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Worcester, Massachusetts
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Worcester is a city in the state of Massachusetts in the United States of America. A 2006 estimate put the population at 175,898, making it the estimated second-largest city in New England, after Boston. It is the county seat of Worcester County. The city marks the western periphery of the Boston-Worcester-Manchester (MA-RI-NH) U.S. Census Combined Statistical Area (CSA). Located in Central Massachusetts, Worcester is known as the "Heart of the Commonwealth."
Pakachoag tribe of the Nipmuc nation of Native Americans were the indigenous settlers of Quinsigamond, now known as Worcester.
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Encyclopedia
Worcester is a city in the state of Massachusetts in the United States of America. A 2006 estimate put the population at 175,898, making it the estimated second-largest city in New England, after Boston. It is the county seat of Worcester County. The city marks the western periphery of the Boston-Worcester-Manchester (MA-RI-NH) U.S. Census Combined Statistical Area (CSA). Located in Central Massachusetts, Worcester is known as the "Heart of the Commonwealth."
History
Early
The Pakachoag tribe of the Nipmuc nation of Native Americans were the indigenous settlers of Quinsigamond, now known as Worcester. For the Pakachoag, Worcester's Lake Quinsigamond offered fine hunting and fishing grounds a short distance from their main village near a spring on Pakachoag Hill in what is now Auburn. Mt. Wachusett was their sacred place.
Worcester was first settled by the English in 1673, but the modest settlement of six or seven houses was burned to the ground during King Philip's War on December 2, 1675, and the English settlers were either killed or driven off. The town was subsequently resettled and was incorporated in 1684. On September 10 of that year, Daniel Gookin and others petitioned to have the town's name officially changed from "Quinsigamond" to "Worcester". However, its inhabitants were still vulnerable to attack, and some, such as Samuel Lenorson Jr., were taken hostage by natives during the 1690s. When Queen Anne's War started in 1702, the town was again abandoned by all of its English inhabitants except for Diggory Sargent. Sargent was later tomahawked, as was his wife, who was too weak to make the journey on foot to Canada. Their children were taken to Canada and survived.
In 1713 Worcester was re-settled for the third time, permanently, by Jonas Rice, whose farm was located atop Union Hill. Named after the historic city of Worcester, England, Worcester [= War + cester camp] was incorporated as a town in 1722 and chartered as a city in 1848. When the government of Worcester County was established on April 2, 1731, Worcester was chosen as its shire town (later known as a county seat). From that date until the dissolution of the county government on July 1, 1998, it was the only county seat.
Revolutionary Period
As political tensions rose in the months before the American Revolution, Worcester served as a center of revolutionary activity. Because it was an important munitions depot, Worcester was targeted for attack by Loyalist general Thomas Gage. However, officers sent secretly to inspect the munitions depot were discovered by Patriot Timothy Bigelow. General Gage then decided to move on to the second munitions depot, in Lexington. In 1775 determining that Boston was too dangerous, Isaiah Thomas moved his newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, to Worcester. The Massachusetts Spy was one of the few papers published continuously during the Revolution. On July 14, 1776, Isaiah Thomas, intercepting the packet from Philadelphia to Boston, performed the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence ever in front of Worcester City Hall. In 1812, Thomas founded the American Antiquarian Society, a research library holding nearly two thirds of the items known to have been printed in America from 1639, through 1820. The Society's holdings from 1821 to 1876 compare favorably with those of the Library of Congress and other major research libraries.
Industrial Revolution
Known for innovation in commerce, industry, education, and social thought, Worcester and the nearby Blackstone Valley claim their historic role as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. Ichabod Washburn, an early industrialist, developed a process for extruding steel wire. His company, Washburn & Moen, founded in 1831, was "the company that 'barbed-wire fenced the American West,'" and held the battle lines during the First World War. In 1840, Loring Coes invented the monkey wrench. In the 1850s, George Crompton and LJ & FB Knowles founded companies that manufactured the textile looms that fueled the Industrial Revolution. Another Worcester innovator, physician Russel Howes, invented the first envelope folding machine in 1856. His machine could produce 25,000 envelopes in ten hours, using three operators. Women found economic opportunity in Worcester. An early female entrepreneur, Esther Howland, designed and manufactured the first American valentine cards in 1847. Women also found opportunity in The Royal Worcester Corset Factory, a company that provided employment opportunity for 1200 women; it was the largest employer of women in the United States in 1908. An innovative form of affordable housing appeared in the 19th century: the three-decker. Hundreds of these houses were built, affording capacious, comfortable apartments for a homeowner and two tenants. Many extended families settled in these houses, developing strong, safe, and stable neighborhoods for the city's factory workers.
