WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF WORCESTER'S REVOLUTIONARIES
A project by Worcester Historical Museum and Digital WorcesterFrom Worcester’s Meetinghouse, near the site of today’s City Hall to what we now know as Lincoln Square, Worcester patriots led Massachusetts and later the country toward Revolution. Auspiciously in September 1774, patriots from across the region assembled along Main Street to reject rule under Parliament’s Massachusetts Government Act, close the county courts, and shame their loyalist elite neighbors. Now you can join Worcester Historical Museum and walk in their footsteps, as they forced wellborn local defenders of royal government to walk a gauntlet of common men intent on defending their liberty or as they spread their revolutionary ideas between the town’s taverns and meetinghouse. Read more About Us
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WORCESTER HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Founded in 1875, Worcester Historical Museum has the unique responsibility of collecting and sharing the stories, artifacts and documents of Worcester’s history. At its headquarters at 30 Elm Street,…
SALISBURY MANSION
In 1767, when Stephen Salisbury turned 21, his brother Samuel sent him from Boston to open and operate a branch of the family store in Worcester. For five years Salisbury operated in rented quarters…
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REVOLUTIONARY MAIN STREET
16 Locations ~ Curated by Robert Stacy, Worcester Historical MuseumRandom Stories
ISAIAH THOMAS HOUSE
In 1775 Isaiah Thomas was 25 years old. Already he had established a reputation as a troublemaker, an expert publisher, and an ardent Patriot. His newspaper, The Massachusetts Spy, published in Boston, with a large paid subscribership, gave voice to…
AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
Printer/patriot Isaiah Thomas founded this learned society in 1812. The Society hosts public tours on Wednesday afternoons, which include an up-close view of the press on which he printed news of the Revolution.
TIMOTHY BIGELOW MONUMENT
Born in Worcester in 1739, blacksmith Timothy Bigelow became not only a local leader of the Whig resistance to British rule but took on a larger role on the provincial and national levels. He was a member of the Worcester Committee of Correspondence,…
RURAL CEMETERY
Worcester’s Rural Cemetery, located on Grove Street, was not a burial ground during the Revolution but became the final resting place for many who either participated in or observed the events of 1774 and after. Much of the land had originally been…
SITE OF THE SECOND WORCESTER COUNTY COURTHOUSE
As Worcester County’s shire town (county seat), Worcester was where the Court of Common Pleas and Court of General Sessions of the Peace were held four times a year. When Court Week was in session, people from all over Worcester County came to sue or…
THE BOSTON POST ROAD
The Boston Post Road, which first came into existence in the 1670s, was Worcester’s means of accessing the wider world. To the east were the towns of Shrewsbury, Northborough, Marlborough and then Boston. To the west was the city of New York by way…