Main South Community Development Corporation

Our History

Mural located in Main South
outside the People in Peril Shelter at 701 Main Street

Located in the heart of the City of Worcester, the Main South community is architecturally unique and historically rich. The neighborhood's cultural diversity makes Main South one of Worcester's most exceptional areas. This once proud community today struggles with many of the problems associated with older institutional inner cities.

In May 1986, the Main South CDC was officially incorporated under Chapter 40 of the Massachusetts General Laws as a 501 (c)(3) corporation. The original incorporators were Reverend George Rueger, Reverend James Shea, and Paul Gagnon. The Corporation’s first officers were Irene Williams, President; Gail Thomkins-Morris, Treasurer; and David Johnson, Clerk.

With state and local money, the CDC set out to improve the Main South area. The CDC has worked to improve distress housing, renovate derelict commercial space, and work for general revitalization in the Main South. The CDC provides the required strategy and experience to combine state funds, federal grants, and loans needed to improve buildings or factories in the area. In addition to redeveloping properties, the Main South CDC also works for change on a political and legal level.

The MSCDC Board embarked on their search to fund the first full-time Executive Director. The Executive Director’s position would afford a unique opportunity for a qualified and motivated candidate to have a direct and meaningful involvement in the revitalization of one of Worcester’s older and most historic communities.

After an extensive search, Steve Teasdale, an urban planner, was hired to take on the task. He was immediately impressed by the commitment of the residents and the amount of professional research they had undertaken to plan an approach to address the problems they were facing.

The arrival of the 1980’s in Main South ushered in events that exacerbated the community’s continuing social and economic decline. Foremost, amongst these were a shortage of affordable rental housing, a breakdown in the community’s social cohesion and a corresponding increase in crime and social disorder. The speculative nature of the investor owned housing market spawned an increase in the number of poorly managed, absentee owned properties that contributed to the erosion of the community’s stability. A lack of political representation and weak zoning ordinances, that failed to protect the residential integrity of neighborhood blocks, served to compound the problem.

In response to this downward spiral in the community’s fortunes a group comprised of community residents, representatives from Clark University and local businesses assembled to explore how they could take an active role in stimulating the revitalization of the Main South community.

Clark University is the single largest institution in the Main South community. Prior to the arrival of President Richard Traina, it is fair to say that relations between the university and the community were strained. Mr. Traina’s arrival, however, heralded a new era of university/community relations. Any revitalization efforts had to be wide-spread and bring tangible benefits to the community at large. Mr. Traina recognized the importance of a healthy community to Clark’s economic future. More importantly, he acknowledged that Clark was “part of the community” rather than “the community.”

It was a fortunate coincidence that during these early discussions Clark was approached by SEEDCO, a non-profit affiliate of the Ford Foundation. SEEDCO inquired as to whether Clark and the community group would be interested in exploring a new approach to community development; an “Urban Institutions Program.” The purpose of the SEEDCO program was to develop mutually beneficial partnerships between large urban institutions and community groups. SEEDCO recognizes that the fundamental problem behind urban decline is the lack of capital investment in the area and a lack of control over the type of investment that takes place. SEEDCO believed that the community groups and the institutions both had a commonality of interest in promoting a healthy community environment, and that together they could provide the resources necessary to start to address the root problem. The invitation was accepted and SEEDCO provided initial seed money to the new group to undertake a planning study of the area.

The planning study was prepared and undertaken by Donald Chamberlayne between 1986 and 1988. It was a comprehensive analysis of the social, economic and physical components of the community. The study highlighted many issues of concern and provided a blueprint for necessary corrective action. The founding group decided that the appropriate vehicle to undertake community driven development was, in fact, a community development corporation. This would ensure that residents could take an active role in promoting development that was needed in the area. The organization would then be democratically controlled by community residents and governed by a board of directors who lived or worked in the Main South community.

The commitment shown by this diverse group of residents, who pursued their goals over a period of two years, was the critical element of all successes the agency has since accomplished. Meeting after meeting was held to identify common goals. Objectives were laid out and inroads were made into allaying mutual suspicions between University representatives and community residents. It was thought, as is now, that a working consensus, between the interested parties, is the essential ingredient to any long term sustainable success.

Once incorporated it became necessary to secure funding to staff the new entity. SEEDCO provided an early commitment of operational funding as a challenge grant. The Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the City of Worcester met the challenge and the necessary funding was in place to get the new agency up and running.