Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | July 24, 2017 | wbjournal.com Half a century after Worcester razed much of downtown to make way for the Galleria, the city is encouraging development concepts similar to what once was torn down BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal Digital Editor n Properties to be merged for development 35 Portland St. Surface parking lot To be part of a parking garage Wyman-Gordon site Commercial, residential, off Madison St. Parking or vacant retail Targeted Worcester parcels In its new revitalization efforts, the city has highlighted sites it hopes to buy in order to renovate or demolish, or to combine some vacant parcels for easier development. Property Current use Proposed use *Demolished this month by private owner Source: City of Worcester Downtown Urban Revitalization Plan 50 years later, Downtown Worcester starts over Around 1970, after land-clearing began to make way for the Worcester Center Galleria Downtown Worcester in 1940, when it was filled with small residential buildings n Properties to be bought, renovated 22 Front St. (Midtown Mall) Retail, commercial Retail, commercial 12 Front St. Retail, commercial, office Retail, commercial 526-538 Main St. (The Money Stop) Retail, vacant space Retail, commercial 517 Main St. (MetroPCS) Retail, four vacant floors Retail, residential 521 Main St. (Great Wall restaurant) Restaurant, four vacant floors Retail, residential 484 Main St. (Denholm Building) Office but largely vacant Retail, restaurant n Buildings to be demolished 66 Franklin St. (Paris Cinema)* Vacant theater Retail, commercial 17 Pleasant St. (Olympia Theater) Retail, vacant theater Retail, office 149 Washington St. Vacant manufacturing Recreation complex F ifty years ago, Worcester was facing an exodus of residents and businesses, and I-290 was being built right through the center of the city. City leaders had an idea: clear 34 acres between Worcester Common and Washington Square to make way for a complex of shops and offices to show off a new Worcester. What would become Worcester Center Galleria was the city's answer to an era when suburbs were booming thanks to new highways and a shift in living preferences away from dense areas. Little was spared in trying to prop up what was then called a fading down- town: A tightly built grid of homes and shops, 86 buildings in all, were leveled, and about 50 feet of the easternmost edge of the Common was lopped off – and 170 graves were dug up. "There was sort of a sense in the decades after World War II that cities needed to compete with the suburbs," said Karl Seidman, a senior lecturer at MIT's School of Architecture + Planning. Urban renewal, as the land-clearing for new development was known, was aided by an influx of federal dollars as the nation's highway system was being built. In the decades since Worcester's downtown razing, such urban renewal projects are now viewed as sapping cit- ies of the flavor and diversity making them attractive today. City in crisis Worcester's urban renewal plan came during a turning point for the city, according to news archives at the Worcester Historical Museum. Worcester wanted the colleges and hospitals of today's economy, and it beat out Boston and Amherst in 1965 to lure UMass to bring its medical school to the city. NASA disclosed plans to build a research center in the Boston area, and although the facility ended up going to Cambridge, Worcester made a serious push, touting its educational and work- force credentials. A land-use study from Columbia University suggested something like what would become the Galleria to bring shoppers downtown, and the city was on board. Starting in early September 1967, the land clearing began. A two-story build- ing on Mechanic Street, the first to be demolished, was taken down in only 11 minutes. The old Warner Theater, Burton Hotel and Mayflower Hotel were taken down, and later the Lee, Lenox, Willis and Regis hotels. Rubble was taken to Green Hill Park, where it was incinerated. While most tenants went on their own accord, a handful had to be evicted that autumn. In their place would rise an air- conditioned mall with dozens of shops and new towers, a signal of a new Worcester and the largest project to-date in Central Massachusetts. An editorial in the Worcester Telegram called it "a strik- ing contrast to the drab, rundown assortment of properties now occupying this important corner of the city." "Instead of being a drag on the city, P H O T O / C I T Y O F W O R C E S T E R P H O T O / W O R C E S T E R H I S T O R I C A L M U S E U M

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