What to See in Worcester - Top Sights and Attractions

Encyclopedic collection of art treasures. The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ranks among the more important art museums of its kind in the nation. Its holdings include some of the finest Roman mosaics in the United States, outstanding European and American art, and a major collection of Japanese prints. Since acquiring the John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection in 2013, WAM is also home to the second largest collection of arms and armor in the Americas. In many areas, it was at the forefront in the US, notably as it collected architecture, acquired paintings by Monet and Gauguin, presented photography as an art form. The Worcester Art Museum also has a conservation lab and year-round studio art program for adults and youth.^[2]

The Higgins Armory Museum is the name of a collection in the Worcester Art Museum. It was formerly a separate museum located in the nearby Higgins Armory Building in Worcester, Massachusetts, dedicated to the display of arms and armor. It was "the only museum in the country devoted solely to arms and armor" and had the second largest arms and armor collection in the country from its founding in 1931 until 2004, behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The collection consists of 2,000 objects, including 24 full suits of armor. The museum closed at the end of 2013 due to a lack of funding. Its collection and endowment were transferred and integrated into the Worcester Art Museum, with the collection on show in its own gallery. The former museum building was sold in December 2014 and now serves as a local events venue.^[3]

Statue by Henry Bacon. The Burnside Fountain is a non-functioning drinking fountain at the southeast corner of Worcester Common in Worcester, Massachusetts. It consists of two parts, a pink granite basin, and a bronze statue of a young boy riding a sea turtle. The basin was designed by architect Henry Bacon, who later designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the figure was created by sculptor Charles Y. Harvey. Harvey died by suicide before finishing the sculpture, and Sherry Fry completed the bronze. The Burnside Fountain was commissioned in 1905 by the city of Worcester after Harriet F. Burnside bequeathed US $5,000 to create a fountain to provide fresh water for people, horses and dogs, in the memory of her father, a prominent lawyer. The fountain was installed in 1912 in Central Square, then moved in 1969 to its current location on Worcester Common. In 1970 the statue was stolen, and was re-installed two years later. An attempted theft occurred in 2004.

The bronze is officially named Boy with a Turtle but is known to locals as Turtle Boy. Turtle Boy has become an unofficial mascot for Worcester, much in the same way the Manneken Pis is for Brussels. The Burnside Fountain's popularity is derived mostly from viewers' risqué misinterpretation of the statue. Over its 100-year existence, it has been referenced in stories and songs, as well as having a music contest and a microbrew named after it.^[6]

Historical landmark in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Crompton Loom Works is an historic industrial complex of the Crompton Corporation at 132-142 Green Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. The factory manufactured looms for textile factories. With its original portion dating to 1860, the complex is one of the oldest surviving industrial sites in the city. The facility was established by George Crompton, whose father William had invented the first power loom for weaving fancy fabrics. The younger Crompton's business would become of the most significant employers in the city, and his innovative looms would revolutionize the textile industry. Crompton and his successors would operate the loom manufacturing works at Green Street well into the 1960s. The manufacturing capabilities on the site were applied to producing can packaging machines and bowling pinsetters. Capabilities at the Green Street facility included machining, drop hammer forging, a cast iron foundry, wood working. and pattern making, along with a materials testing lab. The building has subsequently been adapted to other uses. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and included as part of the Blackstone Canal Historic District in 1995.

The Crompton Loom Works is located south of downtown Worcester, at the junction Green and Harrison Streets. It is a complex of connected brick buildings, ranging in height from one to three stories. The building's style is industrial Italianate, with quoined building corners and corbelling on the eave of the main tower. Most windows are rectangular, but there are several in an older section that are set in round-arch openings. When first built, the main building was only two stories tall, and was altered several times, with the tower and third floor added in the 1880s.^[20]

Soldiers' Monument is an American Civil War monument on Worcester Common in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Designed by sculptor Randolph Rogers, it consists of a tapering granite Corinthian column crowned by a bronze goddess of Victory, a three-tiered granite pedestal adorned with bronze plaques, buttresses surmounted by four bronze statues representing branches of the military – Artillery, Cavalry, Infantry, Navy – with the whole resting upon a rough granite base flanked by four buried cannons barrels.

The pedestal's top tier is adorned with four relief plaques: the City of Worcester seal, the Massachusetts state seal, the United States seal, and a pair of crossed swords encircled by a laurel wreath. The middle tier features relief busts of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, a battle scene of a dying soldier supported by a comrade, and the monument's dedication plaque. The bottom tier features four inscription plaques listing the names of the 398 Worcester soldiers who died in the war.

In 1871, the Soldiers' Monument Committee commissioned Rogers to design the memorial. The City of Worcester appropriated $35,000, and an addition $15,000 was raised by subscription. The monument was dedicated on July 15, 1874.

When built, the monument was approximately 66 ft 0 in (20.12 m) tall, and the base was approximately 24 ft 0 in (7.32 m) square. The ground level was raised in 1969, burying the rough-granite base, so the monument is now approximately 4 ft 0 in (1.22 m) shorter.

Dedication Plaque:^[26]

Park in Worcester, Massachusetts. Elm Park is an historic park in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The land the park resides on was purchased in 1854, making it one of the first public purchases of land expressly intended for use as a municipal park in the United States, after Bushnell Park in Hartford, purchased earlier that year. (This is not to be confused with the oldest public park, Boston Common, established in 1634.)

