Mchugh Avenue

Location	Map
Neighborhood	Park View
Laid Out	1917
Right of Way	35 ft
Pavement	21 ft

McHugh Avenue runs east from Cook Street, near its corner with Boston Road at Pinehurst, to Clarence Street, along the north side of the Pinehurst Manor streets. It was laid out on the "Plan of Park View, Billerica Mass., owned by Bernard F. McHugh," drawn by H. A. Millhouse, civil engineer, of 15 Exchange Street, Boston, in April 1917 and recorded September 8, 1917 (Plan Book 34, Plan 79). The plan shows "McHugh Ave." running from Cook Street, beside Pinehurst Park and the electric car line, across Allandale, Ellingwood, Glenside, Ridgeway, Glenvale, Montrose and Endleigh Avenues to Clarence Street, with Beard Road and Bicknell Road at its eastern end, with land of James E. Burke and P. Beard on its borders. No road ran here before.

The street is named for the McHugh family, who owned the land and the corner of Boston Road and Cook Street. Bernard F. McHugh was the owner of record on the plan. J. Joseph McHugh owned the pavilion at Pinehurst Park, which in 1915 was "loaned for this purpose by Mr. J. Joseph McHugh" for a public hearing of the Pinehurst Improvement Association. When the county relocated Cook Street in 1931 the town exchanged land with the McHughs, and the 1936 warrant asked for revised plans for "Parkview Realty Trust, J. Joseph McHugh et als., Elizabeth K. McHugh, and estate of Bernard F. McHugh." In 1934 the Board of Health, which had opened a public dump on Cook Street for the Pinehurst section, thanked "Mr. McHugh for the use of the land on Cook Street for the dump." The Lowell directory of 1931 lists "McHugh Avenue from Cook southerly."

Acceptance came slowly. Articles to accept about 500 feet off Cook Street were dismissed in 1939, and an article of 1940 to accept "McHugh Avenue from Cook Street to Ellingwood Avenue," with parts of Allandale and Beaumont Avenues, was dismissed as well. On March 14, 1953 the town accepted the laying out of "McHugh Avenue, Pinehurst, from Cook Street about 525 feet" and voted $400 to improve it. On March 29, 1969 it voted that "McHugh Avenue be accepted from Glenside Ave. to Clarence Street," together with Clarence Street, Endleigh Avenue and Montrose Avenue for about 350 feet on each side of McHugh. An article of 1975 to accept a McHugh Avenue Extension was dismissed, and at the fall town meeting of October 9, 1984 the town discontinued "the portion of McHugh Avenue east of Clarence Street, a distance of 248.77 feet to the Parkview Subdivision line," keeping it as a drain and utility easement. McHugh Avenue is not among the roads of the 1831 town map accepted in 2016.

The first public work on the street was a 6-inch water main laid from Cook Street east for 500 feet by W.P.A. labor in 1941. It was repaired with town money in 1953 and 1954 after its acceptance, a drain from Clarence Street and McHugh Avenue to a brook was built about 1974, and in 2001 the town authorized the selectmen to take easements for a McHugh Avenue sidewalk.

Mchugh Avenue

Mchugh Avenue

References