Fountain Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
Also SUSAN B. ANTHONY and WATER CURE
Susan B. Anthony, to whom women owe their right to vote,once took four baths in one day while in Worcester.
In the middle of 1800’s, a new fad was well established. Physicians and laymen alike believed that water could just about cure anything, from a carbuncle to chilblains.
The result was the Water Cure – a series of dips, showers, baths and packs. In Worcester during 1850, Dr. Seth Rogers, “Practitioner of Hydropathy,” had his office at 5 Maple street. He had more patients than room, apparently.
He established the Worcester Hydropathic Institute just north of Arch street. Many of Worcester’s best families drove to the Institute in their carriages to take the Cure.
Susan B. Anthony was a cousin of Dr. Rogers.
After three years of speechmaking, the suffragette came to Worcester in September of 1885, worn out from her zealous campaign.
Miss Anthony described her daily treatment at the Water Cure:
“First thing in the morning dripping sheet; pack at 10 o’clock for 45 minutes, come out of that, take a shower followed by a sitz bath, with a pail of water at 75 degrees poured over the shoulders, after which a dry sheet, then brisk exercises.”
“At 4 p.m., the program repeated, and then again at 9 p.m. My day is so cut up with four baths, four dressings and undressings, four exercisings, one drive and three eatings, that I do not have time to put two thoughts together.”
There were at least two other Water Cures in Worcester at this time. One was at 1 Kendall Hill, operated by Mrs. Mary Adams; the other, Worcester Water Cure Institution at 1 Glen street.
Fountain street, named in 1855, commemorates the gushing of the waters in Dr. Roger’s Institute.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
