Misplaced Pages

Driscoll's Block
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Driscoll's Block
Show map of MassachusettsShow map of the United States
Location	Springfield, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°6′14″N 72°35′33″W / 42.10389°N 72.59250°W / 42.10389; -72.59250
Area	less than one acre
Built	1894 (1894)
Architectural style	Romanesque
MPS	Downtown Springfield MRA
NRHP reference No.	83000746
Added to NRHP	February 24, 1983

Driscoll's Block is a historic commercial building at 211-13 Worthington Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. Built in 1894, it was the first building to be built in the area after a fire destroyed five blocks of Worthington Street the previous year. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Description and history

Driscoll's Block is located in downtown Springfield, on the southeast side of Worthington Street, just southwest of Stearns Square. It is a modest four-story brick building, with a flat roof and decorative corbelled brick cornice. The ground floor houses a single store front, with recessed entrances (one to the retail space and the other to the upstairs) flanking a display window. Windows on the second and third floors are set in segmented-arch openings, in two groups of three with shared sills. Fourth-floor windows are similarly arranged, but are set in round-arch openings. The exterior of the building was, at the time of its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, notable for a series of mid-20th-century advertising stencils that were applied to its eastern facade after the 1940 demolition of the adjacent building. Those advertisements have since faded significantly. In 2022 City Mosaic of Springfield, Massachusetts was approached by State Representative Sean Curran to paint a mural on Driscoll's Block. Instead of painting a new mural the artists decided to bring the previous mural back to life. In late August 2022, the mural was revealed as a stunning four-story piece of art with historical advertisements.

The block was built for J.R. Driscoll, and at first housed a bowling alley. This business ran until 1915, and was followed by a succession of tenants, including briefly a Sears and Roebuck branch. The tenants have principally been manufacturing or warehousing concerns.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Springfield, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hampden County, Massachusetts

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. ^ "NRHP nomination for Driscoll's Block". Retrieved 2013-12-09.

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Topics	Contributing property Keeper of the Register Historic district History of the National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Property types
Lists by county	Barnstable Berkshire Bristol Dukes Essex Franklin Hampden Hampshire Middlesex Nantucket Norfolk Plymouth Suffolk Worcester (northern)
Lists by city	Barnstable County Barnstable Harwich Bristol County Fall River New Bedford Taunton Essex County Andover Gloucester Ipswich Lawrence Lynn Methuen Salem Hampden County Springfield Middlesex County Arlington Cambridge Concord Framingham Lexington Lowell Marlborough Medford Newton Reading Sherborn Somerville Stoneham Wakefield Waltham Weston Winchester Norfolk County Brookline Milton Quincy Suffolk County Boston northern southern Worcester County Southbridge Uxbridge Worcester eastern northwestern southwestern
Other lists	Bridges Cape Cod National Seashore National Historic Landmarks Boston
Category National Register of Historic Places portal United States portal

• Commercial blocks on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
• Buildings and structures in Springfield, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places in Springfield, Massachusetts