Fifth of six parts
Mike Elfland|Telegram & Gazette
For Worcester's tercentennial, we've gathered 300 facts about the community that will turn you into an amateur historian — if not the winner of the next trivia contest at the neighborhood bar. From famous residents to homegrown inventions to notable sporting events, we've gathered a list of items sure to elicit a few I-didn't-know-that reactions. Here's the fifth ofsix 50-item lists:
On Sept. 27, 1932, the home of Judge Webster Thayer on Institute Road was shattered by a bomb. He had presided at the trial of the Italian anarchists, Sacco and Vanzetti, in 1921and had been much criticized for his open hostility toward them. Thayer, a Worcester Academy graduate, lived the remainderof his life with police protection.
Babe Ruth played for the Boston Braves in an exhibition game against Holy Cross at Fitton Field on April 15, 1935. The Babe, starting the final season of his Hall of Fame career, played five innings before a crowd estimated at more than 10,000. He got up to bat three times and grounded out once, then walked twice. He signed autographs and stepped away from his baseball duties long enough to be photographed with the college band. The Braves won, 5-2.
On June 14, 1722, Worcester was incorporated as a town. Within a decade it was named the county seat.
The first liquid fuel rocket patent was granted to Dr. Robert Goddard in 1914. He fired his famous rocket from Pakachoag Hill in Auburn.
Worcester Center Galleria, a shopping mall at the heart of long-discussed reshaping of downtown, opened in July 1971. Filene's and Jordan Marsh were among the draws in the early, successful years. The center, reinvented as an outlet mall at one point, closed in the early 2000s.
The Rolling Stones earned a top spot in Worcester pop culture history when the band played an unexpected show at Sir Morgan's Cove on Green Street Sept. 14, 1981. Mick Jagger and his mates had been practicing at a North Brookfield music studio. The Stones played at the Worcester Memorial Auditorium in April 1965.
The population of Worcester, 2,095 in 1790, reached 206,518 in 2020, according to the latest Census figures. The count was 203,486 in 1950, but the population dropped below the 200,000 mark for many years before spiking again.
Worcester weather history: The city was battered by rain on Oct. 13, 1895. The final measurement was 7.54 inches, the highest one-day rain total on record for the city, according to the National Weather Service.
Waldo Street in downtown takes its name from Daniel Waldo, a president of Worcester County Institution for Savings. His sister was married to Levi Lincoln Jr., a governor of Massachusetts. Waldo died in 1845.
Thousands of residents crowded Franklin Square on July 6, 1946, to witness a helicopter make a pickup at the post office. Air mail was new to the city. Meantime, Franklin Square is now known as Federal Square, home to The Hanover Theatre,and the post office was reworked into a federal courthouse.
WSMW-TV, Channel 27, signed on Jan. 1, 1970, from its studios on Beverly Road. Originally owned by State Mutual (now Hanover Insurance), the station broadcast Boston Celtics games until 1972, a nightly NewsHourand a variety of local and syndicated programming. Changing hands several times, the station is now WUNI Channel 66, a Univision affiliate based in Marlborough.
The city is on its third South High, the latest opening a year ago at 170 Apricot St., next to the old one. The original South High was a 14 Richards St., opening in 1901amid French and Irish neighborhoods. That building, last a high school in the late 1970s, is now the Goddard School of Science & Technology.
A marker in Lincoln Square recognizes the route that Henry Knox took in 1776 while leading an artillery haul from New York to Boston. He had been asked by George Washington to collect captured cannons from Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
Rocco Square, at Dorchester and Cutler streets, honors Army Pvt. James J. Rocco. He was killed in training at Camp Polk, Louisianain March 1943. The square was dedicated in 1955.
The Bancroft School, a private school on Shore Drive, founded in 1900, was first based on Elm Streetnear downtown. The school moved out of 111 ElmSt. in 1922and the building became home of Temple Emanuel. The structure was razed in the 1960s, replaced by a small office building.
The original All Saints Church in Worcester was built in 1846 on Pearl Street, a block from Main Street. The wooden structure was destroyed by fire in 1874. The church was rebuilt on Irving Streetwith its original location on Pearl Street later the site of the Bull Mansion.
