Gilman Block

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The Gilman Block was a four-story brick commercial building at 207-219 Main Street in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts. Built in 1896 for Moses Gilman, it was designed by Cutting, Carleton & Cutting and built by J. W. Bishop & Company. Its design blended Classical Revival and Romanesque/Tuscan influences, with round-arched windows on the top floor and a copper-bronze cornice with decorative brackets. The ground floor had two storefronts; a bakery operated in the basement and a confectionery occupied the upper floors. By 1904 the confectionery had failed, and the block later housed a variety of businesses. Some large spaces were used by immigrant churches, especially Scandinavian congregations, and in the 1970s the building's commercial uses declined and it even housed nightclubs. The Gilman Block was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as a rare surviving building on its block. In 2004 the state acquired the property and demolished it to make way for a new Worcester County Courthouse, which includes part of the old facade and displays its history.