Main Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
Main street was in use in Worcester as far back as 1674. That makes it the city’s oldest thoroughfare.
It is still Worcester’s principal street-a pulsing artery of automobiles, busses, and trucks.
At first, Main street ran only from Lincoln square to Harrington corner.
A settler walking the length of the street in those days would have seen the Common, the first meeting house, the first two taverns and two important garrison houses.
After the permanent settlement began about 1713, the street was extended south. It was relocated in 1848 by the County Commissioners.
In 1851-52, Main street was extended from Webster square to the Leicester line by Gil Valentine, city surveyor.
You’d never know it now-but nearly all of Main street at one time was lined with fine shade trees. The 1938 hurricane took many of them.
A town ordinance, passed April 7, 1783, stated: “That any person being an inhabitant of this town, who shall injure or destroy such trees so set out, shall pay a fine not exceeding 20 shillings for every offense, to the use of the poor.”
Main street, depending on the weather, was a blinding cloud of dust, or a sticky, treacherous bog of mud and ruts, until it was paved.
That was in 1849.
Main street like all Main streets everywhere-takes its name because it was the main way, or thoroughfare.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
