Pheasant Road

Pheasant Road is a dead-end street of about 1,340 feet in Pinehurst, at the southeast edge of Billerica. It continues the line of Pinehurst Avenue across Bicknell Road and runs northeast toward the Burlington line, south of Olney Street. Its outer part crosses land that was laid out in 1913 as part of Garden Acres: the "Plan of Garden Acres in the Towns of Burlington and Billerica, Mass., owned by M. R. Connolly," drawn by W. H. Spear, surveyor, of Lynn and recorded on August 6, 1913 (Plan Book 30, Plan 99), ran a Carter Road on about this line from the land of Alexander northeast across the town line, with house lots 25 feet wide on both sides. The assessors still describe the lot at 104 Pheasant Road as Garden Acres lots 204 to 214, which faced the Billerica end of Carter Road. No houses were built there for seventy years.

The present street began with a "Plan of Land in Billerica, Mass." dated May 10, 1977 by Northeastern Engineering Associates, approved by the Planning Board as not requiring subdivision approval on February 4, 1980 and recorded on February 6, 1980 (Plan Book 130, Plan 105). It showed "Pinehurst Ave" running on from Bignell Road, as Bicknell Road was then spelled, with four large lots, two of them reaching back to the Burlington line. The assessors date the first house to 1980 and the rest to 1983. A deed of 1987 called the way Pinehurst Avenue Extension, and in its program of 1988 to 1991 to remove duplicated street names the Board of Selectmen, on November 14, 1988, renamed "Pinehurst Avenue Extension," "From Bicknell Road northeasterly to the Burlington town line," as Pheasant Road, effective January 2, 1989. The reason for the new name was not recorded.

Pheasant Road was given a shim coat under the town's roadway management program in fiscal 2002. No vote accepting it as a public way has been found.

References

1. Annual report 1988: street name changes voted Nov. 14, 1988, Pinehurst Avenue Extension renamed Pheasant Road
2. Annual report 1990: Street Re-Naming Committee report, 214 names changed, last effective date Jan. 7, 1991
3. Annual report FY2002: Engineering Division roadway management list, Pheasant Road (shim coat)