Central Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
In the days of the Blackstone Canal, Central street was the principal road from Main street to the canal basin. It now runs from 251 Main east to 121 Summer street. In the earlier days of the canal, which began the strange feat of bringing vessels on water into the heart of the inland city in the Fall of 1828, Central street had but few houses. It became a favorite pastime of residents, when time was slow on their hands, to meander down to the basin through Central street, to see what they could see. The barges came drifting up from Providence, carrying metals, corn, flour, salt and what not. Crews emptied the cargos and took loads from Worcester and Worcester County farmers and manufacturers. Manufacturers, like Heywood-Wakefield in Gardner would load up teams full of chairs and bring them to Worcester for shipment down the canal. In “Carl’s Tour in Main Street,” a popular history, the writer tells of watching the large loads of chairs from northern parts of the county being loaded at the basin. He saw the barges come in “with now and then a family of prodigiously large wharf rats for passengers. As the colony is not yet extinct, I think they came here as emigrants, and not as temporary visitors.” In the hot summer days, Worcester boys were likely to slip out for a dip in the canal. In 1829, an article was inserted in the town warrant: “If any person expose himself in swimming within one hour of sunrise or one hour after sundown in any part of the Blackstone Canal within the town he shall be fined $2.” In 1833, Central street was somewhat confusing. Central street intersected Central street. But the Central street that the present Central street intersected became Union street.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
