Lexington Road

Lexington Road runs south from Boston Road, below Billerica Centre, past Nuttings Lake to the Bedford line, and has been a public way since the first decade of the town. Henry A. Hazen wrote that it was "early and long known as the road to Bacon's mill, or Fitch's mill," the mill that stood beyond the later Bedford line. The first record of it is an order of the 16th day of the 1st month, 1663 (March 16, 1662/63): "Willm Tay & George farley are Apoynted to Lay out a highway from the Towne, leading to Mr. Michell's farme, and to y^e land y^e was Layd out for Mr. Edward Oaks' farme, on y^e south East end of Mr. Winthrop's great meadow, to be layd out four polls wide."

No return of that laying out was recorded, and nineteen years later the line had already become uncertain. On the 23rd day of the 1st month, 1682, after "Mr. Muzey" complained that he could not find the highway from the farm he had bought of Timothy Brookes to the town, the selectmen ordered George Farley, "that was one of the comittee that lajd it out at y^e first," and Corporal John French "to renue y^e markes of y^e said way, that it may be obvious to all travellers," and to draw up a record of how it lay. Hazen added that the road farther along "was in existence, and known as a country road as early as 1670," when Joseph Walker's grant was bounded east by it, and that it formed much of the west line of the Champney Farm.

The name comes from the road's destination, the town of Lexington, reached through Bedford. Hazen used "Lexington Road" in 1883, placing the Bowman place on it, and the town adopted the name when it first named its streets. The committee chosen in 1896 listed it as "Lexington street, running south from Main street to Bedford line"; a citizens' meeting at the Historical Society in March 1898 asked that it be changed to "Lexington Road," and the Billerica Historical Society's list, accepted at town meeting on March 27, 1899, gave it as "Lexington road, from Boston road running south to Bedford line." When the Middlesex Turnpike was put through early in the nineteenth century it crossed Lexington Road near the Bedford line, and Bowman's Tavern was kept at the crossing; in 1899 the town voted to open "the old turnpike" at Francis Bowman's from Lexington Road to the Bedford line.

Lexington Road stayed a gravel road until the late 1920s. The highway surveyor graveled it near Charles Moor's and near Nutting's Pond in 1903 and graveled 5,180 feet in 1919, and in 1923 the town voted $3,000 for "widening and repairing Lexington Road, from Boston Road to the Bedford town line." Its first tar came in 1927, when the town voted "two applications of Tarvia B" for 1.8 miles of the road and treated it from Boston Road to the Middlesex Turnpike. After more construction in 1931 and 1932, the highway report could say that "the tar road now extends from Boston Rd. to Bedford line." In 1956 the town crew relocated and widened the road to 26 feet from Boston Road to the culvert just south of Lake Street, removing ledge and laying a gravel base and drainage, and in 1964 it was surfaced with bituminous concrete from Lake Street to School Lane.

It was formally accepted as a public way at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which voted, 124 to 19, under Chapter 82, sections 21 to 24, of the General Laws, to accept the 57 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." The town manager explained that the state already treated these roads as public ways, but the town had no record of accepting them and so could not spend money to maintain them. The list gives it from the Bedford town line to Boston Road.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Kitchener Farm	Nathaniel Tay House / Samuel Blanchard House	29 Lexington Rd	1656		1974
Bowman's Tavern	Martin Tavern	160 Lexington Rd	1805		1996
Deacon J. Crosby House		121 Lexington Rd	1852		1959
F. H. Bowers House		8 Lexington Rd	1852		1911
Eugene C. Vining School		121 Lexington Rd	1957		2021

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 94: the Lexington Road, "the road to Bacon's mill, or Fitch's mill," and the 1662/63 order to lay it out
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 95: the 1682 order to renew the marks of the way, and the road as a country road by 1670
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1897: street naming committee's list, "Lexington street, running south from Main street to Bedford line"
4. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1899: citizens' amendments to the street names, "35. Change to Lexington Road"
5. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1899: Billerica Historical Society's list of streets, "Lexington road, from Boston road running south to Bedford line"
6. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1900: street list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899
7. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1927: town votes two applications of Tarvia B on Lexington Road, 1.8 miles
8. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1927: roads treated with Tarvia B, Lexington Road from Boston Road to the Middlesex Turnpike
9. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1932: "The tar road now extends from Boston Rd. to Bedford line"
10. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1956: Lexington Road relocated and widened to 26 feet from Boston Road to south of Lake Street
11. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1964: Lexington Road surfaced with bituminous concrete from Lake Street to School Lane
12. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1900: town votes, March 1899, to open the "Old Turnpike" at Francis Bowman's from Lexington Road to the Bedford line
13. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1923: $3,000 voted for widening and repairing Lexington Road from Boston Road to the Bedford line
14. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1919: Lexington Road graveled 5,180 feet
15. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts as public ways the roads shown on the official town map of 1831 (124 to 19)
16. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads with their termini