Nussey Terrace

Nussey Terrace is a short street in North Billerica running south from Lowell Street to Old Elm Street, in the neighborhood of Colson Heights. Until 1988 it was Brown Street. It was laid out in 1914 on "Colson Heights, North Billerica Mass., owned by the Heirs of George F. Colson," planned by the landscape designer Warren H. Manning with Fred W. Stowers as surveyor and recorded on July 13, 1914 (Plan Book 31, Plan 88), one of the parallel streets, Holt, Hood, Brown, Franklin, Lawrence and Warren, that ran south from Lowell Street to Elm Street. The plan does not explain the name Brown.

The street was on the ground by 1921, when an article asked the town to accept "Elm Street Extension from Colson Street to Brown Street." In 1922 the town accepted Elm Street "from Colson street in a westerly direction to Brown street, a distance of seven hundred (700) feet" and voted $400 to extend the water main on Elm Street "to the corner of Brown street." The directories list "Brown (NB), From Lowell to 57 Elm" from 1941, and the assessors date the oldest houses now on the street to 1936 and 1940, with most of the rest from the late 1940s and early 1950s. The town accepted "the laying out of Brown Street from Lowell Street to Elm Street Extension, a distance of 650 feet," on March 14, 1953, with $800 to improve it.

Billerica had four streets named Brown, and on April 25, 1988 the Board of Selectmen renamed them, effective July 1, 1988, to end the duplication: this one, "2nd right off Lowell Street from Boston Road," became Nussey Terrace, and the others became Nealley Street, Folger Street and George Brown Street. The renaming record does not give the reason for the name. The Nussey family lived on the street: Herbert Nussey, a laborer and later a firefighter in the Billerica Fire Department, is listed on Brown Street in the directories of 1941, 1942 and 1949, and the town report of 1963 records the death of "Fireman Herbert Nussey" on April 21, 1963.

References

1. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1921: warrant article to accept Elm Street Extension from Colson Street to Brown Street
2. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1922: Elm Street accepted from Colson Street westerly to Brown Street, 700 ft; water main to the corner of Brown Street
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1952: warrant Article 87, accept Brown Street, North Billerica, from Lowell Street to Elm Street Extension
4. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1953: Brown Street accepted from Lowell Street to Elm Street Extension, 650 ft, $800 to improve
5. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1956: list of streets accepted, Brown St. (N. B.) Lowell St. to Elm St. Ext. 650 ft., 3-14-53
6. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1963: In Memoriam, Fireman Herbert Nussey, April 21, 1963
7. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1988: April 25, 1988 renaming, Brown Street to Nussey Terrace, effective July 1, 1988