Several entrepreneurs brought growth to Worcester's economy during this period. John Jeppson, a skilled potter, emigrated from Hoganas, Sweden to Worcester in search of a better life. In Worcester he founded Norton Company, now Saint-Gobain, the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of performance engineered abrasives for technical manufacturing and commercial applications as well as general household and automotive refinishing. Jeppson created economic opportunity for the thousands of his countrymen who followed him to Worcester and for others, as well.
Many Irish immigrants settled in Worcester during this period, as well. They helped build the railroad and the Blackstone Canal, further driving Worcester's economic engine.
Recent Times
In December 1999, the Worcester Cold Storage Fire received national attention. Two homeless people, deemed mentally disabled, accidentally knocked over a lit candle in an abandoned cold storage warehouse, igniting a conflagration. Six firefighters lost their lives in an attempt to rescue the homeless people. Less than two years before the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, this fire was one of the worst firefighting tragedies of the late 20th-century. President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and other local and national dignitaries attended services and a memorial program.
In April 2006, the Worcester Common Outlets, a 1,000,000 square foot mall that occupies a large swath of downtown Worcester was planned to be demolished as to make way for the long-planned "City Square". A multi-use collaboration of several downtown buildings for commercial, retail, and residential use.
Pronunciation
"Worcester" is correctly pronounced with two syllables, not three (listen). However, some varieties of the local dialect pronounce "Worcester" as wuh-stah. Occasionally, the city's name is misspelled and mispronounced as "Worchester".
Geography
Worcester is located at (42.268843, -71.803774). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 38.6 square miles (99.9 km²), of which, 37.6 square miles (97.3 km²) of it is land and 1.0 square miles (2.6 km²) of it (2.59%) is water. Worcester is bordered by the towns of Auburn, Grafton, Holden, Leicester, Millbury, Paxton, Shrewsbury, and West Boylston.
The Blackstone River passes through Worcester. Its headwaters are found in Institute Park. The river courses underground through the center of the city, and emerges at the foot of College Hill, flowing through Quinsigamond Village and into Millbury. Water Street, originally the Blackstone Canal, is emerging as the center of the "." Legend has it that the city sits atop seven hills: Airport Hill, Bancroft Hill, Belmont Hill (Bell Hill), Grafton Hill, Green Hill, Pakachoag Hill and Vernon Hill. Actually, there are more than seven hills. Other hills include; Indian Hill, Poet's Hill, Wigwam Hill among others. Worcester's lakes include:Lake Quinsigamond, the site of rowing competitions, Indian Lake, Bell Pond, and Coes Pond.
Worcester counts within its borders over 1,200 acres (5 km²) of publicly owned property. Elm Park, purchased in 1854 and laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, was not only the first public park in the city (after the 8 acre (32,000 m²) City Common from 1669) but also one of the first public parks in the U.S. Both the City Common and Elm Park are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 1903 the Green family donated the 549 acres (2.2 km²) of Green Hill area land to the city, making Green Hill Park the largest in the city. Other parks include: Newton Hill, East Park, Morgan Park, Shore Park, Crompton Park, Hadwen Park and University Park.
In June 2002, city and state leaders dedicated the Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Green Hill Park grounds.
