Downtown Worcester was once quite a busy center for commerce, with all sorts of retail stores and office buildings lining its streets
Few people lived downtown back then, largely because there were not many places where people could live.
The downtown was considered a place to visit and do business, not a place to live.
But that is all changing.
Former office space in the central business district, some of which has been vacant for years if not decades, is being converted into housing.
Even the former Worcester County Courthouse at the north end of Main Street is being converted into housing, as is a former church (the old Mission Chapel on Summer Street) and the former Performing Arts School of Worcester on Chatham Street.
The way things are going, the downtown is on track to becoming one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods in Worcester – in terms of its number of residents.
Now, who would ever have imagined that happening 40 or 50 years ago?
But it’s happening.
That was…
