Cider Mill Way

Cider Mill Way
Location Map
Laid Out 1930
Right of Way 50 ft
Pavement 22 ft


Cider Mill Way is a dead-end street of about 410 feet running east from Andover Road on the northeast side of Billerica Centre, near Pond Street. It began as a private way to the land behind the houses on Andover Road: the house at number 8 is dated by the assessors to about 1930, and as late as 1988 the lot at number 4 was described as lying on "the Southeasterly side of, but not adjoining, the Andover Road" and was addressed from Andover Road. The name Cider Mill Way appears in the registry of deeds from December 1990.

The name evidently recalls the cider mill of the Livingston family. Everett W. Livingston, a town constable, ran a cider mill at Richardson's mill in East Billerica in the 1880s and in 1891 built another at Billerica Centre, and the town paid E. W. Livingston and Son for "making cider" in the 1900s. The directories list the Livingston Company, Henry D. and William E. Livingston, "cider and vinegar mnfrs off Andover n[ear] Pond" from 1915 to 1919, and still "off Andover rd" in 1942; a school yearbook of 1947 carries an advertisement for "The Livingstone Cider Mill." No record found states that the mill stood on this way, and the date of the name is not recorded.

The land south of the street was the subject of a long dispute over housing for older residents. In 1997 the annual spring town meeting voted 123 to 30 to zone land "on Cider Mill Way (off Andover Road)" as an elderly housing overlay district for a condominium project of 165 units, which then went into ten years of litigation, and on May 15, 2008 the town meeting rejected an agreement that would have allowed 250 assisted and independent living units there instead. Cider Mill Way was accepted as a public way at the third session of the annual spring town meeting on May 8, 2018, under Article 34, "from Andover Road to Dead End approximate length 410' and 50' wide right of way," as shown on a plan dated September 6, 2002 by Allen & Major Associates; the vote was 164 to 11. It was repaved that year.




References

  1. Billerica town report 1997: spring town meeting Art. 27, elderly housing overlay district for land on Cider Mill Way (off Andover Road), carried 123 to 30
  2. Billerica town report 2008: May 15, 2008 town meeting Art. 54, Andover Road and Cider Mill Way senior housing agreement, lost
  3. Billerica town report 2018: Art. 34 warrant, Cider Mill Way from Andover Road to dead end, 410 by 50 feet, Allen and Major plan of 2002
  4. Billerica town report 2018: May 8, 2018 town meeting accepts Art. 34 roads, 164 to 11