Bedford Street

Bedford Street runs northeast from Boston Road in Pinehurst, near the Burlington line, through the Pinedale section. It was laid out as one of the private streets of Pinedale Park, whose plan, "Pinedale Park, Billerica, Mass., 1908," drawn by J. S. Crossman, civil engineer, of Boston, was recorded on May 24, 1909 (Plan Book 26, Plan 22). On that plan Bedford is the easternmost of the streets opening from "Main Street," as Boston Road was labeled, running along the line of the Read land and crossing Arch Street. The Pinedale Park Addition of April 1911, drawn by C. A. Thayer, engineer, and recorded on December 22, 1911 (Plan Book 29, Plan 3), shows "Bedford Street" again as the west side of the new blocks along Crown, Crystal and High Streets. The directories of 1916 and 1919 list it as running "from Boston rd n Burlington line easterly to Pine."

No record explains the name. It sits among the plain names of the development, such as Pine, Maple, Birch, Broad, Brown, Crown and Crystal, and was presumably taken from the neighboring town of Bedford, although the street does not lead there. It should not be confused with the older "Bedford street" of the town's first street list of 1897, which was the road from Billerica Centre to the Bedford line, now Concord Road, or with "the Bedford Road" macadamized with state aid from 1910, which was the same road.

The town accepted the first part of the street at the annual meeting of 1947, when it was "moved and so voted that the town accept the laying out of Bedford Street for a distance of 1,150 feet from Boston Road to Arch Street as a town way in accordance with the report of the Selectmen"; the town's printed list gives the date as February 8, 1947. Cross Road "from Broad to Bedford St." was accepted in 1953. Bedford Street was graveled and given an asphalt penetration and seal in 1952, water pipe was bought in 1957 for "High, Arch, Crystal and Bedford Streets (Pinehurst)," and the street was graded and graveled in 1969 and hot topped with bituminous concrete in 1970. At the annual town meeting of 1971 the town accepted Bedford Street, with Arch, Highview and Crystal Streets, "as public ways in accordance with the layout by the Board of Selectmen." It was not among the roads of the 1831 town map accepted in 2016.

References

1. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1947: town accepts the laying out of Bedford Street, 1,150 feet from Boston Road to Arch Street
2. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1952: Bedford Street graveled with asphalt penetration and seal
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1956: list of accepted streets, Bedford Street accepted Feb. 8, 1947
4. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1957: water pipe bought for High, Arch, Crystal and Bedford Streets (Pinehurst)
5. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1970: Bedford Street and Dorsett Avenue hot topped with bituminous concrete
6. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1971: town meeting accepts Arch, Highview, Crystal and Bedford Streets