$12 million Blackstone River visitor center, closed for 3 years, reopens 4 days a week

Staff
·2 min read
The Blackstone Valley Heritage Center is shown in June, when it had been closed for most of the previous three years.
The Blackstone Valley Heritage Center is shown in June, when it had been closed for most of the previous three years.

WORCESTER - The Blackstone Valley Heritage Center at Worcester, which opened to great fanfare in October 2018 only to close for more than three years after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, is once more open to visitors, according to a press release Friday morning from the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor.

The $12 million visitors center, which was part of a $26 million set of improvements to the surrounding Blackstone Gateway Park and related neighborhood improvements, will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

It had previously been open seven days a week.

The visitors center closed in March 2020, during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been open only sporadically since. In June, the Telegram & Gazette reported that budget woes had forced the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, a nonprofit organization, to lay off staff and left the visitors center with an uncertain future.

The next month, according to the press release, state Sen. Michael Moore, D-Millbury, and state Rep. Dan Donahue, D-Worcester, convened officials with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor to discuss reopening the visitors center.

The center will reopen under the management of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, according to the press release.

“It was a pleasure to visit the Blackstone Heritage Corridor Visitor Center,” Moore said, according to the release. “We discussed the history of the Blackstone Valley and the ways we're sharing its fascinating stories with residents and visitors alike through interactive exhibits."

He thanked Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Brian Arrigo for his efforts to reopen the center.

The center is located off Route 146, not far from Walmart, at 3 Paul Clancy Way.

The $12 million visitor center was supported by Federal Highway Administration funding and other national, state and regional resources. The interpretive exhibits were developed, manufactured and installed by the Blackstone Heritage Corridor, with support from the Stoddard Charitable Trust, the Fletcher Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the George F. and Sybil H. Fuller Foundation and the Fred Harris Daniels Foundation.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Blackstone Valley River Heritage Center at Worcester reopens