The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts , United States of America.
This is a
dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with
reliable sources .
Prior to 19th century
1669 – Common established.[citation needed ]
1719 – Town meeting house built.
1722 - incorporated as a town June 14, 1722.
1731 - On April 2, 1731, Worcester was chosen as the county seat of the newly founded Worcester County
1733 – Court House built.
1763 – Old South Meeting house built (approximate date).
1775
1776 – July 14, first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Isaiah Thomas .[ 3]
1786 – Worcester Magazine begins publication.[ 4]
1787 – First known printing of the word 'baseball' appears in A Little Pretty Pocket-book , Worcester, MA, by Isaiah Thomas , Rare Book and Special Collections, Library of Congress.[ 5]
1792 – Second Meeting House dedicated.
1793 – Associate Library Company active.[ 7]
19th century
1800 – Independent Gazeteer begins publication.[ 4]
1801 – National Aegis newspaper begins publication.[ 4]
1812 – American Antiquarian Society founded.[ 4]
1818 – Worcester Agricultural Society incorporated.
1819 – Fraternity of Odd Fellows active.[ 7]
1823 – Massachusetts Yeoman newspaper begins publication.[ 4]
1824 – Town Hall built.
1825 – Worcester Lyceum of Natural History founded.
1828 – Blackstone Canal opens.
1829
Worcester County Republican newspaper begins publication.[ 4]
Worcester County Athenaeum and Worcester Lyceum active.[ 7]
1830
1832 – Worcester Law Library Association active.[ 7]
1833
1834
1835 – Harris' Circulating Library in operation.[ 7]
1838
P. Young variety store established.[ 13]
Christian Reflector newspaper begins publication.[ 4]
Rural Cemetery is incorporated.[ 14]
1843 – College of the Holy Cross established.
1840
1844 – Worcester Almanac begins publication.
1845
Daily Transcript and Worcester County Gazette newspapers begin publication.[ 4]
Classical and English High School opens.
1847 – Worcester Telegraph and Worcester Daily Journal newspapers begin publication.[ 4]
1848
1849 – Oread Institute founded.
1850
1851 – Daily Morning Transcript newspaper begins publication.[ 4]
1852 – Worcester Young Men's Christian Association founded.[ 17]
1853
1854
1856 – Worcester Employment Society and Highland Military School founded.
1857
1858 – Worcester Music Festival begins; Frohsinn Gesang Verein chorus formed.
1860 – A.H. Word's Select Circulating Library active.[ 7]
1862 – Free Public Library building constructed on Elm Street.[ 18]
1864 – Dale Hospital opens.
1865 – Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science founded.[ 20]
1866 – Worcester County Homoeopathic Medical Society formed.
1868 – Chamberlain's Circulating Library in operation.[ 7]
1869 – Elwood Adams hardware store in business.[ 21]
1872 – South End commercial circulating library in operation.[ 7]
1873 – Home for Aged Women opens.
1874
1875
Worcester Society of Antiquity formed.
Train station built.[citation needed ]
1876 – Grand Army of the Republic Hall built.
1877 – Irvings base ball team active.
1879 – Worcester Worcesters base ball team formed (approximate date).
1880 – First perfect game in Major League Baseball history pitched by Lee Richmond , pitcher for the Worcester Worcesters .[ 22]
1884
1885 – Frederick Daniels House built.
1886
Worcester Daily Telegram newspaper begins publication.[ 4]
Hatters' and Furnishers' Association formed.
1887
1888 – St. Mark's Episcopal Church built.
1889 – Old South Church built, corner Main and Wellington St.
1891 – Lothrop's Opera House opens.[ 24]
1892 – New English High School opens.
1894 – St. Matthew's Episcopal Church and South Unitarian Church built.
1895 – Union Congregational Church built.
