Colson Street

Colson Street runs north from Treble Cove Road at the west end of the Fordway Bridge, past the Kohlrausch Playground, the Talbot School and the North Billerica Baptist Church, across Old Elm Street, to Lowell Street. With Rogers, Faulkner and Elm Streets it is counted in the 1983 National Register nomination for the Billerica Mills district as part of one "18th century road" that "returns south to the Fordway Bridge." It probably follows the "pathway leading to broad meadow" named in the town's grant of October 4, 1708 to Christopher Osgood of "all that neck of land on the West of Concord River, lying between said River and the pathway," for his mill at the falls; the neck between the river and Colson Street is the site of the Talbot Mills. No laying out is recorded. The Middlesex Canal crossed the road near Lowell Street by Farmer's bridge after about 1802.

The road had no name of its own before 1897. The street naming committee listed "Colson street, running south from Lowell street to Corliss street," and the Historical Society's revised list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, gave "Colson street, from Lowell street running south to Treble Cove road." The name is for the Colson family, who owned the farm on its west side. Nicholas Sprake lived at the place in the eighteenth century, "the Colson place by the Baptist church," as Hazen put it; Oliver Farmer, who married Hannah Sprake, built the brick-ended house of 1803 opposite the corner of Elm Street; and his daughter Rachel married Israel A. Colson in 1832. Colson, a selectman in 1860 and 1869 to 1873, "lives at the Farmer place, by the Baptist church," Hazen wrote in 1883, and his son George F. Colson, a selectman in 1881 and 1882, held the farm until his death in 1914. Its land on the west side of the street became Warren H. Manning's Colson Heights subdivision that year.

The highway surveyor graveled parts of "Colson Road" in 1904 and 1905 and 1,112 feet of the street in 1912. At the annual meeting of 1922 the town set aside $1,500 for macadam repairs, and a special town meeting of August 21, 1922 voted to use the money instead to "resurface said Colson street with gravel and oil." The County Commissioners laid out the southern part of the street in 1922, and in 1927 it was treated with Tarvia B from "Lowell St. to McGrath Sq." The sidewalks were rebuilt in 1997 and 1998.

The county layout made the street a public way, and the town formally accepted it 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." That list gives it from Treble Cove Road to Lowell Street.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Colson Barn		36 Colson St	1803
Oliver Farmer II House		34 Colson St	1803
Kohlrausch House (25-27 Colson Street)		25-27 Colson St	1886
Talbot Woolen Mills Worker Housing at 21-23 Colson St		21-23 Colson St	1888
Kohlrausch House (30 Colson Street)		30 Colson St	1901
Residence at 18-20 Colson St		18-20 Colson St	1910
Residence at 32 Colson St		32 Colson St	1910
Residence at 44 Colson St		44 Colson St	1915
Residence at 12 Colson St		12 Colson St	1919
Residence at 16 Colson St		16 Colson St	1920
Residence at 40-42 Colson St		40-42 Colson St	1920
North Billerica Baptist Church Parsonage		17 Colson St	1925
Residence at 22-24 Colson St		22-24 Colson St	1927
Residence at 29 Colson St		29 Colson St	1948
Residence at 19 Colson St		19 Colson St	1955

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): grant of Oct. 4, 1708 to Christopher Osgood of the neck "lying between said River and the pathway leading to broad meadow"
2. 1897 Annual Report, street naming committee: "Colson street, running south from Lowell street to Corliss street"
3. 1899 Annual Report, Historical Society's revised list, no. 5: Colson street, from Lowell street running south to Treble Cove road
4. 1900 Annual Report: street list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899
5. 1905 Annual Report, highway surveyor: "Gravelling Colson Road, 350 feet"
6. 1913 Annual Report, highway surveyor: scraping and graveling 1,112 feet on Colson Street
7. 1922 annual town meeting: $1,500 for macadam repairs on Colson Street taken from the highway appropriation
8. Special town meeting of Aug. 21, 1922: Colson Street to be resurfaced with gravel and oil instead of macadam
9. 1927 highway report: Colson Street treated with Tarvia B from Lowell Street to McGrath Square
10. 1997 Annual Report: reconstruction of sidewalks on Colson Street and Old Elm Street
11. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads, "Colson Street, Treble Cove Road, Lowell Street"
12. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts as public ways the roads on the official 1831 map (124 to 19)