Woolworths Building (1912)
Located next to the Steiger Building in Holyoke is a three-story building that was once a Woolworth store. Located at 255 (253-257) High Street, it was originally built as a double gabled red brick structure but was altered with a Beaux Arts facade around 1912.
Another chain, W. T. Grant, occupied a featureless postwar commercial building at the corner of High and Dwight, which is still there. The Grants building replaced a beautiful late 19th century commercial building–the “Marble building” which had a conical corner tower. Not sure why that was demolished; at least it was replaced by a new building right on the sidewalk, when High Street was still a vibrant shopping street. So many fine late 19th, early 20th century buildings have disappeared since then from downtown Holyoke along with the economic logic for maintaining city as dense as Holyoke was in this location.