Pinehurst Annex

Pinehurst Annex is a neighborhood of small house lots on the west side of Boston Road in Pinehurst, running from Boston Road to the Shawsheen River along Sheridan Street, the former Shawsheen Street. On October 13, 1902 George W. McFarland of Billerica conveyed to Emma E. Varnum of Lowell the land between his own lot on the road from Billerica to Woburn and the Shawsheen River, bounded south by land of Mixon and north in part by land of Harndon (Book 349, Page 18). McFarland had bought it in 1896 from the heirs of Lyman Haynes and Dudley Foster (Book 280, Page 585). The deed refers to a plan by O. F. Osgood, surveyor, for Emma E. Varnum, dated September 1902; that plan, "Pinehurst Annex, Plan of Land in Billerica belonging to E. E. Varnum," was recorded on February 2, 1903 (Plan Book 19, Plan 42).

The plan laid out Shawsheen Street from Boston Road to the river, with lots 1 to 45 along its south side, and A Street, B Street, C Street and D Street running north from it; beyond D Street it showed E Street, F Street, North Avenue and a road along the river. Most of the 300 numbered lots were 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep. McFarland's lot at the corner of Boston Road and Shawsheen Street was not part of the Annex; it later became the site of the Pinehurst School, renamed the Thomas Ditson School, and is now Old Ditson Park. Sales began quickly: in July 1903 J. Thomas Donlan gave Varnum a mortgage on fifty-six of the lots, numbers 177 to 186, 191 to 206 and 209 to 238 (Book 356, Page 382).

The streets stayed private for years. The town accepted Shawsheen Street as far as E Street in 1927, A Street in 1954 and the first 350 feet of D Street in 1978. E Street, F Street, North Avenue and the river road were never built; their lines survive as gaps between the parcels west of D Street, and the land at the river end is now town conservation land. Shawsheen Street became Sheridan Street in the selectmen's program of 1988 to 1991 that removed duplicate street names, the last changes taking effect on January 7, 1991.