Dudley Road

Dudley Road leaves Concord Road in South Billerica at the old Hill School lot, runs west past the Hill burying ground at Nashua Road, and turns south past the Stearns farms and over Mill Brook to the Bedford line, continuing in Bedford to North Road. The whole of it in Billerica lies on the Dudley Farm, the 1,500 acres granted by the General Court to Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley, which began at the Two Brothers rocks on the Concord River. Winthrop recorded how he and Dudley chose their farms there in 1638, and how "at the place where the deputy's land was to begin there were two great stones which they called the Two Brothers." Dudley sold the farm in 1656 to Thomas Chamberline, Isaac Learned and James Parker, and its south end became the homestead of John Stearns, whose descendants lived along the road for more than two centuries.

The road was part of the early way between Billerica and Concord. The return of the Concord road in 1660 carried it from Long Street down Charnstaffe Lane and across Mr. Dudley's farm, "four poles wide from the entrance of Mr. Dudley's farme, untill you come to Concord great swamp," keeping "(generally) ye old beaten road to Concord." The National Register nomination of the Two Brothers Rocks-Dudley Road Historic District (2010) identifies Dudley Road, with North Road in Bedford and Concord Road in Billerica, as part of that road. When Bedford was incorporated in 1729 the town line was drawn from the Two Brothers, leaving the southern end of the road in Bedford. The Capt. John Stearns House at 96 Dudley Road is dated by family tradition to 1689, the John Stearns House at 77 Dudley Road to the 18th century, and the brick Abner Stearns House at 141 Dudley Road, on the town line, to about 1796 to 1805. A stone bridge carries the road over Mill Brook at the site of the Stearns sawmill.

The street naming committee chosen in 1896 called it "Hill street, running easterly from Bedford street to Bedford line, So. Billerica," probably after the Hill family, whose farms, school and burying ground were at its eastern end. In March 1898 a meeting of citizens at the Historical Society proposed "Dudley Street," and the list accepted at town meeting on March 27, 1899 gave "45. Dudley road, from Concord road running westerly to Bedford line, So. Billerica." The new name recalled the Dudley Farm, which the Bedford Historical Society had marked in 1894 by having "Dudley" and "1638" cut on the northern of the Two Brothers rocks. A popular name lasted beside it: a deed of 1924 describes land "on the easterly side of Dudley Road, formerly Chestnut Street," and a warrant article of 1947 placed the old Hill School lot at the corner of the Bedford Road and "Chestnut Avenue, sometimes known as Dudley Road." The chestnut trees along the road died in the blight of 1917. At the town meeting of 1908 George R. Herrick, who owned the Abner Stearns place, moved that "the road at South Billerica now known as Dudley Road be changed to Winthrop Road"; the motion did not prevail.

The road was stoned and graveled "near Bedford line" in 1902, and in 1905 the telephone company was allowed poles on "Dudley road from Concord road to residence of Geo. P. Greenwood." It stayed a gravel road for another generation. In 1943 boulders were removed, the shoulders cut back, and a "Tar prime-coat applied followed by tar seal-coat entire length from Concord Road to Nashua Road," while the part from Nashua Road to the Bedford line was still "scraped and gravel patched" in 1948; in 1949 another 1,500 feet were "Graveled and tar penetration and asphalt sealed." A water main was laid from Nashua Road to Concord Road in 1968, and a warrant article printed in 1977 asked the town to designate Dudley Road a scenic road "from Concord Road to the Bedford Town Line" under the Scenic Road Act.

Dudley Road was named in 1899 and was carried without a date in the town's list of accepted streets of 1956, "From Concord Rd. west to Bedford line." 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 it from Concord Road to the Bedford town line. The road and the farms along it, on both sides of the town line, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010 as the Two Brothers Rocks-Dudley Road Historic District.

Historic Buildings

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): Winthrop's account of the Dudley and Winthrop farms and the Two Brothers rocks
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the bounds of the Dudley Farm, "the farm" of the early records
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the 1660 return of the Concord road across Mr. Dudley's farm toward Concord great swamp
4. Annual Report 1897: street naming committee's list, "Hill street, running easterly from Bedford street to Bedford line, So. Billerica"
5. Annual Report 1899: citizens' amendments of March 1898 to the street list, No. 45 "Change to Dudley Street"
6. Annual Report 1899: Billerica Historical Society's list, "45. Dudley road, from Concord road running westerly to Bedford line"
7. Annual Report 1900: street list accepted at the town meeting of March 27, 1899, Dudley road
8. Annual Report 1902: highway accounts, Dudley road stoned and graveled near the Bedford line
9. Annual Report 1905: telephone poles permitted on Dudley road from Concord road to the Greenwood residence
10. Annual Report 1908: George R. Herrick's motion to rename Dudley Road as Winthrop Road does not prevail
11. Annual Report 1943: Dudley Road given a tar prime coat and tar seal coat from Concord Road to Nashua Road
12. Annual Report 1949: Dudley Road graveled, tar penetration and asphalt seal for 1,500 feet, gravel end scraped
13. Annual Report 1947: warrant article on the School House Lot at Bedford Road and Chestnut Avenue, "sometimes known as Dudley Road"
14. Annual Report 1956: streets accepted by the town, Dudley Road from Concord Rd. west to Bedford line
15. Annual Report 1977: warrant article to designate Dudley Road a scenic road from Concord Road to the Bedford line
16. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads, Dudley Road from Concord Road to the Bedford town line
17. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts the roads on the 1831 map as public ways (124 to 19)
18. National Register of Historic Places: Two Brothers Rocks-Dudley Road Historic District, Bedford and Billerica (NRIS 10000790)

Deed References Expand all

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