Hajjar School Driveway

Hajjar School Driveway is the driveway of the Solomon G. Hajjar Elementary School in North Billerica. It is not a named street. It leaves the south side of Call Street and runs about 800 feet southeast to the school, whose address is 59 Rogers Street. The school takes its name from Dr. Solomon Gunther Hajjar, a Billerica physician who sat on the Board of Health from 1940 to 1942 and was school physician from 1952 until his death on December 28, 1966. The 1966 town report remembered him as the "beloved School Physician at the time of his death."

The town meeting of April 6, 1967 voted unanimously, under Article 116, to have the selectmen buy or take by eminent domain "for school building purposes" about 15 acres between Call Street, Rogers Street and Beacon Street, and under Article 117 it appropriated $30,000 for the land. The taking took in ten private parcels, among them "Balliro Road, so called," a private way off Call Street. Under Article 118 the meeting voted $25,000 for architectural and engineering services for an elementary school in North Billerica. Emmons, Fleming and Bienvenu, Inc. surveyed the land for the Permanent School Building Committee in June 1967, and their plan was recorded on October 6, 1967 (Plan Book 105, Plan 166). The assessors still describe the 15-acre school lot by that plan.

Construction began in the fall of 1968, and strikes and other delays held it up through 1969. The school, with 31 classrooms, opened in September 1970 with more than 1,000 pupils and was dedicated on October 18, 1970, with members of Dr. Hajjar's family present. The 1971 annual town meeting was asked for money for a sidewalk "from the Hajjar School to High Street," and voted instead to set up a committee to study sidewalks and walkways across the town. The school has been a polling place since the early 1970s, and in 1982 the town clerk listed it as "Hajjar School, Call St.," which shows that the school was reached from Call Street. No record of the driveway being paved, or of any name for it, was found. It is a school access road, not a public way.

References

1. Annual Report 1966: In Memoriam, Dr. Solomon Gunther Hajjar, died December 28, 1966, school physician
2. Annual Report 1967: town meeting session of April 6, 1967
3. Annual Report 1967: Art. 116, taking of about 15 acres off Call, Rogers and Beacon Streets for school purposes
4. Annual Report 1967: Arts. 117 and 118, school land money and architects for an elementary school in North Billerica
5. Annual Report 1969: Permanent School Building Committee, Hajjar School begun fall 1968, strikes and delays
6. Annual Report 1970: Hajjar School opened September 1970, 31 classrooms, dedicated October 18, 1970
7. Annual Report 1971: warrant Art. 44, sidewalk from the Hajjar School to High Street
8. Annual Report 1971: Art. 44 vote, committee to study sidewalks and walkways
9. Annual Report 1982: polling places, Hajjar School, Call St.