In Worcester, as in most of the smaller cities of New England, the Main street is the chief thoroughfare and the site of many of the prominent buildings.  This street runs north and south, and is about two and a half miles long.  Near the north end, at Lincoln square, are the Court-House and the American Antiquarian Society building.  The latter contains a large number of valuable and rare books, much sought after for reference by students.  Farther on toward the business centre are the Bay State House—­Worcester’s principal hotel—­and Mechanics’ Hall.  This hall is one of the handsomest and largest in the State, and has a seating capacity of about two thousand.  In the centre of the city, bordering upon Main street, is the Old Common, the original park of Worcester, now a small breathing-place of the working class, where band concerts are frequently given in summer.  Here stand the Soldiers’ Monument, designed by Randolph Rogers, of Rome, and the Bigelow Monument, erected to Timothy Bigelow, who commanded the minute-men who marched to Cambridge upon receipt of the news of the Battle of Lexington, and served throughout the Revolution as colonel of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment.  At one corner of the Common, facing Main street, is the City Hall, a small, unimposing structure, hardly worthy of the city.  The question of erecting a new one has been lately agitated.  Near by stands the Old South Church, built in 1763.  The business portion of Main street is well lined with large blocks, and the south end is laid out for residences.

[Illustration:  Elm park.]

Upon one of the hills, at the west side, stands the City Hospital, which is well managed and kept up, and has a visiting staff of the best physicians in the city.  In connection with this institution, a training-school for nurses has lately been established.

The city’s most imposing building is the Worcester State Lunatic Asylum, which can be seen from the trains on the Boston and Albany Railroad.  A picturesque edifice in itself it crowns a hill about two miles east of Worcester, and overlooks the blue waters of Lake Quinsigamond, and also a charming stretch of hill and dale beyond.  Were the softening charms of nature a potent remedy for the diseased mind, speedy cures might be effected in this sequestered retreat.  It contains generally over seven hundred inmates, and can accommodate more.  The building, begun in 1873, was completed in 1877, is handsomely fitted up throughout, and very spacious.  It cost one million and a quarter dollars.

[Illustration:  The Bigelow Monument.]