Everything about Leicester Massachusetts totally explained
Leicester is a town in
Worcester County,
Massachusetts,
United States. The population was 10,471 at the 2000 census.
History
Leicester was first settled in 1713 and was officially incorporated in 1714.
Although no significant battles of the
American Revolution were fought in the area, Leicester citizens played a large role in the conflict's start. At a
Committee of Safety meeting in 1774, Leicester's Colonel
William Henshaw declared that "we must have companies of men ready to march upon a minute's notice"—coining the term "
minutemen", a nickname for the
militia members who fought in the revolution's first battles. Henshaw would later become an
adjutant general to
Artemas Ward, who was second in command to
George Washington in the
Continental Army.
Leicester's own standing militia fought along with other minutemen at the first conflict between
Massachusetts residents and British troops, the
Battles of Lexington and Concord on
April 19,
1775. A few months later on
June 17,
1775, a freed slave and Leicester resident named
Peter Salem fought at the
Battle of Bunker Hill, where he killed British Major
John Pitcairn. Both men are memorialized in Leicester street names (Peter Salem Road, Pitcairn Avenue).
Leicester also held a leading role in
Massachusetts' second great revolution, the coming of industrialization. As early as the
1780s, Leicester's mills churned out one-third of American hand cards, which were tools for straightening fibers before spinning thread and weaving cloth. By the 1890s when Leicester industry began to fade, the town was producing one-third of all hand and machine cards in North America.
Eli Whitney, the man who invented the
cotton gin and devised the idea of
interchangeable parts, went to school at Leicester Academy, which eventually became Leicester High School.
Ebenezer Adams, who would later be the first mathematics and natural philosophy professor at the
Phillips Exeter Academy, was the academic preceptor in Leicester in 1792. Leicester's
Pliny Earle helped
Samuel Slater build the first American mill in
Pawtucket,
Rhode Island, by building the first carding machine. This began the American
Industrial Revolution.
Other social leaders who came from Leicester include
Charles Adams,
United States military officer and foreign minister, born in town;
, governor of Massachusetts from 1854-1855, and Samuel May, a pastor and active
abolitionist in the
1860s, whose house was a stop on the
underground railroad. He also served as secretary of the Massachusetts Anti-Slave Society. This house has also become a part of the
Becker College campus.
In 2005, the Worcester
Telegram & Gazette named Leicester as one of Central Massachusetts' top ten sports towns.
Joseph Lennerton III(Lenny), a resident of Leicester and current member of the Leicester High School Faculty, has immortalized much of Leicester's history in his book, which includes photographs of historic buildings in Leicester, most of which have subsequently been destroyed by fire.
Geography
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 24.7
square miles (63.9
km²), of which, 23.4 square miles (60.5 km²) of it's land and 1.3 square miles (3.4 km²) of it (5.35%) is water.
Leicester includes three distinct villages—Leicester Center, Cherry Valley (the east side of town, near
Worcester) and Rochdale (a crossroads in the southeast corner, near the
Oxford line). Cherry Valley and Rochdale have separate
ZIP codes from the rest of the town (01611 and 01542, respectively), but otherwise the village boundaries have no official significance, although some Cherry Valley and Rochdale residents identify more strongly with their village than the town. The village of Greenville is now considered part of Rochdale, as it falls within the 01542 ZIP code; the former villages of Mannville and Lakeside were destroyed to construct the Kettle Brook reservoir system, in northeastern Leicester, to supply water to Worcester.
The town is cut into quarters by two state highways, east-west
Route 9 and north-south
Route 56. Route 9 is called Main Street through Cherry Valley and most of the rest of town; it follows a bypass alignment called South Main Street around the Washburn Square area. The town is actively trying to encourage business development along the western end of Route 9. Route 56 north of the Leicester Center crossroads is Paxton Street; south, it's Pleasant Street until it detours along a bypass road, Huntoon Memorial Highway, that skirts the edge of Rochdale.
Spencer, now a separate town to the west, was once part of Leicester. Other municipalities bordering Leicester include
Paxton along Route 56 to the north, Worcester and
Auburn on the east, and Oxford and
Charlton on the south. Large parts of both Paxton and Auburn were also once part of Leicester.
The end of
Worcester Regional Airport's longest runway, along with much of the airport's property, is in Leicester. Additionally, most of Worcester's Kettle Brook water reservoir system is in Leicester.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 10,471 people, 3,683 households, and 2,707 families residing in the town. The
population density was 448.3 people per square mile (173.1/km²). There were 3,826 housing units at an average density of 163.8/sq mi (63.2/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 96.29%
White, 1.28%
African American, 0.31%
Native American, 0.74%
Asian, 0.06%
Pacific Islander, 0.31% from
other races, and 1.01% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 1.75% of the population.
There were 3,683 households out of which 35.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.1% were
married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.5% were non-families. 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.21.
In the town the population was spread out with 26.0% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 22.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.5 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $55,039, and the median income for a family was $64,202. Males had a median income of $40,991 versus $27,913 for females. The
per capita income for the town was $20,822. About 3.2% of families and 4.3% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 4.3% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.
Government
Education
Public schools
Public school students in Leicester attend Leicester Primary School (grades K-2), Leicester Memorial School (grades 3-5), Leicester Middle School (grades 6-8) and Leicester High School (grades 9-12).
Higher education
Becker College has a campus on Washburn Square in the center of Leicester. The college's main campus is in Worcester; the Leicester campus was formerly operated independently as Leicester Junior College, one of the oldest colleges in the country (founded 1792). The two institutions merged under the Becker name in 1977.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Leicester Massachusetts'.
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