Worcester Massachusetts

Main and Foster Streets, Worcester, Mass

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The southeast corner of Main and Foster Streets, around 1895. Image from Picturesque Worcester (1895).

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The scene in 2016:

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The building on the left side of the photo, at the corner of Main and Foster Streets, was built in the early 1840s as the first meeting house for the Universalist church. The congregation had been established in 1841, and after nearly 30 years in this building they moved into a new, larger one on Pleasant Street in 1871. After they left, the building became Continental Hall, and stood here until 1906, when it was demolished to build the present Worcester County Institution for Savings building.

Just to the right of the old church site is the oldest surviving structure in the 2016 scene, although it is hard to tell from its current appearance. Built around 1855 as home to the People’s Mutual Fire Insurance Company, it has undergone some significant changes over the years. Its original tenant went out of business after sustaining heavy losses from fires in Boston and Chicago in the early 1870s, and in 1873 the Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company purchased and renovating it, adding a mansard roof in keeping with Second Empire style architecture of the time. It was again altered around 1935 with a new facade, and today there is little visible evidence left of the original structure.

Next to the People’s Block is another historic building, which has survived far more intact from its late 19th century appearance. Known as Grout’s Block, the five-story Second Empire structure was built in 1871 by local businessman Jonathan Grout. Nearly 150 years later, it is still standing. Despite some changes to the exterior of the first two floors, it otherwise remains well-preserved and is easily recognizable from the first photo.

City Hall, Worcester, Mass

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Worcester’s City Hall, seen from the corner of Main and Pleasant Streets, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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City Hall in 2016:

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This site on the western end of the Common has been the center of Worcester’s government for many years. In colonial days, the meetinghouse was situated here, and in 1825, a plain Greek Revival style town hall was built here. After Worcester became a city in 1848, this building served as City Hall for another 50 years, until it was finally replaced in 1898 by a much larger and more elaborate building on the same spot.

Designed by the prominent Boston firm of Peabody & Stearns, it reflects the Renaissance Revival architecture that was gaining popularity in public buildings at the turn of the 20th century. City Hall bears some resemblance to the Boston Public Library, which had been completed several years earlier, but it also includes a 205-foot tower in the center of the Main Street facade.

City Hall was not quite 10 years old when the first photo was taken, and not much has changed to its exterior appearance since then. Nearly 120 years after its completion, it remains the fourth tallest building in the city, and it remains in use as the seat of the city government. Along with the Worcester Common, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Post Office, Worcester, Mass

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The old post office on Main Street, near Southbridge Street, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The scene in 2016:

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Worcester was first settled in the 1600s, and incorporated as a city in 1848, but it did not have a permanent post office building until the very end of the 19th century. For years, the post office was located in private homes and shops, and it was not until the completion of this building in 1897 that it had a dedicated, federally-owned building. It was built on a trapezoid-shaped plot of land between Main and Southbridge Streets, with Romanesque Revival architecture that was common in late 19th century public buildings.

By the early 20th century, Romanesque architecture had already fallen out of vogue, and the building’s size was insufficient for the needs of a growing city. It was demolished in the early 1930s, and replaced with the current Harold Donahue Federal Building and Courthouse, which has itself become a historic building. The only building still standing from the first photo, though, is the 1850s Stevens’ Building, which is partially visible in the distance to the left of the post office. Today, both it and the neighboring federal building are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Salem Square, Worcester, Mass

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The churches of Salem Square in Worcester, around 1895. Image from Picturesque Worcester (1895).

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The scene in 2016:

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Taken from nearly the same spot as the photos of the previous post, this scene shows Salem Square, a roughly triangular-shaped plaza on the east side of the Worcester Common. On the other side of this square were two churches, with the Salem Square Congregational Church on the left and the First Baptist Church on the right. As mentioned in the previous post, this Congregational church was established in 1848, and the building was probably completed soon after. The Baptist church was slightly older, dating back to the 1830s when it replaced an earlier meeting house which had burned on the same site.

In 1902, the Baptists sold their building to the Catholic church, and it became the Notre Dame Church. In the late 1920s, the old building was demolished to build the present Notre Dame Church on the same site. The other buildings in the first photo have also since been demolished, and by the early 1970s the entire area here was redeveloped as the Worcester Center urban renewal project. Part of this project included eliminating most of Salem Square itself, replacing the plaza with the office building that is seen here now. It hides the view of the 1929 Notre Dame Church, which survived the Worcester Center construction but, as of 2016, is scheduled to be demolished soon as part of the CitySquare redevelopment project.

Soldiers’ Monument, Worcester, Mass

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The Soldiers’ Monument on the Worcester Common, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The scene in 2016:

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This scene shows the Soldiers’ Monument from the opposite direction of the view in an earlier post. As mentioned in that post, the monument was designed by sculptor Randolph Rogers and dedicated in 1874, during a time when memorials to fallen Union soldiers were appearing on town commons across New England. It was placed at the northeast corner of the common, across from the Salem Street Congregational Church, which can be seen in the distance to the right. Although information on this church is scarce, the congregation appears to have been established in 1848, and based on the architecture of the building it was probably built around this same time. Also in this scene, on the left side, are several commercial buildings, with signs for carriage and sleigh harnesses, horse clothing, furniture, and even one for “Talking Machines.”

Today, the only landmark left from the first photo is the monument itself. All of the buildings in this scene have since been demolished, and in the early 1970s the Worcester Center urban renewal project was built here, in the area east of the common. It included the office building in the background of the 2016 photo, along with a shopping mall and parking garage. The mall closed in 2006, though, and parts of the complex have since been demolished. As of 2016, the area is now being redeveloped as CitySquare, another downtown Worcester revitalization project.

Old Union Station, Worcester, Mass

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Worcester’s old Union Station, seen around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The scene in 2016:

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This building was Worcester’s original Union Station, serving the Boston & Albany Railroad along with several other railroads. It was completed in 1875 in a Gothic Revival style designed by the Boston architectural firm of Ware & Van Brunt. Along with the usual passenger station amenities, it included a train shed over the tracks, along with a 212-foot clock tower at the corner of the building.

The station served Worcester for over 35 years, but by the early 20th century the city’s busy railroad traffic made it necessary to elevate the tracks through downtown. This, in turn, required a new station, which opened in 1911 just west of here. Most of the old station was demolished at this point, but the tower itself was saved. Unlike the two towers of the new station, which had to be taken down just 15 years later because of their deteriorated condition, the old 1875 tower stood here until 1959, when it was demolished to build Interstate 290.

Today, the 1911 Union Station, with replica towers, is still standing just to the right of the rotary, and in the distance the highway passes over the spot where the original station once stood. The only remnant from the first photo is the railroad itself, which can be seen on the right side of the photo, with MBTA commuter rail passenger cars passing over the bridge in the distance.