Then & Now: 47 Harvard St., Worcester

Borg Funeral Home, started by Oscar Borg and passed down to his sons, handled arrangements for Worcester Swedes for decades.

The Borgs welcomed mourners to their stately building at 47 Harvard St., a block from north Main Street.

Oscar Borg ran one of several independent funeral homes in Worcester. In the early 1900s, he took over a building that had once been home to ice merchant Benjamin Walker and then to Walker's daughter Agnes.

When Oscar Borg died in 1933, the funeral business was taken over by his sons, O. Wesley and Ernest. The business continued for three more decades. Ernest died in 1958 and Wesley in 1964.

Doris L. Borg, Wesley's widow, was determined to keep the family business afloat. "We will continue to serve the public under the direction of qualified personnel and in the same distinguished manner as was done prior to the death of Mr. O. Wesley Borg," read a newspaper advertisement signed by Mrs. Borg in the weeks after her husband's death.

But within months, the building at 47 Harvard St. was on the market. In November 1964, the property was sold for $42,000 to siblings Alice and Edward Shamgochian. They reshaped the funeral home into an office buildinig.

One of the first tenants of the building was the Worcester Juvenile Court. The main courthouse in the city was a short walk away.

In 1974, the Juvenile Court relocated to 75 Grove St., and the building at 47 Harvard St. was not empty for long. Lawyers who spent much of their day at the main courthouse rented offices in the former funeral home, an arrangement that continues to this day.

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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Then & Now: 47 Harvard St., Worcester