Ox Road

Ox Road is a residential street of the 1950s in the south part of Billerica, between Lexington Road and Lindsay Road, running from Doyle Avenue past Gordon Terrace to a turnaround at its end; Martin Drive also meets it. It was laid out on "Middlesex Subdivision, Billerica, Mass.," a plan in five sheets drawn by Fred A. Joyce, surveyor, of Belmont, sheet 1 dated July 21, 1954, for the owner, B and G Realty Trust of 4 Ivy Circle, Arlington. The Planning Board approved it on September 24, 1954, subject to a certificate filed with the plan, and it was recorded on September 30, 1954 (Plan Book 84, Plan 155). Sheet 1 shows "Ox Road" from Doyle Avenue to a circular turnaround near School Lane, with Gordon Terrace leading from it to Lexington Road, and lots of about 15,000 to 21,000 square feet along both sides, between land of Billerica Homes Inc. and lots on Lindsay Road. The houses date from 1954 to 1956. The plan does not explain the name of the street, and its origin has not been found.

The street guide of 1957 lists "Ox Road From Doyle av to dead end." The warrant for the annual meeting of 1958 asked the town "to improve Ox Road a distance of approximately 1500 feet at a sum not to exceed $7,550.00 under the Betterment Act"; the result of that article has not been found. The annual town meeting of March 1968 voted "to accept Ox Road as a public way" (Article 114), on an article of the Board of Public Works asking acceptance "in accordance with the layout by the Board of Selectmen." Drainage work was done in 1969, and the street was hot topped with bituminous concrete in 1974. In 1986 the town transferred town-owned parcels "located at the end of Lindsay and Ox Roads" to the Conservation Commission "to be used for passive recreation and conservation purposes only." Ox Road was overlaid under the town's roadway contract of 2001.

References

1. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1957: warrant for 1958, Art. 64, improve Ox Road about 1500 feet under the Betterment Act
2. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1967: warrant for 1968, Art. 114, accept Ox Road as a public way
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1968: Art. 114, voted to accept Ox Road as a public way
4. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1969: Highway drainage projects incl. Ox Rd
5. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1974: streets hot topped with bituminous concrete incl. Ox Road
6. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1986: Art. 38, town parcels at the end of Lindsay and Ox Roads to the Conservation Commission
7. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 2001: Contract 01-R01 overlaid roadways incl. Ox Road