Cambridge Street

Cambridge Street is the Burlington name of the highway that continues Boston Road (Route 3A) southeast from the Billerica line toward Burlington Center and Woburn. In Billerica the road has always been Boston Road: the street naming committee of 1897 described "Main street, from Chelmsford line, running south to Burlington line," the list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899 gave "Boston road, from Chelmsford line running south to Burlington line," and the town's list of streets accepted, printed in 1956, gave "Boston Rd., From Chelmsford line south to Burlington line." No Billerica record calls any part of the road in Billerica Cambridge Street. A "Cambridge Road" that appears in the Billerica highway reports of 1932 and 1933 and a "Cambridge Street" in a street list of 1935 are not placed by the reports and were probably a short development street elsewhere in town.

The road is the old country road from Billerica to Woburn, of which Burlington was part until 1799. A committee of the two towns laid it out about 1660, and when no record of that laying out could be found the committees met again at the Shawshin Farm in December 1670 and fixed its course "from billerica to woburn through Shawshin farmes," seven rods wide, "streight through ye dirty swamp" and over "ye casey neer Shawshin river." Hazen thought it "very doubtful" that the road to Cambridge was ever "distinct from the Woburn Road west of the Shawshin." The Burlington name comes from that destination: the road led through Woburn to Cambridge and Boston, and Billerica's own records spoke of "the road to the bay."

The line between the towns was a state highway boundary from the start. In 1897 the Billerica selectmen, after meeting with the selectmen of Winchester and Burlington, recommended a state highway on "the main road commencing at the common in Billerica Centre and running to the Burlington town line, a distance of three and one-half miles." The Massachusetts Highway Commission laid out Cambridge Street in Burlington "from Lantern Lane to Billerica Line" on September 11, 1906, and the Middlesex County Commissioners (1916) and the Highway Commission (1917) laid out Boston Road in Billerica "from Burlington line" northwest, so that the state highway ran through both towns. The part in Billerica is described in the Boston Road article.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 88: the country road to Woburn, laid out about 1660 and fixed "through Shawshin farmes" in December 1670
2. Hazen 1883: "whether the road to Cambridge was distinct from the Woburn Road west of the Shawshin is very doubtful"
3. Annual Report 1897: selectmen recommend a state highway from Billerica Centre "to the Burlington town line"
4. Annual Report 1897: street naming committee, "Main street, from Chelmsford line, running south to Burlington line"
5. Annual Report 1900: list accepted March 27, 1899, "Boston road, from Chelmsford line running south to Burlington line"
6. Annual Report 1956: list of streets accepted, "Boston Rd., From Chelmsford line south to Burlington line"
7. Massachusetts state highway layouts, Burlington: Layout 1075, Sept. 11, 1906, Cambridge St., "SHLO From Lantern Lane to Billerica Line"
8. Massachusetts state highway layouts, Billerica: Layout 1756, Aug. 29, 1917, Rte. 3A, "SHLO From Burlington line N'W'ly"
9. Wikipedia: Massachusetts Route 3A (formerly Route 6A until 1926), through Burlington and Billerica