Neighborhoods
- North Worcester
- Greendale
- Burncoat
- Summit
- Indian Hill
- Indian Lake
- Lincoln Street
- Green Hill Park
- West Side
- Tatnuck
- West Tatnuck
- Mill Street
- Worcester Airport
- Park Ave
- Downtown
- Lincoln Square
- Federal Square
- Shrewsbury Street
- Lake Avenue/Quinsigamond Lake
- Bell Hill
- Grafton Hill
- Vernon Hill
- Kelley Square/Water Street
- Green Island(a.k.a.the island)
- College Hill
- Quinsigamond Village
- South Worcester
- Main South
- Cambridge Street
- Webster Square
- Plantation Street
- Sunderland/Massasoit Road/Rice Square
Demographics
Successive waves of immigrants have in the past formed coherent ethnic enclaves, some of which continue to contribute to the rich ethnic texture of Worcester today. Swedes settled in Quinsigamond Village and Greendale, Italians settled along Shrewsbury Street, Irish and Polish settled around Kelly Square, Lithuanians settled on Vernon Hill, and Jews built their first synagogue on Grafton Hill. The African-American community has existed since colonial times. Since the late 1800s, Grafton Hill and Vernon Hill have been points of entry for immigrants from all over the world: Irish, Italians, Lithuanians, Poles, Syrians, Lebanese, Puerto Ricans, French Canadians, and more recently, Albanians and Brazilians. Other prominent groups include Russians, Armenians, Greeks, Vietnamese, Liberians, and Congolese.
As of the census of 2000, there were 172,648 people, 67,028 households, and 39,211 families residing in the city, making it the second largest city by population in New England, behind Boston. The population density was 4,596.5 people per square mile (1,774.8/km²). There were 70,723 housing units at an average density of 1,882.9/sq mi (727.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 77.11% White, 6.89% African American, 0.45% Native American, 4.87% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 7.24% from other races, and 3.39% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 15.15% of the population. The top 5 largest ancestries include: Irish (19.0%), Italian (11.6%), French (10.3%), English (6.2%), and Polish (6.1%)
There were 67,028 households out of which 29.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.3% were married couples living together, 15.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.5% were non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 3.11.
The population is spread out with 23.6% under the age of 18, 13.3% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 92.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.7 males.
The median household income is $35,623, and the median family income is $42,988. Males had a median income of $36,190 versus $28,522 for females. The per capita income is $18,614. About 14.1% of families and 17.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.6% of those under age 18 and 11.6% of those age 65 or over. Of the city's population over 25, 76.7% are high school graduates and 23.3% have a bachelor's degree.
Climate
Worcester's continental climate is typical of the New England region. The weather changes rapidly owing to the confluence of warm, humid air from the southwest; cool, dry air from the north; and the moderating influence of the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Summers are typically warm and humid, while winters are cold, windy and snowy. New Englanders expect snow as early as October (rarely), and as late as May. The USDA classifies the city as hardiness zone 5.
The hottest month is July, with an average high of 79 °F (26 °C) and a low of 61 °F (16 °C). The coldest month is January, with an average high of 32 °F (0 °C) and a low of 16 °F (-8 °C). Periods exceeding in summer and below in winter are not uncommon, but rarely prolonged. The all-time record high temperature is 102 °F (38.8 °C), recorded on July 4, 1911. The all-time record low temperature is -24 °F (-31.1 °C), recorded on February 16, 1943.
The city averages 47.3 in (1,200 mm) of precipitation a year, including averaging 68 in (172 cm) of snowfall a season, receiving more snow than coastal locations less than 40 miles (64 km) away. Massachusetts' geographic location's jutting out into the North Atlantic also make the city very prone to Nor'easter weather systems that can dump more than 20 in (50 cm) of snow on the region in one storm event.
While rare, the city has had its share of extreme weather. On September 21, 1938, the city was hit by the brutal New England Hurricane of 1938. Fifteen years later, Worcester was hit by a tornado that killed 94 people. The deadliest tornado in New England history, it damaged a large part of the city and surrounding towns. It struck Assumption Preparatory School, now the site of Quinsigamond Community College.
Government
Worcester is governed by a Council-manager government with a popularly elected mayor. A city council acts as the legislative body, and the council-appointed manager handles the traditional day-to-day chief executive functions.
City councilors can run as either a representative of a city district or as an at-large candidate. The winning at-large candidate who receives the greatest number of votes for mayor becomes the mayor (at large councilor candidates must ask to be removed from the ballot for mayor if they do not want to be listed on the mayoral ballot). As a result, voters must vote for their mayoral candidate twice, once as an at large councilor, and once as the mayor. The mayor has no more authority than other city councilors, but is the ceremonial head of the city and chair of the city council and school committee. Currently, there are 11 councilors: 6 at-large and 5 district.
