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
Featured Stories
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 in what is now Lincoln Square. During that time he…
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, the Museum offers an annual calendar of exhibits,…
Featured Tours
Random Stories
THE GAUNTLET TO THE COURT HOUSE
Four times a year the Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace were held in the town of Worcester. By the summer of 1774 the Whig Party (Patriots) in the western counties of Massachusetts had created a solid resistance to royal rule.…
TIMOTHY BIGELOW HOME, FORGE, AND TAVERN
Worcester’s Police Headquarters is located where Timothy Bigelow’s house and forge stood. In this house, on the banks of the Mill Brook that ran through the town, Bigelow not only lived but worked as a blacksmith. In 1767 he was awarded a license to…
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…
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, the Museum offers an annual calendar of exhibits,…
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…
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.