Ararat Street

From Worcester Activist wiki

Also Noah ST.

There is no legitimate proof as to how Ararat street took its name. There is a legend, though – and a good one – to account for it. The legend should be taken with a grain of salt; maybe two grains.

Sometime before 1851, when Ararat street first bowed its way into the city directory, a resident at the Summit, past what was known as the Barber farm, was on a hillside back of his place.

He found a peculiar hunk of old wood – shaped by human hands. As near as he could figure out, the thing resembled part of a boat – a big one. He put it in his barn, but couldn’t forget about it.

The next time he hitched his horse and wagon, he put the thing in back and drove to Lincoln square. There he showed it to the others. A crowd soon formed.

“Reckon it’s part of a boat,” said the farmer who found it. Others agreed. Some were skeptical. But interest and excitement grew.

If it was a boat, the majority agreed, how did it get on a hillside so far from the water?

There was one explanation from the Worcester men who knew their bible – it must be part of the Ark.

They quoted Genesis 8:3,4: “And the waters returned from off the earth continually; and after the end of a hundred and fifty days the water decreased. And the ark rested in the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.”

Mad as the idea was, it spread. If the thing was part of the Ark and it landed on the hill, then that must be Ararat.

The hill became known as Mount Ararat – later Indian Hill. And when a street was built around the side of the hill as Worcester expanded, naturally enough, it became Ararat street. It runs from Brooks street westerly to Brattle street.

Completing the legend in Noah street, which runs from D street westerly.