Worcester's first charter, which went into effect in 1848, established a Mayor/Bicameral form of government. Together, the two chambers — the 11-member Board of Aldermen and the 30-member Common Council — were vested with complete legislative powers. The mayor handled all administrative departments, though appointments to those departments had to be approved by the two-chamber City Council.
Seeking to replace the old outdated charter, Worcester voters in November 1947 approved of a change to Plan E municipal government. In effect from January 1949 until November 1985, this charter (as outlined in chapter 43 of the Massachusetts General Laws) established City Council/City Manager government. This type of governance, with modifications, has survived to the present day.
Initially, Plan E government in Worcester was organized as a 9-member council (all at-large), a ceremonial mayor elected from the council by the councilors, and a council-appointed city manager. The manager oversees the daily administration of the city, makes all appointments to city offices, and can be removed at any time by a majority vote of the Council. The mayor chairs the city council and the school committee, and does not have the power to veto any vote.
In 1983, Worcester voters again decided to change the city charter. This "Home Rule" charter (named for the method of adoption of the charter) is similar to Plan E, the major changes being to the structure of the council and the election of the mayor. The 9-member Council became 11, 6 At-Large and 1 from each city district. The mayor is chosen by popular election, but must run as an At-Large Councilor.
Politics
Worcester's social progressivism includes a number of temperance and abolitionist movements. It was also a leader in the women's suffrage movement: The first national convention advocating women's rights was held in Worcester, October 23-24, 1850.
Two of the nation’s most radical (and often despised) abolitionists, Abby Kelley Foster and her husband Stephen S. Foster, adopted Worcester as their home, as did Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the editor of The Atlantic Monthly and Emily Dickinson's avuncular correspondent, and Unitarian minister Rev. Edward Everett Hale.
The area was already home to Lucy Stone, Eli Thayer, and Samuel May, Jr. They were joined in their political activities by networks of related Quaker families such as the Earles and the Chases, whose organizing efforts were crucial to the anti-slavery cause in central Massachusetts and throughout New England.
Anarchist Emma Goldman and two others opened an ice cream shop in 1892. "It was spring and not yet warm," Goldman later wrote, "but the coffee I brewed, our sandwiches, and dainty dishes were beginning to be appreciated. Within a short time we were able to invest in a soda-water fountain and some lovely coloured dishes."
On October 19, 1924, the largest gathering of the Ku Klux Klan ever held in New England took place at the Agricultural Fairgrounds in Worcester. Klansmen in sheets and hoods, new Knights awaiting a mass induction ceremony, and supporters swelled the crowd to 15,000. The KKK had hired more than 400 "husky guards," but when the rally ended around midnight, a riot broke out. Klansmen's cars were stoned, burned, and windows smashed. KKK members were pulled from their cars and beaten. Klansmen called for police protection, but the situation raged out of control for most of the night. The violence after the "Klanvocation" had the desired effect: Membership fell off, and no further public Klan meetings were held in Worcester.
Sixties radical Abbie Hoffman was born in Worcester in 1936 and spent more than half of his life there. Until he was 30, Worcester was the center of his universe; when he moved to New York in 1966, Worcester remained a haven. Even during his years as a fugitive, he would slip back into town and gather with old friends at his favorite restaurant, El Morocco. Biographer and friend Jonah Raskin explains that "Worcester provided him with his view of society and his way of dealing with the world."
Economy
Historically, Worcester's economic roots were tied to the Blackstone River. Textiles, shoes, and finished clothing were some of the first industries in the city. A second wave of manufacturing facilities soon came on the scene to further develop Worcester into a manufacturing center. Wire and machinery were the strengths of this economic cycle. One of the leaders of this manufacturing wave was George Fuller, an inventor and philanthropist, who developed a heat-treating process crucial to developing steel strong enough to be used in train couplings and the first automobile crankshafts. His company, Wyman-Gordon, has been a leading manufacturer of machine parts.
