Nurturing Diversity
Worcester's industrial success depended on mechanics having the opportunity to start business with very little capital. To make this possible, local men of wealth built factories and rented out rooms with power to entrepreneurs. William T. Merrifield erected the largest of these incubator factories, where the Centrum stands today. He built water-powered wooden structures in the 1830s, which he replaced with brick buildings and steam engines in the 1840s. When the Merrifield shops burned down in 1854, more than fifty firms and five hundred workers were temporarily displaced. He began rebuilding the next day.

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