Faulkner Street

Faulkner Street crosses the Concord River just below the mill dam at North Billerica, running from Old Elm Street on the west bank, past the Talbot and Faulkner mills, to the junction of Mt. Pleasant and Rogers Streets near the railroad. It is the middle of the old road that the 1983 National Register nomination for the Billerica Mills district describes as the "18th century road now known as Rogers' Street, Faulkner Street, Elm Street, and Colson Street," running from the canal bridge along the mill pond, "over the mill bridge," and back to The Fordway. No laying out of the crossing is recorded. The crossing grew up with the mills that Christopher Osgood was granted the right to build "at the falls" in 1708, and the Middlesex Canal, opened about 1802, was carried under it near the west end by Lund's bridge.

On R. A. Hale's plan of the Faulkner Manufacturing Company property of October 1880 the road east of the mills is simply the "Road to Billerica Centre." By 1890 the town reports used the name Elm Street for the whole road from Colson Street across the river: in 1895 an article asked the town to "straighten and widen Elm Street, on the East side, commencing front of the house owned by the Faulkner Manufacturing Company ... thence passing down the hill to the second bridge, and widen both bridges." The street naming committee then gave the east part its own name, "Faulkner street, running easterly from Elm street to junction near railroad bridge," and the Historical Society's revised list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, kept it. On March 24, 1902 the town voted "to define Elm Street as running from Colson Street to the southern bank of the Middlesex canal; to define Faulkner Street as extending from the canal to Mount Pleasant Street." The directories of 1901 to 1919 call it the "continuation of Elm at bridge to junc. Rogers and Mt. Pleasant."

The name is for the Faulkner family and their woolen mill on the east bank. Francis Faulkner came from Acton in 1811 and began the manufacture of woolen goods here, the second such enterprise in New England, and the business passed to his son James R. Faulkner and grandsons as J. R. Faulkner & Co. and later the Faulkner Manufacturing Company. James R. Faulkner's house of about 1826 and the house of his son James, who married in 1852, stand on the street as 2 and 1 Faulkner Street, and the 1897 list located Mt. Pleasant Street from "Jane Faulkner's." The committee's reasons are not recorded.

In 1895 the town voted $800 to straighten and widen the street "as laid out by the Selectmen, and shown on plan by H. W. Sheldon," the Faulkner company to pay half, but the selectmen reported that the work could not be done within the sum. A special town meeting of August 2, 1910 voted $9,000 for a new bridge, and the Hanscom Construction Company built it that year to the plans of J. R. Worcester and Company, of reinforced concrete "in two spans of forty-eight feet each" and thirty feet wide; the sidewalk and the macadamizing of the roadway were left for the spring of 1911, and in 1912 the highway surveyor reported "Faulkner Street, macadam, 343 ft. long and 30 ft. wide." It was treated with Tarvia in 1914, and in 1916 the County Commissioners laid out Faulkner, Mt. Pleasant and Rogers Streets from the river to High Street. In 1943 it was resurfaced with tar and pea gravel "from Elm Street to Mt. Pleasant Street, a distance of 1350 feet."

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 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." That list gives it from Mt. Pleasant Street to "Old Elm Road."

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Faulkner Mills		71 Faulkner St	1811
Captain Joel Dix House		2 Elm St	1815		1996
Faulkner Kindergarten		2 Faulkner St	1825
The Canal Block	Wooden Housing Row	1-7 Elm St	1835		1984
James R. Faulkner House		1 Faulkner St	1859
Williams Hairdressing Salon		13 Faulkner St	1930		1990

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): grant of Oct. 4, 1708 to Christopher Osgood of the neck west of the river, with the stream at the falls, for a grist mill
2. Hazen 1883: Francis Faulkner came from Acton in 1811 and began the manufacture of woolen goods at North Billerica
3. 1890 Annual Report, highway surveyor: "Graveled on Elm Street, 180 feet long, 10 feet wide"
4. 1895 warrant, Art. 18: straighten and widen Elm Street on the east side, from the Faulkner company's house down the hill to the second bridge
5. 1896 Annual Report: vote of March 18, 1895 to straighten and widen Elm Street as laid out by the Selectmen on H. W. Sheldon's plan
6. 1897 Annual Report, street naming committee: "Faulkner street, running easterly from Elm street to junction near railroad bridge"
7. 1899 Annual Report, Historical Society's revised list, no. 8: Faulkner street, from Elm street easterly to junction near railroad bridge
8. 1900 Annual Report: street list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899
9. 1903 Annual Report: vote of March 24, 1902 defining Elm Street to the canal and Faulkner Street from the canal to Mount Pleasant Street
10. 1911 Annual Report: committee on the new reinforced concrete bridge across the Concord River at Faulkner Street, built 1910
11. 1913 Annual Report, highway surveyor: "Faulkner Street, macadam, 343 ft. long and 30 ft. wide"
12. 1915 Annual Report, highway surveyor: Wilson, Elm and Faulkner Streets covered with Tarvia B
13. 1943 Street Department report: Faulkner Street resurfaced with tar and pea gravel from Elm Street to Mt. Pleasant Street, 1350 feet
14. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads, "Faulkner Street, Mt. Pleasant Street, Old Elm Road"
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)