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    • The Former Location of A.M.E. Zion Church on Belmont Street
    • The Rejoice Newton farmstead at Newton Square
    • An Older African American Cluster: John, Lily, North Ashland, & Bowdoin Streets
    • Corner of May & Westfield Streets: Hemenway homestead
    • Liberty & Palmer Streets
    • Former Site: Union & Exchange Streets First African Methodist Episcopal Zion (A.M.E. Zion) Church
    • 322 Park Ave.: Residence of Rev. Eli George Biddle
    • The former American Temperance House Hotel, Main & Foster Streets
    • “Guinea”: Summer Street & Washington Square The Antebellum Cluster Associated with the Rich Family
    • Lincoln Street, The Oaks, DAR Headquarters: Paine Family & Colonial Slavery
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Liberty & Palmer Streets

In the 1850s local people of color began living on a dirt path they named Liberty Street. In time the area became one of the “clustered” enclaves of African Americans and people of Nipmuc Indian heritage. Before its demolition in the 1950s the neighborhood was home to several male and female leaders of

 Worcester’s Black community. This is a ‘snap shot’ of the area in the late 1880s.

Liberty Street

# 5 Charles E. Scott, laborer, Sarah Dutton, laundress, Josephine McTier, laundress, # 22 Andrew J. Brown, hairdresser; Joseph Carter, moulder; # 25 Amos Webber, messenger; # 27 John

  1. Stewart, laborer; # 27r Mary Jones, widow, Elizabeth Jones, laundress, Mrs.
  2. Bowman, laundress, Henry Williams, laborer, Raymond Schuyler, porter, Henry
  3. Jackson, porter; # 28 Reuben Jackson, laborer; # 31 Isaac Mason, carpet cleaner, Mary A. Johnson, widow, John S. Taylor, upholsterer, Daniel Edwards, painter, Joseph A. Wilson, hairdresser; # 33 Lydia Dyer, canvasser; # 35 Christopher Bryant, woodworker, Mrs. Indiana Mason, laundress

Palmer Street

# 3  George W. Anderson, laborer, Harriet Miller, widow; # 4 William Brown, upholsterer, Charles Brown, upholsterer, George A. Busby, tailor, I.D. Hazard, seamstress; # 5 Charles W. Bullah, paperhanger, Edward B. Gimby, hairdresser, Frederick Gimby, boxmaker, H.E. Gimby; hairdresser; # 10 Charles J. Clark, helper

Glen Street

[#19, Schofield property, Liberty and Glen Streets]

Anna Van Hoesen, widow, James Van Allen, hostler, William Anderson, porter & Laura Allen, widow

Image from Worcester Atlas of 1896

Listings from Worcester House Directory of 1888

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