Kids Konnection Playground
Kids Konnection is the town's largest playground, a fenced community-built play area behind the stores of Billerica Center, reached from a parking lot off Andover Road. It stands in the rear schoolyard of the old Pollard School, in the town ground known as Pollard Park or Pollard Field, beside the Pollard baseball field. It has separate areas for children of two to five and five to twelve, swings, slides, climbers shaped like a train and a bulldozer, a spider-web climber, a sandbox, a covered pavilion and a small butterfly garden.
The land came to the town for the Pollard School. In August 1891 George W. Searles sold J. Nelson Parker for $1,000 about three and a half acres on the south side of Andover Street, running back from a forty-foot frontage between the land of John H. Baker and the heirs of Thomas R. Shed to the land of Paul Hill, and bounded on the west by land of A. C. Lane and by land "formerly of A. F. Page, now owned by the town of Billerica." Searles had the place, it appears, from the old Bowers and Kimball homestead across the road: in 1875 Ichabod G. Kimball had covenanted to leave him his farm, which included twenty-eight acres across the road from the house, in return for his support. Parker at once resold the land to the town in two pieces: for $400 a tract "near Andover street" running from the town's land eastward to a line halfway across his purchase (deed of August 15, 1891, recorded September 21), and in May 1892 for $600 the rest, with the frontage on Andover Street, so that the two deeds together conveyed "all the land deeded to me by George W. and Lucinda W. Searles." The town meeting of 1891 had voted to build a four-room schoolhouse at the Centre "upon a site to be selected," and the Pollard School, built on the new lot, was dedicated on March 9, 1892.
The rear of the schoolyard became a ball ground. In 1953 the town was asked for $1,000 for "the Billerica Little League Baseball field located in rear of Pollard School, Andover Road," and the Pollard field was reconditioned in 1977. The school closed after the 1977-1978 school year, and in 1981 the selectmen reported that "in view of the fact that the Pollard School, Andover Road, had been vacant and vandalized, the building was removed." The next year work began "on the Pollard playground with the cooperation of the Town and numerous volunteers," and in 1983 the Park Department built "a tiny tots' playground on the site of the old Pollard School," with two swing sets, monkey bars, a slide and a small picnic area. Gail Tracy of the Recreation Commission was named Billerica's Woman of the Year for 1983 for her "tireless efforts and determination to provide Billerica's children with the new Pollard Playground."
Kids Konnection grew out of a friends group. About 1988 citizens formed Billerica Recreation for All, Inc., to support the Recreation Department, and from it "sprang the 'Kids' Konnection'." At the fall town meeting on October 5, 1989 Donna Pinto of the group reported on its progress "to create a super children's playground," saying it had raised more than $100,000 from local merchants, organizations and fund raisers; the Recreation Department later put the money raised at "over sixty thousand dollars." In October 1990 the volunteers built the playground "at the Pollard park," with help from the Highway Division of the Public Works Department, and it was dedicated soon after. The Recreation Department called it "a town wide effort in which many people, young and old, can truly take pride," and the Park and Tree Division took over the care of "the new Kids Konnection-Tot Playground located on Andover Road." Breakfasts with Santa in the early 1990s raised money for it, and in 1993 a petitioners' article asked the town for $5,000 to maintain and repair "the children's playground Kids' Konnection."
The wooden structures of 1990 were replaced in stages. New swings and a new surface under them were put in about 2003, and Community Development grants paid for more replacement of the wooden structures from 2005. In 2006 the town built a new entrance to the playground and enlarged the parking at Pollard Park. American Science and Engineering gave new equipment in 2009 and its employees installed it, and students of the Shawsheen Valley Technical High School finished a gazebo there the same year. By 2011 the playground had a butterfly garden and activity backpacks that families could borrow from the library. In 2013 an Eagle Scout built a shade structure, Girl Scouts stocked a book bin, and AS&E volunteers put a new roof on the gazebo, repaired the stage and added a kiosk, picnic tables and plantings. In 2025 the town meeting voted $19,495 of Community Preservation money for Kids Konnection, and the Public Works crews took down the rotted stage to make room for a new patio.
The town's building record gives 1989 for the playground; the town reports show that the money was being raised in 1989 and the playground was built in October 1990.
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| September 22, 1836 | Warranty | Jonathan Gates of Billerica, machinist | Ichabod G. Kimball of Billerica, yeoman | 1834: Jonathan Gates sells Ichabod G. Kimball the Bowers homestead with 30 acres opposite, on the Andover road | 354/457 (South) |
Dated June 30, 1834, recorded Sept. 22, 1836 (Billerica town book 15, pages 287-289). For $2,500, "formerly the homestead of Capt. Josiah Bowers deceased with the buildings thereon lying on the northerly side of the Salem road or Sheldon's lane so called containing about eleven acres," with 30 acres on the east side of the road opposite, 1 1/2 acres on the north side adjoining the first lot (north-east by the Luther French farm), and six acres of wood on Fox Hill, "being the same premises" quitclaimed to Gates by Jacob Norton and others on Apr. 2, 1834.
