Parker School Driveway

Parker School Driveway is the driveway of the Parker Elementary School, 52 River Street, in Billerica Centre. It enters the school grounds from Parker Street a little north of Pages Court and runs northeast past the building, with a short divided section in the middle. It is a school drive on town land, not a town way.

The school site was assembled in 1951. A committee appointed at the special town meeting of January 8, 1951 recommended a twenty-one room elementary school in the Centre, and the special town meeting of November 24, 1951 voted $13,200 to buy or take by eminent domain "land off Page's Court, Parker Street and River Street," lots A, B, C, 6, 18 and 19, the "Frost Lot" and the "Orchard Lot" on a "Plan of Land in Billerica, surveyed for the Town of Billerica, September, 1951, John B. Monahan, Reg. Land Surveyor," and to give Lot C to Thomas Forsley in exchange for Lot B. On March 8, 1952 the annual town meeting appropriated $855,000 for "constructing the Billerica Center Elementary School," and voted $900 for a storm drain across Parker Street, "a continuation of the tile drain installed under the general contract of the new elementary school." A water main of 1,333 feet was laid to the "New Grade School" the same year.

The school opened as the Parker Elementary School on September 21, 1953, with 21 classrooms, a cafeteria and an auditorium seating 550, for 741 pupils in grades one to five. No vote or report explaining the name has been found; the school stands on Parker Street, which takes its name from the Parker family homestead there. Town meetings and elections were held in the building from 1954. In 1960 the town meeting voted $1,200 "for piping the brook on River Street between the Parker School and River Street," and in fiscal 2001 the Traffic Management Committee recommended "Closing off Parker Street at the Parker School driveway."

References

1. Annual Report 1951: special town meeting of January 8, 1951, committee for a new elementary school in the Centre
2. Annual Report 1951: Nov. 24, 1951, Art. 29, site for the new Center elementary school off Pages Court, Parker and River Streets
3. Annual Report 1952: March 8, 1952, Art. 60 $855,000 for the Center Elementary School; Art. 62 storm drain across Parker Street
4. Annual Report 1952: water main extensions, 1,333 feet to the New Grade School
5. Annual Report 1953: Parker Elementary School opened September 21, 1953, 21 classrooms, 741 pupils
6. Annual Report 1960: Art. 28, piping the brook between the Parker School and River Street
7. Annual Report 2001: Traffic Management Committee, closing off Parker Street at the Parker School driveway
8. GreatSchools: Parker Elementary School, 52 River Street, Billerica