BOSTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama visited the city on Monday in relative anonymity, a departure from the trail of flashbulbs that normally accompanies the Illinois senator’s campaign.

Obama attended a closed-door luncheon with his regional finance committee at the University of Massachusetts Club on the 33rd floor of the skyscraper at 225 Franklin St., said university spokesman Bob Connolly.

The chairman of that fundraising committee is Alan Solomont, a wealthy business man, top Democratic fundraiser and UMass-Lowell alumnus who hosted the Obama meeting.

Jack Wilson, the school’s president, has an office on the same floor. He stepped out to greet Obama before the lunch, Connolly said.

“The president was welcoming him to Massachusetts and briefly talked about what the university is up to,” he said.

Obama flew to Boston from Alabama where he spoke at a civil rights commemoration on Sunday. He also attended a private fundraising breakfast at a home in Cambridge, said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

“He was just there for a couple hours, but he will definitely be back,” she said.