It is a ten-story structure, with a steel frame faced in brick, terracotta, and stone.

The ground floor presents an arcade of arches to both Franklin and Portland Streets, finished in marble.

[3] It was designed by Buffalo, New York architects Esenwein & Johnson in the Beaux Arts style and was constructed at a cost of over $1.2 million (equivalent to $37,887,000 in 2023).

The hotel opened on September 1, 1913,[4] named for Worcester historian and politician George Bancroft.

[6] In April 1952, the hotel hosted a women's tea for John F. Kennedy's senatorial campaign against Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who was also there that day.