Worcester -- who knew?

WORCESTER -- With a population of just over 170,000, Worcester is the second-largest city in the state and the third-largest in New England (behind Boston and Providence).

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Despite this, many Worcesterites feel their hometown suffers from the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome: no respect. Or, at least, not enough of it. They have a point.

Although long overshadowed by Boston, the Worcester area has a distinct identity, a lively cultural scene, many attractions, and claims to fame that range from the engagingly quirky (the yellow smiley-face logo and shredded wheat were both invented here) to the profoundly significant (the liquid-fueled space rocket and the birth control pill also were developed locally).

Worcester's attractions include the remarkable Higgins Armory Museum, which displays the country's largest collection of suits of armor (more than 100 of them, many very rare and beautifully ornamented) in a re-created castle banquet hall that plunges visitors into the Middle Ages. It sounds gloomy, but in fact is fascinating and family friendly: Young would-be knights and ladies fair can try on replicas of medieval costumes and armor, for example.

Another one-of-a-kind place is Union Station, a local landmark since 1911. Closed for almost a quarter-century, the massive, ornate, and gleaming white twin-towered train station in Washington Square was painstakingly restored a few years ago at a cost of $32 million. It is served by both Amtrak and the MBTA commuter rail and also houses a first-class restaurant, a jazz and blues club, and a small museum devoted to the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The Worcester Art Museum ranks among the country's best medium-size art museums. The permanent collection consists of more than 30,000 works spanning 5,000 years; the early American paintings are particularly noteworthy. The museum also was one of the first to recognize photography as an art form and to collect the work of leading photographers.

Also, Mechanics Hall, built in 1857, was originally used as a venue for lectures; Charles Dickens and Henry David Thoreau gave talks and readings here. Lovingly preserved, the hall, with superb acoustics, is used today for concerts and special musical events.

In an era when the locally owned independent bookstore seems to be a vanishing species, Worcester boasts New England's largest: Tatnuck Bookseller. Occupying a cavernous former machine tool factory, Tatnuck has some five miles of shelves with both new and used books. It also sells stationery, cards, candles, toys, and gifts and has an excellent restaurant with an outdoor patio.

Worcester's official emblem is the heart, symbolizing its location in the center of both the state and the region. Over the last 30 years or so, its own civic center, the downtown business district, has had what amounts to open-heart surgery in the form of several urban renewal projects.   Continued...