Baldwin Road

Baldwin Road runs from Allen Road east and northeast through East Billerica to Salem Road (Route 129) near the Shawsheen River, at the place long called Page's Corner. Like Allen Road it is an old way whose laying out was never recorded. Henry A. Hazen read the 1658 agreement for highways at Loes Plain, which laid out "another highway four poles wide, on the North side of Samuel Kemp's lot, so runing ouer the brooke on the north of Simon Crosbee's land & on the South of Jacob Browne's land," as the beginning of "the road leading towards the Shawshin" from the East Road (now Allen Road), "early known as Marshall's Lane, John Marshall living near the turn." He described the other end as the corner "at Mr. James Page's, on the Wilmington Road, where 'Marshall's lane,' extended from the Crosby place, comes into it." In his notes to the tax list of December 1776 he called it the Shawshin Road, "the road which runs east from this road to the river, and thence north to the Wilmington Road," and placed Ephraim Crosby at the "Crosby place, Shawshin Road" and John Baldwin at "Joel Baldwin's, Shawshin Road."

The name comes from the Baldwin family who lived at the north end of the road. John Baldwin was there in 1776, and his grandson Joel Baldwin, the son of Timothy Baldwin of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, came back to Billerica in 1825 and "lived west of the Shawshin river, at the first place south of the Wilmington road." He died in 1850, and his son Joel, born in 1824, kept the place; in 1890 the town paid "Joel Baldwin" for gravel. The street naming committee chosen in 1896 (Martin Conway, John E. Rowell and Coburn S. Smith) listed "Bauldwin street, running easterly from Allen street to Salem street, East Billerica," and the Billerica Historical Society's revised list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, gave "Baldwin street, from Allen street running easterly to Salem road, E. Billerica." The Lowell directory's Billerica street list of 1901 notes "Pine, changed to Baldwin," which suggests that the road, or part of it, had also been called Pine Street. The town reports called it Baldwin Street until about 1920 and Baldwin Road after that.

The oldest house now facing the road is the Deacon Thomas B. Edmands house at No. 57, of about 1835. The road was a narrow gravel road until the 1930s. It was scraped and graveled in 1904, graveled for 3,647 feet, 12 feet wide, in 1919, and graveled 800 feet at a width of 18 feet in 1935. In 1936 it was "gravelled to width of 18' and 6" depth for a distance of 2 miles," and in 1937 it was "scraped and raked, rolled and tarred for a distance of 6,864 lineal feet, and 18 feet width," its first hard surface. Tar seal coats were applied in the 1940s and mix-in-place surfacing in 1965, and it was paved with bituminous concrete in 1971 and again in 1983.

In March 1969 the town meeting voted, 62 to 47, $3,500 for the legal and engineering fees "necessary for land taking procedures required for the Baldwin Road Layout," the layout for its reconstruction that the selectmen had filed with the town clerk, but it dismissed the companion article for $450,000 to rebuild the road. The town's list of streets accepted, printed in 1956, gave "Baldwin Rd., Allen Rd. east to Salem Rd." with no date of acceptance. It was formally accepted as a public way 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 57 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." The list gives Baldwin Road from Allen Road to Salem Road.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
D. Carter House		41 Baldwin Rd	1852		1954
E. Page House		222 Baldwin Rd	1852		1939
J. Baldwin House		186 Baldwin Rd	1852		1924
P. Holden House		140 Baldwin Rd	1852		1948
R. Cutter House		131 Baldwin Rd	1852		1939
Deacon Thomas B. Edmonds House		57 Baldwin Rd	1870

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 92: the 1658 highway north of Samuel Kemp's lot and "Marshall's Lane," the road from the East Road toward the Shawshin
2. Hazen 1883: the corner at Mr. James Page's on the Wilmington Road "where 'Marshall's lane,' extended from the Crosby place, comes into it"
3. Hazen 1883: tax list of December 1776, his "Shawshin Road"; John Baldwin at "Joel Baldwin's, Shawshin Road"
4. Hazen, Genealogical Register: Joel Baldwin, from Lyndeborough in 1825, "west of the Shawshin river, at the first place south of the Wilmington road"
5. Annual Report 1890: town paid Joel Baldwin for gravel
6. Annual Report 1897: street naming committee, "Bauldwin street, running easterly from Allen street to Salem street, East Billerica"
7. Annual Report 1899: Historical Society list, "55. Baldwin street, from Allen street running easterly to Salem road, E. Billerica"
8. Annual Report 1900: street list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899
9. Annual Report 1904: scraping and graveling on Baldwin Street
10. Annual Report 1919: Baldwin Street graveled 3,647 feet long, 12 feet wide
11. Annual Report 1935: Baldwin Road graveled 800 feet, 18 feet wide
12. Annual Report 1936: Baldwin Road gravelled to a width of 18 feet for 2 miles
13. Annual Report 1937: Baldwin Road rolled and tarred for 6,864 feet, 18 feet wide
14. Annual Report 1956: list of streets accepted, "Baldwin Rd., Allen Rd. east to Salem Rd."
15. Annual Report 1968: warrant article to accept the layout for the reconstruction of Baldwin Road
16. Annual Report 1969: March 1969 town meeting votes $3,500 for the Baldwin Road layout (62 to 47) and dismisses the $450,000 reconstruction
17. Annual Report 2017: Article 36 warrant, 1831 list of roads, "Baldwin Road, Allen Road to Salem Road"
18. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts the 1831 roads as public ways (124 to 19)