Then & Now: 614 West Boylston St., Worcester
A few years after Assumption College moved out of the neighborhood, Assumption Preparatory School took over a one-time dormitory and reworked it into a clubhouse.
The school's many clubs and extracurricular activities were based out of the building, at 614 West Boylston St. In a ceremony at the start of the 1960-61 school year, Prep's dean of students, the Rev. Philip E. Bonvouloir, announced that the clubhouse would be called Bailly Hall, in recognition of the Very Rev. Emmanuel Bailly, third superior general of the Assumptionists Order.
Assumption Prep, originally Assumption High School, was founded in 1904 in a three-decker on Fales Street. The school closed in 1970.
The building at 614 West Boylston St. — shown in this week's Then photo, from 1947 — was torn down in 1966, months after it was heavily damaged by fire. Years later, a convenience store was built on the spot. Honey Farms was the occupant for many years; it is now home to Super Smoke Convenience Mart.
The blaze of Feb. 18, 1966, was not the first time the building the building sustained damage. The historic Worcester Tornado of 1953, which delivered a devasating blow to the city's Greendale neighborhood, notably Assumption College, tore away at the building at 614 West Boylston St. The structure was worth saving, although renovations involved the removal of the third floor.
The tornado ripped through the region on June 9, 1953. It took shape to the west of Worcester and worked its way east into Framingham. It claimed the lives of 94 people, 11 in Worcester, and damaged or destroyed thousands of buildings.
Assumption College, then on West Boylston Street, was nearly flattened by the tornado. Two nuns and a priest were killed. The top floors of the college's main building toppled to the ground. A tower collapsed.
In 1956, Assumption relocated to a new campus, on Salisbury Street, with its affiliated high school, Assumption Prep, remaining on West Boylston Street. Both schools were founded in the early 1900s, both run by the Catholic Order of the Augustinians of the Assumption. (The former campus of Assumption College, now Assumption University, was taken over by Quinsigamond Community College in 1970.)
Assumption Prep struggled financially in the years after Assumption College moved to Salisbury Street. With enrollment continuing to drop, the school closed for good in June 1970.
The long-gone building at 614 West Boylston St. was originally an apartment house, with 35 rooms. In 1947, Assumption College, then in search of student housing, bought the property from Simeon J. Fortin, a noted grocer in the neighborhood. Besides a dormitory, the building was used by the college as a fraternity house and as a temporary convent.
Last week Then & Now: WWII Memorial, Indian Hill Road
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Then & Now: 614 West Boylston St., Worcester
