{"nrhp_refnum":"80000610","name":"Colton's Block","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"588 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.260812120000026,"lon":-71.80429570999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-storey brick commercial row at 586-596 Main Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, built about 1860-1870. It has three vertical units divided by fire walls and originally had a fourth unit at the north end.","why_significant":"The row is characteristic of the commercial blocks built in Worcester between the 1850s and early 1870s, and it is the only one of them still standing. It is also tied to commerce and architecture, and was probably built for Samuel Colton, a newspaper co-owner turned nurseryman and real estate developer.","narrative":"Colton's Block is a four-storey brick commercial row at 586-596 Main Street in Worcester, dating to about 1860-1870. It holds three units separated by fire walls, each four bays wide, with storefronts at street level. Above them, upper-storey windows have plain frames with rectangular stone sills and lintels, and corbelled brickwork is topped by a wooden cornice on paired brackets. A fourth unit at the north end, 584 Main Street, has been demolished. Display windows were added to the second storey of the southernmost unit around 1900. The row reflects a type of commercial block common in Worcester from the 1850s to the early 1870s, and it is the only surviving example. It was probably built for Samuel Colton (1804-1875), a former co-owner of the Worcester Spy who later ran a plant nursery and developed real estate. The units were sold separately in the 1870s, and early occupants included a seed store, a flour and feed dealer and a meat and produce seller.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Elements of Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Present use is commercial; storefronts remain in their original positions but have been remodelled with modern materials.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.114292-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/39/7929/63792939/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000610.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000610/deba075a88-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000610/deba075a88-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Pvmoutside","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colton%27s_Block_Worcester_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Pvmoutside</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:Colton%27s_Block_Worcester_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792939","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colton%27s_Block","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5149457"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/coltons-block-80000610/"}