Macdougall Street

MacDougall Street runs northeast from Pines Road, at its junction with McGinness Way, to Dustin Young Lane in The Pines, the neighborhood laid out in 1912 between Cook Street and the Shawsheen River in the Pinehurst section. It was first laid out under another name. On "The Pines, Billerica, Mass., owned by Frank W. Coughlin," drawn in June 1912 by H. A. Millhouse, civil engineer, of Boston and recorded on July 19, 1912 in Plan Book 30, Plan 13, this line is part of Montrose Street, which crossed the tract one block north of Topliff Street from the western streets near the river, across Pines Road, and on past Aberdeen, Endicott, Ordway and Carlton Streets to Argyle Street. There was no road here before 1912. Like the other streets of The Pines, Montrose was a British name; the plan does not explain it.

The name Montrose was used twice in Pinehurst, since the Pinehurst Manor plan of 1910, also made for Frank W. Coughlin, has a Montrose Avenue. As early as 1936 a town committee reported that "a total of 139 streets bear duplicate names" in the land developments but the work of renaming them was carried out only in the program the Board of Selectmen began in 1988. For this street the change came in 1992. Deeds and mortgages for lots on Plan Book 30, Plan 13 still give the address as Montrose Street in August 1992, and from February 1993 the same lots are on "MacDougall St." The town reports do not record the vote or say whom the new name honors. A MacDougall family lived in Billerica from at least the 1920s, but no record connects it to the street.

A "Montrose St." of 1,500 feet was accepted by the town on March 12, 1955, but the record does not say which Montrose Street was meant, and MacDougall Street itself remained a private way until the annual town meeting of May 6, 2025. Under Article 33 that meeting accepted "MacDougall Street, from Pines Road to Dustin Young Lane, approximate length 1,240' and 40' width right of way," on a layout plan of April 4, 2025, together with McGinness Way and four other streets. The Select Board's order of taking for the accepted ways was recorded on July 14, 2025 in Middlesex North Book 39378, Page 171. MacDougall Street was not on the official town map of 1831 and was not among the roads accepted in 2016.

References

1. Billerica town report 1988: Selectmen's sub-committee for re-naming streets, tables of street name changes voted in 1988
2. Streets Accepted by the Town (1956 report): "Montrose St. 1500 ft." accepted March 12, 1955 (location not stated)

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.