Cook Street

Cook Street runs from Boston Road in Pinehurst northeast past Alexander Road and Burlington Road to the Wilmington line. It lies east of the Shawsheen River, in what Henry A. Hazen called the Shawshin District, "east of the river, between the Woburn and Wilmington roads," and it leads toward the land beyond the river that was set off from Billerica to Wilmington in 1737. No laying out of the road is recorded. The earliest evidence for it is the survey of Harvard College's farm on the Shawsheen made by Caleb Brooks on September 25, 1744 and entered in the college books, which, as the Historical Commission noted in 1973, shows the farmhouse "in its original position north of the highway (Cook St.)." The College held the farm until 1754. The land north of the street was taken in 1967 for the Shawsheen Valley Regional Vocational Technical School, which opened at 100 Cook Street in 1970, and the old farmhouse was moved across the street.

The street is named for the Cook family of the Shawshin District. Paul Cook of Wilmington came to Billerica about 1771, and the 1776 tax list places him at the "Harrington pl., Shawshin District," as the farm was known in Hazen's day. His son Sears Cook "had the homestead" and died in 1816, and a later Sears Cook's widow Fanny married Hiram Harrington, which explains the name the place bore in 1883. Sears J. Cook, probably of the same family, was one of the town's assessors when the street naming committee chosen in 1896 (Martin Conway, John E. Rowell and Coburn S. Smith) made its list, which gave "Cook street, running northeasterly from Main street to Wilmington line, E. Billerica." The Billerica Historical Society's revised list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, kept it as "Cook street, from Boston road running northeasterly to Wilmington line, S. E. Billerica." Neither report explains the name, and the highway reports of 1915 and 1916 sometimes call it Cook Road.

Cook Street was a country gravel road into the 1920s, with railings repaired in 1902 and guard rails set in 1920 and 1923. In 1922 the town's Committee on Dangerous Highways reported that it "has several bad curves, the view being obstructed to a dangerous extent," noted that "there is much travel over it in the Summer," and urged the selectmen to support "the petition now before the County Commissioners for a relocation of this road." It was first treated with Tarvia B from Boston Road to Pines Road in 1927 and tarred from the Pines to the state highway in 1928, when a bridge near the Wilmington line was replanked. On November 17, 1931 the Middlesex County Commissioners ordered the relocation of "a portion of Cook Street" at Boston Road, taking land of the McHugh family and Sylvester P. Beard. The town cleared, blasted and graveled the new line in 1931 and in 1932 rebuilt about 700 feet, "graveled and tarred to a width of 24 ft.," with "all hills and curves" excavated "to give a clear vision of 300 ft." In 1933 the town deeded the abandoned piece of the old road to Elizabeth K. McHugh in exchange for land taken for the relocation.

The selectmen relocated Cook Street again in the Pinehurst section in 1951, "with the cooperation of the Pinehurst Amusement Company." It was resurfaced with bituminous concrete from Boston Road to Argyle Street in 1964, traffic signals were installed at Boston Road in 1981, and the town voted $16,000 in 1987 for widening near Boston Road.

The town's list of streets accepted, printed in 1956, gave "Cook St., From Boston Rd. northeast to Wilmington line" with no date of acceptance. 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 list gives Cook Street from Boston Road to the Wilmington town line.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
College Farm		93 Cook St	1740	1965
Samuel Richardson House		72 Cook St	1750
Shawsheen Schoolhouse	District Number 8 Schoolhouse	Cook St	1791		1920
B. F. Beard House		26 Cook St	1852		1984
Harrington House		148 Cook St	1852		1987
J. Soudin House		52 Cook St	1852		2010
Shawsheen Valley Technical High School		100 Cook St	1970
Ditson School		39 Cook St	2004

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): tax list of December 1776; the Shawshin District "east of the river, between the Woburn and Wilmington roads"
2. Hazen 1883: 1776 tax list, Paul Cook at "Harrington pl., Shawshin District"
3. Hazen, Genealogical Register: the Cook family (Paul Cook of Wilmington, about 1771; Sears Cook)
4. Hazen, Genealogical Register: Hiram Harrington married Fanny Cook, widow of Sears Cook
5. Annual Report 1897: street naming committee, "Cook street, running northeasterly from Main street to Wilmington line, E. Billerica"
6. Annual Report 1899: Historical Society list, "52. Cook street, from Boston road running northeasterly to Wilmington line"
7. Annual Report 1900: street list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899
8. Annual Report 1922: Committee on Dangerous Highways, Cook Street "has several bad curves"; petition for relocation before the County Commissioners
9. Annual Report 1927: Cook Street treated with Tarvia B from Boston Road to Pines Road
10. Annual Report 1928: Cook Street tarred from the Pines to the state road
11. Annual Report 1931: Cook Street relocation cleared, blasted and graveled
12. Annual Report 1932: Cook Street rebuilt about 700 feet and tarred to a width of 24 feet
13. Annual Report 1933: vote to deed part of the old Cook Street to Elizabeth K. McHugh in exchange for land taken for the relocation
14. Annual Report 1956: list of streets accepted, "Cook St., From Boston Rd. northeast to Wilmington line"
15. Annual Report 2017: Article 36 warrant, 1831 list of roads, "Cook Street, Boston Road to Wilmington Town Line"
16. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts the 1831 roads as public ways (124 to 19)