Patten Road

Patten Road is a short road in East Billerica, a little over a third of a mile long, running east from Gray Street, near the old Richardson sawmill on Content Brook, to Whipple Road at the Tewksbury line, where it continues toward the old mill village of Pattenville. No laying out of it has been found. It is one of the old ways that the town said in 2016 were shown on the official town map of 1831. Henry A. Hazen thought that a highway ordered in 1664, running from the country road to Andover "beginning on ye east of content bridge" toward the Shawshin River, "more clearly refers to the road from the depot to Pattenville," which is the route by Gray Street and this road, but the record does not fix its line.

The name comes from the Patten family and their village. Hazen wrote that Theophilus Manning, who had a gristmill beside the old sawmill on Content Brook, sold both in 1825 to Deacon Aaron H. Patten, "who began, in 1845, the manufacture of cabinet-work. The business grew to considerable proportions, and Pattenville became a definite local name in town." The Historical Commission's survey of 1993 added that William H. Patten, a son of Aaron, bought the house built in 1870 at 86 Gray Street, at the corner of this road, and thought it "probable that the adjoining street, Patten Road, was so named because of this." The guide boards listed in the town reports from 1896 on included one "at East Billerica, leading to Pattenville."

The street naming committee of 1896 used the name "Patten street" for a different way, the road "running easterly from Salem street to Tewksbury line," which the Billerica Historical Society renamed Whipple Road in its list accepted in March 1899. Neither list named this short road separately, and the directory of 1901 noted only "Patten, changed to Gray." The name Patten Road appears in the town reports from the 1930s.

In 1937 the road was improved as a federal relief project, which called for brush to be removed and Patten Road to be widened to 24 feet, subgraded, graveled and rolled for 1,848 feet, and the highway report says it was "widened and graveled entire length." It was oiled in 1940 and tarred in 1941, and in 1943 a tar seal coat was applied "from Gray Street to Tewksbury Line." A water main was laid in 1953 from the Tewksbury line along Patten Road to Gray Street, with water bought from Tewksbury.

The annual town meeting of 1975 voted on April 22 to accept "the laying out of Patten Road from Gray Street to the Tewksbury town line, a way 40 feet more or less wide and 1500 feet more or less long," although the Street Acceptance Committee had advised against it unless $19,400 was raised for its improvement. Patten Road was nevertheless included in the list of roads on the 1831 map accepted again as public ways at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which gave it from Gray Street to the Tewksbury town line.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the 1664 highway east of Content Bridge, "the road from the depot to Pattenville"
2. Hazen 1883: Deacon Aaron H. Patten's mills and cabinet-work on Content Brook, and the name Pattenville
3. Annual Report 1897: street naming committee, "Patten street, running easterly from Salem street to Tewksbury line" (now Whipple Road and George Brown Street)
4. Annual Report 1937: Patten Road project, widen to 24 feet, subgrade, grade and roll 1,848 feet
5. Annual Report 1943: tar seal coat applied to Patten Road from Gray Street to the Tewksbury line
6. Annual Report 1952: warrant article for a water main on Patten Road from the Tewksbury line to Gray Street
7. Annual Report 1975: Article 14, streets to be accepted, "Patten Road (from Gray St. to Tewksbury Line)"
8. Annual Report 1975: annual town meeting votes to accept the laying out of Patten Road
9. Annual Report 2017: Article 36, 1831 list of roads, "Patten Road, Gray Street, Tewksbury Town Line"
10. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, Article 36 accepts the 1831 roads as public ways (124 to 19)