Moen Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
When Philip Louis Moen died April 23, 1891, at 66, the Worcester Spy gave four and half columns to his funeral alone.
The fabulous Moen he could have been called. He left an estate of several million, and a reputation as a great industrialist.
Moen was born in Wilna, N.Y., Nov. 13, 1824. He worked in a hardware store there. In 1846, he married the daughter of Ichabod Washburn of Worcester, founder of the American Steel & Wire Co.
Moen became clerk in the company; in 1850, a full partner under the name of I. Washburn & Moen. In 41 years, he stretched the wire-drawing and rod- rolling concern into the world’s biggest.
“He has rare ability over finances, a department of the business for which I never had the taste or the inclination,” confessed Deacon Washburn in his diary in 1866.
Moen had a light, almost sandy complexion, well-rounded features, white hair and a full, curling white moustache. He wore gold-bowed spectacles.
He became a member of the School Committee; deacon in Union Savings Bank, Home for Aged Women, Memorial Hospital, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Y.M.C.A; director of State Mutual Life Insurance Co., Worcester Public Library and president of the Common Council.
He shock staid Worcester by paying Waldo Session $3000 for a pair of black coach horses.
When Moen died, many Worcester industries closed shop; church bells tolled; banks and insurance companies locked doors. As the funeral procession moved toward Rural Cemetery, 2400 employees of the North and South Works of his concern lined both sides of the street.
“The casket was of red cedar, covered with black broadcloth and lined with cream cashmere. All the trimmings were of oxidized silver and the handles of block silver. It was what is known as a state casket and was magnificent in its absolute simplicity,” described in the Spy.
The son, Philip W. Moen, who died in 1904, succeeded his father as head of the wire works. He had studied metallurgy in Sweden; brought over a number of steel experts who formed the vanguard of Worcester’s great Swedish population.
Moen street-from Garden street north to Henchman street-first appeared in directories in 1911. It honors the Moen family and what the newspapers called “a great captain of industry.”
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
