Mcrayne Hill Road

McRayne Hill Road runs north from Briarwood Avenue in River Pines to the corner of Birchwood Road and Sycamore Lane. Until about 1990 it was Sprucewood Road, one of the tree names ending in "wood" that R. F. Smith, surveyor, of Boston Road, Billerica, gave to the streets of River Pines. Sprucewood Road was laid out on the "Plan of River Pines, Unit 1," drawn in May 1927 and recorded in October 1927 (Plan Book 51, Plan 10), running north from Briarwood Avenue between Ridgewood Road and Birchwood Road. The "Plan of River Pines, Unit 5," of May 1928, recorded in June 1928 (Plan Book 52, Plan 7), carried it on diagonally to the northeast along the land "now or formerly Rogers," past the end of Rogers Avenue (now Sycamore Lane), to Basswood Avenue. The directories of 1941 to 1949 list "Sprucewood Road (RP), From Briarwood to Basswood av," but only the part south of Rogers Avenue was built; when the town discontinued the west end of Basswood Avenue in 1988, the warrant called Sprucewood Road there "a paper street."

The assessors date the oldest house on the street to about 1930. An article of the annual town meeting of 1969 to accept Sprucewood Road as a public way was indefinitely postponed, and Sprucewood Road was then among the streets listed under Article 8 of the special town meeting of October 21, 1969, which was voted; the report does not print the terms of the vote. A six-inch water main was laid in Sprucewood Road from Briarwood Avenue in 1969, and in 1970 the street was graded, graveled, penetrated and sealed.

Billerica also had a Sprucewood Avenue in the River Pines unit south of River Street, accepted in 1975, and Sprucewood Road was renamed in the selectmen's program of 1988 to 1991 to remove duplicate street names. Those renamings are not printed in the town reports. At the registry of deeds, documents of 1988 and 1989 are indexed under Sprucewood Road, and from May 1990 under "Mc Rayne Hill Rd," so the change was made about 1989 or early 1990. Where the name McRayne Hill came from has not been found. The street is not one of the roads of the 1831 town map accepted in 2016.

References

1. Annual report 1941: water main in Rogers Avenue from Sprucewood Road to Bridle Road, 1,025 feet
2. Annual report 1969: annual town meeting warrant Art. 88, accept Sprucewood Road as a public way
3. Annual report 1969: Art. 88 (Sprucewood Road) among the street articles indefinitely postponed
4. Annual report 1969: Oct. 21, 1969 special town meeting Art. 8, streets to accept, including Sprucewood Road
5. Annual report 1969: Oct. 21, 1969 special town meeting, Articles 2, 8 and 10 voted
6. Annual report 1969: six inch water main installed on Sprucewood Road from Briarwood Avenue
7. Annual report 1970: Sprucewood Road graded, graveled, penetrated and sealed
8. Annual report 1975: Sprucewood Avenue, River Street to Carmena Road, accepted (the duplicate name)
9. Annual report 1988: fall town meeting Art. 36, Sprucewood Road at Basswood Avenue called a paper street
10. Annual report 1988: vote discontinuing Basswood Avenue between Sprucewood Road and Bridle Acres