer at Seven Days 2019-2025, covering politics, policy and public safety in Burlington. She received top honors from the New England Newspaper & Press Association, including for "Warning Shots," a coauthored investigation...

12 replies on “Burlington Renames Street to Honor Late Seven Days Photographer Matthew Thorsen”

  3. He helped to tell the story of this community — and told it as only he could. It’s right, in a poetic sort of way, that his name be enshrined in the city’s geography so that those who didn’t have the pleasure of knowing him, who don’t carry memories of him in their consciousness, can have a chance to appreciate his contribution.

  4. It will be interesting to see the reaction of the city council to future requests to rename streets. Seemed pretty easy, no offense intended. Anybody who dies is important to somebody. Who gets to decide if they’re important enough to name a street after? And does the location of the street matter? Very subjective.

  6. If Diane is happy with it, I am happy with it.
    Here’s to you, Matthew – hope you can see it from the beyond! RIP.

  8. When I talked to Matt several years ago for a podcast, one of the things he mentioned to me was how Seven Days wouldnt hire him full time, even after over a decade of working for them, because they didnt want to pay for his health insurance.

    I hope that changed before he was diagnosed with cancer.

  10. “We should rename a restaurant after Miro. Call it Wine Burger.”

    Wow. That is so clever. Definitely worth posting for us all to enjoy. Thanks.

  11. Hi all, just wanted to clear up any misconceptions about Matthew’s employment at Seven Days. He became a full-time staff photographer in 2014, and he did have health insurance through Seven Days, as reported on his GoFundMe page last fall: https://www.gofundme.com/matt-and-di

    Like all of our permanent, full-time employees, he also had disability and life insurance through Seven Days.

Comments are closed.