Love my new town! Moved here at the start of the pandemic (ha!) and I've loved how close it is to…read morehighways, the woods, Worcester.... Great location with lots of options!! Good people, amazing and supportive community. There's also a public pool! Haha

Unique place to visit for any out of towners for Worcester. The tower was built 200 years ago. It…read moreis meticulously maintained.

When in Worcester, this is one of those 'Roadside America' type stops you can make. Bancroft Tower…read morea giant 'folly' built to look like a castle. Located at the top of a steep hill, in a neighborhood, it's a pretty impressive site. There was snow on the ground when we visited and the pathways are not shoveled so if you go in winter, wear appropriate footwear. I'm not sure when the gates are unlocked to climb to the top, but there is a staircase and I bet the views from the top are stunning. A small parking area is across the street from the structure. A small sign limits parking to one hour and there is one trash can should you need it. There is also a sign that appears to be at a trailhead but with all the snow it's hard to tell. One word of caution: when we arrived there was one car in the parking area with two persons inside. When we got out of our car they got out of theirs. We walked toward the folly. They walked toward our vehicle. I took photos, but remained near the parking lot because suede shoes and snow do not make a good combination. After taking my photos, I turned around, they were just standing next to my car. As I stared at them, they turned and looked over the edge of the lot down the hill. I walked down the road a piece to get a different angle of the structure and always had my vehicle in view. They eventually got back in their car and drove away without visiting the folly or really even looking at it. After they left I walked over to see if there was anything they could actually be looking at down the hill and no, it was someone's home and a wooded hillside. Nothing there to attract attention. Just a situational awareness 'head up' to visitors. Otherwise, the folly really is lovely and it was decorated for the holidays too. It was a quick visit overall and we were on to the next stop. In summer it might make a good spot to family photos and perhaps a picnic if you bring a blanket to sit on.

It's just a single monument but it's history. If you don't…read moreknow it's there you will miss it.

"We could of been perfect If you let it"…read more(Lady Gaga) "Perfect". It's a word we hear all the time, but what exactly does "perfect" mean? Doesn't every "perfect" thing have some tiny room for improvement? If only there was a way to measure perfection, to define absolute perfection. In the world of baseball, there is such a thing, and it's called a "Perfect Game". Twenty-seven batters come to the plate, and twenty-seven batters return to the dugout. No one reaches base. Not one. It has happened just 23 times in Major League History. The first time it happened is commemorated on this monument. It happened on June 12, 1880 when pitcher Lee Richmond of the Worcester Worcesters (or Brown Stockings or Ruby Legs, depending on your source) retired twenty-seven consecutive Cleveland Blues batters. It's a simple gray granite monument located at the center quadrangle at Becker College, the former location of a stadium on the old Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds. There is an etching of a baseball diamond on the top, with an inscription below. The inscription reads "On June 12, 1880, the first perfect game in professional baseball history was pitched on this site (the former Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds) by J. Lee Richmond of Worcester against Cleveland in a National League game." Perfection indeed...

The Old Stone church is a must see if you are in the area. It was built in 1891 to replace a…read moreBaptist Church that was destroyed in a fire. It is in the national registry of historical places. It sits on the Wachusett reservoir and many people do photo shoots here or plan weddings. In the last few years, people were just showing up with large groups of people to do an impromptu wedding but the town is now restricting this type of activity and you have to reserve in advance if you want to bring a large crowd. I remember going here with my family many times as a child. It was always a solemn moment, looking up at the rafters while inside. I can remember my father often saying a prayer. We used to bring a bottle and collect water at a Spicket outside the church. The water is fresh from the reservoir

Perfect day for a cemetary stroll. Very peaceful with some graves dating to the 1800s. The tower is…read morerather impressive. Would love to see it's twin in Ireland some day.