Elm Park originally consisted of the land bordered by Park Avenue, Russell Street, Elm Street and Highland Street. In 1888, Newton Hill, just across Park Avenue, was purchased by the City of Worcester bringing the total park area to 60 acres (24 ha). The original portion of Elm Park (east of Park Avenue) was, up until the 1890s, merely more than pasture land. Beginning in 1909, it was redesigned and landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers firm. The firm landscaped additional elements in 1939–1941.

The park contains meandering walking paths through the landscaping, a pond crossed by two iconic footbridges and a playground. The Newton Hill portion of Elm Park (west of Park Avenue) remains far less landscaped and contains basketball and tennis courts, walking trails and also Doherty Memorial High School, a high school within the Worcester Public Schools system. St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Cathedral (founded around 1920) is located adjacent to the park on Russell Street. Grace Christian Center, formerly Park Congregational Church, is also located across from the park at the corner of Russell and Elm Streets. That church was built in the early 1880s, when the Worcester City Missionary Society recommended that a Congregational church be established on the West Side.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.^[27]

Church building in Worcester, Massachusetts. Emmanuel Baptist or the Main Street Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church building at 717 Main Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is the only example of Norman Style architecture in the city. The brick church was built in two parts: the chapel was built in 1853, and the main church body was built in 1855. The elements characteristic of this particular style include recessed wall paneling, the corbelled roofline, buttresses, and the recessed entry framed by an arch. The church was built for the Third Baptist congregation, which merged with the First Baptists in 1902, at which time the building was sold to the First Presbyterian Church of Worcester.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.^[28]

Learned society. The American Antiquarian Society, located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in the United States with a national focus. Its main building, known as Antiquarian Hall, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in recognition of this legacy. The mission of the AAS is to collect, preserve and make available for study all printed records of what is now known as the United States of America. This includes materials from the first European settlement through the year 1876.

The AAS offers programs for professional scholars, pre-collegiate, undergraduate and graduate students, educators, professional artists, writers, genealogists, and the general public. AAS has many digital collections available, including "A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1788–1824."

The collections of the AAS contain over three million books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, graphic arts materials and manuscripts. The Society is estimated to hold copies of two-thirds of the total books known to have been printed in what is now the United States from the establishment of the first press in 1640 through the year 1820; many of these volumes are exceedingly rare and a number of them are unique. Historic materials from all fifty U.S. states, most of Canada and the British West Indies are included in the AAS repository. One of the more famous volumes held by the Society is a copy of the first book printed in America, the Bay Psalm Book. AAS also has one of the largest collections of newspapers printed in America through 1876, with more than two million issues in its collection.^[31]

Theatre in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Worcester Palladium, also known as The Palladium or Palladium Theatre, is an all-ages concert hall and performance venue located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Palladium was designed by architect Arlan W. Johnson and opened as a theatre in 1928 as the Plymouth Theatre. It has a seating capacity of 2,160 in the Main Room and 500 in the upstairs room and is a popular venue for rock and metal bands.

Since 1990, the booking agency MassConcerts has handled all booking for The Palladium; artists that have performed here include Blink-182, Bring Me The Horizon, Chelsea Grin, Ensiferum, Evanescence, Fall Out Boy, Four Year Strong, Gov't Mule, Gwar, Hatebreed, Ice Nine Kills, Jerry Garcia Band, Jimmy Eat World, Kanye West, King Diamond, Korn, Logic, Motionless in White, My Chemical Romance, Nightwish, Of Mice & Men, Palaye Royale, Periphery, Protest the Hero, Rammstein, Reveille, Rob Zombie, Senses Fail, Slayer, Sonata Arctica, Soundgarden, Straight Line Stitch, Suicide Silence, Twelve Foot Ninja, Twenty One Pilots, Tyler The Creator, Whitechapel, Wiz Khalifa, and Years Since the Storm.

A live concert DVD by The Devil Wears Prada titled Dead & Alive was filmed at the Palladium on December 14, 2011.^[33]

Synagogue in Worcester, Massachusetts. Temple Emanuel Sinai is a medium-sized Reform Jewish synagogue located in Worcester, Massachusetts, New England's second largest city.

A product of the 2013 integration of Worcester's two original Reform congregations (Temple Emanuel and Temple Sinai), the synagogue traces its roots to 1921 and is affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), a network of over 900 progressive congregations representing the largest denomination (38%) of affiliated American Jews.

The congregation worships and studies at 661 Salisbury Street, adjacent to the Worcester Jewish Community Center, where Temple Sinai acquired property for its permanent home in 1962. Temple Emanuel's building at 280 May Street was sold to the Worcester State University Foundation in 2013, though the terms of the sale allowed the congregation to use the building for two additional years, until June 2015. Planning to determine a final siting for the synagogue concluded during the fall of 2014, resulting in a plan to expand and renovate the Temple Sinai facility at 661 Salisbury Street (rather than share a campus with Conservative Congregation Beth Israel at Beth Israel's location on Jamesbury Drive).

Temple Emanuel Sinai's first rabbi, Matthew Berger, also served as the last rabbi of Temple Emanuel, who hired him in 2009. In February 2014, Rabbi Valerie Cohen, spiritual leader since 2003 at Jackson, Mississippi's Beth Israel Congregation accepted an offer to replace Berger at the end of his contract in June 2014. A near-unanimous vote in favor of ratifying Rabbi Cohen's contract was held during a special congregational meeting at the May Street campus on March 9, 2014.^[34]