Thursday, June 14, 2012

Dowley-Taylor Building

Another in the sporatic series of things in WPS you may not have seen. With apologies for the pixalated pictures.

Among the buildings purchased when the Worcester Public Schools bought the Central New England College campus is the Taylor building at 770 Main Street. 




The Dowley-Taylor building was built 1842, making it the oldest building owned by the Worcester Public Schools. It was designed by Elias Carter and is one of a pair of twin buildings; the other is now the Country Curtains store in Sturbridge ('though ours has kept much more of its detail). It is among what I'm beginning to think was a neighborhood of buildings that were built in Lincoln Square and later moved.



This (below) is the entryway inside the front door, which still has a lot of detail from the 1840's...


...most nobably the trompe l'oeil across the top of the stairway "window," which still looks like the wood has been carved:



...while the newel post has actually been carved.




The group I was with insisted on seeing the basement, which is a combination of brick and stone:




The building is now used for offices for the Head Start program in Worcester, which runs in four locations around the city.
The one place we did not make it (for safety reasons) was the cupola, but we did get to see the intriguing set of stairs that heads up that way:







The sparrows, despite the spikes, love nesting in the elaborate capitals of the columns:



Here's the view going downstairs:




With thanks to Ro Franchi for taking us around the building!

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