Providence Street Historic District

Providence Street in Worcester holds a row of ten three-decker houses and a set of cinder block garages, built between about 1926 and 1930 facing Gaskill Field, the Worcester Academy athletic field. The houses were probably built by the Dworman Building Company and mix Colonial Revival and Craftsman details, including three-tier front porches, hip roofs, triple windows and wood clapboard and shingle siding. Several sit on steep front yards that heighten their vertical form. Nine of the ten houses keep their original character; only 139 Providence Street lost it through modern siding. The street also reflects a social pattern. Many early residents were middle-class Jewish families who moved from the older Jewish neighborhood on lower Providence Street, and they worked as tailors, merchants, clerks and business operators, often near the Green Street business district. As one of the best-preserved groups from the final phase of three-decker building in the city, the district was listed for its architecture and its role in the city's neighborhood growth.