Could historic Worcester murals face the wrecking ball? What to know

WORCESTER – Norton Hall is a place of historic significance in Worcester, but its survival could be in jeopardy. 

The hall displays painted wall murals, some dating back nearly 100 years. The artwork honors the former Norton Company and its employees, who helped make the firm founded in 1885 as Norton Emery Wheel Co. a worldwide manufacturing force.

The French conglomerate Saint-Gobain bought Norton in 1990 and established its North American headquarters on the former Norton site along Interstate 190, where the hall and its murals endure. Now some former Norton employees are concerned about what’s going to happen to the hall. They fear it could be destroyed.

The Worcester Business Development Corp. is aware of the concerns and shared them during an interview with the Telegram & Gazette. The private, nonprofit developer will ultimately decide the hall’s fate as it moves forward with plans to develop a manufacturing hub it is calling GreenTech Park. 

It will sit on 51 acres that Saint-Gobain gave to the WBDC at no cost in 2022, when the abrasives manufacturer wanted to unload some underused land at its headquarters. The corporation will knock down many if not all of Saint-Gobain's former buildings on the 51 acres, and that could mean the end of Norton Hall. 

Roberta Brien, WBDC executive vice president, said the project’s focus is bringing 1,000 new jobs to Worcester and growing the city's tax base. She said the corporation wants to save the hall but doing so must work within the project's finances.

"Ideally, we want the murals to stay where they are," she said.

Norton Hall and its historic murals

Brien and Samantha Penzone, the corporation's director of marketing and property management, have heard from former Norton employees who want to know what’s going to happen to their beloved hall. 

One mural depicts a giant tree full of the names of Norton employees who gave 25 years of service to the company. There wasn’t enough room for every employee who reached that milestone, so more names fill murals that surround the hall. Other murals trace the development of Norton's signature product, the grinding wheel.

It’s unclear if Norton Hall has received official historic status from the National Register of Historic Places or the Massachusetts Historical Commission, a designation that could possibly guarantee its survival. Both agencies didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Brien believes the hall doesn't have a historic designation but understands its sentimental value for former workers and their families. She said one option is renovate the building so the hall stays, work that the WBDC could take on or pass off to another developer. Another option is to remove the murals if the corporation decides to demolish the building. Brien said talks with the Worcester Art Museum are exploring if that's possible without damaging the artwork.

There's also the idea of enlarging archival photos of the murals to a scale that matches their current size. Brien said removing the walls with the murals intact or going with archival photos could make for a public display in a new space that would give more people a chance to learn about Norton's history. Besides, she said, the current hall barely gets any visitors.

What's the latest news on GreenTech Park?

Beyond Norton Hall's uncertain future, the work continues to develop GreenTech Park.

The WBDC has cleared and prepared 40 acres for development, and hopes to get site plan approval in May from the Worcester Planning Board for construction on 30 of the acres. The 40 acres represent 900,000 square feet of development space, including lot sizes of 60,000 to 210,000 square feet that Brien said should attract interest from advanced manufacturing companies. 

A new road needs to be built for the 30 acres. Named C Street, Brien said it received preliminary site plan approval from the planning board. There's also 700,000 square feet of development space on 11 acres along New Bond Street that Brien said should appeal to commercial and light industrial businesses. 

Only one business appears to be committed to GreenTech Park at this time. Brien declined to give the name but it will become known when the planning board publicly reviews the site plan application. 

Meanwhile, a steady stream of distribution and warehouse companies have expressed interest in the project, according to Brien. However, the corporation isn't too high on them because they're not the job creators that the developer is looking for. 

Neighborhood buy-in is a factor to move the project along, and Brien said the corporation is hosting community meetings to keep residents informed. One message it delivered is that GreenTech Park won't compete with existing commercial and retail businesses in the Route 12-West Boylston Street corridor. 

Several financial buckets are in play to fund the project. Saint-Gobain kicked in $12 million and the corporation is investing $4 million of its own money. There’s $6 million from the MassWorks Infrastructure Program to help cover C Street costs. The corporation spent $2.5 million on C Street planning, and the developer is counting on full reimbursement from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. 

Congress earmarked $3 million for work on New Bond Street, but the money hasn’t arrived. Brien said that should happen when the corporation finishes a design for that leg of the project.

Contaminated soils and concrete-containing PCBs and hydraulic fuel were removed from a section of the 51 acres, said Brien. That was not a surprise, she said, as many former manufacturing sites have contaminants. A $2 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency covered the cleanup costs.

Clean energy focus and the Trump administration

When the corporation initially took control of the 51 acres, the intent was to attract clean energy companies that manufacture items like windmills and solar panels. That changed, said Brien, as the Trump administration has doubled down on fossil fuels.

A preliminary analysis showed geothermal heating and cooling could work at GreenTech Park, said Brien. The process involves boring holes in the ground to access the earth's constant temperature.

However, the corporation couldn't convince National Grid or Eversource to pay for a geothermal pilot study. The utilities, said Brien, felt the project was too speculative because GreenTech Park isn't far enough along to know what companies will settle there and what their energy needs will be.