Orchard Road
Orchard Road runs from Springs Road near the Bedford line northeast to Technology Park Drive in South Billerica, and crosses Route 3 on a bridge built in 2004. It is the old west end of Manning Road, cut off from the rest of that road by the Route 3 expressway, and it only took the name Orchard Road in recent decades.
No laying out of the road has been found. It is one of the old ways shown on the official town map of 1831, and the town's records give the acceptance of both Manning Road and this west end as a town way at the town meeting of March 15, 1886. When the town named its streets, the list accepted on March 27, 1899 gave "Manning road, from Lexington road running westerly to Spring street, So. Billerica," Spring Street being the present Springs Road; the list of accepted streets printed in 1956 still gave "Manning Rd. From Lexington Rd. west to Spring St." Land descriptions of the 1950s and early 1960s place lots "at the junction of Spring Street and Manning Road." The origin of the name Manning Road has not been found (see Manning Road).
The state laid out the new Route 3 through South Billerica in 1952 and 1953 along the line of the old Middlesex Turnpike, and Manning Road was carried over the highway on a three-span steel bridge built in 1953, the state's bridge B-12-26. In 1963 the town meeting voted to discontinue the old location and accept "the relocation of that portion of Manning Road extending westerly and southwesterly from the westerly side of Middlesex Turnpike for a distance of 1670 feet, more or less," as laid out by the selectmen. When Route 3 was widened in the early 2000s the state laid out the crossing again ("Route 3 @ Old Manning Rd," 2002) and replaced the 1953 bridge; the new bridge of 2004, still numbered B-12-26, is listed in the state bridge inventory as Orchard Road over U.S. 3. The east part of Manning Road, from Fortune Drive to Route 3, was accepted anew in 2003.
By then the west end had its own name. No vote naming it Orchard Road has been found and the origin of the name is not recorded. It is not the Orchard Road of the 1920s in the Pinehurst section, to which Laurel Street ran from Boston Road and which the town accepted as a town way in 1928; that road is not in the wiki. The town's list of roads on the 1831 map, adopted at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, gives "Orchard Road, Bedford Town Line, Bridge Over Route 3, Accepted 03/15/1886," the same acceptance date as Manning Road.
Historic Buildings
| Name | Alternate | Address | Built | Moved | Demolished |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S. Hooker House | 79 Orchard Rd | 1852 | 1952 |
References
- Annual Report 1899: Historical Society street list, "Manning road, from Lexington road running westerly to Spring street, So. Billerica"
- Annual Report 1956: streets accepted by the town, "Manning Rd. From Lexington Rd. west to Spring St."
- Annual Report 1951: land at the junction of Spring Street and Manning Road
- Annual Report 1963: Art. 42, relocation of Manning Road west of the Middlesex Turnpike, 1,670 feet, accepted
- Massachusetts state highway layouts for Billerica: Route 3 (1952-1953) and layout 7654, "Route 3 @ Old Manning Rd" (2002)
- Annual Report 2003: Manning Road from Fortune Drive to Route 3 accepted as a public way
- Annual Report 2017: 1831-map roads already accepted, "Orchard Road, Bedford Town Line, Bridge Over Route 3, Accepted 03/15/1886"