Chelmsford Road

Chelmsford Road runs west from Boston Road in North Billerica, past the Rangeway Road junction and the Manning Manse, to the Chelmsford line, where it continues as Billerica Road to Chelmsford Center. It has carried Route 129 since 1939. It is one of the oldest roads in the town, but its laying out was never recorded. Henry A. Hazen wrote in 1883 that "of the Chelmsford Road no description is recorded," and that it first "crossed the river at the Fordway, and not as now at the Corner." Until 1699 the way to Chelmsford crossed the Concord River at The Fordway and came west along the line of Sprague Street and the north end of Rangeway Road to the present road; deeds of 1718 to 1742 for the farm north of Sprague Street bound it "partly by the road to Chelmsford" and "south by Chelmsford road leading to the fordway." When the Fordway bridge was carried away by a flood and a new bridge was built at the Corner in 1699 (see Corner Bridge), "it became necessary to alter the road between Chelmsford and this town," and committees of the two towns did so on Sept. 25, 1699. Their report does not survive. The short eastern part of the present road, from Boston Road to Rangeway Road, is first seen on the town map of 1831 and on Walling's map of 1853.

West of the Rangeway the road passes the old Manning farm. Hazen wrote that Ensign Samuel Manning "lived later on the Chelmsford Road, over Concord River, and prob. built the old garrison-house, long known as the Manning Tavern, and still standing there," and repeated the tradition that "the Manning house, still standing on the Chelmsford Road, was in use as a garrison." Family records date the house to 1696. The Manning deeds name the road again and again: "the road to Chelmsford" when a widow's thirds were set off in 1776, "the great road leading to Chelmsford" in 1798, "the road from Billerica to Chelmsford" in a levy of 1812, and "the great road leading from Billerica to Chelmsford" in 1838. In 1807 William Manning described his farm as lying "on both sides of the grate road leading from Boston to Amherst," for this was also the through road from Billerica to Amherst, New Hampshire. Walling's map of 1853 labels it "Chelmsford St.," with the two and a half mile mark from the Unitarian church near the house of L. & J. Manning. In 1904 the landscape architect Warren H. Manning bought the farm "on the southerly side of the road leading from Chelmsford to said North Billerica" and the same year conveyed the house lot to the Manning Association; he built Juniper Cottage across the road in 1907, and the woodland he gathered nearby became the Manning State Forest.

When the town first named its streets, the committee of 1897 called the road "Washington street, running northerly from Main street to Chelmsford line, No. Billerica," and gave the name Chelmsford Street to the road through West Billerica. A meeting of citizens at the Historical Society on March 23, 1898 asked that Washington Street be "Changed to Danforth Street" and that the West Billerica road be called Chelmsford Road. The Billerica Historical Society's list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, settled it the other way: "Chelmsford road, from Boston road running westerly to Chelmsford line, No. Billerica," with the West Billerica road named Nashua Road. The reports do not explain Washington or Danforth. The name Chelmsford Road, like the older descriptions in the deeds, comes from the road's destination, the neighboring town of Chelmsford.

The road was gravel for more than thirty years after it was named. The highway surveyor graveled 450 feet in 1902 and more near A. D. Boynton's in 1904, and in 1915 he graveled 2,280 feet, 15 feet wide, for which "Mr. Warren Manning gave the gravel." Poles were permitted "from Great road to residence of W. H. Manning" in 1905, a water main was laid in 1912, and in 1917 the town was asked for three street lights "between its junction with the Rangeway Road and the Manning Manse." Its first hard surface came in 1927, when the town voted "two applications of Tarvia B" on 0.8 mile of Chelmsford Road, applied "Boston Rd. to the Chelmsford Town Line"; it was tarred again in 1928.