1897 – Worcester Art Museum School established.[ 12]
1898
1899 – Worcester Business Institute established.[ 12]
20th century
21st century
See also
Worcester history
List of mayors of Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts Firsts
Media in Worcester, Massachusetts
Timelines of other municipalities in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts: Boston , Cambridge , Haverhill , Lawrence , Lowell , Lynn , New Bedford , Salem , Somerville , Waltham
Images
Town Hall, corner Main and Front St., built 1824
Massachusetts Yeoman newspaper published in Worcester ca.1820s
Dale Hospital, opened in 1864
Map of Worcester, 1878
Lothrop's Opera House, 1891 advertisement
Worcester, ca.1905
"President
Taft and Governor
Draper passing Worcester City Hall, April 3, 1910"
Worcester Domestic Science School, 1914
Map of Worcester, 1919
High-resolution birds-eye-view map of Worcester in 1878
References
^ " "Worcester, July 24…On Monday last a number of patriotic gentlemen of this town…assembled on the green near the liberty pole…" " . AAS Catalog Record . 1776-07-24. Retrieved 2020-12-08 .
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "US Newspaper Directory" . Chronicling America . Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Retrieved August 17, 2012 .
^ "Children's Literature" . Library of Congress . Retrieved 6 December 2019 .
^ a b c d e f g h i Davies Project. "American Libraries before 1876" . Princeton University. Retrieved August 17, 2012 .
^ Report made at an adjourned meeting of the friends of the American Colonization Society, in Worcester County, held in Worcester, Dec. 8, 1830 , Worcester: Printed by S. H. Colton and Co., 1831, OCLC 14998249 , OL 13522714M
^ a b c Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990 , U.S. Census Bureau, 1998
^ Howland 1856 .
^ a b c d e Homer L. Patterson (1921), Patterson's American Educational Directory , American Educational Co.
^ Howland 1853 .
^ Mildred McClary Tymeson. Rural retrospect: a parallel history of Worcester and its Rural Cemetery. Worcester: Albert W. Rice. 1956. pp. 28-33.
^ "Worcester History" . www.worcesterma.gov . Worcester City Clerk. Retrieved 16 February 2018 .
^ Address adopted by the Whig State Convention, at Worcester, September 13, 1848 , Worcester: s.n., 1848, OCLC 10603162 , OL 13509507M
^ Alfred S. Roe (1901), The Worcester Young Men's Christian Association , Worcester, Massachusetts, OCLC 9642022 {{citation }}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link )
^ a b Howland 1865 .
^ Howland 1861 .
^ Addresses of inauguration and dedication, Worcester, November 11, 1868 , Worcester: C. Hamilton, 1869, OL 24651704M
^ Elwood Adams Hardware Archived 2011-01-28 at the Wayback Machine History
^ "Toledo Blade - Google News Archive Search" . news.google.com . Retrieved 2020-12-03 .
^ "Light: A journal of social Worcester and her neighbors". Worcester, Massachusetts: F. E. Kennedy. 1890. OL 14020422M .
^ Staff Writer (10 June 2014). "President Taft's visit to Worcester in 1910 remembered" . Worcester Magazine . Archived from the original on 9 November 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023 .
^ "Worcester Magazine, October, 1914 (Vol. XVII No.10)" . Archived from the original on 2013-04-14.
^ "Higgins Museum passes into history" , Worcester Business Journal , December 31, 2013
^ Stamp, Jimmy (March 13, 2013). "Who Really Invented the Smiley Face?" . Smithsonian Magazine . Retrieved 2020-12-02 .
^ Worcester Mag. "About Us" . Holden Landmark Corporation. Retrieved August 17, 2012 .
^ "About | The Greater Worcester Land Trust" . www.gwlt.org . Retrieved 2020-10-11 .
^ "Worcester Sister City Program" . International Center of Worcester. Retrieved December 30, 2014 .
^ Worcester Historical Museum. "Museum History" . Retrieved August 17, 2012 .
^ Worcester Women's History Project (18 October 2008). "About Us" . Retrieved August 17, 2012 .
^ "City of Worcester, MA" . Archived from the original on 1996-12-23 – via Internet Archive, Wayback Machine .
^ "Blues Agree to Sell Worcester IceCats" . OurSports Central . 2004-11-09. Retrieved 2020-12-08 .
