Harjean Road

Harjean Road is a street in East Billerica that runs beside the Boston and Maine Railroad, about 3,400 feet in all. It leaves George Brown Street, formerly Brown Street, and runs northwest past the ends of Coolidge Street and Norman Road to the corner where Freddy Road turns off, then continues past Brittany Lane toward Whipple Road. Its two parts were laid out more than thirty years apart.

The older part belongs to Whipple Acres. The "Definitive Plan, Subdivision Whipple Acres," with the "Street Names Harjean & Freddy," was drawn for the owner, Jeanne G. Shotz, by John F. Mahoney & Associates, civil engineers and land surveyors, of Danvers. It is dated May 23, 1963, the Planning Board approved it on June 3, 1963, and it was recorded on June 25, 1963 in three sheets (Plan Book 98, Plan 119). Its first two sheets show Harjean Road running about 1,850 feet from Brown Street along the railroad, with Coolidge Street opening from it, and lots 1 to 38 of about 15,000 square feet on both sides; at its end a 20-foot right of way ran on to the neighboring land, and Freddy Road branched off to Whipple Road. The land had been rezoned from industrial to village residence at the annual town meeting of 1962, and the Planning Board counted Whipple Acres among the largest subdivisions it approved in 1963. The assessors date the oldest houses to 1962 to 1964 and most of the others to the later 1960s.

The plans do not explain the name. It has the form of the first syllables of Harry and Jeanne, the given names of Harry and Jeanne Shotz, owners of the Shawsheen River Pines plans of 1947 on the neighboring land, but no record found says that it was formed from them. Some town reports of the 1970s print it "Har-Jean Road."

The town accepted Harjean Road as item h of Article 40 at the annual town meeting of 1970, which on April 11, 1970 voted "To accept Article 40 as written." The western part came with Eastbrook Farms, a "Definitive Subdivision" drawn by Raymond Engineering Service of 574 Boston Road, Billerica, dated September 17, 1995, approved by the Planning Board in January 1996 and recorded on January 31, 1996 (Plan Book 190, Plan 94). It laid out Brittany Lane and carried Harjean Road on through lots of about 30,000 square feet to Whipple Road, and the assessors date its houses to 1996. The sewer contract for the "Harjean/Whipple" area was under construction in 1997. On May 13, 1999 the annual spring town meeting voted under Article 36 to accept "the extension of Harjean Road as a public way," with Brittany Lane under Article 37.

References

1. Billerica town report 1962 (1960 vol.): Art. 50 voted unanimously, Shotz land on Whipple Road and Brown Street rezoned to village residence
2. Billerica town report 1963 (1960 vol.): Planning Board, Whipple Acres in East Billerica among the largest subdivisions approved
3. Billerica town report 1970 warrant (1969 vol.): Art. 40, accept streets as public ways, h. Harjean Road
4. Billerica town report 1970 (1969 vol.): April 11, 1970, "ARTICLE 40. VOTED: To accept Article 40 as written."
5. Billerica town report 1999: warrant Art. 36, accept the extension of Harjean Road as a public way
6. Billerica town report 1999: May 13, 1999, the motion to accept the extension of Harjean Road carried