I was at the DCU Center on Sunday (great
Sharks game btw - they scored with 3 seconds or so left to win it!) when I noticed a marker for the Blackstone Canal. Unfortunately, I was not able to read the text as I was in my car. It got me wondering - just where did the Canal run in downtown Worcester?
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| 1829 Map of Worcester Showing Blackstone Canal Superimposed on Map of Present Day Worcester |
I found the above 1829 map of the Canal on the
Worcester Historic Museum website. It looks like the basin was where the Major Taylor garage is today and that it ran under St. Vincent's Hospital (did you know that the road used for hospital drop-off/pick-up is officially known as Blackstone Rd.?) It also looks like there was a large basin where Union Station stands today. It absolutely amazes me how we could have so completely obliterated pretty much all evidence of such an important contributor to the early growth of Worcester.
Growth and economic development are absolutely imperative, but it is also important that we honor our past as we move forward as a city. Globalization and the sameness in the built environment that comes along with it are here to stay; However, historic cities that can successfully grow their economies in this global context while managing to maintain those elements of their built environment that most contribute to their historic identity will become the communities of choice for residents and businesses alike in the years to come.
My cousin Tony had a great mixed use for the Worcester Memorial Autitorium... Restaurant in the Little Theatre , IMAX theater in the main area... big development, YES! ... but not impossible... just something to think about ... it would be the coolest IMAX setup in the country, if not the world...
ReplyDeleteHarry T
Worcester,MA
Great Post, Eric. I was curious as to where the canal was located and I couldn't agree more with your statements regarding the importance of honoring the past as an investment in the future. I love to go places with a story and the more I read your blog the more I learn about the many stories Worcester has to tell. Keep the posts coming.
ReplyDeleteJon-Paul St. Germain
Holden
Eric,
ReplyDeleteOnce again a great post. I have seen a couple maps which depict the canal south of Union Station (including a 1922 fire insurance map at the Printers Building), but never an actual map of the route to Indian Lake. I'm going to steal your overlay. There is a great site put together by a local historian with the help of a ranger from the Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor(http://john.ourjourneys.org/blackstone/index.html) which goes into the history and presents an online tour of the path through Worcester. Jeremy Shulkin at Womag also did a great article last year with a group of local notables in which they explore the buried portions of the canal (http://www.worcestermag.com/city-desk/top-news/95576219.html). Most the canal (by default) became part of the sewer system and is the source of many of the City's present day problems with the combined sewer/storm water system, especially in the area of Crompton Park, where it discharges into the Blackstone. It seemed the canal was really doomed from the beginning, but what killed it was the railroads, and as your overlay shows, the path north out of Washington Square is the modern rail bed. Incidentlly, the P&W laid much of its track along the old tow paths down to Providence.
I suspect that the canal era, and the shenanigans that Beacon Hill brought to bear on it, has a lot to do with why Worcester culture is more often associated with Southern New England and New York than it is with Boston.
Jim M.
Lent, Eric. I was curious, where was located the channel and I could not agree more with your statements about the importance of respecting the past as an investment in the future. I like to go places with the story and the more I read your blog I learn more about the many stories to tell Worcester. Keep the posts coming.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards
Seo Course Delhi
if you are looking for the entrance to the canal go to google maps type in north quinsigamond village. then zoom in by the bend in the river by the field and red bridge that goes across rt146. then click on photos and you can see a picture of it. (just so you know if you were to walk in 3 feet past the entrance its sealed off with a cement wall).
ReplyDelete