A World-Renowned Factory in the Heart of Green Island
Wyman-Gordon is a metal manufacturing company established in Worcester in 1883. Overtime they have forged metals to manufacture, bicycle parts, railroad parts, crankshafts, plane engines during World War II, jet engines, and more. They were pioneers in working with Titanium and gained prominence in the aerospace industry. Worcester’s homegrown business became world-renowned. Wyman Gordon provided jobs for all of Worcester’s residents, and particularly for those in Green Island, who, living, so close, enjoyed walking to work. The factory was surrounded by Green Island’s densely settled neighborhood of houses. Residents there remember what it was like to live with the noises from the foundry’s heavy vibrations, and the “funny odor” emitted by the plant. “You could stand there on Gold Street, and look into the open doors of the foundry and see the huge flames burning 24/7,” one neighbor recalls. Another remembers, “my mother taught me to place the glasses in the kitchen cabinet so they would not clink together from the vibrations the factory caused.”
A Major Landholder in the Heart of Green Island
During the 1960s, Wyman-Gordon began to purchase houses in the surrounding area with plans to expand. It tore down the homes creating large stretches of empty land surrounded by fences with barbed wire. The company in fact did not expand here and blocks that were bought out, once full of families and homes, have sat vacant for years. Having so many homes gone dampened the strong sense of community in the neighborhood. These vacant lots are gradually being bought up by developers today.