BLACK HERITAGE TRAIL IN WORCESTER MASSACHUSETTS

BLACK HERITAGE TRAIL IN WORCESTER MASSACHUSETTS

Written by Dr. Thomas Doughton

Worcester Black History Trail Priority Sites
City Properties; Additional Priority Sites to Be Marked With Assistance of Community Partners

The Worcester Fire Department: Main South Station
424 Park Ave., Worcester 01610

City property: Occupies the site between Park Ave. and Westfield St., location of Hemenway homestead

https://www.google.com/maps/place/424+Park+Ave,+Worcester,+MA+01610/@42.256517,-71.8263987,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e4069c802bcd31:0x9a2ed8e6cc1571e5!8m2!3d42.256517!4d-71.82421

Beaver Brook Park
300 Chandler St., Worcester
City Property: At the southeastern end of the park, at what would be the corner of Mayfield & Parker Streets, on private property now fenced off, was 69 Parker St., for a quarter of a century location of the Home for Aged Colored; marker for the home and the Beaver Brook community
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=108m3xs8qbmA0bFEFV24GclnqNAk&ll=42.27176145332702%2C-71.83404258823248&z=12
On Beaver Brook community: https://flashbak.com/american-community-color-beaver-brook-massachusetts-1897-1917-396444/

Elm Park Community School
23 N. Ashland St., Worcester 01609
City property: This extensive parcel of land bounded by N. Ashland St., John St., West St., & Ormond was a significant enclave of people of color dating from the 1850s; suggested kiosks on West or N. Ashland Sts. Starting in the 1850s southern blacks began moving to Worcester and settled at North Ashland Street, off Highland Street, then an edge of the city’s residential development. Property west of stream running from Institute Park towards Beaver Brooks, as bounded by Pleasant and Highland Streets, was undeveloped land part of the sizeable Lincoln estate, only later in the century a residential district. But here at the edge of town formed a “clustered” community of African Americans on Worcester’s West Side. Several residents owned their homes and operated successful businesses. By the late 1880s the city’s fourth black congregation, Mt. Olivet, later John Street Baptist Church organized in this area.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir//42.2690426,-71.8073823/@42.2690193,-71.8774175,12z

Worcester Housing Authority
40 Belmont St., Worcester 01605
City property: This is the site of Worcester A.M.E. Zion Church, located at this country for 50 years before its demolition in 1959, also the hub of the African American community located in the Laurel Clayton area demolished for 290

In 1889 Congregationalists living in the neighborhood east of Lincoln Square began organizing for creation of a church in their neighborhood. Initially they formed a Sunday school with 28 members. In June 1889 Rev. Albert Bryant resigned as superintendent of the City Missionary Society to serve as pastor of the new enterprise. On July 14, 1889 a lot was purchased at the corner of Belmont and Hanover Streets and ground broke for the church. The structure was completed in 1890 with seating for 500 worshipers. A vestry, kitchen and function rooms were provided for in the basement. The congregation, however, been dwindling. In 1902 it became the third home of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which by the turn of the century had become surrounded by industrial building at its location near the corner of Union and Exchange Street. While a ‘cluster’ of African American families had begun living in the Exchange Street area near their church, another community began forming near Zion, located at the corner of Belmont and Hanover, later Clayton, Street. Between World War I and its destruction in 1959 as part of urban renewal, Zion Church was an important factor in the lives of the several hundred families of color living in the Laurel Clayton neighborhood."
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Worcester+Housing+Authority/@42.2714157,-71.7979563,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e406449c079179:0xae533b652f07b79e!8m2!3d42.2714157!4d-71.7957676

Pleasant Street [Newton Square], farmstead of Rejoice Newton
City Park

Isaac Mason, (1822-1898) who was born in Kent County, Maryland, was a fugitive slave. In 1893, he published his life story, Life of Isaac Mason as a Slave, detailing the harsh conditions of enslavement, his escape, and his search for a safe home. He lived in several places before an Anti-Slavery Society agent sent him to Worcester in 1850. He was supplied with letters of introduction to William Brown, an African-American. After staying with Mr. Brown and his Nipmuc Indian wife the first night, Isaac Mason secured permanent lodging in the home of Ebenezer Hemenway, a Nipmuc Indian whose wife was African-American. Mason found employment as a farmhand for Rejoice Newton, a prominent local attorney and gentleman farmer. Mason and his wife enjoyed only a brief peace before Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law. In his words, that led to hunting slave fever. Following the advice of Anti-Slavery agents, he fled to Canada for about a year, then returned to Worcester where he remained for the rest of his life.” Worcester Historical Museum  Isaac Mason explained that he found work with “Maj. Newton” on Pleasant Street, Rejoice Newton, [1782-1868] who owned all of the Newton hill area, now part of Elm Park and site of Doherty Memorial High School, between Pleasant and Highland Streets in Worcester, his farmhouse, and barn near the contemporary Newton Square, a mill he operated located at Beaver Brook. He was married to Rebecca Lincoln, a daughter of Levi Lincoln Sr. An attorney in practice with his brother-in-law William Lincoln, Newton had been Worcester County District Attorney, state representative and state senator. He also sold land for the first Catholic burial ground at Worcester. The sizeable estate inherited by his only surviving child Hester Newton and her husband John Wetherell. In 1886, for example, Wetherell’s farm consisted of about 160-170 acres at that time, remaining from the estate of Rejoice Newton. 

Exchange St. Worcester 01608
This may be a more challenging option: it is the site of the first African American house of worship in Worcester County, A.M.E. Zion Church
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Exchange+St,+Worcester,+MA+01608/@42.266071,-71.8024642,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e40667e4b467c1:0x119b2e9cb516632d!8m2!3d42.266071!4d-71.8002755