267 Lincoln St, Worcester, MA

Original Grocery Tenant: First National Stores
Address: 267 Lincoln St, Brittan Square, Worcester, MA

Opened: bet. 1943 and 1949

Closed: bet. 1952 and 1957

Later Tenants: Phillip Jacobs > General Food Stores > Pennywise Market > North End Market

Photographed: November 2, 2019 and September 9, 2022

There sure are a lot of squares in Worcester. In fact, the Worcester Public Library has an entire page dedicated to listing them. (Side note: the WPL is a wonderful library and I loved it the time I was in Worcester.) So we're here now at Brittan Square, about two miles northeast of downtown, where a longtime grocery store has recently closed. 267 Lincoln Street was first built in 1925, but I'm not sure what was here prior to 1949, when the first listing I can find for this address shows First National Stores (later Finast). In 1927, First National was at 265b Lincoln, which might be the same building, but I'm not sure; 265b was Cloverdale in 1931.

The 4200 square foot grocery store was owned by Philip Jacobs in 1957, then became a General Food Stores location by 1962. By 1973, the store was a Pennywise Market -- perhaps related to the still-extant location across town. The first iteration of North End Market opened (and closed) between 1991 and 2007, with the second iteration (possibly under new ownership) opening shortly thereafter. It was in business through about the summer of 2022.

The store was definitely not just a convenience store, as there were several aisles of groceries in the back, along with a basic selection of refrigerated foods. (I don't specifically remember a frozen or produce section, but there was definitely a deli up at the front and there were some baked goods, too.)

We can tell that the store is very old from seeing almost everything inside -- the ceiling, the flooring, the fixtures, the wood paneling. I loved the old-school look, but it also hadn't been kept up particularly well. There was even a lunch counter in the front, which had long since been closed.

I did my best to get some pretty solid interior pictures here the first time I was in the store in 2019, and I'm glad I did because it was gone just a few years later.

Speaking of. I returned to the area (and the store) several times after that, but found in September of 2022 that North End Market had closed, and the space was being subdivided. 

Because of the dust on the windows, my phone camera wouldn't focus inside the store, so here's the best shot I could get through the front window...

These days, the former grocery store is now partially a smoke shop and partially a hookah bar. There don't seem to be any traces of the former North End Market left inside. Just to the north of here, Lincoln Street becomes a major retail hub, with a couple of large strip malls. We're going to see the supermarkets and former supermarkets there starting with a long-closed Shaw's tomorrow!