Worcester – Page 3 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Mechanics Hall (1857)

by Dan/May 22, 2013/Organizations, Renaissance Revival, Theaters, Worcester

One of Worcester’s most iconic buildings is Mechanics Hall. It was built in 1857 to house educational and cultural activities by the Worcester County Mechanics Association. This organization was formed in 1842 to promote the mechanical arts and to provide education and training for industrial workers. Mechanics Hall featured meeting rooms, a library, and two halls. The building was designed by Elbridge Boyden, a Worcester architect. By the mid-twentieth century, other organizations had taken up the role once played by the Mechanics Association and other auditoriums had found favor with the public. To raise revenue, Mechanics Hall was rented out for sporting events and for a time was even a roller skating rink. The old building was no longer the cultural center it had once been and was in danger of demolition. Citizens rallied to save Mechanics Hall, which was restored and reopened in 1977. Today, the Mechanics Association‘s primary mission is to maintain Mechanics Hall, which is considered to be the finest pre-Civil War concert hall in the country and one of the four finest in North America. The Main Hall features the 1864 Hook Organ (aka the Worcester Organ). Built by E. & G.G. Hook, it is the oldest unaltered four-keyboard organ in the Western Hemisphere.

Worcester Five Cents Savings Bank (1891)

by Dan/April 13, 2013/Banks, Neoclassical, Worcester

At 316 Main Street (corner of Walnut Street) in Worcester is the Worcester Five Cents Savings Bank Building, which has a distinctive curved corner. Designed by Stephen C. Earle, the building‘s plate glass and iron store front on the first floor was replaced by a limestone front in 1949. The bank was incorporated in 1854.

Burnside Building (1880)

by Dan/February 12, 2013/Commercial, Renaissance Revival, Worcester

At 339 Main Street in downtown Worcester is the Burnside Building, built in 1880. The structure is a five-story brick commercial building designed by the architects Bradlee, Winslow and Wetherell of Boston and built by the Norcoss Brothers in an eclectic Romanesque style with sandstone trim. The building replaced an earlier commercial block on the site and was erected by the heirs of lawyer Samuel Burnside. His daughter Harriet Burnside also left money for the construction of Burnside Fountain in Worcester.

United Congregational Church, Worcester (1885)

by Dan/December 2, 2012/Churches, Romanesque Revival, Worcester

Dissatisfaction over the choice of minister at the Old South Church in Worcester in 1820 led Daniel Waldo (1763-1845) to organize a new parish, originally called the Calvinist Church. The name was officially changed to Central Church in 1879. Waldo paid for the construction of the congregation’s first meetinghouse in 1823-1825. Located on Main Street, near George Street, it was later replaced by the current church, built in 1884-1885 at the corner of Salisbury Street and Institute Road. The Romanesque Revival-style Central Church, built of Longmeadow brownstone, was designed by Stephen C. Earle. When the studio of John LaFarge proved too busy to design the interiors, the church commissioned Sarah Lyman Whitman, a former student of William Morris Hunt. Central Church merged with Chestnut Street Congregational Church in 1982 to form United Congregational Church.

Charles Webb House (1903)

by Dan/November 24, 2012/Houses, Tudor Revival, Worcester

Built around 1903 for Charles Webb, a granite merchant, the house at 34 Cedar Street in Worcester displays the half-timbering of the Tudor Revival style. The house is now used as office space.

North High School, Worcester (1889)

by Dan/November 14, 2012/Romanesque Revival, Schools, Worcester

The photograph above shows the original 1889 North High School Building at 46 Salisbury Street in Worcester. Designed by Fuller & Delano, the impressive Romanesque Revival structure served as a grammar school (called the Salisbury Street School) until it became a high school in 1911. Continue reading “North High School, Worcester (1889)”

Epworth United Methodist Church, Worcester (1927)

by Dan/November 11, 2012November 12, 2012/Churches, Gothic, Worcester

The First Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church in Quinsigamond Village in Worcester was formally organized in 1880. As recorded in Vol. I of Charles Nutt’s History of Worcester and its People (1919):

A colony from the First Church organized the Second Swedish Methodist Church April 9, 1885, with a membership of 94, including 29 probationers. Rev. Mr. D. S. Sorlin came from the First Church and was the first pastor of the Second. The first place of worship was in the chapel on Thomas street, purchased of the First Church of Christ for $8,000. By two additions in 1887 and 1888 costing $13,400 the seating capacity was increased to more than 500. It was dedicated Sept. 27, 1885.

Having grown too large for its first church building, the congregation built the present structure in 1926-1927 at 64 Salisbury Street. At the time of the move to the new building, designed by Henry Eckland of Chicago, the name of the church was changed to Epworth Methodist Church, now Epworth United Methodist Church.