{"nrhp_refnum":"80000584","name":"Adams, Elwood, Store","other_names":["Adams, Elwood, Hardware Store"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"156 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.26837318100007,"lon":-71.80075140299994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-storey brick commercial block at 156 Main Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, built about 1831 and enlarged and re-faced about 1865. It houses the Elwood Adams Hardware Store.","why_significant":"The building occupies a site of long-standing commercial importance, where Daniel Waldo Sr. opened a hardware store in 1782 and built the city's first brick building. The store is described as Worcester's oldest business. The block also retains its 1865 remodeling with granite storefronts and a bracketed cornice.","narrative":"Elwood Adams Hardware Store occupies a brick commercial block at 156 Main Street in Worcester. It was built about 1831 as a two-and-one-half-storey building and raised to four storeys around 1865, when the facade appears to have been re-faced in pressed brick. The six-bay front is divided by a central pier into two three-bay sections. The ground floor has two storefronts, used as one store, framed by trabeated granite and iron posts. Upper windows have granite lintels and sills, and a wooden cornice with modillion brackets crowns the roof line. The site has served hardware trade since 1782, when Daniel Waldo Sr. opened a store and built the city's first brick building there. Waldo's son took over in 1791, and Henry W. Miller, an apprentice from 1816, gained full ownership in 1831. Miller sold the business in 1886 to Elwood Adams and a partner. The business took its present name after 1891, and it is described as Worcester's oldest business.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect unknown; original owner Henry W. Miller","architectural_style":"Vernacular 19th-century commercial","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in commercial use as a hardware store, the same use as the original.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.230321-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/7928/63792879/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000584.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000584/49ed3207ff-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000584/49ed3207ff-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elmwood_Adams_Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elmwood_Adams_Building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792879","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood_Adams_Store","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5368316"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/adams-elwood-store-80000584/"}