Charles Palmer, another innovator, received the first patent (1891) for a lunch wagon, or diner. He built his "fancy night cafes" and "night lunch wagons" in the Worcester area until 1901. After building a lunch wagon for himself in 1888, Thomas Buckley decided to manufacture lunch wagons in Worcester. Buckley was very successful and became known for his "White House Cafe" wagons. In 1906 Philip Duprey and Irving Stoddard established the Worcester Lunch Car Company, which shipped 'diners' all over the Eastern Seaboard.
They were joined in early automobile manufacture by American Wheelock, which built compressed air-powered trucks at Worcester in 1904.
In the 1930s a local merchant, Anthony "Spag" Borgatti, opened Spag's, a small hardware business. Credited with the invention of discount marketing, he stored his wares in old trailer trucks in order to avoid paying taxes. He was a local philanthropist. Every spring, Spag offered free tomato seedlings to his customers.
Today, Worcester has a diversified economy. The largest employer is the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The adjacent biotech park is host to many innovative companies, including Advanced Cell Technology, which focuses on the development of effective methods to generate replacement cells from stem cells, and Abbott Laboratories, a leading pharmaceutical research and manufacturing firm.
Morgan Construction, a manufacturer of steel rolling mills, has their headquarters in Worcester. Wright Line, a manufacturer of consoles and other workstations for 911/emergency operations centers, server enclosures and racks for data centers, office and computer lab furniture, is also headquartered in the city. Saint-Gobain has a substantial presence in Worcester following its 1993 purchase of the Norton Abrasives, a 100+ year old manufacturer of abrasives, ceramics, and specialty materials. Polar Beverages is also located in the city.
In the financial sector, Hanover Insurance maintains their national headquarters in the city. A subsidiary of Unum (formerly UnumProvident), the Paul Revere Life Insurance Company, is also headquartered in Worcester as is the Harleysville Worcester Insurance Company, the oldest insurance company based in Massachusetts.
David Clark Company pioneered aeronautical protective equipment since 1941, ranging from anti-gravity suits to space suits. Innovations include full-pressure suits for X-15 test pilots flying to record speeds and altitudes and the spacesuit worn by all Apollo astronauts on lunar missions. The company produces suit worn by modern space shuttle astronauts.
The Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology located in nearby Shrewsbury is best known for the development of the oral contraceptive pill (1951) and for pioneering research on in vitro fertilization. The first American conceived by this method (1981), Elizabeth Jordan Carr, lived in nearby Westminster.
In the area of popular culture retailing, Worcester is home to the notable small business That's Entertainment, which in 1997 was one of three comic book stores worldwide that received a "Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award" from Comic-Con International: San Diego. The award, named for comic book creator Will Eisner, recognizes "an individual retailer who has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large".
Education
Primary and secondary education
Worcester's Public Schools educate of more than 23,000 students in Kindergarten through 12th grade. The system consists of 33 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 7 high schools, and 13 other learning centers such as magnet schools, alternative schools, and special education schools. The city's public school system also administers an adult education component called "Night Life", and operates a cable accessible television station, Channel 11.
Twenty-one private and parochial schools are also found throughout Worcester, including the city's oldest educational institution, Worcester Academy, founded in 1834, and Bancroft School, founded in 1900.
Higher education
Worcester is home to several institutes of higher education, including:
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1865) is an innovative leader in engineering education and partnering with local biotechnology industries. Robert Goddard, the father of modern rocketry, graduated from WPI in 1908 with a Bachelor's of Science in Physics
- Clark University, founded in 1887, is the first graduate school in the country. It is noted for strengths in psychology and geography. Well-known professors include Albert A. Michelson, who won the first American Nobel Prize in 1902 for his measurement of light, Robert Goddard, the father of the space age, and G. Stanley Hall from Clark University, the founder of organized psychology as a science and profession, the father of the child study movement, and the founder of the American Psychological Association. Clark offers the only program in the country leading to a Ph.D. in Holocaust History and Genocide Studies. Sigmund Freud spoke only at Clark during his single trip to the United States.
