Canterbury Street

Canterbury Street runs from the Middlesex Turnpike south to the northwest shore of Nuttings Lake. It is the main street of the part of Nuttings Lake Park laid out in 1915 west of the turnpike.

The street comes from "Nuttings Lake Park Addition, Plan F," drawn in June 1915 by H. A. Millhouse, civil engineer and surveyor, and recorded October 20, 1915 in Plan Book 32, Plan 91. Plan F shows Canterbury Street leaving the turnpike, bending south and running down to the lake, with Baldwin, Deerfield, Fairview, Hillcrest and Walnut Streets opening from it and land of the Dolan and O'Keefe families on either side. The plan does not explain the name. Canterbury, like Deerfield on the same plan, is a place name, and the other names (Endicott, Garrison, Arch, Shady Hill, Elmwood, Cedar, Walnut) suggest names chosen for their sound rather than for local people. The street guide of 1930 to 1931 gives "Canterbury (north side Nuttings lake) from Old Middlesex Turnpike to Nutings lake."

The town graveled 575 feet of Canterbury Street in 1929, 15 feet wide and 6 inches deep, and from 1936 it was "scraped, raked and oiled." A 1932 request for two street lights was referred to the selectmen. An article to accept 525 feet of "gravelled road" was dismissed in 1942. On February 9, 1946 the annual meeting voted to accept "an additional 850 feet of Canterbury Street from end of already accepted" and "Canterbury Street from Walnut Street to Hillcrest Street 255 feet"; the selectmen laid it out on August 26, 1946 and the special town meeting of October 28, 1946 accepted the laying out, with water mains to follow. The record of the first acceptance has not been found. In 1952 the street received an asphalt penetration and seal on 500 feet, and drainage was built in 1958 to 1961.

A by-law of 1961 forbade launching motorboats at midday at "the shore at the end of Canterbury Street." In the renaming of 1988 the side streets Walnut, Fairview and Hillcrest became Yale Street, Alyssum Drive and Flagstaff Road, and in 1990 the town accepted Thistle Lane, a new street off Canterbury Street. Canterbury Street is not among the roads of the 1831 map accepted in 2016.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
S. Miller House		20 Canterbury St	1852		1994

References

1. 1929 Highway Surveyor report: Canterbury St. graveled 575 feet, 6 inches deep, 15 feet wide
2. 1932 annual town meeting, Article 40: two street lights on Canterbury Street referred to the Selectmen
3. 1942 annual town meeting, Article 42: acceptance of 525 feet of Canterbury Street dismissed
4. Annual town meeting, Feb. 9, 1946, Article 49: accepted an additional 850 feet of Canterbury Street and Canterbury Street from Walnut to Hillcrest Street
5. Special town meeting, Oct. 28, 1946, Article 30: accepted the laying out of Canterbury, Baldwin, Deerfield and other Nuttings Lake streets
6. Streets Accepted by the Town of Billerica (printed 1956): Canterbury St. entries of 2-9-46 and 10-28-46