The current renovation of Worcester Common and the long-range prospects for Lincoln Square bring to mind Stephen Salisbury III and his campaign in 1894 to build the new city hall in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. Had Mr. Salisbury prevailed, City Hall would be located where the Worcester Art Museum now stands and the Common would be mostly a stretch of greensward, paths and trees like Elm Park, with only the Timothy Bigelow and Civil War monuments as reminders of the historic past.
Mr. Salisbury even offered the city $100,000 to make that decision, but the offer was turned down by the Common Council after a notable battle of petitions and some political hardball by the Worcester Board of Trade and assorted business interests. It was a close call.
The question of a new city hall had been discussed for years. The old town hall was a dull brick box at Main and Front streets. It was built in 1825, when the town finally separated its civic functions from the First Parish (Old South) Church. The meeting house had served both purposes ever since 1720 or so, after the town was finally settled. Even after the steepled colonial Old South Church was built in 1763, it continued to serve for both religious services and town offices for 62 years. After 1825, church and town hall (City Hall, after 1848) stood together on the Main Street end of the Common. It was an awkward juxtaposition of architectural styles. The white colonial church faced north, its front portal looking out on the brick sidewall of the city hall.
Before a new city hall could be considered, the city had to do something about the church. In 1885, after years of argument and litigation, the city bought the church and its rights in the Common for $117,000. The parish took the money and built a new Romanesque church at Main and Wellington streets. The old church building was sold and torn down. The First Church now is located in Tatnuck.
Without the church, the Common looked bleak and empty. People looked forward to a splendid new city hall to replace the old brick box. But then Stephen Salisbury made his move. In a letter to Worcester Mayor Henry Marsh he wrote:
“Many citizens take exception to the use of the common as a site for city hall, objecting to its occupation for any use other than that of a public park. All citizens would prefer to keep that central space open and free, if a location could be provided without cost, that should satisfy the requirements of the city for the erection of its municipal building.”
The location that Mr. Salisbury had in mind was in Lincoln Square, where his old family home was located. He offered that lot for a new city hall site, plus $100,000 to help with expenses. After Elbridge Boyden, the dean of the city’s architects, pointed out that the Lincoln Square lot was too small and hemmed in, Mr. Salisbury substituted a plot a block west on Salisbury Street, where the Art Museum now stands.
The Salisbury offer set off a lively debate. Was the future center of Worcester to be at the Common or eight blocks north at Lincoln Square? Lincoln Square had some notable assets. The courthouse had been there since 1735. The Second Parish Church, to which Mr. Salisbury belonged, was there, along with the American Antiquarian Society (it moved to Park Avenue in 1912), Central Church, and the Society of Antiquity (now the Worcester Historical Museum, which moved to Elm Street 20 years ago). And of course there were the two Salisbury edifices — the ancient mansion in Lincoln Square, and Mr. Salisbury’s own imposing home on the height above.
Commercial interests around the Common were much opposed to moving City Hall to Lincoln Square. The Board of Trade was against it. The antis circulated a petition that listed 9,440 names. A counter-petition circulated by the Salisbury camp collected 9,695 names. But for once the Salisbury name was not enough to clinch the deal.
Stephen Salisbury in those days was a formidable figure. He was the richest man in Worcester; a state senator; president of the Worcester National Bank; president of the Worcester County Institution of Savings; president of the American Antiquarian Society; trustee of Clark University; director of two railroads; director of the telephone company, the gas company and the electric light company; director of the State Mutual Insurance company; trustee of both St. Vincent and Memorial hospitals; and benefactor of many other good works.
Furthermore, some powerful Worcester figures were in his camp. They included Sen. George Frisbie Hoar, attorney Francis Henshaw Dewey, Mayor Edward Davis and Andrew Haswell Green of New York’s Central Park and Green Hill Park fame.
It still wasn’t enough. The Board of Trade convinced the city council to decline the Salisbury offer and set up a building committee for a new city hall on the Common site. In November 1895, Norcross Brothers was chosen as contractor, and in April 1896, the council voted $575,000 for construction costs. The splendid new City Hall was dedicated on April 29, 1898. Sitting in a special section were 86 old men who had been voters in 1848, when Worcester received its city charter.
And Stephen Salisbury? He went on with his plans for Lincoln Square and vicinity. On May 10, 1898, the same day that the old city hall was auctioned off to a scrap lumber dealer for $80, Mr. Salisbury opened the new Worcester Art Museum, on the site that he hoped would showcase the new City Hall.
What would he think if he were around to see Lincoln Square today? The courthouse is gone, the Antiquarian Society is gone, the Society of Antiquity is gone, and the old Salisbury mansion has been moved up the hill.
Mr. Salisbury would be happy to see that the Art Museum and his Second Parish Church (First Unitarian) are still there, along with Central Church at Wheaton Square, the splendid Wesley Methodist Church on State Street, and the elegant Trinity Lutheran Church across Lancaster Street from the Art Museum.
But, being a practical man, Mr. Salisbury probably would concede that the Lincoln Square neighborhood, significant as it is, is not destined to be what he hoped — the political, legal, governmental and artistic center of Worcester.
Albert B. Southwick’s column appears regularly in the Telegram & Gazette.