Blackstone Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
Also CENTRAL and UNION STS. & BLACKSTONE CANAL
Little more remains than a principal sewer underground and the name of a street to mark one of Worcester’s greatest engineering feats-the Blackstone Canal.
A canal had been considered long before 1800. It bogged down in legislative haggling. Revived in 1820, the plan finally began to take shape three years later when Massachusetts and Rhode Island issued charters to the companies that were to build it.
Begun in 1824 in Providence, the canal was finished in 1828 at a cost of $700,000.
On Oct. 6, 1828, the first boat, the Lady Carrington, Captain Dobson commanding, triumphantly slid through the smooth waters of inland Worcester to the turning basin at the foot of Central Street, about where Union street now runs.
The boat bore a cargo of slate and grain. A vast crowd assembled to watch the proceedings. Pliny Merrick gave the principal address.
In 1834, barges and boats carried through the Canal 68,549 gallons of molasses, 49,957 gallons of oil, 364 tons of leather, 19,631 bushels of salt, 3829 bales of cotton, 2100 bales of wool, 24,698 bushels of corn and 21,158 barrels of flour. Worcester received 5336 tons of cargo that year. The peak was reached in 1832, when $18,907.45 worth of cargo went through.
When the Providence & Worcester Railroad hammered in its last spike in 1847, it was the beginning of the canal’s end. The last toll was collected Nov. 9, 1848. The canal was obsolete 20 years after it began.
Its course followed the Blackstone River to its origin at the junction of Mill Brook and Middle River, up Mill Brook section, along the west side of what is now Millbury street and along the west side of Water street.
Veering straight north at the end of Water street, the canal followed what is now Harding street, crossing Washington square and flowing along what is now Blackstone street. It was given that name in 1848.
Water street took its name from its proximity to Mill Brook and a pond which provided water power.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
