Bancroft Tower, Worcester, MA

Bancroft Tower, Worcester, MA, originally uploaded by Claudia Snell.

I've lived in Worcester since 1985, so I'm not new to the area however, there are a bunch of places I haven't managed to see yet so I'm now making a point of having a look around.

Recently I visited Bancroft Tower for the first time. I also took a bunch of pictures (now living on my Flickr). I thought I'd just go have a look, take pictures and leave but I got a little curious when I read the plaque embedded out front of the place. I thought it was a bit strange for some guy to build a monument like that for a friend.

So, I decided to go looking around for more information about Bancroft Tower. I had heard a lot of stories of "naughty nocturnal activities" up there so I didn't need more of that. I was looking for other stuff. I wanted to know what was up with the place, really.

The first bit I got actually came to me in the form of some cool information about Bancroft posted to one of my Flickr pix by "Sheena 2.0" a fellow Flickr user (thank you Sheena)
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Sheena 2.0™ says:

Most people know him as the man who started the Naval Academy in Annapolis and delivered the Lincoln eulogy.

George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian and statesman who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state (that would be Massachusetts) and at the national level. During his tenure as U.S. Secretary of the Navy, he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1845. Among his best-known writings is the magisterial series, "History of the United States", from the "Discovery of the American Continent".

A number of US Navy ships were named after him - including the USS George Bancroft (SSBN-643).

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Hrm... pretty interesting actually. Much better than what was on the plaque. If I had a friend that did all that I might be inclined to build something huge in their honor too. That is if I had a whole bunch of money I didn't need. Which I don't so I won't be building anything like this.

Then I went looking into search engines and found out that the monument was actually built by Stephen Salisbury III for his father's childhood friend, Bancroft. That's a little different than what is on the plaque too. There were more bits of stuff out there on the web - here's some more great information if you want.

In addition to the facts behind the tower, I discovered a site that had a bunch of comments from people who enjoyed Bancroft Tower, not as a place to party and hook up but as an actual park: read some of their memories about Bancroft Tower here. It's got some cool stuff (and some crap - gotta love the web)

It's also been a place that WPI students love a lot. It's easy to see why they'd like it. It's cool looking. It's also a great place for their performing arts groups and role playing fans to use. What could be better than an actual mini-castle if you are trying to do Shakespeare or play Dungeons & Dragons?

It would be cool to see it used for more stuff - like real events. If people are using it for that, they should do a better job of spreading the word. Prior to my poking around, I've only heard about Bancroft Tower being a place to get drunk and/or have illicit sex. Which is one of the main reasons why I've lived here for so long but hadn't been up there. That's too bad.