The Norcross Factory is a historic building at 10 E. Worcester Street in
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 census, making it the second- most populous city in New England after ...
. Built in stages beginning 1863, this structure includes one of the city's oldest school buildings, the East Worcester Grammar School, and represents an
adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the ...
of the building, serving from 1893 to 1918 as the main facility of the
Norcross Brothers Norcross Brothers Contractors and Builders was a nineteenth-century American construction company, especially noted for their work, mostly in stone, for the architectural firms of H.H. Richardson and McKim, Mead & White. The company was founded by J ...
, a firm best known for its construction of
H. H. Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...
designs. The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
in 1980.
Description and history
The former East Worcester School and Norcross Factory is set on Worcester's east side, at the junction of Shrewsbury Street and East Worcester Street, just north of Worcester's main railroad yard and east of
Interstate 290. This three story brick building was built in three stages, between 1863 and 1893. The oldest portion, the westernmost part of the structure, was originally built as a schoolhouse, and is one of the oldest surviving school buildings in the city. It was designed by
E. Boyden & Son, based on an earlier school (no longer extant) on Salem Street. This section has a hip roof, paired entrances on the north and south facades, and granite window surrounds. It served as the East Worcester Grammar School until 1893.
[
The school was purchased by the ]Norcross Brothers Norcross Brothers Contractors and Builders was a nineteenth-century American construction company, especially noted for their work, mostly in stone, for the architectural firms of H.H. Richardson and McKim, Mead & White. The company was founded by J ...
in 1893, and connected via additions to a planing mill they had built on an adjacent parcel in 1880-81. Both the additions and the planing mill are modest three-story brick structures, with flat roofs, corbelled cornices, and sandstone trim. This space was then used by the Norcrosses to as office space, and factory space in which they manufactured architectural building parts, including doors and window sashes, until 1918.
See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Industrial buildings completed in 1863
Schools in Worcester, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Worcester, Massachusetts