Aitchison Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
Also SCHOOL ST.
Remember how streets were sprayed when you were young?
A happy horse came nodding down a hot dusty road. He pulled a large, wooden circular tank that looked like an enormous French wine vat on wheels.
At certain precious moments, the driver pulled a lever. Out gushed a shower of water, covering a width of about 25 feet.
The device that made this possible was the invention of a Worcester man. George T. Aitchison advertised Bancroft’s Patent Monitor Street Sprinkler in the 1800’s.
His advertisement also read: “Carriage builder-open and top sleighs; carriage repository; new and second-hand carriages; manufacturer of Pleasure Sleighs, Barges, etc. A new and handsome Barge just built, carrying 24 persons, to be let at reasonable rates. Proprietor of the Worcester Lunatic Hospital and Lake Quinsigamond Omnibus Line. Leaves 365 Main street, six times daily.”
In addition to his carriage-making plant, Mr. Aitchison ran a prosperous repair business and had a storage and warehouse business on School street until 1912.
He came to Worcester when 21 to seek his fortune, and found it.
At 14, he went from Ossining, N.Y., to Peru, Ill., a tip of 900 miles by stagecoach, to study engineering. Then he returned in 1845 as an apprentice carriage maker in Newark, N.J.
He was paid $25 a year and board.
Mr. Aitchison owned real estate on School street and other sections of Worcester.
When Aitchison Street was laid out about 1879, it was named for him.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