^ Forde, Craig (August 31, 2012). "League shutters Worcester Tornadoes baseball team - The Boston Globe" . BostonGlobe.com . Retrieved 2020-12-08 .
^ "Higgins Armory Museum to close at the end of 2013" . Medieval Warfare . 3 (3): 4. 2013. ISSN 2211-5129 . JSTOR 48578228 .
^ "Sharks Moving AHL Franchise to SAP Center" . NHL.com . Retrieved 2020-12-08 .
^ "Introducing the Worcester Railers professional hockey team" . Worcester Magazine . Retrieved 2020-12-08 .
^ "The Massachusetts Pirates, a new arena league football team, coming to Worcester" . masslive . 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2020-12-08 .
Bibliography
Published in the 18th-19th century
Peter Whitney (1793), History of the County of Worcester, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts , Worcester, Massachusetts: Isaiah Thomas, OL 6905743M
Henry J. Howland (1853), Worcester Almanac, Directory, and Business Advertiser, for 1854 , Worcester: H.J. Howland, OCLC 785826916 , OL 25278704M
Heart of the Commonwealth, or, Worcester as it is , Worcester, Massachusetts: Henry J. Howland, 1856, OL 14011107M
Henry J. Howland (1861), Worcester Almanac, Directory, and Business Advertiser , Worcester: H.J. Howland, OCLC 785827805 , OL 25278671M
Henry J. Howland (1865), Worcester Directory , Worcester: H.J. Howland, OCLC 18580655 , OL 25285405M
Claflin; Black (1870), Five hundred past and present citizens of Worcester, Mass , G. R. Peckham, OCLC 1600205 , OL 14008064M
Franklin P. Rice (1884), The Worcester Book: a diary of noteworthy events in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1657 to 1883 , Worcester: Putnam, Davis and Co., OCLC 6676339 , OL 7202093M
1684, 1884: Celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the naming of Worcester, October 14 and 15, 1884 , Worcester, Mass: Printed by order of the City Council, 1885, OL 13988362M
City of Worcester, Massachusetts: its Public Buildings and its Business, 1886 , Worcester: Sanford & Davis, 1886, OL 14050449M
Baynes, T. S.; Smith, W. R., eds. (1888). "Worcester (3.)" . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 24 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Franklin Pierce Rice (1893), Dictionary of Worcester and Vicinity , Worcester: F. S. Blanchard & Co., OL 14050717M
Franklin P. Rice, ed. (1899), Worcester of eighteen hundred and ninety-eight , Worcester, Mass: F. S. Blanchard, OCLC 404208 , OL 14048656M
Published in the 20th century
"Worcester Magazine" . 1 . Worcester Board of Trade. 1901. . See also: v.3 (1902); v.6 (1903); v.14 (1911); v.15 (1912); v.19 (1916)
"Worcester (Massachusetts)" . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 28 (11th ed.). 1910. pp. 822–823.
"Worcester" , Handbook of New England , Boston: Porter E. Sargent , 1916, OCLC 16726464
Charles L. Nichols (1918), Bibliography of Worcester (2nd ed.), Worcester: Priv. print., OL 7058897M
Worcester Bank & Trust Company (1922), Historic events of Worcester , Worcester, Massachusetts, OCLC 2973056 , OL 6642342M {{citation }}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link )
Richards Standard Atlas of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts . L.J. Richards & Co. 1922 – via State Library of Massachusetts .
R. W. G. Vail, ed. (1936). "Worcester" . Bibliotheca Americana . Vol. 29. New York. OCLC 13972268 . {{cite book }}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link )
Federal Writers' Project (1937), "Worcester", Massachusetts: a Guide to its Places and People , American Guide Series , Boston: Houghton Mifflin, hdl :2027/mdp.39015014440781
Ory Mazar Nergal, ed. (1980), "Worcester, MA", Encyclopedia of American Cities , New York: E.P. Dutton, OL 4120668M
Published in the 21st century
External links
Nickname(s): The City of the Seven Hills , The Heart of the Commonwealth , Wormtown , Woo-town , The Woo
Topics Education Government History Museums Sports teams