- The University of Massachusetts Medical School (1970) is one of the nation's top 50 medical schools. Dr. Craig Mello won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine. The University of Massachusetts Medical School is ranked fourth in primary care education among America's 125 medical schools in the 2006 U.S. News & World Report annual guide "America’s Best Graduate Schools."
- Becker College is a private college with campuses in Worcester and Leicester, Massachusetts. It was founded in Leicester in 1784 as Leicester Academy; the Worcester campus was founded in 1887 and the two campuses merged into Becker College in 1977.
- Assumption College, the fourth oldest Roman Catholic college in New England, was founded in 1904. At , it has the largest campus in Worcester.
An early higher education institution, the Oread Institute, closed in 1934.
Many of these institutions participate in the Colleges of Worcester Consortium. This independent non-profit collegiate association operates and facilitates cooperation among the colleges and universities. One example is its inter-college shuttle bus and student cross registration. The consortium includes all academic institutions in Worcester County, whether within or outside the city boundaries.
Culture
Museums and Libraries
Worcester is home to several noteworthy libraries and museums, including:
- The American Antiquarian Society, a national library.
- The Worcester Art Museum, highlights include works by El Greco, Rembrandt, Matisse, Renoir, Gauguin, Kandinsky, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Franz Kline, and Jackson Pollock.
- The Higgins Armory Museum, housed in a steel Art Deco Building, is the sole museum in the Western Hemisphere devoted to arms and armour.
- The EcoTarium, a Science Museum.
Performing Art
Performing arts centers and arenas are abundant in the city. They include,
- Mechanics Hall, a Renaissance Revival concert hall on the National Register of Historic Places.
- Tuckerman Hall, designed by Josephine Wright Chapman, one of this country's earliest woman architects, is home of the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra.
- The Worcester Foothills Theatre, housed in the former Worcester Common Outlets, is the only professional theatrical company in Worcester.
- The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, at the site of the old Poli Palace Theatre on Main Street, is Worcester's venue for Broadway Shows, concerts, and nationally recognized performers.
- The Worcester Palladium, on Main Street, is a venue attracting many musicians and performers from around the world.
- The New England Metal and Hardcore Festival is usually held at the Palladium.
Notable Events
These are many events that occur yearly in Worcester. Some of the more notable ones including
- The Worcester Music Festival is the oldest music festival in the United States. This festival is presented by Music Worcester, Inc., which also presents the Mass Jazz Festival.
- stART on the Street is a large street art festival which takes place on the 3rd Sunday in September". This is hosted by the Central MA Arts Assembly.
- The New England Summer Nationals is a large car show that brings together thousands of vehicles and many more thousands of automotive enthusiasts from across the country to Worcester. This event takes place annually around the 4 July holiday.
- Worcester First Night is the name of the city's New Years Eve celebration.
Popular Music
In September 1981, the Rolling Stones played an unscheduled performance at local nightclub, Sir Morgan's Cove, (now The Lucky Dog) before embarking on their national tour that year. Billed as "Blue Monday with The Cockroaches", the Stones played before a packed house of 350 people who had been given tickets in a promotion by WAAF Radio that day.
"Wormtown," a nickname for Worcester that first appeared about 1977, originally referred to an underground musical subculture, but later became used by a few to refer to the city itself.
Other Cultural Resources
The Worcester County Poetry Association fosters the poetic tradition by sponsoring readings by national and local poets, celebrating Bloomsday, and holding conferences and literary tours of Worcester. Local poets have competed successfully in the National Poetry Slam.
The Worcester Center for Crafts, founded in 1856 as the Worcester Employment Society, provides professional-level craft studies to the Worcester community. The Craft Center's original purpose was to foster economic empowerment by teaching immigrants the skills needed to create and sell crafts. Today, The Worcester Center for Crafts offers craft education in weaving, metalwork, woodwork, enameling, jewelry-making, and other crafts, and seeks to promote an appreciation for fine craft.
Religion
Worcester is home to Congregation Beth Israel, a Conservative synagogue founded in 1924. The synagogue and its rabbi were the subject of the book And They Shall be My People: An American Rabbi and His Congregation by Paul Wilkes.
