Main Street Historic District

Main Street in Webster holds a row of sixteen commercial buildings, two to four stories tall and built out to a uniform line at the sidewalk. Most are brick and date from 1888 to about 1925. Before the Tracy Block went up in 1888, the area was mostly free-standing houses. Development was slow in the 1890s, then picked up after 1900 with speculative and owner-built blocks such as the Tiffany, Racicot, Gilles and Holden Blocks. The Holden Block, built in 1921, housed bowling alleys, pool rooms, stores, an arcade and a dance hall. The Tracy and Columbia Blocks, designed by Worcester architects, keep their terracotta and rock-faced granite trim above the ground floor. By 1925 the street mixed shops, apartments, amusements and offices, a pattern that lasted until postwar shopping centers drew business away. It was listed as the best-preserved part of Webster's central business district, for its architecture and its role in the town's commercial history.