Humorist and film actor Robert Benchley was born in Worcester in 1889 and was raised on Shepard Street in Main South. His older brother Edmund was killed in the Spanish-American War in 1899; Benchley Square at Commercial and Foster streets honors his memory. Robert's son Nathaniel was also a writerand his grandson Peter became famous for the novel "Jaws" and screenplay for the blockbuster movie.
Students at the former Freeland Street School took part in a 1958 initiative that involved televised lessons in a range of topics. WGBH-TV was the organizer of the "21-inch classroom."
Charles Dickens made a pair of visits to Worcester, first in 1842. His second stop came with great expectationson March 23, 1868, as he read "A Christmas Carol" at Mechanics Hall.
Booker T. Washington traveled to the city to speak at the June 9, 1915, commencement of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He noted that the founding of the school and the 13th Amendment were each in their 50th year.
The Worcester Turnpike Co. was incorporated in 1806. Four years later, a 14-foot wide dirt road linked Boston and Worcester. The current Route 9 follows the same path.
On Aug. 22, 2002, the Burkett Little League all-star team beat Harlem, 5-2, to advance to the Little League World Series. Ryan Griffin hit a walkoff three-run homer to right field in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Burkett team earned the right to play Louisville, Kentuckyfor the national title. Burkett lost to Louisville on Aug. 24, 4-0, to end its storybook season.
The funeral train of John Quincy Adams made a stop in Worcester on March 10, 1848. Thousands gathered in Washington Square for the short stop, with bells tolled for the occasion.
Ticket sales for The Whoconcert on Dec. 11, 1982, was the first “surprise” ticket sale, announced with no warning, at the Centrum.
Mulvehill Square, on East Central Street at the bottom of the I-290 west off-ramp, honors Pvt. James E. Mulvehill. He was killed in a trench collapse in France in February 1918 in World War I.
A post office inWorcester was established in November 1775with Isaiah Thomas, the publisher, appointed the first postmaster.
St. Peter’s High School graduate and actor Denis Leary first came to prominence as a sarcastic stand-up comedian before becoming an actor in such films as ‘Demolition Man,” “Judgment Night," “The Ref” and “Two If By Sea.” Leary, who is probably best known for being the star and creator of “Rescue Me,” founded the Leary Firefighters Foundation aftersix firefighters lost their lives in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire.
The Worcester Free Institute of Industrial Science was founded in 1865. Soon it was known as Worcester Technical Institute. It is known today as Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Actress Grace Boyle, the daughter of a blind vaudeville pianist, grew up in a three-decker still standing at 203 Stafford St. She took Grace Stafford as her stage name after her home street. She later married animated cartoon producer Walter Lantz and was the voice of Woody Woodpecker in Lantz's cartoons from 1950 to 1992.
Golfer Willie Macfarlane won U.S. Open at Worcester Country Club on June 5, 1925. Macfarlane beat Bobby Jones by one stroke in a 36-hole playoff, the golfers being tied after 35 holes of competition on that Friday.
Thousands gathered at Worcester Common in July 1857 for the ascension of a hot-air balloon, Zephyrus. The trip carried James Allen, known as the New England Aeronaut, over parts of Shrewsbury and Boylston before touching down in Holden.
At one time, the area west of Suffolk Streetbelow Dutch Hillwas labeled Dungarven, a name of Irish origin.
Musical mystery: Bells tolled throughout Worcester on Sept. 16, 1816. In fact, bells at various church and other spots apparently rang 1,000 times. Worcester historians, amateur and otherwise, never pinned down the reason for the tolls.
Casey Stengel, the Hall of Fame manager, was sent down from the Boston Braves to be a player-manager-team president of their Worcester Panthers minor league affiliate in 1925. The Panthers lost Stengel’s debut, 6-5, to Bridgeport at Boulevard Park in Worcester.
Levi Lincoln Jr. was elected the first mayor of Worcester in 1848after the switch was made from a town to a city. By then he was at the end of a long political career, highlighted by nearly a decade as governor of Massachusetts.
It wasn't yet marketed as March Madness, but in March 1947Holy Cross was at the center of the college basketball world. The Crusaders, coached by Alvin Julian and sparked on the floor by George Kaftan and Bob Cousy, beat the Oklahoma Sooners, 58-47, at Madison Square Garden to become the first team from the East to win the NCAA basketball title.