AN ABSOLUTELY MUST DO! A FREE EVENT & FREE PARKING! This is one of the Secret Hidden Gems of…read moreAmerica that most people have never heard of or been to before, If you love Castles, Towers & the Fairytale Rapunzel or the Disney movie Tangled then you'll be excited about our journey today. It's Time to jump into The TimeMobile & scour the Earth & take you to places from a different time that you won't believe still exist. We have set the dial to the 1890's in the town of Milford MA about an hour outside of Boston. We've landed at this Beautiful Irish Round Tower that conjures up images from a bygone era. The Tower looks like it has been plucked from medieval times from thousands of miles across the Pond in Ireland. IT IS BEAUTIFUL! Father Patrick Cuddihy envisioned an Irish Round Tower as the centerpiece of a new cemetery when the land was purchased in 1890 for the Catholics of Saint Mary's Parish in Milford. Travelers from all over the globe spend thousands of dollars & travel to Ireland to see The Irish Round Towers. There is one Irish Tower in particular called The Devenish round tower & is located in County Fermanagh on an island located on Lower Lough Erne Lake. The Round Irish Tower in Milford is almost an exact replica with the same look, design & height as the The Devenish Tower in Ireland. It is made out of Granite from the Milford quarry. It stands tall over the graves of thousands of Irish immigrants who were buried in the cemetery. They are laid to rest in an Irish setting that mimics the architecture & land of Ireland. You might wonder why did Fr. Cuddihy build this tower? The answer can be found in his obituary "It may be folly - yet when you and I have passed away, the Irish in America will make a pilgrimage to the Irish Round Tower at Milford." Now although it was very popular in its day this has now fallen completely under the radar. Now just about everyone has heard of the German Fairy Tale Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm, but have no idea that a Rapunzel like Tower even exists here in America. The Milford Round Tower was the only one of its kind in the whole USA for decades & only a few Irish Towers in the whole world even exist outside of Ireland. In 2003 The Tower at Castleton Lyons Farm was built in Kentucky to be an exact replica of the round tower at the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary Ireland. So now there are 2 Irish Round Towers in the US. The Milford one is well over a hundred years older than the one in Kentucky. It represents a unique granite architectural wonder that pays tribute to Father Cuddihy vision of an Irish Tower in America without going overseas. The 1978 East German stamps of Rapunzel look just like the Devenish Tower in Ireland & the one in Milford MA. I have posted the stamp pictures for you to see too. Just so you know the door to the Tower is locked so you can't venture to the top! In addition, behind the Irish round tower there is a small pond & benches with pine trees in the background that makes a peaceful place to pray, meditate & explore the grounds. On the other side there is a mysterious cave like structure that resembles a catacomb. Across the street there is a public park and free parking. You really wouldn't expect to see an Irish Round Tower or a Rapunzel Tower at a cemetery, but that's where it is - a True Hidden Gem. To make it really worth your trip in the area check out The Moon Tree a tree that went to the Moon & The Largest Rosary Beads in the World both in Holliston. All of these are Freebies as well. It used to be, you had to have Mega Bucks & be really Rich to have the Good Life, not anymore. The Game has changed. You've been Upgraded. Now You Can Live Like a King on a Limited Budget!

Benefit Street is a nice little walk and The Shunned House is a sweet little surprise. What I like…read moreabout The Shunned House is that you would have NO CLUE that this house was significant amongst the others in the surrounding areas. The armory down the street stands out a lot more than the lil house that HPLovecraft wrote about. Still it's a great side trip that will only take seconds out of your day if you are in or around the colleges in the area. This is obviously a residence and they have since named the house after someone but you can see the wall that used to be used as the front of the house and the descriptions stand strong in Lovecraft's writing. No big deal but I liked being there and seeing it.

I was going to write about this curiousity, but I realized I couldn't do any better than what…read morebrought me in the first place: "The house was--and for that matter still is--of a kind to attract the attention of the curious. Originally a farm or semi-farm building, it followed the average New England colonial lines of the middle eighteenth century--the prosperous peaked-roof sort, with two stories and dormerless attic, and with the Georgian doorway and interior panelling dictated by the progress of taste at that time. It faced south, with one gable end buried to the lower windows in the eastward rising hill, and the other exposed to the foundations toward the street. Its construction, over a century and a half ago, had followed the grading and straightening of the road in that especial vicinity; for Benefit Street--at first called Back Street--was laid out as a lane winding amongst the graveyards of the first settlers, and straightened only when the removal of the bodies to the North Burial Ground made it decently possible to cut through the old family plots. "At the start, the western wall had lain some twenty feet up a precipitous lawn from the roadway; but a widening of the street at about the time of the Revolution sheared off most of the intervening space, exposing the foundations so that a brick basement wall had to be made, giving the deep cellar a street frontage with door and two windows above ground, close to the new line of public travel. When the sidewalk was laid out a century ago the last of the intervening space was removed; and Poe in his walks must have seen only a sheer ascent of dull grey brick flush with the sidewalk and surmounted at a height of ten feet by the antique shingled bulk of the house proper. "The farm-like grounds extended back very deeply up the hill, almost to Wheaton Street. The space south of the house, abutting on Benefit Street, was of course greatly above the existing sidewalk level, forming a terrace bounded by a high bank wall of damp, mossy stone pierced by a steep flight of narrow steps which led inward between canyon-like surfaces to the upper region of mangy lawn, rheumy brick walls, and neglected gardens whose dismantled cement urns, rusted kettles fallen from tripods of knotty sticks, and similar paraphernalia set off the weather-beaten front door with its broken fanlight, rotting Ionic pilasters, and wormy triangular pediment. "What I heard in my youth about the shunned house was merely that people died there in alarmingly great numbers. That, I was told, was why the original owners had moved out some twenty years after building the place. It was plainly unhealthy, perhaps because of the dampness and fungous growth in the cellar, the general sickish smell, the draughts of the hallways, or the quality of the well and pump water. These things were bad enough, and these were all that gained belief among the persons whom I knew. Only the notebooks of my antiquarian uncle, Dr. Elihu Whipple, revealed to me at length the darker, vaguer surmises which formed an undercurrent of folklore among old-time servants and humble folk; surmises which never travelled far, and which were largely forgotten when Providence grew to be a metropolis with a shifting modern population." H.P. Lovecraft, The Shunned House Be mindful that this is a private residence. Please be respectful.

