{"nrhp_refnum":"78001405","name":"Worcester City Hall and Common","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"455 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.26200766450006,"lon":-71.80079759358199,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-03-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-acre civic property in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts, consisting of the 1898 City Hall at 455 Main Street and the surviving portion of the town Common, designed by Peabody and Stearns and built by the Norcross firm.","why_significant":"The nomination cites the building's architectural style and its prominence downtown, and its role as the center of city government since 1898. The Common is part of land set aside in 1669 and was the site of the Old South Meetinghouse, the Old Burying Ground, and a 1776 public reading of the Declaration of Independence. The City Hall stands on the site of the 1825 Town Hall.","narrative":"Worcester's City Hall and the remaining five acres of its Common sit at the center of downtown, bounded by Main, Front and Franklin Streets. Boston architects Peabody and Stearns designed the granite building, completed in 1898 by the Norcross firm on the site of an 1825 Greek Revival Town Hall. Its Second Renaissance Revival design, inspired by the Boston Public Library, features a 205-foot central tower modeled on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, a red tile roof, and a grand marble staircase inside. The land around it was part of twenty acres set aside in 1669 as a training ground, burying ground and pasture. The Old South Meetinghouse stood there from 1719, and Isaiah Thomas read the Declaration of Independence nearby in 1776. Today the grounds hold a reflecting pool, gardens, the Old Burying Ground and monuments to Colonel Timothy Bigelow and the war dead. The property was listed for its architecture and as the seat of city government.","period_of_significance":"1898","architect_builder":"Norcross Co./Peabody and Stearns","architectural_style":"Second Renaissance Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as city hall and park; the Common was recently renovated with a reflecting pool and landscaping.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.229703-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/3/7932/63793203/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/78001405.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001405/b80b14007c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001405/b80b14007c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Terageorge","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City_Hall_-_Worcester,_Massachusetts_USA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Terageorge</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City_Hall_-_Worcester,_Massachusetts_USA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793203","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester_City_Hall_and_Common","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8034154"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/worcester-city-hall-and-common-78001405/"}