The American Antiquarian Society, located just off Park Avenue in Worcester, has received a nearly $18-million tax-exempt bond from MassDevelopment to upgrade its current building and expand to new space across the street.
The Antiquarian Society, an independent research library and a scholarly society, will buy a building at 4 Regent St. for offices, meeting and storage space, and demolish the building now at 90 Park Ave. for parking. The society bought the former 5,400 square-foot home at 4 Regent St. earlier this year for $400,000.
Its main building, at 185 Salisbury St., will be reconfigured. The society will move the main building’s conservation laboratory and mechanical equipment, and create new seminar, meeting and exhibition space. The building, which was built in 1930, includes nearly 38,000 square feet.
The society plans a 7,000-square-foot multistory addition that would add a copper exterior to the building’s brick facade. The city’s historical commission has already signed off on the project.
 The Antiquarian Society, which was founded in 1812, says it houses the country’s largest and most accessible collection of printed cultural materials dating back to the Colonial period through 1876. It also curates manuscripts and a collection of bibliographies, reference works and other American history and cultural items from before the 20th century.
