Institutional District

Lincoln and Armory Squares in Worcester form a concentrated group of public and institutional buildings put up between about 1843 and 1935. The district includes the granite Worcester County Courthouse, begun in 1843-1845 in Greek Revival style and enlarged in 1898-1899. It also holds the Worcester War Memorial and its Classical Revival Auditorium, the Romanesque Revival Central Church, Historical Society building, National Guard Armory and North High School, the Worcester Woman's Club designed by Josephine Wright Chapman, the Boys' Club, the trade school, and the Worcester Art Museum. Much of the area's character came from Stephen Salisbury III, whose family owned most of the land. He sold or donated sites to many of these institutions, and his estate later supplied lots for twentieth-century buildings. Although the area was never formally planned, it now holds the city's densest collection of public buildings and several major local examples of Revival-style architecture, most of them still in good, largely original condition.