Billerica Improvement Association

The Billerica Improvement Association was a town-wide civic society, organized on June 30, 1902, for the improvement of the town's roadsides, public grounds, house lots and gardens. Its first president, for ten years, was the landscape architect Warren H. Manning, and its work ran from prizes for the best-kept premises and children's gardens to the wood road up Gilson Hill, which it gave to the town in 1925 as the first ground of the Town Forest. It followed the two village improvement associations of the Centre and North Billerica (see Billerica Village Improvement Association), and the town records and the magazine Billerica sometimes call it the Village Improvement Association or the Billerica Improvement Society.

Organization and officers

In 1912 the association had 73 members and held its annual meeting on the third Thursday in October in the Town Hall; its officers were Manning, president, Herbert F. Jacobs, secretary, and T. Frank Lyons, treasurer. At the annual meeting that fall Manning gave way to the Unitarian minister Rev. Lyman V. Rutledge, with Jacobs and Lyons continuing. The association then worked through four committees: Ways and Means, whose members included Natt H. Hutchins and Dr. Charles E. Hosmer; Road and Roadside; Public Grounds and Reservations, with Manning, J. Nelson Parker and M. H. Kohlrausch; and Home and School Grounds, under Ivory M. Hanson, with Frederic S. Clark of the Talbot Mills and the Baptist minister Rev. Charles H. Williams. In 1916 and 1919 the Lowell directories list Williams as president, Herbert B. Hosmer as secretary and Lyons as treasurer.

Work in the town

At the annual town meeting of 1904 an article asked for money "to be used by the Billerica Improvement Association in caring for public reservations in the town." A motion by Roger Barrington to dismiss the article was doubted and lost on a count of 17 to 29, an amendment to cut the sum to $75 failed, and the $100 was voted. The warrant of 1906 asked the town to designate public grounds or open spaces in its streets not needed for travel and give "the use and improvement thereof to the Billerica Improvement Association, under the direction of the Selectmen," as the Revised Laws allowed; on the motion of Frederic S. Clark the article was dismissed.

In 1908 Manning, the association's president, and his neighbor John E. Rowell laid out a "Wood Road and Hill Top Reservation on Gilson Hill." Manning and Rowell gave the summit to the Appalachian Mountain Club for the use of the public, and Manning deeded the association two strips 100 feet wide, 7.4 acres winding up from the Rangeway Road and 4.95 acres down to the Treble Cove Road, as the road to the reservation. Manning's study of the town's topography, published in the magazine Billerica as a series of maps for a town plan, was shown as lantern slides at the association's annual entertainment of October 30, 1912, with views of noted parks "as gentle reminders of what might be done in Billerica," and townspeople were urged to send him information about old trails, historic spots and landmarks.

The prizes were the association's most visible work. Each year judges, headed in 1912 by Rev. Charles H. Williams, awarded money prizes for the best-kept premises, for vines, for window and porch boxes, for flower gardens and for vegetable gardens; the Talbot Mills ran a similar contest among its own employees in North Billerica. The Home and School Grounds committee also held an annual exhibition of flowering bulbs grown by schoolchildren, with winners named by grade in each school, and Elmer E. Cole offered prizes through the association for essays by seventh and eighth graders on "How to Beautify Billerica." The association observed Billerica Day, the anniversary of the town's incorporation, on May 22, 1913 with an entertainment by the Whitney Concert Company.

When the town created its Town Forest in 1924 and 1925 under a committee chaired by Manning, the association conveyed to the town its strips on Gilson Hill, which connect the Rangeway and Treble Cove Roads with the Appalachian Mountain Club reservation on the hilltop; they became Billerica Town Forest areas 1 and 2. The association does not appear in the town records after the 1920s.

Neighborhood improvement associations

Residents of the newer districts and summer colonies formed improvement associations of their own, which kept halls or clubhouses, spoke for their districts at town meeting and raised floats in the town's parades. The Pinehurst Improvement Association and the Riverdale Improvement Association, of Riverdale, both had floats in the Welcome Home parade of July 4, 1919 (see World War I). The Garden City Improvement Association of North Billerica used the upper floor of Union Hall, where in February 1929 it was barred from holding a political rally after the state building inspector condemned the building, and where in 1932 it was still holding social gatherings with the American Legion post. The Nuttings Lake South Side Improvement Association kept a boat house, clubhouse and beach on the south shore of Nuttings Lake. The River Pines Improvement Association of River Pines put an article in the 1964 warrant asking for life preservers on poles along the river bank of its section, after two police officers had "narrowly escaped death rescuing a child who had fallen into the river." The Westlands Improvement Association, whose trophy Howe High School won outright from Chelmsford on Thanksgiving Day 1946, was a Chelmsford society.

References

1. Billerica magazine, 1912, Societies and Clubs: Billerica Improvement Association, 1902, June 30; Warren H. Manning, Herbert F. Jacobs, T. Frank Lyons; membership 73
2. Billerica magazine, Day Book, June 30, 1912: Billerica Improvement Association organized ten years ago
3. Billerica magazine, 1912: The Billerica Improvement Association; Manning's town plan maps shown at the annual entertainment of October 30
4. Billerica magazine, 1912: prize winners, Board of Judges under Rev. Charles H. Williams; officers and committees for 1912-13, President Lyman V. Rutledge
5. Billerica magazine, 1913: Improvement Association bulb contest, February 21, committee under Ivory M. Hanson; winners by school and grade
6. Billerica magazine, 1912, Schools: Elmer E. Cole's prizes through the Billerica Improvement Society for essays on "How to Beautify Billerica"
7. Billerica magazine, Day Book, May 22, 1913: Billerica Day observed by Improvement Association, entertainment by Whitney Concert Company
8. Lowell Suburban Directory 1919, Billerica societies: Billerica Improvement Association, organized June 30, 1902; Rev Charles H Williams Pres, T F Lyons Treas, Herbert B Hosmer Sec
9. Town Report 1904, warrant Art. 16: $110 to be used by the Billerica Improvement Association
10. Town Report 1904: Art. 16, motion to dismiss lost 17 to 29; $100 voted on Mr. Singhi's motion; Barrington's amendment to $75 failed
11. Town Report 1906, warrant Art. 24: public grounds to be given to the use and improvement of the Billerica Improvement Association
12. Town Report 1906: Art. 24, on motion of F. S. Clark this article was dismissed
13. Town Report 1925: Billerica Town Forest areas; B. T. F. 1 and 2, Billerica Improvement Association to Town, conveyed to it by Warren H. Manning in 1908
14. Town Report 1925, Town Forest Committee: the Billerica Improvement Society has conveyed to the town its 100 foot strip on Gilson Hill
15. Town Report 1919: Welcome Home parade, July 4, 1919; floats of the Pinehurst and Riverdale Improvement Associations
16. Town Report 1929: Union Hall condemned; the Garden City Improvement Association prohibited from holding a political rally
17. Town Report 1932: committee on Union Hall; upper floor used by the Garden City Improvement Association and the American Legion
18. Town Report 1964, warrant: article on life preservers along the river bank, submitted by The River Pines Improvement Association
19. Howe High yearbook 1947: the 1946 team, permanent owner of the Westlands Improvement Association Trophy (Howe and Chelmsford)

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.