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| March 10, 1880 | Covenant to Stand Seized (conditional) | Ichabod G. Kimball of Billerica | George W. Searles of Billerica | 1875: Ichabod G. Kimball covenants to leave his farm to George W. Searles in return for his support | 138/261 |
Dated June 2, 1875, acknowledged June 20, 1875, recorded Mar. 10, 1880, six days after Kimball's death. For $1 and his support, Kimball covenants to stand seized of "my homestead farm": eleven acres "with the buildings thereon in which I now live" on the north side of the Andover road, 28 acres on the east side opposite, 1 1/2 acres adjoining the eleven acres (north-east by the Luther French farm) and six acres of wood on Fox Hill, his title from Jonathan Gates June 30, 1834 ("Book 354 Page 457"), except parts sold to John Ames, Gilman Fletcher and Thomas K. Shedd; to the use of Kimball and his wife Joanna P. for their lives and then of Searles, void if Searles failed to support them. Searles was meanwhile to have the farm and "the Westerly part of the house."
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| August 19, 1891 | Warranty Deed | George W. Searles of Billerica (Lucinda W. Searles, his wife, releasing dower and homestead) | J. Nelson Parker of Billerica | 1891: George W. Searles sells J. Nelson Parker 3.5 acres on Andover Street for $1,000 | 226/276 |
Signed Aug. 15, 1891 before Dudley Foster, recorded Aug. 19, 1891 (pages 276-277). For $1,000, "a certain tract of land situated in said Billerica": "Beginning at the southeast corner of the premises herein conveyed, on Andover street at a wall at land of John H. Baker, thence running southerly by land of said Baker and my other land on said wall to a wall at land of Paul Hill, thence westerly by said Hill's land on said wall to a wall at land of A. C. Lane, thence running northerly by said Lane's land on said wall to land formerly of A. F. Page, now owned by the town of Billerica, thence running easterly by said Page land and land of the heirs of the late Thomas R. Shed deceased, to a bound at a corner of a wall, thence running northerly by said heirs land on said wall to said Andover street, thence easterly on said Andover street about forty feet to the point of beginning, containing three and one half acres more or less." No title reference.
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| September 21, 1891 | Warranty Deed | J. Nelson Parker of Billerica | Town of Billerica, "a municipal corporation" | 1891: Parker sells the town the western half for $400, for the new Centre (Pollard) school | 227/178 |
Dated Aug. 15, 1891 (per the 1892 deed), recorded Sept. 21, 1891. For $400 paid by the town, "a certain tract of land situate in said Billerica near Andover street": beginning at the northwest corner "at land of A. C. Lane M.D. and at a wall and land of said Corporation," easterly by the town's land and land of the heirs of Thomas R. Shed to a bound "half way across the tract of land this day conveyed to me by G. W. Searles," then southerly parallel with the Lane land to land of Paul Hill, westerly by Hill to Lane, and northerly by Lane to the beginning. The western half of the Searles lot, for the new Centre (Pollard) school.
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| May 13, 1892 | Quitclaim Deed | J. Nelson Parker of Billerica | Town of Billerica | 1892: Parker quitclaims the rest of the lot, with the Andover Street frontage, to the town for $600 | 233/47 |
Recorded May 13, 1892. For $600 paid by the town, "remise, release and forever quitclaim" the rest of the lot: beginning at the northeast corner "on Andover street at a wall at land of John H. Baker," southerly by Baker and George W. Searles to Paul Hill, westerly by Hill to "land belonging to said Town of Billerica," northerly by the town's land to the heirs of the late Thomas R. Shed, easterly and northerly by the heirs to Andover Street and easterly on the street to the beginning. "The above parcel of land together with that described in a deed made by me to said town dated August 15, 1891, and recorded with Middlesex North Dist. Deeds libro 227 folio 178, is intended to convey all the land deeded to me by George W. and Lucinda W. Searles August 15, 1891 and recorded ... libro 226 folio 276." The Pollard School stood on this land from 1892 to 1981; Kids Konnection was built in its rear yard in 1990.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.
References
- Annual Report 1891: Article 22, a four-room school building at Billerica Centre upon a site to be selected
- Annual Report 1981: the vacant and vandalized Pollard School removed
- Annual Report 1983: tiny tots playground on the site of the old Pollard School; Gail Tracy, Woman of the Year
- Annual Report 1989: Oct. 5, 1989 town meeting, Donna Pinto reports on the Kids Konnection fund drive
- Annual Report 1990: Kids' Konnection Playground built at the Pollard park in October 1990
- Annual Report 2006: new entrance to Kids Konnection and expanded parking at Pollard Park
- Annual Report 2009: AS&E donates playground equipment; Shawsheen Tech builds a gazebo
- Annual Report 2013: shade structure, book bin and AS&E improvements at Kids Konnection
- Macaroni Kid Lowell: playground guide, Kids Konnection in Billerica (2025)