Worcester, Massachusetts - Economy

Economy

Historically, Worcester's economic roots were tied to the Blackstone River, and in the beginning to the Blackstone Canal, which connected Worcester to the port of Providence, Rhode Island. Textiles, shoes, and finished clothing were some of the first industries in the city. A second wave of manufacturing facilities soon came on the scene to further develop Worcester into a manufacturing center. Wire and machinery were the strengths of this economic cycle. One of the leaders of this manufacturing wave was George F. Fuller, an inventor and philanthropist, who developed a heat-treating process crucial to developing steel strong enough to be used in train couplings and the first automobile crankshafts. His company, Wyman-Gordon, has been a leading manufacturer of machine parts. Charles Palmer, another innovator, received the first patent (1891) for a lunch wagon, or diner. He built his "fancy night cafes" and "night lunch wagons" in the Worcester area until 1901. After building a lunch wagon for himself in 1888, Thomas Buckley decided to manufacture lunch wagons in Worcester. Buckley was very successful and became known for his "White House Cafe" wagons. In 1906 Philip Duprey and Irving Stoddard established the Worcester Lunch Car Company, which shipped 'diners' all over the Eastern Seaboard. Worcester's Boulevard Diner, Parkway Diner, and Miss Worcester Diner are all examples of Worcester Lunch Car Company units, with the Miss Worcester being located across the street from the former factory. Worcester's largest Department store was Denholm & McKay founded in 1871. The store closed in 1973.

They were joined in early automobile manufacture by American Wheelock, which built compressed air-powered trucks at Worcester in 1904.

In the 1930s a local merchant, Anthony "Spag" Borgatti, opened Spag's, a small hardware business, in nearby Shrewsbury. Credited with the invention of discount marketing, he stored his wares in old trailer trucks in order to avoid paying taxes. He was a local philanthropist. Every spring, Spag offered free tomato seedlings to his customers.

The David Clark Company pioneered aeronautical protective equipment beginning in 1941, ranging from anti-gravity suits to space suits. Innovations include full-pressure suits for X-15 test pilots flying to record speeds and altitudes and the spacesuit worn by all Apollo astronauts on lunar missions. The company produces the suits worn by modern space shuttle astronauts.

Morgan Construction, a manufacturer of steel rolling mills, has its headquarters in Worcester. Wright Line, a manufacturer of consoles and other workstations for 911/emergency operations centers, server enclosures and racks for data centers, office and computer lab furniture, is also headquartered in the city. Saint-Gobain has a substantial presence in Worcester following its 1990 purchase of Norton Abrasives, a 100+ year old manufacturer of abrasives, ceramics, and specialty materials. Polar Beverages, the largest independent soft-drink bottler in the United States, is also located in the city.

Today, Worcester has a diversified economy. The biotech park adjacent to the University of Massachusetts Medical School is host to many innovative companies, including Advanced Cell Technology, which focuses on the development of effective methods to generate replacement cells from stem cells, and Abbott Laboratories, a leading pharmaceutical research and manufacturing firm.

In the financial sector, Hanover Insurance maintains its national headquarters in the city. A subsidiary of Unum (formerly UnumProvident), the Paul Revere Life Insurance Company, is also headquartered in Worcester as is the Harleysville Worcester Insurance Company, the oldest insurance company based in Massachusetts.

The Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology located in nearby Shrewsbury is best known for the development of the oral contraceptive pill (1951) and for pioneering research on in vitro fertilization. The first American conceived by this method (1981), Elizabeth Jordan Carr, lived in nearby Westminster.

In the area of small business retailing, Worcester is home to the notable popular culture emporium That's Entertainment (est. 1980), which in 1997 was one of three comic book stores worldwide that received a "Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award" from Comic-Con International: San Diego. The award, named for comic book creator Will Eisner, recognizes "an individual retailer who has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large".

The Worcester Common Outlets originally opened July 29, 1971 as the Worcester Center Galleria. In 1994, Worcester Center Associates sold the Galleria to New England Development which slowly shut down the remaining stores with plans to revitalize the mall. On October 29, 1994, the Galleria reopened as the Worcester Common Fashion Outlets. As business dwindled, Berkeley Investments, along with its capital partner, Starwood Capital of Greenwich, Connecticut announced that they would buy the Worcester Common Outlets on June 22, 2004. Store leases were not renewed and the mall closed for good in April 2006. The mall was vacant and had not been demolished until September 13, 2010, when demolition of portions of the former mall started. On May 18, 2011, visible exterior demolition began.

Polar Beverages, founded in 1882, is headquartered in Worcester. It runs two bottling plants in the city, where it bottles its own line of soft drinks as well as several major national brands.

In 2010, the median household income was $61,212. Median income for the family was $76,485. The per capita income was $29,316. About 7.7% of families and 10.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.1% of those under age 18 and 7.5% of those age 65 or over.