Then & Now: Old Hotel Worcester, Washington Square, Worcester

Mike Elfland, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Hotel Worcester was torn down about a decade before work began on nearby Interstate 290, then called the Worcester Expressway.
Hotel Worcester was torn down about a decade before work began on nearby Interstate 290, then called the Worcester Expressway.
About 60 years after Hotel Worcester was demolished, the parcel in Washington Square became home to Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel.
About 60 years after Hotel Worcester was demolished, the parcel in Washington Square became home to Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel.

It was more of a square, certainly not a rotary, that stood between Union Station and Hotel Worcester.

The busy crossroads of Shrewsbury, Summer, Front and Grafton streets changed considerably in the late 1950s when the state Department of Public Works spearheaded the reworking of Washington Square.

The shaping of the rotary that now fills Washington Square required the taking of 33 properties. Among those bought and razed by the state was Hotel Worcester.

The 64-room hotel — shown in this week's Then photo from 1949 — was located about where the Homeward Suites by Hilton hotel now sits, at the rotary and Summer Street.

Memories of the old Hotel Worcester were stirred by the recent renaming of nearby Holiday Inn Suites to Hotel Worcester. (This is the old Holiday Inn's second go-around with the Hotel Worcester name. It briefly held that designation in 2012 between affiliations with Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn.)

Hotel Worcester in Washington Square was among the many independent hotels in and around downtown Worcester. Bay State House, the Royal Hotel and the Mayflower Hotel are a few of the hotels that have been wiped from the landscape.

The wrecking ball took care of Hotel Worcester in late 1956. The building was not always a hotel. It dated to 1890, built by Charles W. Bowker. He was a wealthy cattle farmer from Royalston. He used the building for hay and grain distribution, relying on the nearby rail line.

A real estate development bought the property in 1928 and converted it into a hotel. Renovations were made over the years, with the Milner Hotel chain leasing the hotel when it was taken by eminent domain.

Last week Then & Now: 614 West Boylston St., Worcester

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Then & Now: Old Hotel Worcester, Washington Square, Worcester

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