Worcester native Alicia Witt made her acting debut in 1984’s “Dune” after director David Lynch saw the youngster, at age 5, recite Shakespeare on “That’s Incredible!” Since then, Witt has appeared in numerous film and television projects including “Twin Peaks" and “Orange is the New Black.”
New York-based artist Charles Y. Harvey, the man behind the Burnside Fountain, also known as the "Boy with a Turtle," or simply"Turtle Boy," killed himself before the statue was finished because he apparently heard voices that told him to do just that.
Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel have all opened tours at the Centrum—Turner's U.S. “Private Dancer” tour on July 21, 1985; Bruce Springsteen’s “Tunnel of Love” tour, Feb. 25, 28-29, 1988; and Billy Joel’s “Storm Front” tour, Dec. 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 1989.
The Aud, as some refer to the Worcester Memorial Auditorium, was dedicated in 1933 as a tribute to the city's War World I veterans. As many as 9,000 residents were involved in the war. The building wasfirst envisioned by Mayor Pehr Holmes.
Augustus Brown Reed Sprague, the 30th mayor of Worcester, had an impressive résumé: Union Army officer during Civil War, tax collector, Worcester County sheriff, president of Mechanics Savings Bank and president of Worcester Electric Light Co.
While Worcester received its original charter as a city on Feb. 29, 1848,it was formally accepted in a public vote May 18. Some in the community, notably those who lived in the more rural edges, were not keen about the heightened status. The year of the charter has been corrected.
Poet Elizabeth Bishop, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956, was born in Worcester in 1911. Her family lived at 875 Main St. She references Worcester in "In the Waiting Room," an account of a trip to the dentist with an aunt.
The Telegram & Gazette has had a succession of owners in recent years, notably John Henry, the owner of the Boston Red Sox. In 2013, he bought the T&G and The Globe from the New York Times for $70 million. In 2014, Henry sold the T&G to Halifax Media Group, a newspaper chain. The paper is now owned by Gannett.
On May 1, 1978, WICN and WCUW disc jockey Leonard B. Saarinen, aka L.B. Worm, coined the controversial moniker Wormtownfor the city's local music scene. Today,the term Wormtownis more popular and more commercially acceptable than ever, so much so that a local business named itselfWormtown Brewery.
The steam calliope was patented by Joshua C. Stoddard of Worcester on Oct. 9, 1855. Originally intended to replace bells in churches, it found its way onto riverboats and circuses. Owing to residents' complaints over the calliope's sonic blasts, the City Council ordered Stoddard not to play it within city limits.
Andrew Holmstrom was a mayor of Worcester from 1950 to 1953. He was also an executive at the Norton Co. A section of Interstate 190, from Worcester to Sterling, was formally renamed in his honor in 1973. The road was called Route 52.
Edwin Bradbury Luce opened a portrait studio in Millbury in 1881, two years before he opened a shop on Main Street in Worcester. Soon his business focused on products at city factories: grinding wheels at Norton Co., forgings at Wyman-Gordon, looms at Crompton & Knowles.
Bruno Haas, who grew up in the city and attended Worcester Academy, did a lot of walking. As a baseball pitcher, on June 23, 1915, he was summoned to Philadelphia to pitch for the woeful Athletics on their way to a last-place finish. The southpaw allowed 13 hits and 15 runs as well as a major league record 16 walks in a 15-7 loss to the New York Giants. Haas pitched in five more games for the A’s before his career ended.
Locomobile Company of America had an engine factory on Nebraska Street in Worcester in 1900. The company, mostly in Bridgeport, Connecticutdid a great deal of business with Norton Co. and Wyman-Gordon Co.
See tomorrow's Telegram & Gazette, and telegram.com, for 50 more facts about Worcester.
Telegram & Gazette reporter Craig S. Semon, multimedia contenteditor and cartoonist Brian Nelson, and freelancerBill Ballou contributed to this list.
51-100: 300 facts for Worcester's tercentennial (Part 2): Swan boats, Bladder Pond and Lincoln Square rotary
151-200: 300 facts for Worcester's tercentennial (Part 4): Mother Teresa, Abe Lincoln and J. Geils
251-300: 300 facts for Worcester's tercentennial (Part 6): The Titanic, Andrew Carnegie and the Butman Riot
