Worcester City Hall and Common | |
City Hall viewed from Worcester Common | |
Location | 455 Main St., Worcester, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°15′44″N71°48′6″W / 42.26222°N 71.80167°W |
Built | 1669 (1898) |
Architect | Peabody & Stearns |
Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals |
MPS | Worcester MRA |
NRHP reference No. | 78001405 [1] |
Added to NRHP | March 29, 1978 |
The Worcester City Hall and Common, the civic heart of the city, are a historic city hall and town common at 455 Main Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. The city hall and common were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. [1]
The Common, established in 1669, originally encompassed about 20 acres (8.1 ha), compared to its present size of 4.4 acres (1.8 ha). [2] A meeting house used for both town meetings and religious functions was constructed on the Common in 1719, on the same site as the current City Hall. In 1763, the first meeting house was demolished and what became known as The Old South Meeting House was constructed on the site. It was here, on July 14, 1776, that Isaiah Thomas publicly read the Declaration of Independence for the first time in New England.
Salem Square was a triangular-shaped plaza on the east side of Worcester Common. [3] Facing the square were two churches, the First Baptist Church (c. 1830s), and the Congregational Church (c. 1848).
Most of Salem Square was eliminated in the early 1970s as part of the Worcester Center urban renewal project, which replaced the plaza with an office building, shopping mall, and parking garage. [4]
The Notre Dame des Canadiens was a landmark church which faced Salem Square and Worcester Common from 1929 to 2018. [5] In the 1920s, the Catholic Church purchased the Baptist Church on Salem Square and razed it in 1927 to build a new church to serve the city's French Catholic population, the cathedral-like Notre Dame des Canadiens. [5] The neo-Romanesque church measured 198 feet long, 91 feet wide, and 64 feet high, and ran from Trumbull Street to Salem Square. [5] The building featured two towers with gold crosses and a 194-foot high bell tower. [5]
The Roman Catholic diocese closed the church in 2008, due to falling attendance. [5] The building was sold in 2010 and demolished in October 2018. [5]
Worcester City Hall was designed by Peabody & Stearns and built by the Norcross Brothers in 1898. The Italianate structure was built with a granite exterior, and was partly modeled after Italian Renaissance palazzos. Its tower shares some similarity to that of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, and the interior of the building extensively uses marble, commonly seen in Italian Renaissance buildings, and features an interior courtyard where the upper floors have balconies supported by decorated round arches. [6] City Hall is currently the 4th tallest building in Worcester.
Near the center of the Common is the meeting house's burial ground, marked by gravestones and the Bigelow Monument. The Soldiers' Monument, located near the northeast corner of the Common, honors the 398 Worcester soldiers killed in the American Civil War. The Burnside Fountain, located near the southeast corner of the Common, provided water for horses, and features the sculpture Boy with a Turtle, commonly known as "Turtle Boy."
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word mansio "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb manere "to dwell". The English word manse originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way. Manor comes from the same root—territorial holdings granted to a lord who would "remain" there.
Maginnis & Walsh was an architecture firm started by Charles Donagh Maginnis and Timothy Francis Walsh in 1905. It was known for its innovative design of churches in Boston in the first half of the twentieth century.
This is a list of historic sites in Framingham, Massachusetts. There are several notable historic sites in Framingham, according to the Framingham Historical Society. This local society asserts:
While there are many historic spaces in Framingham, the Centre Common is the focal point for the town's past. Three of the town's most historic buildings on the Centre Common face "demolition by neglect." The Village Hall, the Edgell Memorial Library, and the Old Academy building not only house over 10,000 artifacts spanning four centuries of the town's history, but they are symbols of Framingham's commitment to educational excellence, civic engagement, and community pride.
This is an incomplete list of historic properties and districts at United States colleges and universities that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This includes National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) and other National Register of Historic Places listings. It includes listings at current and former educational institutions.
The First Church of Christ, Unitarian, also known as First Church of Lancaster and colloquially as "the Bulfinch Church", is a historic congregation with its meeting house located at 725 Main Street facing the Common in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The church's fifth meeting house, built in 1816, was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, recognizing it as one of Bulfinch's finest works.