Media
Main Article: Media of Worcester, Massachusetts
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette is Worcester's only daily newspaper. The paper, known locally as "the Telegram" or "the T and G," is wholly owned by The New York Times Company. WCTR, channel 3, is Worcester's local news television station, and WUNI-TV, channel 27, is the only major over-the-air broadcast television station in Worcester. Radio stations based in Worcester include WSRS, WTAG, WWFX,and WXLO.
Sports
Main Article: Sports in Worcester
Worcester has a long storied past with sports teams and sporting events. The city was home to Marshall Walter ("Major") Taylor an African American cyclist who won the world one-mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899. Marshall’s legacy is being the second black world champion in any sport. Marshall’s was nicknamed the Worcester Whirlwind by the local papers.
Lake Quinsigamond is home to the Eastern Sprints, a premier rowing event in the the United States. Competitive rowing teams first came to Lake Quinsigamond in 1857. Finding the long, narrow lake ideal for such crew meets, avid rowers established boating clubs on the lake's shores, the first being the Quinsigamond Boating Club. More boating clubs and races followed, and soon many colleges (local, national, and international) held regattas, such as the Eastern Sprints, on the lake. Beginning in 1895, local high schools held crew races on the lake. In 1952, the lake played host to the National Olympic rowing trials.
The city is home to the American Hockey League team Worcester Sharks, which plays at the DCU Center as developmental team for the National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks. The AHL was formally represented by the Worcester IceCats from 1994 to 2005.
The city’s professional baseball team, the Worcester Tornadoes started in 2005 and as member of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball League. The team plays at the Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross and is not affricated with any major league team. The New England Surge, a member of the Continental Indoor Football League, plays their home games in the DCU Center since 2007. Candlepin bowling was invented in Worcester in 1880 by Justin White, an area bowling alley owner.
Golf's Ryder Cup's first official tournament was played at the Worcester Country Club in 1927. The course also hosted the U.S. Open in 1925, and the U.S. Women's Open in 1960.
Worcester’s colleges have had long histories and many notable achievements in collegiate sports. The College of the Holy Cross represents NCAA Division 1 sports in Worcester. The other colleges and Universities in Worcester correspond with division II and III. The Holy Cross Crusaders won the NCAA men's basketball champions in 1947 and NIT men's basketball champions in 1954 lead by future NBA hall-of-famers and Boston Celtic legends Bob Cousy and Tom Heinsohn. The Crusader’s men’s hockey team defeated the Minnesota Golden Gofers in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Division I Tournament in the biggest upset in NCAA Hockey history.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Worcester is served by several interstate highways. Interstate 290 connects central Worcester to Interstate 495, I-90 in nearby Auburn, and I-395. I-190 links Worcester to MA 2 and the cities of Fitchburg and Leominster in northern Worcester County. I-90 can also be reached from a new Massachusetts Route 146 connector.
Worcester is also served by several smaller Massachusetts state highways. Route 9 links the city to its eastern and western suburbs, Shrewsbury and Leicester. Route 9 runs almost the entire length of the state, connecting Boston and Worcester with Pittsfield, near the New York state border. Route 12 was the primary route north to Leominster and Fitchburg until the completion of I-190. Route 12 also connected Worcester to Webster before I-395 was completed. It still serves as an alternate, local route. Route 146, the Worcester-Providence Turnpike, connects the city with the similar city of Providence, Rhode Island. Route 20 touches the southernmost tip of Worcester near the Massachusetts Turnpike. U.S. 20 is a coast-to-coast route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and is the longest road in the United States.
Worcester is the western terminus of the Framingham/Worcester commuter rail line run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Union Station serves as the hub for commuter railway traffic. Built in 1911, the station has been restored to its original grace and splendor, reopening to full operation in 2000. It also serves as an Amtrak stop, serving the Lake Shore Limited from Boston to Chicago. In October of 2008 the MBTA added 5 new trains to the Framingham/Worcester line as part of a plan to add 20 or more trains from Worcester to Boston and also to buy the track from CSX Transportation. Train passengers may also connect to additional services such as the Vermonter line in Springfield.
