Worcester Historical Museum

The Worcester Historical Museum, located in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts, was founded in 1875. This museum is the only institution devoted entirely to local history and artifacts.

Founded as the Worcester Society of Antiquity, the original group of four men grew, and by 1877 the Society was incorporated with thirty-seven charter members. The first headquarters were rented rooms in the Worcester National Bank Building at 11 Foster Street.

By the late 1880s, membership had grown to 160, the library boasted 18,000 titles, and they had assembled 3,000 as of yet unpublished pages of local history. With the addition of a large and important collection of books, manuscripts, broadsides, and maps from the library of Rev. George Allen, a reformer and political activist, it became clear the Society needed a larger home.

October 1889, Stephen Salisbury III, a member and prominent Worcester businessman and philanthropist, donated the land at 39 Salisbury Street and $25,000 towards the construction of a new building. The Worcester Society of Antiquity's new home, a Romanesque Revival-style brick structure, was formally opened on June 28, 1892, and remained the museum's home for the next ninety-six years.In September 2008, Worcester Historical Museum announced plans to move once again, this time from 30 Elm Street into the old Washburn-Moen factory building.

Plans to move into the new location went array when in 2010 the Washburn-Moen Factory went up in flames. The damaged made the building structurally unsafe preventing the Museum from moving into its new home. Moving on from the loss of the Washburn-Moen project, Worcester Historical Museum renovated its current home and in 2011 unveiled the new 30.

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