Hattie Lane

Hattie Lane is a residential street in South Billerica, west of Nuttings Lake, that leaves the west side of the Middlesex Turnpike and curves north and northwest; Dolan Road forms a second outlet to the Turnpike. It was laid out on the "Definitive Plan of Turnpike Acres, Billerica, Mass.," owned by the Warren Development Corporation and drawn in April 1967 by Emmons, Fleming & Bienvenu, Inc., engineers and surveyors of Billerica, under the seal of J. Paul Bienvenu. The Planning Board approved it on July 5, 1967, and it was recorded on August 7, 1967 (Plan Book 105, Plan 123). The plan shows Hattie Lane ending in a cul-de-sac by the Dolan land, with 25 house lots of about 25,000 to 42,600 square feet along it and on Dolan Road. The plan does not explain the name, and its origin has not been found.

Building began only in the mid-1970s; most of the houses on the original part of the street date from 1976 and 1977 according to the assessors. The developer then defaulted. The Planning Board reported in 1978 that it had "spent many hours dealing with the problems created by the developer's default in the 'Turnpike Acres' subdivision" and had seized the developer's bond in 1977, and in 1980 the town engineer reported that work on "the completion of the Turnpike Acres Subdivision by a contractor under the direction of the Planning Board" was about sixty percent done.

The town meeting of June 7, 1983 accepted the laying out of Hattie Lane "from Middlesex Turnpike to a cul-de-sac at the end ... a way 50 feet wide and 1500 feet more or less long"; the motion to accept Dolan Road failed the same night. In the 1990s Hattie Lane was extended beyond the old turnaround for the Dolan Estates subdivision, where the houses at the far end, numbers 25 to 35, date from about 1994 and 1995, and on October 9, 1997 the fall town meeting discontinued the leftover half circle of the old cul-de-sac, the hearing report noting that the street "was originally constructed as a cul-de-sac. During construction of Dolan Estates, Hattie Lane was extended and the cul-de-sac eliminated."

References

1. Annual Report 1978: Planning Board, developer default in the Turnpike Acres subdivision and bond seized in 1977
2. Annual Report 1980: Engineering, completion of Turnpike Acres Subdivision by contractor about 60 percent done
3. Annual Report 1983: June 7, 1983, Hattie Lane accepted, 50 ft wide, about 1,500 ft; Dolan Road lost
4. Annual Report 1998: Oct. 9, 1997, Art. 31, old cul-de-sac of Hattie Lane discontinued after Dolan Estates extension
5. Annual Report 1998: Art. 31 hearing report, Hattie Lane extended and cul-de-sac eliminated; carried unanimously