Mellon Road

Mellon Road runs west from High Street in North Billerica, between Corthell Road and McKenna Drive, with a separate piece near Billerica Avenue at its western end. It was laid out as Mellen Road in August 1911 on "Hillcrest," the "Estate of Geo. H. Hill Esq., North Billerica Mass.," a plan surveyed by James A. Bancroft, with the Pelkey Wallace Company of Boston as agents, and recorded on Nov. 9, 1911 in Plan Book 29, Plan 58. On that plan Mellen Road was the fourth of five streets running west from High Street, with 5,000 square foot lots on both sides, ending at the line of the estate of the late Governor Thomas Talbot. Clarence E. Carter's plan of Hillcrest of April 1914, recorded May 14, 1914 (Plan Book 31, Plan 61), carried Mellen Road west across Tuttle Avenue to Billerica Avenue, and the piece of the road at that end comes from the 1914 plan. The middle of the platted street was never built.

The plans do not explain the name. Mellen is an old Massachusetts surname, but no one of the name appears in the Billerica records of the time, and no record ties it to the developer or his agents. The directories of 1916 and 1919 spell it "Mellen Road (N B) from High n Bartlett rd northerly," and the town still used that spelling when it accepted part of the road in 1938. The spelling Mellon appears in the town report for 1957, when an old 2-inch water line "on Mellon Road" was replaced with a 6-inch main, and has been used since.

At the annual town meeting of Feb. 5, 1938 Article 15 asked the town to "accept Mellen Road from High Street 300 feet westerly"; a motion to dismiss was followed by an amendment that the article be accepted, "and this was so voted." The town's 1956 list of accepted streets gives "Mellen Rd. 300 ft. from High St. westerly, 2-5-38." The rest of the road was not accepted. The accepted section was hot topped with bituminous concrete in 1974. Mellon Road was not on the official town map of 1831 and was not among the roads accepted in 2016.

References

1. Billerica town report 1938: Article 15, voted to accept Mellen Road from High Street 300 feet westerly
2. Streets Accepted by the Town (1956 report): Mellen Rd., 300 ft. from High St. westerly, accepted Feb. 5, 1938
3. Billerica town report 1957: replace old 2-inch water line with 6-inch on Mellon Road
4. Billerica town report 1974: Highway Department list of streets hot topped, including Mellon Road and Corthell Road