LOU VISCO
Master Plumber #6452

Every plumber knows that no two jobs are exactly the same. Construction always requires bringing a set of skills and standards to new situations. Sometimes there are disputes. Can certain materials be used? Is a particular piping configuration acceptable? What happens if the plumber and the local inspector disagree?

Ultimately, these are the kinds of questions that must go before the State Board of Plumbers and Gasfitters. And for years, their most trusted advisor has been a plumber from Winthrop, Lou Visco.

Look back to the notes that Lou Visco took as a young teenager, studying for his plumbers exam. One example would be his sheet on “Tricks of The Trade.”  Lou would gather information all day, come home at night, write it down, and then have his sister neatly type it up. When Lou Visco took his master plumbers exam fifty years ago in 1954, he was prepared. And he’s been prepared ever since.

“My father was a Local No.12 plumber, and I learned the trade the hard way—from him! We lived in East Boston, and in the Depression my father had his own business. It was a very difficult time. One day my father had a heart attack. He survived, but work was hard to find. My father couldn’t afford the dues, so he had to quit the union.

“I graduated from East Boston High School, and started working in the trade in 1946, and by 1948 I had my Boston Journeyman Gasfitters License—Number 1000. Those were the days when cities like Boston issued their own licenses.

“The gas exam was prepared by a man named McCusker, I think it was. He was a chemist. It was almost like you had to be a chemist yourself to pass that test.

“In 1954 I went up for my Master Plumbers exam. Jim Curry [a long-time contractor and State Board member] gave me the exam. When I got my Masters, I opened my own business, Visco Mechanical Contracting in East Boston. I worked with my brother Anthony.”

People may not realize that Lou Visco was a contractor for thirty years, until 1984. Like most contractors, he found that it was hard work. He was known as a perfectionist.

“We stayed a small shop. It was by choice. If you worked with yourself, you didn’t have to worry about a callback. But there was too much fighting with people over money. That’s what led me to get out of it in the end. It’s a sad thing to say, but it’s the truth.

In 1984, Lou went to work as a State Investigator. He took over as the Executive Secretary of the Plumbing Board in 1987 after Joe Risi retired.

The author remembers being on jobs at Deer Island when Lou would come out to inspect work. He had praise when it was warranted. In his calm way he was also clear when he thought work could be improved—by using more hangers, for instance.

“When the State Board offices moved out of the Saltonstall Building in 2000, the word came down to clean everything out. There were old books filled with the names and license numbers of old-time plumbers. I thought, ‘We can’t let these things go into the dumpster.’ So I brought them here.”

The ‘here’ that Lou refers to is a dark old house next to his home, where he keeps literally hundreds of items of plumbing memorabilia. He opens up old record books, some pages in neat, scrolling penmanship, which list alphabetically the names and license numbers of plumbers from the early twentieth century.

“I just couldn’t let these things be destroyed. You should have seen the old materials that the electricians threw out. It was a tragedy.

“Here, look at this page: David Lane of Roxbury. He had license No.2 in the entire state. I’m still looking for who had No.1.”

“Does anyone remember what a ‘well ell’ is? It’s a decorative gas fitting. Or how about this? You won’t see this any more.”

He holds up a 4-1/2” threaded steel elbow. He reaches into another box and pulls out an old dented pipe.

“Look at this. It’s not legal any more. But here’s a three-quarter ‘S’ trap. Made in lead. If we don’t save these things, they will be lost forever.”

Lou’s old building is filled with hundreds of such antique plumbing items, including tools, fixtures, faucets, fittings, books, pamphlets, photos, and hundreds of other documents. His goal is to make sure these items are preserved and one day made available in a museum.

In the meantime, Lou continues to focus on his work with the State Board. Perhaps more than anyone else in Massachusetts, Lou Visco has devoted his life purely to the study of plumbing. He began as a teenager carefully outlining everything he could learn. Today, at 75, he is an unofficial keeper of our trade’s documents and artifacts. Someday, when the history of our trade is written, special thanks will go to Lou Visco, who preserved so much of our past.

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