High Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
On Nov. 4, 1777, General Burgoyne and Hessian prisoners captured at Saratoga, passed through Worcester.
Some historians say that a portion of Burgoyne’s army was quartered for a while on the southeast corner of Pleasant and High streets.
The prison itself was a small red brick building occupied as a residence by Nathaniel Fullerton.
It was lined with bricks and otherwise secured against escape.
The stockade, or enclosure of wood posts, extended almost to Main street.
In the best military tradition, officers occupied the Fullerton house, while soldiers camped out in the stockade.
A well was dug for the prisoners at the rear of 13 High street, near Chatham.
After the Hessians left, Isaiah Thomas, the patriot printer, occupied the house temporarily while his own was being built on Court Hill.
The Fullerton house was eventually moved to Pine Meadow, which runs a mile east of Washington square.
About where St. Paul’s Church rises at the corner of Chatham and High streets, a garrison house stood in 1715. Made nervous by Indians during the Third Settlement, settlers frequently sought safety there at night.
When Worcester grew big, High street was named by Dwight Aldrich in 1840. He chose the name because of the high location.
But some historians claim the name originates from the high stockade.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
