The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3 | Page 7

and no surface-drainage nor cesspools are allowed. The result is that
Worcester is a very clean city, and few places can be found either in the
city itself or in the suburbs where surface accumulations exhale
unpleasant or noxious odors. To the influence of pure water and good
drainage may partly be ascribed the general good health of the
inhabitants, and the absence, during the last few years, of anything like
an epidemic of diseases dependent upon unsanitary conditions. The
sewers all converge upon one large common sewer, which discharges
its contents into the Blackstone river at Quinsigamond.
[Illustration: THE OLD SOUTH MEETING-HOUSE.]
In Worcester, as in most of the smaller cities of New England, the Main
street is the chief thoroughfare and the site of many of the prominent
buildings. This street runs north and south, and is about two and a half
miles long. Near the north end, at Lincoln square, are the Court-House
and the American Antiquarian Society building. The latter contains a
large number of valuable and rare books, much sought after for
reference by students. Farther on toward the business centre are the Bay
State House--Worcester's principal hotel--and Mechanics' Hall. This
hall is one of the handsomest and largest in the State, and has a seating
capacity of about two thousand. In the centre of the city, bordering
upon Main street, is the Old Common, the original park of Worcester,
now a small breathing-place of the working class, where band concerts
are frequently given in summer. Here stand the Soldiers' Monument,
designed by Randolph Rogers, of Rome, and the Bigelow Monument,
erected to Timothy Bigelow, who commanded the minute-men who
marched to Cambridge upon receipt of the news of the Battle of
Lexington, and served throughout the Revolution as colonel of the
Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment. At one corner of the Common,
facing Main street, is the City Hall, a small, unimposing structure,
hardly worthy of the city. The question of erecting a new one has been

lately agitated. Near by stands the Old South Church, built in 1763. The
business portion of Main street is well lined with large blocks, and the
south end is laid out for residences.
[Illustration: ELM PARK.]
Upon one of the hills, at the west side, stands the City Hospital, which
is well managed and kept up, and has a visiting staff of the best
physicians in the city. In connection with this institution, a
training-school for nurses has lately been established.
The city's most imposing building is the Worcester State Lunatic
Asylum, which can be seen from the trains on the Boston and Albany
Railroad. A picturesque edifice in itself it crowns a hill about two miles
east of Worcester, and overlooks the blue waters of Lake
Quinsigamond, and also a charming stretch of hill and dale beyond.
Were the softening charms of nature a potent remedy for the diseased
mind, speedy cures might be effected in this sequestered retreat. It
contains generally over seven hundred inmates, and can accommodate
more. The building, begun in 1873, was completed in 1877, is
handsomely fitted up throughout, and very spacious. It cost one million
and a quarter dollars.
[Illustration: THE BIGELOW MONUMENT.]
On Summer street is the Asylum for the Chronic Insane. For many
years it was the only asylum, but upon the completion of the new
building the chronic cases were removed there, and it has since been
devoted to their needs only. The Technical School, or Free Institute, is
situated on a pretty wooded acclivity on the west side. Founded in 1865.
it was endowed, through the liberality of John Boynton, of Templeton,
with $100,000, which he left as a legacy for that purpose. This school is
more particularly for mechanics, chemists, and engineers, and is
conducted on the plan of the polytechnic schools of Europe. It is the
aim of the institution to train young men in such branches as are not
usually taught in the high schools, that any mechanic or civil engineer
on leaving the establishment may be fitted in a thoroughly scientific
manner to pursue his life-work. The institution is free to

Worcester-county residents; to those outside of the county the price of
tuition is $150. The number of students accommodated is one hundred
and twenty-six. The Free Public Library, founded in 1859, is one of the
best in the State, has a circulating department of 26,000 and an
intermediate department of 14,000 books; also a reference collection of
over 20,000 volumes, bequeathed by the late Dr. John Green. An
endowment fund, left by this gentleman for the latter collection, is used
to the best advantage in procuring a great variety of encyclopædias and
other desirable books of reference. That Worcester citizens appreciate
their opportunities in this line is indicated by the large daily patronage.
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