Worcester City Hall, completed in 1898, was modelled on Florence's Palazzo Vecchio and stands at the south side of the Common as a confident statement of late-19th-century civic pride. The clock tower, the pale granite, and the symmetry of the facade all evoke a Renaissance Italian town hall transplanted to a New England mill city.
The building is still the working seat of the city government. The first-floor lobby is open during business hours and worth a quick walk-through to see the marble staircase and the murals.