Arts District
Historic Odd Fellows Building in Worcester's Arts District
The City has designated an Arts District zone overlay along Main Street from Madison and Chandler Street to Hammond Street. The Arts District is a public/private partnership project intended to revitalize a disinvested area of the City by promoting the reuse of several underutilized and vacant properties that would be suitable for artist live/work space, performance venues, college centers, cafes and eateries, art supply shops, galleries and other creative commercial and retail enterprises. The successful development of the Arts District and the creation of a major destination point for the region is one of the City's seven highest development priorities and is also one of the four major goals of Worcester's cultural community. Worcester boasts 40 cultural institutions, several of international stature, and hundreds of artists and arts faculty at the City's colleges, providing a strong foundation for the Arts District.
The Arts District is .6-miles in length, going one block back from Main Street, and is anchored by Clark University and City Hall. Noting the historical character of the District, there are eight buildings within the District listed on the National Register of Historic Places and there exists several others eligible for listing. In March 2000, ARTSWorcester moved its offices to the Aurora Hotel in the Arts District and currently occupies 2,600 square feet on two floors. The Fall 2001 opening of a 27,000 square foot community supermarket and cash & carry operation, and the recent announcement of the purchase and redevelopment plans of the adjoining Odd Fellows building are the first projects to launch the District. These projects represent over $6 million in investment, the creation of 50 new jobs and 24 new units of mixed-income housing.
