Why do people love the Denholm building so much?

Submitted by your_city_councilor t3_z685pk in WorcesterMA

There's a front-page article in the Telegram about "What's Next for the Denholm Building," and it got me to thinking. Over the years, I've come across many articles where people talk about how terrible it would be if the building were demolished, what a gem it is, etc. I don't understand why. I grew up in the city, and I've always considered the building to be pretty ugly, at least on the outside. It's just a squared grey building with sort of black stripes for windows. There are so many buildings downtown with beautiful architecture, but Denholm, despite its history as an important spot decades ago, doesn't have that.

Why do people find it so special?

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saintsandopossums t1_iy0zgjo wrote

I think a lot of it has to do with being a symbol of when the city had a vibrant downtown. You look at old pictures of the Denholm, and you see crowded sidewalks and a bustling area. To see it get torn down and replaced with another bank or something would be a further example of our failures in urban planning

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NovelNo87 t1_ixzzvre wrote

I hear you. My guess is it’s just the nostalgia but we need to turn it into something useful like housing. Downtown malls and department stores are dead and not coming back.

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New-Vegetable-1274 t1_iy1thh8 wrote

Agreed, between the internet and the pandemic, the way people shop has changed forever. Nation wide, thousands of malls have closed and the big department stores that have survived are more curiosities than prosperous retailers. Among them the most famous are more tourist attractions now. The internet does lack the hands on aspects of shopping and there are still products people prefer to in person shop for. I don't know if this change is good or bad there's a lot of vacant real estate that is mostly rotting. I wonder how many on Reddit would rent housing in a defunct mall that offered amenities like security staff, parking, a gym, some sort of storage, a convenience store or small grocery, indoor and outdoor common spaces, a dog park and maybe even a bar.

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AceOfTheSwords t1_iy3ltt6 wrote

Why settle for a small grocery? People still use physical grocery stores, and that building is one of the few downtown that can support a full size one. Penalizing people who live downtown by forcing them to either endure the inevitable higher prices and limited selection of small groceries or cling to their personal vehicles as they fight over insufficient downtown parking so they can get to a "real" grocery isn't right. Whether the original building is kept or a new one built, this should be heavily considered.

If it's feasible to convert the upper levels to residences, sure, but as you point out the building has layout issues for that. If movie theaters weren't so dead (especially in pandemic world), I'd say a small theater with a few screens could go there since the city doesn't have one at all anymore, but unless they see some sort of post-pandemic recovery I don't see that being successful either. So I'm not really sure what the best idea would be for the upper levels. Maybe a new building is needed after all.

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New-Vegetable-1274 t1_iy43ova wrote

I think you're on to something. Why not use a building to solve some of the downtown community's problems. If the Denholm building cannot be converted somehow maybe it should be demolished but I fear it would end up as an undeveloped eyesore.

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New-Vegetable-1274 t1_iy1pnnz wrote

Worcester's downtown was once as bustling as Boston's and Denholms was the flag ship the city's department stores. Denholm's was in a class with Macy's in New York and Field's in Chicago. It was a store where the wealthy shopped and the rest of us window shopped. Fewer people remember those days and it's relevance has faded but it's still a sturdy structure and should be repurposed, it would make a great apartment building or student housing,

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HistoricalSecurity77 t1_iy3ejyp wrote

It really isn’t a great structure for a retrofit. Too many issues to bring it up to modern code.

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your_city_councilor OP t1_iy1x3ae wrote

I realize there's a storied history and it's sad that that part of Worcester's past is gone. But the building itself is fairly ugly.

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New-Vegetable-1274 t1_iy4bryx wrote

I agree but very often demolitions create bigger eyesores. Worcester was once home to many mills and factories that eventually were demolished. There are hundreds of acres of empty lots covered by crumbling concrete, weeds and debris in Worcester. There are some that have been rehabilitated, are clean but empty. The majority are forgotten and unfortunately many are brown fields and expensive to rehabilitate and with no advantage to do so they remain as they are. Downtown real estate in Worcester is not very desirable The Denholm building can't attract tenants, what would a vacant lot do?

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tommyverssetti t1_iy0wt2f wrote

It has the City’s first escalator lol but other than that it’s older generation nostalgia

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SynthWRX t1_iy0sfi7 wrote

Nostalgia. Is my guess, cause its like most old things people love.

Been in the city nearly 40 years... Its always just been a nearly empty/office building to me, no attachment to it. Most I every really remember from it is food signs on it.

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NativeMasshole t1_ixzw10q wrote

I can't say I've ever noticed a particular attachment to it. There's just a lot of talk right now because it's next up for development and everyone has an opinion on that.

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lunarsight t1_iy13re6 wrote

Nostalgia. I remember going there as a kid to the stamp collector's store to get supplies.

Up until maybe 4-5 years ago, that store was still there.

As a secondary reason, it's a building that was still seeing a lot of active use from groups renting it out. It's not as though it was completely vacant. It had tenants.

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CoolAbdul t1_iy15dnw wrote

Turn the lot into a night market

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kshearules t1_iy34xdk wrote

My mother and aunts and uncles spoke about how almost glamorous Denholm's was. Like: how lucky are we that this beautiful creation sits about 10 blocks south from where we live? Also everyone worked at Peggy's Hat Shop. Lol.

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[deleted] t1_iy1oyn5 wrote

[deleted]

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Ovaltene17 t1_iy3dv7l wrote

Yup. The Denholm building primarily houses non-profit organizations, so the fact they are closing it down for what will probably be low income housing goes to show you where Worcester's priorities are. All the talk about how glorious that area "was" and what the plan going forward? High density low income housing? LOL!

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Enragedocelot t1_iy3isr5 wrote

Are you sorely unaware of the amount of folks that are currently in worcester desperate for affordable housing?

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