According to local legend, the founder of Middlesex University was traveling through Ireland and…read moresaw Lismore Castle. He was so impressed with the castle that he asked to bring it back with him. The owners denied his request. He then asked for the blueprints, only to be told no again. Not one to be stopped, he had drawings done of the outside of the castle. The Castle in Waltham was constructed based on these drawings. This is now Brandeis University and "The Castle" as it is called, was first used as an administrative space as well as a dining hall. It was used as a dormitory until the building was condemned and later partially torn down to make room for a new building. Some of the benches outside of the dormitory neighboring Usen Castle are made from materials of the demolished structure. The remaining part of Usen Castle is closed to visitors. Only the coffee house inside the castle is open to the public. Still, it's cool to check out the exterior if you're nearby. [Review 15210 overall, 712 of 2021, number 1073 in Massachusetts.]

Many family members are buried here, never had any issues. Most recently my Mom passed in Aug…read more There was a miscommunication and once brought to their attention, they took full responsibility and not only rectified but went above and beyond. This is a family run business and they genuinely care about your feelings.

The staff at Worcester County Memorial Park were compassionate and understanding during a very…read moredifficult time. The grounds are beautiful and serene. It feels good knowing our loved ones truly rest in peace.

I visited this station for it's historical significance. Although not the original station (built…read morein 1875 ) in town, this building was completed in 1911 for the Boston & Albany Railroad. At it's peak, 140 trains were making there way through this station, daily. Over the years it has served a variety of railroads and switched hands multiple times. As routes were moved away from Worcester, ridership decreased and in 1972 Amtrak boarded up the building and began to use a much smaller brick building nearby as it's station. By 1992 a group of locals began efforts to rehab the old station to it's original beauty. After several years of effort and planning, during which the building was purchased by the Commonwealth of MA, the building finally began restoration and in 2000 the building reopened to railway passengers. A small part of the station is set aside for rail passengers. Here you'll find a map of commuter rails and a MBTA ticket kiosk. There is no Amtrak customer service available here. You can purchase Amtrak tickets originating at this station through their web site. There is a small waiting area, a Worcester public library book vending machine, a police substation and a QR code that will link you to a walking tour of the Blackstone canal area. There is an elevator up to the platform level and ramps down to the bus level. Three vending machines are available for snacks and beverages. Public restrooms are older but clean enough as public restrooms go. The main part of the building is a beautiful vaulted hall that can be rented out for private events. This area is closed off during event and open to the public when not in use. There are also two dining areas off this main hall and a parking garage next door. The official website has information about renting the event space. Another example of the beautiful historic architecture you will find in this historic city.

I have been going by this train depot my entire life ...like 100's of thousands of times. I lived…read moreright up the street for a few years in my childhood and most of my life it was boarded up and in disrepair. About 20 years ago they decided to remodel it and spent millions of dollars to renovate it and bring it back to its glory. Every time we would drive by I wondered what it looked like inside and think that I needed to check it out someday. So a few days ago as we drove by my husband said "do you want to stop and check out Union Station?" YES!!!! There is a parking garage directly behind it with easy access into the station. The station is HUGE (well, not as big as the NYC!) and we walked throughout checking everything out. The station was pretty quiet on a Saturday afternoon and everything was closed (restaurants, coffee shop, police station etc), there was just a handful of people either waiting on a train or bus. The architecture was absolutely beautiful as most buildings built in this era were. I have no idea how well the ticketing and schedules work, but it is definitely a beautiful building worth checking out.

Covered Bridge Lane is a new subdivision in the Town of Wayland. The developers cutesy idea, to…read morehelp sell his development of over priced over sized cookie cutter houses on postage stamp lots, was to build a covered bridge over the stream which would help promote the "semi rural" feel of the town. Knowing that "semi rural" was the buzz word that would make town officials swoon. The developers then put up "private way" signs, discouraging riff raff like me from driving over this bridge and taking photos. I'm guessing my tax dollars pay for plowing and other road maintenance. As far as covered bridges go, this one is 100% new and modern. But was tastefully done so it kinda looks like it has been around forever. I'm trying to remember when it was built. My guess is it's around 5 years old. So 2012.