Flagg Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
About 1799, four brothers, Elisha, Enoch, Marshall and Nahum Flagg came to Worcester from Weston and went into the bakery business.
They were remarkable for their beauty and correct gentlemanly deportment,” wrote Charles Tappan, reminiscing in a letter about the Worcester of that period.
The business prospered and the brothers became active in the town. Enoch spent a lot of his time with the military; in 1807 was commanding officer of the Worcester Light Infantry.
At a meeting of the military corps on Aug. 4, 1807, when it seemed a war with England was brewing, the Infantry voted:
“That in the present exigency of our country, the characters of the citizen and the soldier are inseparable” and that “we are ready, at a moment’s warning, to march wherever the executive authority may direct, in defence of the independence and integrity of our country, in repelling and chastising insult or invasion…”
Enoch went up the military ladder; got to be a major.
Elisha kept his nose to the grindstone; became a member of the first Board of Overseers of public education.
On Feb. 18, 1815, during a violent snowstorm, a fire broke out on the west side of Main street.
It was “the most destructive conflagration experienced in the town,” wrote William Lincoln. The loss was over $10,000. Among the buildings destroyed were the residences and bake house of Enoch and Elisha Flagg. Worcester residents subscribed $2700 and an additional $1800 was raised for relief of the principal victims.
Remembering the disaster, Elisha became a charter member of the Mutual Fire Society, founded on July 11, 1822. He built Flagg’s Block, which contained Flagg Hall, used as a theater in its upper stories.
Elisha died in December, 1853, at 74.
The next month, one midnight when the tempurature dropped below zero, Flagg’s Block went up in flames at a loss of $50,000.
During the latter part of his life, at least, Elisha lived on Flagg street, which runs from Pleasant street northeast to Salisbury street.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
