Mt. Pleasant Street

Mt. Pleasant Street runs from the junction of Faulkner and Rogers Streets at the Faulkner Mills northeast, under the railroad bridge beside the North Billerica station, and on to High Street. No laying out is recorded. The Boston and Lowell Railroad, opened on June 25, 1835, crossed it on a bridge just above the mills, and the road appears on the town map of 1831. Hazen thought the Wamesit road laid out in 1664 "ran near the present site of the depot," and John Rogers Jr., killed by Indians in 1695, lived "25 rods east of the railroad," near what the 1901 directory called "Billerica ave. n. Mt. Pleasant," but no record places that road on this street.

On R. A. Hale's plan of the Faulkner Manufacturing Company property in 1880 it is the "Road to ... Tewksbury," the road east to High Street and the Tewksbury line. The name Mount Pleasant Street was in use by 1896, when the town's list of guide boards included a "Board at corner of Russell and Mount Pleasant Street." The street naming committee listed it "running east from Jane Faulkner's and Rogers street to High street," and the Historical Society's revised list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, gave "Mt. Pleasant street, from Rogers street running east to High street." The origin of the name is not recorded. The street became the residential street of the mill families: Calvin Rogers built a house on its northeast part about 1860, "the first house, and an influential one, in the residential development on Mt. Pleasant Street," and Joseph D. Gould of the Talbot chemical works, Frederick S. Clark of the Talbot Mills and Joseph F. Talbot followed.

The street was graveled for 1,524 feet in 1900 and, with High Street, for 2,100 feet in 1902. In 1908 the town appointed a committee on "properly draining the road-bed" under the railroad bridge, and the County Commissioners ordered "the drainage and alteration of Mount Pleasant Street under the railroad bridge near the North Billerica station"; after a vote of August 1910 a special commission appointed by the Superior Court divided the cost equally between the town and the Boston and Maine Railroad and left the upkeep to the town. In 1916 the County Commissioners laid out Faulkner, Mt. Pleasant and Rogers Streets from the river to High Street. Mt. Pleasant Street was macadamized for 1,100 feet in 1924 under a vote of that year, with new walls "at the foot of Rogers and Mt. Pleasant Streets," and in 1943 it was resurfaced with tar and pea gravel from Faulkner Street to Billerica Avenue.

The county layout of 1916 made it a public way, and the town formally accepted it at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which voted, 124 to 19, under Chapter 82, sections 21 to 24, of the General Laws, to accept the 44 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." That list gives it from Faulkner Street to High Street.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Thomas Rogers House		52 Mt. Pleasant St	1780		1930
Mt. Pleasant Schoolhouse	District Number 6 Schoolhouse	Mt. Pleasant Street	1791	1840	1871
James Stott House		20 Mt. Pleasant St	1815
Calvin Rogers House		37 Mt. Pleasant St	1857
Governor Thomas Talbot Mansion		29 Mt. Pleasant St	1860		1940
James Whittemore House		16 Mt. Pleasant St	1865
Frederick S. Clark House	Red Gable	36 Mt. Pleasant St	1869
Billerica Baptist Church Parsonage		47 Mt. Pleasant St	1872
Joseph D. Gould House		43 Mt. Pleasant St	1876
Joseph Feree Talbot House		32 Mt. Pleasant St	1893

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the Wamesit road of 1664 "ran near the present site of the depot in North Billerica"
2. Hazen 1883: the Boston and Lowell Railroad was opened June 25, 1835
3. 1896 Annual Report, guide boards: "Board at corner of Russell and Mount Pleasant Street, North Billerica"
4. 1897 Annual Report, street naming committee: "Mt. Pleasant street, running east from Jane Faulkner's and Rogers street to High street"
5. 1899 Annual Report, Historical Society's revised list, no. 12: Mt. Pleasant street, from Rogers street running east to High street
6. 1900 Annual Report: street list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899
7. 1901 Annual Report, highway surveyor: "Mt. Pleasant street, graveled 1,524 ft. long, 14 ft. wide"
8. 1903 Annual Report, highway surveyor: graveling on Mt. Pleasant and High Streets, 2100 ft. long, 15 ft. wide
9. 1908 warrant, Art. 32: committee on draining the road-bed under the Boston and Maine railroad bridge on Mount Pleasant Street
10. 1909 Annual Report: report of the committee on drainage of Mount Pleasant Street, with plan of February 1909
11. 1911 Annual Report: County Commissioners' decree and special commission on the drainage and alteration of Mount Pleasant Street under the railroad bridge
12. 1924 highway surveyor's report: Mt. Pleasant Street macadamized for 1100 feet as directed by the vote of the town
13. 1943 Street Department report: Mt. Pleasant Street resurfaced with tar and pea gravel from Faulkner Street to Billerica Avenue
14. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads, "Mt. Pleasant Street, Faulkner Street, High Street"
15. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts as public ways the roads on the official 1831 map (124 to 19)