The present road dates from 1935. At the annual town meeting of February 1935 the town asked the State Department of Public Works to submit a project "for the improvement of Chelmsford Road from Boston Road to the Chelmsford line" with federal money under Section 204 of the National Industrial Recovery Act, and promised to maintain it. The County Commissioners ordered a new layout on May 7, 1935, and the State took the land on a plan of May 1935. The road was straightened and widened, and by the Manse it was moved north, leaving the house about fifty feet from the pavement. The highway department reported "a new boulevard between North Billerica and Chelmsford built by the State," and in 1936 the town paid $450 to five abutters "for land taken in relocating Chelmsford Road." It was afterwards kept up as a Chapter 90 road. The State resurfaced it with bituminous concrete in 1953 and 1954, and in 1954 relocated it just over the line in Chelmsford for the new Route 3. The bypassed loop by the Manse, "the Old Chelmsford Road layout," was offered to the Manning Association at the Fall Town Meeting of 1983, and the strip between the Manse lot and the 1935 line passed to the Association in 1995. The intersection with Rangeway Road was rebuilt in 2017 and 2018.

The County layout of 1935 made the present line a public way, and the town's list of accepted streets printed in 1956 gave "Chelmsford Rd. From Boston Rd. west to Chelmsford line" without a date. 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 town manager explained that the state already treated these roads as public ways, but the town had no record of accepting them and so could not spend money to maintain them. The list gives Chelmsford Road from the Chelmsford town line to Boston Road.

Historic Buildings

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): "Of the Chelmsford Road no description is recorded"; it crossed the river at the Fordway, not at the Corner
2. Hazen 1883: the Fordway bridge carried away by a flood; new bridge at the Corner, act of March 20, 1699
3. Hazen 1883: the rangeway road of the 1708 division, which the old road to the Fordway followed at its north end
4. Hazen 1883: tradition that "the Manning house, still standing on the Chelmsford Road, was in use as a garrison"
5. Hazen 1883, additions: Samuel Manning "lived later on the Chelmsford Road" and probably built the garrison house known as the Manning Tavern
6. John Farmer, Historical Memoir of Billerica (1816): bridge moved about 1699; road between Chelmsford and Billerica altered by committees Sept. 25, 1699
7. 1897 Annual Report: street naming committee proposes "Washington street, running northerly from Main street to Chelmsford line"
8. 1899 Annual Report: March 23, 1898 citizens' meeting, No. 28 "Changed to Danforth Street," No. 39 "Change to Chelmsford Road"
9. 1899 Annual Report: Historical Society list, "28. Chelmsford road, from Boston road running westerly to Chelmsford line, No. Billerica"
10. 1900 Annual Report: street list accepted at town meeting March 27, 1899, including Chelmsford road
11. 1902 Annual Report: Chelmsford road graveled 450 feet
12. 1905 Annual Report: pole location "Chelmsford road from Great road to residence of W. H. Manning"
13. 1915 Annual Report: Chelmsford Road graveled 2,280 feet; "Mr. Warren Manning gave the gravel"
14. 1917 warrant, Art. 16: three street lights between the Rangeway Road junction and the Manning Manse
15. 1927 town meeting, Art. 10: two applications of Tarvia B on gravel roads including Chelmsford Road, 0.8 mile
16. 1927 highway report: Tarvia B on Chelmsford Road from Boston Road to the Chelmsford town line
17. 1928 highway report: Chelmsford Road tarred from the State Road to the Chelmsford town line
18. 1935 town meeting, Art. 60: request for a State project to improve Chelmsford Road under Section 204 of the National Industrial Recovery Act
19. 1935 highway report: "a new boulevard between North Billerica and Chelmsford built by the State"
20. 1936 town meeting, Art. 18: $450 to reimburse abutters "for land taken in relocating Chelmsford Road"
21. 1953 warrant: groundwork so the State can resurface Chelmsford Road with bituminous concrete from Route 3A to the Chelmsford line
22. 1956 list of Streets Accepted by the Town: "Chelmsford Rd. From Boston Rd. west to Chelmsford line"
23. 1983 Fall Town Meeting warrant, Art. 10: discontinue the Old Chelmsford Road layout by the Manning Manse; State taking plan M-221 of May 1935
24. Annual Report 2017: Article 36 list of 1831 roads accepted October 2016, "Chelmsford Road, Chelmsford Town Line to Boston Road"
25. Annual Report 2017: vote of Oct. 6, 2016 on Article 36, 124 to 19
26. Massachusetts state highway layouts in Billerica: LO 4183 (Aug. 10, 1954), Chelmsford Rd., Rte. 129, relocated in connection with Route 3 in Chelmsford
27. Route 129, extended to Chelmsford in 1939, runs over Chelmsford Road and shares Route 3A in Billerica

Deed References Expand all

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