Marshbrook Road

Old Names	Hillside Road (1900 - 1989)
Renamed	Hillside Road to Marshbrook Road, Jan. 2, 1989 (Street Renaming of 1988-1991)
Location	Map
Neighborhood	Riverdale
Laid Out	1900
Right of Way	25 - 30 ft
Pavement	12 ft

Marshbrook Road runs east from Arcadia Road across Allen Road, past Utopia Road and Devonshire Drive, to Riverdale Road and on toward the Shawsheen River, in the Riverdale section. Until 1989 it was Hillside Road, one of the streets of Riverdale, the development of the civil engineer Edgar P. Sellew. His plan "Farm Plots at Riverdale, Billerica, Mass.," dated July 8, 1903 (Plan Book 20, Plan 18), shows Hillside Road running from the Riverdale cross road down to the Shawsheen between lots 18 to 34, and his "Camp Lots at Riverdale" of March 19, 1908 (Plan Book 25, Plan 12) shows it coming up from Allen Road across Webb Brook. A plan of October 30, 1911 (Plan Book 28, Plan 91) shows Utopia Road leaving it near Allen Road, and the plan of March 10, 1913 (Plan Book 32, Plan 1) shows Evergreen Road, now Devonshire Drive, meeting it. The directories describe it in 1916 as "off Allen rd n Arcadia rd," and in 1931 as running "from Arcadia rd crossing Allen rd to Evergreen."

At the annual town meeting of February 9, 1929 the town accepted as a town way "that part of Hillside Road which runs from Allen Road to Evergreen Road a distance of about 500 feet." An article of 1938 to accept "the remaining unaccepted parts of Arcadia Road, and of Hillside Road" was first dismissed, but later that morning the meeting voted 141 to 58 to reconsider and then accepted it. The town's list of accepted streets printed in 1956 gives "Hillside Rd. From Allen Rd. to Evergreen Rd. 2-9-29" and "Hillside Rd. Complete 2-5-38." It was not on the town map of 1831 and was not among the roads accepted in 2016.

In 1931 the town voted $500 for a catch basin on Hillside Road at the corner of Utopia Road, piped to the corner of Evergreen Road. The bridge on the road was rebuilt in 1938 and repaired and painted in 1942, the road was oiled in 1940, a 600 foot drain was laid in 1946 after storm damage, and it was asphalt sealed in 1948. In 1956 Hillside Road "from intersection of Evergreen to its end just south of Sylvan Rd." was widened to an 18 foot travel way on new gravel. A special town meeting of May 16, 1985 discontinued Utopia Road for 156.97 feet from Hillside Road, keeping it as a drain and utility easement.

On November 14, 1988 the Selectmen, on the recommendation of the Street Renaming Committee, changed the name of "Hillside Road," on assessors' plate 81, "2nd right off Arcadia Rd. from Boston Rd.," to Marshbrook Road, effective January 2, 1989; the other Hillside Road, at Nuttings Lake, became Thorndike Road. The reason for the new name was not recorded; the road crosses the low ground of Webb Brook. In October 1989 the town voted $25,000 for a culvert and drainage system at the intersection of Marshbrook Road and Riverdale Road. A motion at the fall town meeting of October 13, 1998 to discontinue "the unfinished portion of Marshbrook Road" for about 230 feet down to the Shawsheen River lost by a rising vote of 61 to 87, after members objected to losing access to the river. The road was repaved in 2006 and again from Allen Road to Devonshire Drive in 2019.

Marshbrook Road

Marshbrook Road

References