Mulcahy Lane

Mulcahy Lane is a short street on the north side of Nuttings Lake in Nuttings Lake Park, running about 700 feet from a dead end near the Middlesex Turnpike east, across Peace Street and past the end of Plenty Street, to the corner of Cady Street, where it continues as Apollo Avenue. It is the western part of the old Central Street, laid out in April 1910 on "Plan B" of Nuttings Lake Park, drawn by C. A. Thayer, engineer, of Providence, Rhode Island, for the Billerica Land Company (Plan Book 27, Plan 34). Plan B shows Central Street running from the turnpike northeasterly, parallel to South Street and Lake Street, across Peace, Cady and Rhodes Streets. On "Plan C," the Nuttings Lake Park Annex of the same month (Plan Book 27, Plan 35, recorded May 6, 1910), Plenty, Peace, Cady and Rhodes Streets run west from Central Street toward the turnpike. The 1919 directory lists "Central from Old Middlesex turnpike n Lake southeasterly," and the guide of 1930 to 1931 "Central (North side Nuttings lake) from Old Middlesex Turnpike easterly to near Pine."

Central Street was never accepted under that name. In 1964 the town voted $8,500 for drains in "the Pine Street - Central Street - Rhodes Street section of Nuttings Lake." A special town meeting on June 7, 1983 voted down the acceptance of Plenty Street "to Central Street," and the fall town meeting of 1988 discontinued the part of Cady Street "between South Street and Central Street." The street was renamed during the town's street renaming of 1988 to 1991: the western part became Mulcahy Lane and the eastern part Apollo Avenue. The change is not printed in the town reports, which list the renamings of 1988 but not those of 1989 and 1990; Central Street still appears in the fall of 1988, and Mulcahy Lane is named in the report for 1990. Where the name Mulcahy came from has not been found.

Mulcahy Lane remains a private way. The fall town meeting of 2001 was asked to accept "Mulcahy Ln Dead End to Cady St 761" feet with other Nuttings Lake streets, but the article was dismissed. In 2019 the town accepted Plenty Street "from Stewart Street to Mulcahy Lane." Mulcahy Lane is not one of the roads of the 1831 map accepted in 2016.

References

1. Billerica (1912, Warren H. Manning study): list of plans, "Nuttings Lake Park, Plans B and C. The Billerica Land Company, April, 1910"
2. Billerica town report 1964: town meeting votes $8,500 for a drain system in the Pine Street - Central Street - Rhodes Street section of Nuttings Lake
3. Billerica town report 1983: June 7, 1983 special town meeting, motion to accept Plenty Street to Central Street lost
4. Billerica town report 1988: fall town meeting discontinues the part of Cady Street between South Street and Central Street
5. Billerica town report 1990: list of town officers with Mulcahy Lane as an address, the first record of the name found
6. Billerica town report 1990: Street Re-naming Committee finishes its work, 214 street names changed 1988 to 1991
7. Billerica town report 2002: fall 2001 town meeting Article 25 list of private ways, "Mulcahy Ln Dead End to Cady St 761"