Original Grocery Tenant: Worcester Market
Address: 627 Main St, Downtown, Worcester, MA
Opened: before 1916
Closed: ca. 1930s
Later Tenants: Brockelman Brothers Worcester Market (open by 1937, closed by 1957) > Stop & Shop (open by 1957, closed by 1969)
Photographed: November 4, 2018 and April 1, 2022
Right in the middle of downtown Worcester is the 25,000 square foot (per floor) Worcester Market building. It's a huge, hulking, and actually very beautiful building that was home to a very early market dating back to 1914 when the building was built. Originally called the Worcester Market (which you can see in the inscription on the top of the building), it was eventually rolled into the Brockelman Brothers chain, which had other stores on Front Street just off the common and at Lincoln Square. What's interesting about this building, though, is that it actually remained a supermarket well into the 1960s -- Stop & Shop acquired the space by 1957, then closed up shop in the late 1960s. It later became a thrift store and offices, among other uses. You can read all about the building -- and see amazing historic photographs --
here at the Telegram & Gazette, whose offices by the way are roughly across the street from the Front Street Brockelman Brothers.
It doesn't seem there are any current redevelopment plans for the massive building, looking at that T&G article and others. But downtown Worcester is developing rapidly, and it's possible the recently-closed motor vehicle agency office next door could be included in some future development on this property. Tomorrow, we'll be checking out some of the small independent grocers in this area!
Also today... we have a look at four soon-to-close Stop & Shops, all set to become Food Bazaars, and one new Food Bazaar in a former Stop & Shop!
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