09-05-2025
Conan O'Brien loved this Worcester museum as a kid: 'Greatest days of my life."
Late night legend Conan O'Brien just made a deep-cut reference only Massachusetts fans might get.
During his podcast, "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend," O'Brien was telling a seemingly fictitious story about his podcast co-host, Sona Movsesian, walking out of a museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, wearing a stolen suit of armor, then attempting to recall the name of the establishment before one of his staff shouted it out to him.
"Yes!" O'Brien, born in 1963, said. "Higgins Armory, it was the one thing, when I would go to visit my cousins."
O'Brien is originally from Brookline, Mass.
O'Brien then said that he and his cousins would ask his aunt what they would be doing on a rainy Worcester day, she would drive them to the now-defunct Higgins Armory Museum.
"And there was no attempt to make it look interesting," O'Brien said. "Just literally a giant warehouse then, and someone had lots of suits of armor that they just laid out. They didn't even have mannequins in them."
Movsesian then said that Brookline comedian would have loved something like that and asked if he was pretending not to like it because he was trying to be cool in front of his cousins.
"Truth be told? Greatest days of my life," O'Brien said. "Boy, did this little orange-haired boy love a suit of armor."
O'Brien also said that fans should visit the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester.
Unfortunately, the Higgins Armory Museum closed near the end of 2013 due to a lack of funds, after being open since 1931.
The building where the museum operated is now a venue that can be rented out for events.
The Higgins Armory Collection was transferred to the Worcester Art Museum. It is the second-largest collection of its kind in the Americas.
Comprising arms, armor and metalwork from around the world and from antiquity to the 19th century, the collection is particularly known for its rare grouping of suits of plate armor from 15th- to 17th-century Europe.
However, there still may be hope for both the intrepid armor enthusiast and, possibly, O'Brien, if he were to choose to relive his adolescent days of wonder.
The Worcester Art Museum has unveiled updated design plans for its keenly awaited new Arms and Armor Galleries, which it says are under construction and will open in late 2025.
Learn more: Worcester Art Museum updates plans for showcasing Higgins Armory Collection
Richard Duckett contributed to the reporting of this article.
Rin Velasco is a trending reporter. She can be reached at rvelasco@
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Conan O'Brien said 'greatest days' of his life spent at Worcester spot
