Mason Avenue

Mason Avenue runs west from Letchworth Avenue, just north of Faulkner Street, through the Billerica Garden Suburb toward the Concord River. Its eastern end is older than the suburb. It began as a private way past the houses of the Faulkner mill property: the Federal-style house at 3 Mason Avenue, dated about 1826 and first shown on this site on the map of 1875 (the 1983 survey suggests it was moved back from the site of the James Faulkner house in 1857), and the remodeled barn of the Faulkner House on Faulkner Street, now the double house at 6-8 Mason Avenue. The house at 3 Mason Avenue "overlaps the street line as finally laid out." The plan of the land of Charles H. Williams surveyed by Smith and Brooks in June 1914 (Plan Book 31, Plan 82) shows this way running northwest from the head of Letchworth Avenue past the mill houses as a "Private Right of Way," with a "Proposed Street" drawn over it.

The street was laid out as Mason Avenue for the Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc., organized in June 1914 by the Rev. Charles H. Williams and planned by Arthur C. Comey and Warren H. Manning, and it became the entrance street of the suburb, with Indian Road (now Indian Knoll Road), Ilford Road and Brentham Road opening from it. Unlike the suburb's other streets, which were named for English garden cities, the name does not refer to an English model, and no record found explains it; no Mason family is recorded in North Billerica at the time. The 1919 directory lists "Mason Avenue from Indian rd N B to fields."

At the annual meeting of 1916 the town voted to accept "Mason Avenue from Letchworth Avenue to Ilford Road" with the other suburb streets when satisfactory to the Selectmen, and on February 14, 1920 it accepted the laying out of Mason Avenue from Letchworth Avenue to Ilford Road and "from Ilford Road westerly three hundred feet to the hydrant located thereon." The low street gave trouble: it was graveled and its grade raised in 1925, when the highway surveyor reported it "still in poor condition," the town voted money for its drainage in 1925, 1926 and 1927, and in April 1927 the Garden Suburb company licensed the town to lay a drain along Indian Road "to drain Mason Avenue." Four catch basins and 881 feet of pipe were installed that year. An article to macadamize it was cut down at the meeting of 1930 to $1,200 "to gravel and tar Mason Avenue from Letchworth Avenue, a distance of about 1100 feet," and the work, "a tar and oil job," was finished that year; it was retarred in 1931 and 1932.

The western part was accepted later. On March 14, 1953 the town accepted the laying out of Mason Avenue "westerly from accepted portion to Concord River about 400 feet" and voted $1,350 to improve it. Mason Avenue was not on the official map of 1831 and was not among the roads accepted in 2016. Its name has not changed.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
William E. Faulkner House		3 Mason Av	1826	1857
Faulkner Barn		6-8 Mason Av	1860
Residence at 2-4 Mason Av		2-4 Mason Av	1925

References

1. Warren H. Manning Collection, Iowa State University: sketch map, Billerica Garden Suburb, North Billerica, July 29, 1914
2. Annual Report 1916: Article 31, Mason Avenue and other Garden Suburb ways to be accepted when satisfactory to the Selectmen
3. Annual Report 1920: Article 15, Mason Avenue from Letchworth Avenue to Ilford Road and 300 feet west of Ilford Road accepted as a town way
4. Annual Report 1925: Mason Avenue graveled and the grade raised, still in poor condition
5. Annual Report 1927: Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc. licenses a drain along Indian Road to drain Mason Avenue
6. Annual Report 1927: Mason Avenue, Garden City, four catch basins and 881 feet of pipe installed
7. Annual Report 1930: $1,200 voted to gravel and tar Mason Avenue from Letchworth Avenue about 1100 feet
8. Annual Report 1930: Mason Avenue, $1,200, a tar and oil job, completed
9. Annual Report 1953: Articles 110 and 111, Mason Avenue westerly to the Concord River accepted and $1,350 voted to improve it
10. Annual Report 1956: list of accepted streets, Mason Ave. 2-14-20 and westerly to Concord River about 400 ft. 3-14-53