Fourth Avenue

Fourth Avenue is the main street of Shawsheen Pines in the southeast corner of Billerica, running about 1,900 feet northeast from Newbury Street to Bruning Road, parallel to the Shawsheen River. On the way it meets Woodcliff Drive, Kingston Street, Jefferson Street, Islington Street and Vincent Street. It was laid out on "Shawsheen Pines, Billerica - Wilmington - Mass.," drawn in April 1927 by Henry F. Bryant and Son, surveyors, of Brookline for the L. C. Morang Company, owners and developers (Plan Book 50, Plan 61). The plan named its long streets First through Sixth Avenues, counting from First Avenue at the river, and crossed them with streets named in alphabetical order from Arlington to Newbury, in lots 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep. On the plan Fourth Avenue ran from Newbury Street northeast across the town line into Wilmington; the built street ends at Bruning Road, on the line of Fairview Street.

The assessors date the oldest house on the street to about 1952, two others to about 1960, and most of the rest to the 1980s. The Highway Department graveled and graded Fourth Avenue in 1969. On April 11, 1970 the annual town meeting voted to accept "4th Avenue," with Jefferson Street, Kingston Street and nine other streets, as public ways "in accordance with the layout by the Board of Selectmen," and that year the town graded, graveled, penetrated and sealed it. It was hot topped in 1977, and drainage work was done on it in the mid-1990s. On May 14, 2002 the annual town meeting accepted "Fourth Ave, Newbury St to Kingston St," 710 feet, as a public way; the reports do not explain why part of the street was accepted a second time. The next year a "Fourth St" was listed with the neighboring Shawsheen Pines streets among those repaved under the town's roadway management contracts.

References

1. Billerica town report 1969: Highway Dept. streets graveled and graded, Fourth Avenue
2. Billerica town report 1969 (warrant for 1970): Art. 40, accept Jefferson Street, Kingston Street, 4th Avenue and others
3. Billerica town report 1970 (1969 vol.): April 11, 1970, Art. 40 voted as written
4. Billerica town report 1970 (1969 vol.): streets graded, graveled, penetrated and sealed, Kingston Street, 4th Avenue
5. Billerica town report 1977: streets hot topped with Type I bituminous concrete, Fourth Avenue
6. Billerica town report 1996: Highway Division drainage projects, Fourth Avenue
7. Billerica town report 2002: spring 2002 warrant Art. 19, Fourth Ave, Newbury St to Kingston St, 710 ft
8. Billerica town report 2002: May 14, 2002 vote accepting Fourth Ave, Newbury St to Kingston St
9. Billerica town report 2003: Engineering, roads repaved under roadway management contracts (Fourth St, Kingston St)