Martin Drive

Martin Drive is a short dead-end street in the south part of Billerica running south from Ox Road, between Lexington Road and Lindsay Road. It was laid out on the Middlesex Subdivision, a neighborhood of house lots of about 15,000 to 21,000 square feet between Lexington Road, School Lane and land of Billerica Homes Inc. Fred A. Joyce, surveyor, of Belmont drew the "Middlesex Subdivision, Billerica, Mass." in five sheets dated July 21, 1954, for its owner, B and G Realty Trust of 4 Ivy Circle, Arlington. The Planning Board approved it on September 24, 1954, subject to a certificate filed with the plan, and it was recorded on September 30, 1954 (Plan Book 84, Plan 155). Sheet 2 shows Martin Drive, 50 feet wide, leaving Ox Road and curving south between house lots to the edge of the subdivision, where it ended at the land of "Joseph Martin Lexington Rd. Billerica"; sheet 3 gives its street plan and profile. Behind the lots on the other side of the street, a tract of 175,127 square feet was marked "To be dedicated to The Town Of Billerica." The plan does not explain the name, and no record found says the street was named for the Martin family whose land it reached. The assessors date its oldest houses to 1952 to 1954, about the time of the plan.

The street guide of 1957 lists "Martin Drive From Ox rd to dead end." The warrant for the annual meeting of 1958 asked the town to improve Martin Drive "a distance of approximately 330 feet at a sum not to exceed $1,025.00 under the Betterment Act"; the street does not appear among the betterment streets voted that year. In a 1962 article to rezone land of Joseph W. Martin Sr. and Annie Martin for industry, their land was described as bounded on the north by "lots 19, 25, Martin Drive, lots 26, 28, 29, land of Town of Billerica." On an article of the Board of Public Works, the annual town meeting of 1968, at its session of April 3, 1968, "VOTED to accept Martin Drive as a public way" (Article 111). An article of the fall town meeting of October 1994 to discontinue part of Martin Drive "from the existing cul-de-sac" was dismissed. The street was overlaid under the town's roadway contract of 2001.

References

1. Warrant for 1958: Arts. 65-67, improve Doyle Avenue, Martin Drive and Gordon Terrace under the Betterment Act
2. Warrant for 1962: Art. 15, rezoning land of Joseph W. Martin Sr. and Annie Martin bounded by Martin Drive
3. Warrant for 1968: Arts. 110-111, accept Gordon Terrace and Martin Drive as public ways (Board of Public Works)
4. Annual Report 1968: April 3, 1968 session, Art. 111, Martin Drive accepted as a public way
5. Annual Report 1994: fall town meeting warrant Art. 27, discontinue Martin Drive from the cul-de-sac
6. Annual Report 1994: Street Acceptance and Discontinuance Committee, Art. 27 Martin Drive dismissed
7. Annual Report 2001: roadway Contract 01-R01 overlay list with Martin Drive, Doyle Avenue, Gordon Terrace