A dispatch from the Who Knew?! Department: The former home of Worcester native and famed humorist Robert Benchley (1889-1945) once stood at the very Main Street location of Clark’s new Alumni and Student Engagement Center.
Benchley, a prominent writer for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, and later an Oscar-winning short-film director, may be best known as a founding member of The Algonquin Round Table, the celebrated group of New York City wits and intellectuals whose often vicious wisecracks became staples of popular culture throughout the 1920s.
Another Benchley, Robert’s grandson Peter, found his own share of acclaim as the author of the bestselling novel “Jaws.”
The Benchley house was torn down in the 1970s to make way for a parking lot that served St. Peter’s Church for many years.
