WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF WORCESTER'S REVOLUTIONARIES

From 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

Featured Tours

Random Stories

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 Heywood Tavern, located at the site of the current deadhorse hill restaurant, was owned and operated by Daniel Heywood, whose family had operated the tavern since 1722. Its clientele was mostly Tory in outlook. It was one of the oldest taverns in…

Until 1783 Worcester had only one church. The congregation met at the meeting house, located on the site of present-day City Hall. The meeting house was not only the place of worship but was a center of the town’s activities. Town meetings were held…

The Timothy Paine House, now known as “The Oaks,” was under construction during the events of 1774. The Oaks stands near the site of Paine’s first house, a place where Paine (1730-1793), as one of the most prominent men in Worcester, maintained a hub…

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…

In the 1770s Elijah Dix was an apothecary (meaning doctor) in Worcester, where he not only tended to patients but was part of the Patriot group. His medical and social connections extended to Boston as well as Worcester and included the Patriot…

Browse all 21 Stories