Perry Avenue Historic District

Four three-decker houses and a modern garage make up this small district on Perry Avenue, on the lower western slope of Vernon Hill in Worcester. Built around 1928, the row marks the last phase of residential infill on the hillside and the final era of three-decker construction in the city. Each house has a gable roof with a pediment, bracketed cornice overhangs, three-story front bay windows and three-tier porches, set above steeply sloping front yards. The houses alternate between two designs, one Colonial Revival with recessed, arched porches and one more Craftsman in character with projecting porches and shingled piers. The first owners were working-class Polish and Lithuanian families, including laborers, wireworkers and a die fixer, in a neighborhood that had been predominantly Irish in the late nineteenth century. Tenants worked as weavers, machinists, tailors and barbers. The district was recognized for its architectural integrity and its link to the city's immigrant housing history, in contrast to nearby three-deckers that have lost their original character through alterations and modern siding.