The Market Report

It's time for one more roundup of former grocers in northeastern Worcester! This is where my coverage starts to become much more spotty, so we're only going to see about a dozen stores along Lincoln Street between Lincoln Square and the 290 overpass to the south, and Brittan Square and the other 290 overpass to the north. A note on historical sources:  To get past stores in each location, I've consulted Worcester city directories going back to the 1910s. Here in the city, I'm drawing from  1916, 1922, 1927, 1931, 1937, 1943, 1959, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1969, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1991, 2000, 2009, and 2017.  Also of note: this is far from an exhaustive listing of all grocery stores that have been in this area, although I'll probably eventually post the full thing, this is just what I've been able to photograph. Reading the captions:  A caption such as the following...          |  John Smith (1926-1937) > Joe Jones (1955-1982) ...means that Jo...

Let's now retrace our steps a bit, starting on Bell Hill (just north of Shrewsbury Street) and then continuing up Lincoln Street through Brittan Square and all the way beyond Lincoln Plaza to the Great Brook Valley area! A note on historical sources:  To get "past stores" in each location, I've consulted Worcester city directories going back to the 1910s. Here in the city, I'm drawing from  1916, 1922, 1927, 1931, 1937, 1943, 1959, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1969, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1991, 2000, 2009, and 2017.  Also of note: this is far from an exhaustive listing of all grocery stores that have been in this area, although I'll probably eventually post the full thing, this is just what I've been able to photograph. Reading the captions:  A caption such as the following...          |  John Smith (1926-1937) > Joe Jones (1955-1982) ...means that John Smith appears in the directories in 1926 and 1937, and Joe Jones appears in all directories I cons...

Original Grocery Tenant: First National Stores Address: 267 Lincoln St, Brittan Square, Worcester, MA Opened:  bet. 1943 and 1949 Closed:  bet. 1952 and 1957 Later Tenants:  Phillip Jacobs > General Food Stores > Pennywise Market > North End Market Photographed:  November 2, 2019 and September 9, 2022 There sure are a lot of squares in Worcester. In fact, the Worcester Public Library has an entire page dedicated to listing them. (Side note: the WPL is a wonderful library and I loved it the time I was in Worcester.) So we're here now at Brittan Square, about two miles northeast of downtown, where a longtime grocery store has recently closed. 267 Lincoln Street was first built in 1925, but I'm not sure what was here prior to 1949, when the first listing I can find for this address shows First National Stores (later Finast). In 1927, First National was at 265b Lincoln, which might be the same building, but I'm not sure; 265b was Cloverdale in 1931. The 4200 ...