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Image courtesy of U-Haul.
A historic Worcester shoe factory is set to become a self-storage facility.
This spring, U-Haul plans to open a 1,200-room self-storage facility and truck rental facility in the long-vacant Melville Shoe Corp. building at 44 Hammond St. U-Haul acquired the vacant 180,480-square-foot 4-story building in 2018.
“This building is full of history and character,” Jerry Ouellette, U-Haul Company of Western Massachusetts and Vermont president, said in a statement. “We are honored to clean up the property and bring our services to this side of Worcester. Preserving the history in this area is important to us. We know the community will love the finished product.”
Ouellette said he expects to hire a staff of 15 or more when the store is fully operational.
The building was constructed in 1928 and served as the Melville Shoe Corp. manufacturing plant. Melville Shoe Corp. was once the country’s largest shoe retailer. More than 600 stores were supplied with shoes from the Worcester warehouse.
This is the third U-Haul-owned and -operated store in Worcester, and the 58th U-Haul store in Massachusetts. There are also two independent small business operating as U-Haul dealers in Worcester: Metrowest Auto Sales and Service, and Worcester Self Storage Downtown.
