Udor Tower is a dry-wall stone structure built by Charles H. Fletcher as a picturesque yet functional water tower. It is nine feet four inches in diameter and approximately thirty feet high, with base walls twenty inches thick, four small windows at various levels, a door opening with the sill six to eight inches above ground, and a corbelled ceiling on the ground-floor room. A cedar-lined tank collected water that was gravity fed through copper piping to the adjacent Fletcher House. A marble plaque on the south side reads "Udor Tower, the greek word for water." Though later surrounded by myths calling it a Dutch trapping station or a Norse observation post, it resembles a Round Tower in Ireland and was listed on a Tax and Valuation List as "Blarney Castle." Map evidence and deed records indicate it was built in the late 1800's, and the National Register lists the date as 1882. The surrounding area developed from an early settlement pattern shaped by the slope from the Chestnut Hill plateau to the Blackstone River, where grist and corn mills attracted settlers. Limited room for expansion on the north side and Chestnut Hill Road as the only route to the river led to homes facing the river, but completion of the County Road in 1825 opened new territory along Main Street. By 1854 the village on the north side of the Blackstone River had a new school, post office, blacksmith shop, the Providence and Worcester Railroad and Depot, two hotels, and a social hall. Twenty-five years later in 1898, additional private residences and mill worker housing appeared on four new streets connecting to Chestnut Hill Road, Main Street, and Lincoln Street, while grocery stores, meat markets, barbershops, cobbler shops, a millinery, a coal and wood business, boarding houses, hotels, saloons, and a smaller commercial district on Central Street served village life.