The Worcester Regional Transit Authority, or WRTA, manages the municipal bus system. Buses operate intracity as well as connect Worcester to surrounding central Massachusetts communities. The WRTA also operates a shuttle bus between member institutions of the Colleges of Worcester Consortium. The Worcester bus station was recently relocated to Worcester Intermodal Center at Union Station. From here, Peter Pan Bus Lines (based in nearby Springfield) services other points in the Northeast.
The Worcester Regional Airport, managed by Massport for the city, lies at the top of Tatnuck Hill, Worcester's highest. The airport consists of one 7,000 ft runaway and a $15.7 million dollar terminal built to attract airlines and passengers. The airport held numerous airlines in from the 1970s through the 1990s, but it has encountered years of spotty commercial flights and unloyal air carriers. On September 4, 2008, Direct Air announced they would begin serving Worcester to Orlando, Florida, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Punta Gorda, Florida in the spring of 2009. Currently, they are the only commercial service serving the city.
Healthcare and utilities
The Worcester State Insane Asylum Hospital (1833) was the first hospital in the United States established to treat mental illnesses.
Worcester is home to the University of Massachusetts Medical School, ranked fourth in primary care education among America’s 125 medical schools in the 2006 U.S. News & World Report annual guide "America’s Best Graduate Schools." The school also operates the UMass Memorial Health Care, the clinical arm of the teaching hospital, which has expanded its locations all over central Massachusetts. St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center in the downtown area rounds out Worcester's primary care facilities. Fallon Clinic, presently the largest private multi-specialty group in central Massachusetts, includes St. Vincent's Hospital in its over 30 locations. Fallon Clinic was the creator of Fallon Community Health Plan, a now independent HMO based in Worcester, and one of the largest health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in the state.
Worcester has a municipally owned water supply. Sewage disposal services are provided by the Upper Blackstone Water Pollution Abatement District, which services Worcester as well as some surrounding communities. National Grid USA is the exclusive distributor of electric power to the city, though due to deregulation, customers now have a choice of electric generation companies. Natural gas is distributed by NSTAR Gas; only commercial and industrial customers may choose an alternate natural gas supplier. Verizon, successor to New England Telephone, NYNEX, and Bell Atlantic, is the primary wired telephone service provider for the area. Phone service is also available from various national wireless companies. Cable television is available from Charter Communications, with Broadband Internet access also provided, while a variety of DSL providers and resellers are able to provide broadband Internet over Verizon-owned phone lines.
Notable residents
- Jerry Azumah, former NFL All-Pro return specialist
- Harvey Ball, inventor of the smiley face
- George Bancroft, author of the first comprehensive history of the United States, first Secretary of the Navy, and founder of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
- Robert Benchley, humorist
- H. Jon Benjamin, Voice actor for numerous animated television shows
- Elizabeth Bishop, Pulitizer Prize winning poet
- Billy Collins, College of the Holy Cross Poet Laureate
- Bob Cousy, athlete
- Ronald Dworkin, Legal Philosopher
- Sarah Beth Durst, author
- Esther Forbes, author of Johnny Tremain
- Abby Kelley Foster, abolitionist, suffragette
- Christos Gage, screenwriter
- Eleni Gage, author
- Nicholas Gage, author
- Robert Goddard, pioneer of rocketry
- Thomas Wentworth Higginson, abolitionist, literary mentor to Emily Dickinson
- Abbie Hoffman, political activist
- Stanley Kunitz, Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet Laureate of the United States
- Denis Leary, actor/comedian
- Eddie Mekka, actor
- Charles Olson, Beat Poet
- Renee Sands, singer/actress, former member of Kids Incorporated and Wild Orchid
- Joseph Skinger, Silversmith/Sculptor
- Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor, athlete
- Isaiah Thomas, publisher of the Massachusetts Spy
- Alicia Witt, actress
- Ken Doane, Professional Wrestler
- Pat Johnson, Professional Curler
Sister cities
Worcester has the following sister cities:
See also
Further reading
- Wall & Gray. 1871 . . Counties - , , , , , , ,, , . Cities - , , , , , , , , , . . These 1871 maps of the Counties and Cities are useful to see the roads and rail lines.
- Beers,D.G. 1872 Atlas of Essex County . Click on the map for a very large image. Also see map of .
External links
- (Information about events and venues around Blackstone Canal)
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