After some consideration, Merrill Parkway was deemed a dead end. Gold Star Boulevard was the way to go.
In the early 1950s, after a bypass road was built parallel to a section of West Boylston Street, Worcester officials pondered two suggestions for a street name. At the time of the road’s opening, April 2, 1951, the city Public Works Committee hadn’t decided which route to take.
The road, with a price tag of $500,000 — about $6.5 million in today’s dollars — was intended to relieve traffic in what was evolving into a main retail spot in Worcester…