Peace Street

Peace Street runs northwest from Lake Street on the north shore of Nuttings Lake, across South Street, Stewart Street and Friendship Street, to Mulcahy Lane, about 1,500 feet in all. It was laid out in April 1910 on two plans of Nuttings Lake Park drawn by C. A. Thayer, engineer, of Providence, Rhode Island: Plan B (Plan Book 27, Plan 34), where Peace Street runs from the lake shore across Lake Street, South Street and Central Street, between Central and Cady Streets, and Plan C, "Nuttings Lake Park Annex," recorded May 6, 1910 (Plan Book 27, Plan 35), where it continues inland across Stewart and Friendship Streets, parallel to Plenty Street and Cady Street. The directories of 1916 and 1919 list "Peace from Friendship n Old Middlesex turnpike."

Peace, Plenty and Friendship Streets were plainly named as a set, for ideals rather than people. Providence, where Thayer worked, has Friendship, Peace and Plenty Streets on its South Side, and the names may have been borrowed from there, but no record says where the developers found them.

A special town meeting on May 9, 1949 accepted the laying out of "Peace Street entire length, with the exception of portion from Lake Street to Nuttings Lake," as a town way. Water mains followed in 1950, 1,245 feet, and in 1951, 215 more feet at the north end, and in 1951 the street was graveled and given tar penetration for 500 feet, its first recorded surfacing; that year the town meeting singled out Pond and Peace Streets as hilly accepted gravel streets, "washed away," that should be bound with tar. At the annual meeting of 1958 the town voted $15,440 to rebuild about 1,370 feet of Peace Street under the Betterment Act, but less than $2,000 of it was spent, and in 1961 the balance of $13,585.75 was transferred to water main extensions. Peace Street was still on the list of streets graded in 1972, its drainage was designed by the town engineers in 1974, and it was crack sealed in 2014. It is not one of the roads of the 1831 map accepted in 2016, and its name has not changed since 1910.

References

1. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1948: warrant Article 50, accept the laying out of Peace Street entire length except Lake Street to Nuttings Lake
2. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1949: special town meeting of May 9, 1949, Article 15 voted
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1956: list of streets accepted by the town, Peace St. 5-9-49
4. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1950: water main extensions, Peace Street 1245 feet
5. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1951: tar and oil item, hilly accepted graveled streets such as Pond and Peace Streets
6. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1951: water main extensions, Peace Street (north) 215 feet
7. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1951: Peace Street graveled and tar penetration applied to 500 feet
8. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1957: warrant Article 59, improve Peace Street about 1370 feet under the Betterment Act
9. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1958: streets voted under betterments, Article 22, Peace Street
10. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1961: Peace Street Betterments balance of $13,585.75 transferred to water extensions
11. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1972: streets graded, including Peace Street