Corthell Road

Corthell Road runs west from High Street in North Billerica, between Wallace Road and Mellon Road, toward Billerica Avenue. It was laid out in August 1911 as one of the five streets of "Hillcrest," the "Estate of Geo. H. Hill Esq., North Billerica Mass.," a plan surveyed by James A. Bancroft, with the Pelkey Wallace Company of 101 Tremont Street, Boston, as selling agents, and recorded on Nov. 9, 1911 in Plan Book 29, Plan 58. The tract lay on the west side of High Street next to the "Estate of Late Gov. Talbot," and the plan advertised "only elevated lots between Boston & Maine car shops (to employ about 3000 men) and Center of the Town," with town water and electric lights on High Street and "electric cars expected to pass property." On the 1911 plan Corthell Road ran about 470 feet from High Street to the Talbot line, between Wallace Road and Mellen Road. Hill bought part of the Talbot estate behind it, and the "Hillcrest (Talbot Addition)" plan recorded on March 21, 1913 (Plan Book 30, Plan 57) and a revised plan of Hillcrest by Clarence E. Carter of Reading, recorded on May 14, 1914 (Plan Book 31, Plan 61), carried Corthell Road west past Hillcrest Avenue and Tuttle Avenue to Talbot Boulevard and Billerica Avenue.

The plans do not explain the name, and no Corthell appears in the Billerica records. The neighboring streets were Marian, Wallace, Mellen and Bartlett Roads; Wallace Road probably took its name from the selling agents, but the others are unexplained. Corthell Road has kept its name since 1911.

Corthell Road was the main street of the development. In 1915 the town laid water mains in it, after an article asking for $800 for "the extension of water mains on Corthell Road, 600 feet, and Wallace Road, 300 feet, at Hillcrest," and paid a contractor that year for "taking out ledge Corthell Road." Acceptance took several tries. In 1916 the town meeting refused a motion to accept the laying out made by the Selectmen and appointed a committee of five "to look into the requirements in laying out and accepting town ways." In 1917 a sub-committee on streets found the road "practically impassable," needing "several thousand dollars to bring it up to grade," and the town voted in the negative. The annual town meeting of 1922 finally voted under Article 12 "that the Town accept a street known as Corthell Road as a Town way"; the town's 1956 list of accepted streets gives the date as Feb. 11, 1922.

Afterward the road was graded near Mt. Pleasant Street with fill in 1928 and drained in 1935; in 1936 it was "scraped, raked, rolled and oiled," and it was tar patched almost every year through the 1940s. It was sealed in 1970 and hot topped with bituminous concrete in 1974. In 1988 the street renaming program renamed Hillcrest Street, the "first cross-road off Corthell Road from High Street," as Barge Road, and made the old Billerica Avenue Extension part of Billerica Avenue as far as "the intersection of Corthell Rd. & Talbot Blvd." Corthell Road was not on the official town map of 1831 and was not among the roads accepted in 2016.

References

1. Billerica town warrant 1915: Article 50, $800 for water mains on Corthell Road, 600 feet, and Wallace Road, 300 feet, at Hillcrest
2. Billerica town report 1915: water commissioners' table of main extensions, Corthell Road No. 1 and No. 2 and Wallace Road
3. Billerica town report 1916: Article 23, motion to accept Corthell Road fails; committee of five appointed on laying out and accepting town ways
4. Billerica town report 1917: street sub-committee finds Corthell Road "practically impassable" and recommends it not be accepted
5. Billerica town report 1922: Article 12, voted that the town accept a street known as Corthell Road as a town way
6. Streets Accepted by the Town (1956 report): Corthell Road accepted Feb. 11, 1922
7. Billerica town report 1974: Highway Department list of streets hot topped, including Corthell Road and Mellon Road
8. Billerica town report 1988: Hillcrest Street, first cross-road off Corthell Road, renamed Barge Road; Billerica Avenue Extension to Corthell Rd. and Talbot Blvd.