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Institutional District

Historic districts in Worcester, MassachusettsHistoric districts on the National Register of Historic Places in MassachusettsNRHP infobox with nocatNational Register of Historic Places in Worcester, MassachusettsNeoclassical architecture in Massachusetts
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Worcester Memorial Auditorium, MA
Worcester Memorial Auditorium, MA

The Institutional District of Worcester, Massachusetts is an historic district encompassing a significant concentration of civic and municipal buildings north of the city's downtown area. It is centered on Lincoln Square and Wheaton Square, and includes properties on Main, Salisbury, and Tuckerman Streets. It includes the 1840s Worcester County Courthouse, the War Memorial and Memorial Auditorium, and the former Worcester Historical Society building at 39 Salisbury Street. The 1897 Worcester Art Museum is included in the district, as is the c. 1890 armory building at 44 Salisbury Street. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.Prior to its institutional uses, this part of Worcester was largely owned by the Salisbury family, whose progenitor, Stephen Salisbury I, opened a store at Lincoln Square in 1772. Salisbury's grandson, Stephen Salisbury III, was a major local industrialist, and began donating and selling portions of the family holdings in the 1880s. His donations included land for the Central Church, Boys' Club, Art Museum, Auditorium, and War Memorial. He was a major benefactor of the museum, bequesting it the family collection. The Salisbury Mansion and Store, now owned by the museum, are located just outside this district.

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Institutional District
Institute Road, Worcester

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Latitude Longitude
N 42.272222222222 ° E -71.801111111111 °
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Institute Road 10
01605 Worcester
Massachusetts, United States
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Worcester Memorial Auditorium, MA
Worcester Memorial Auditorium, MA
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Whitcomb Mansion
Whitcomb Mansion

The Whitcomb Mansion (also Whitcomb House) is a historic house at 51 Harvard Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is a high Victorian (Queen Anne style) mansion that was built in 1879 as the home of George H. Whitcomb, one of the city's leading businessmen and philanthropists. It is also one of the few surviving houses designed by noted Worcester architect Stephen Earle.George Whitcomb, a Templeton, Massachusetts native, made a fortune in the business of manufacturing envelopes. In addition to this business, he also dealt in real estate in Worcester and elsewhere. He was active in a number of charitable causes, notably educational causes across the country. After his death in 1918, his house was given to the Society for the Blind.The house Earle designed for Whitcomb is an asymmetrical polychromatic three story granite structure measuring 40 feet (12 m) by 70 feet (21 m). Its front facade is divided into three sections, the central one a projecting gable-ended entry. The front door is flanked by sidelights and is topped by a half-round window, all slightly recessed in an archway. Above the door on the second level of the entry section are a pair of windows, in front of which is a decoratively embellished cast iron balcony. The gable also contains a pair of windows, above which the point of the gable is filled with lighter-colored triangular granite stones. The left section of the main facade is two stories, but the roof is pierced by a single steeply-pitched gable dormer. The right section also has a gable dormer, but is truncated because of the presence of a round tower, which is a full three stories high and is topped by a conical roof. Behind the house stands a carriage house, a single story structure built of local stone, topped by a steep slate roof and cupola.The interior of the house has retained some of its original details despite alterations made to accommodate the Society for the Blind's use of the building. The downstairs rooms are decorated in a variety of exotic wood finishes, and the walls and ceilings are covered in decorative paintings. The upstairs rooms are finished in cherry, ash, and maple.The house was listed twice on the National Register of Historic Places: as an individual listing in 1777 (as Whitcomb House) and as part of a multiple resources listing in 1980 (as Whitcomb Mansion).

Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester ( (listen) WUUS-tər, locally [ˈwɪstə]) is a city in and the seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in New England after Boston. Worcester is approximately 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston, 50 miles (80 km) east of Springfield and 40 miles (64 km) north-northwest of Providence. Due to its location near the geographic center of Massachusetts, Worcester is known as the "Heart of the Commonwealth"; a heart is the official symbol of the city. Worcester developed as an industrial city in the 19th century due to the Blackstone Canal and rail transport, producing machinery, textiles and wire. Large numbers of European immigrants made up the city's growing population. However, the city's manufacturing base waned following World War II. Long-term economic and population decline was not reversed until the 1990s, when higher education, medicine, biotechnology, and new immigrants started to make their mark. The city's population has grown by 28% since 1980, reaching a new all-time high in the 2020 census and experiencing urban renewal. Modern Worcester is known for its diversity and large immigrant population, with significant communities of Vietnamese, Brazilians, Albanians, Puerto Ricans, Ghanaians, Dominicans, and others. Twenty-two percent of Worcester's population was born outside the United States. A center of higher education, it is home to eight separate colleges and universities, including Holy Cross, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), and Clark University. Architecturally, Worcester is notable for its large number of 19th century triple-decker houses, Victorian-era mill architecture, and lunch car diners such as Miss Worcester. Worcester is the principal city of Central Massachusetts, and is a regional government, employment and transportation hub. Since the 1970s, and especially after the construction of Route 146 and interstates 90, 495, 190, 290, and 395, both Worcester and its surrounding towns have become increasingly integrated with Boston's suburbs. The Worcester region now marks the western periphery of the Boston-Worcester-Providence (MA-RI-NH) U.S. Census Combined Statistical Area (CSA), or Greater Boston.