The Monument Square Historic District is a historic district on Main and Water Streets, and Grove Avenue in Leominster, Massachusetts. The district includes Leominster's traditional town common or square, which is known as "Leominster Square" or "the Common."
The Petersham Common Historic District encompasses the historic town center of Petersham, Massachusetts. Laid out in 1733 and centered on the town common bounded by Main and Common Streets, it retains most of its 19th-century character, with only a few turn-of-the-20th-century civic buildings adding later character. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The Notre-Dame Basilica is a basilica in the historic district of Old Montreal, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The church is located at 110 Notre-Dame Street West, at the corner of Saint Sulpice Street. It is located next to the Saint-Sulpice Seminary and faces the Place d'Armes square.
Notre Dame Catholic Church is a historic church in Southbridge, Massachusetts. It is one of two churches serving the Parish of Saint John Paul II; Saint Mary Church, located at the corner of Marcy and Hamilton Street, also serves as the location of the Parish Center and Rectory.
The Union Congregational Church or Chestnut Street Congregational Church is a historic Congregational church building at 5 Chestnut Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. The church is a well-preserved local example of Victorian Gothic Revival styling. Its basic appearance is reminiscent of the Notre Dame de Paris, although on a more modest scale. The building was designed by Earle & Fisher and construction took place between 1895 and 1897. Its main facade features twin towers flanking an entrance consisting of three trefoil arches, above which is a large rose window and an arched arcade connecting the two towers. The upper levels of the towers are open areas surrounded by paired narrow pointed-arch openings, and are decorated by crenellations and gargoyles. The main body of the church is covered in a slate roof, and the stained glass of some of its windows was brought over from the buildings of other church congregations which merged into the Union congregation.
St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church—St. Mary's School was a historic church and school building at Hamilton and Pine Streets in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Built in 1853, it was the first Roman Catholic church located in south-central Massachusetts, and one of only two Greek Revival church buildings in the city. Later used as a school and parish hall, it was destroyed by fire in December 1999. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Stephen Carpenter Earle was an architect who designed a number of buildings in Massachusetts and Connecticut that were built in the late 19th century, with many in Worcester, Massachusetts. He trained in the office of Calvert Vaux in New York City. He worked for a time in partnership with James E. Fuller, under the firm "Earle & Fuller". In 1891, he formed a partnership with Vermont architect Clellan W. Fisher under the name "Earle & Fisher".
Elbridge Boyden (1810–1898) was a prominent 19th-century American architect from Worcester, Massachusetts, who designed numerous civil and public buildings throughout New England and other parts of the United States. Perhaps his best known works are the Taunton State Hospital (1851) and Mechanics Hall (1855) in Worcester.
Donat R. Baribault (1885–1970) was an American architect who designed a number of Catholic churches, schools, convents and rectories in Western Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Bradlee, Winslow & Wetherell (1872–1888) was an architecture firm in Boston, Massachusetts. Its principals were Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee (1829–1888), Walter Thacher Winslow (1843–1909) and George Homans Wetherell (1854–1930). Most of the firm's work was local to Boston and New England, with a few commissions as far afield as Seattle and Kansas City.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Veterans Park is a city park in the downtown area of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Originally called Hampden Park when it was given to the city by the Holyoke Water Power Company in 1861, it was rededicated in 1962 to honor the city's military veterans. The park and a few surrounding buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 as the Hampden Park Historic District. Included in this designation are St. Jerome's Church, the Convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Lourdes (1869), and the former Central Fire Station (1914), and other buildings.
Richard Bond (1798–1861) was an early American architect who practiced primarily in Boston, Massachusetts.
Holman K. Wheeler was a prolific Massachusetts architect. Wheeler is responsible for designing more than 400 structures in the city of Lynn alone, including the iconic High Rock Tower which is featured prominently on the Lynn city seal. While practicing in Lynn and Boston over a career spanning at least 35 years Wheeler designed structures throughout the Essex County area, including Haverhill, Marblehead, Newburyport, Salem, Swampscott, and Lynn. Wheeler is responsible for a total of five Lynn structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, more than any other person or firm.