Pond Street

Pond Street leaves Andover Road a short way east of the Center and runs north past the old Dutton and Holden farm, across Salem Road, the line of the Middlesex Canal and the Lowell railroad, to the Tewksbury line, where it continues as Pond Street to Long Pond in Tewksbury. It is one of the early roads of the town, though no laying out of it is recorded. Hazen wrote in 1883 that the first road "to the great plain and great common field," toward North Billerica, "followed the present Long Pond Road to the foot of Fox Hill," and that Fox Hill lay "between the Andover and Long Pond roads." In the division of the common land in 1706 John Dutton and Ebenezer Farley received "all the land on the Northwest of the highway leading to Joseph Davis'," the Davis family's Fox Farm north of Fox Hill, and a deed of 1723 of the Dutton farm bounds it east "by the Road to Andover."

The name comes from Long Pond, the 44-acre pond in southeast Tewksbury at the head of Content Brook, toward which the road ran. Hazen calls it the Long Pond Road and places the Davis family "on Long Pond Road" and the fork with Andover Street at the farm of Rev. John Haskell, and a deed of 1861 bounds land on "the Long Pond road, so called." In the street naming of 1897 and 1899 it was shortened to Pond Street, "from Andover road running southeasterly to Mud pond, Tewksbury line," and the name was accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899.

The Boston and Lowell Railroad crossed under the road on a bridge built about 1834, which was rebuilt as a steel girder bridge in 1912 and altered by the state in 1985, and the Middlesex Canal crossed it about 1802 at the site of the canal's Davis bridge. A water main was laid in Pond Street in 1909 and a sidewalk was begun about 1913. In 1916 the County Commissioners widened and straightened the south end at the fork with Andover Street, and the town paid for relaying the walls in 1916 and 1917. The road was first oiled in 1927, "Andover St. to Charles Wright's residence"; the warrant of 1932 asked for money to resurface it "from the junction of Andover Street to Salem Road with gravel and tar"; in 1935 it was widened to 24 feet from Oak Street to Salem Road; and by 1937 it was tarred and oiled from Andover Street to Salem Road.

It was formally accepted as a public way at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which voted, 124 to 19, under Chapter 82, sections 21 to 24, of the General Laws, to accept the 57 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." The town manager explained that the state already treated these roads as public ways, but the town had no record of accepting them and so could not spend money to maintain them. The list gives it from Andover Road to the Tewksbury town line.

Historic Buildings

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): early road to the great plain "followed the present Long Pond Road to the foot of Fox Hill"
2. Hazen 1883: the road north of Fox Hill to the Davis place
3. Hazen 1883: 1706 grant to John Dutton and Ebenezer Farley northwest of "the highway leading to Joseph Davis'"; Fox Hill between the Andover and Long Pond roads
4. Hazen 1883: Davis place, Long Pond Road, in the 1733 residence notes
5. Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife: Long Pond, a 44-acre pond in southeastern Tewksbury at the headwaters of Content Brook, reached from Pond Street
6. 1897 Annual Report: committee list, "Pond street, running southeasterly from Andover street to Mud Pond, Tewksbury line"
7. 1900 Annual Report: street list accepted March 27, 1899, "Pond street, from Andover road running southeasterly to Mud pond"
8. 1916 warrant: relaying walls on Pond Street "as decreed by the Middlesex County Commissioners"
9. 1927 highway report: Pond Street oiled with Oil No. 45 from Andover Street to Charles Wright's residence
10. 1932 warrant: resurfacing Pond Street from Andover Street to Salem Road with gravel and tar
11. 1935 highway report: Pond Street sub-graded and widened to 24 feet from Oak Street to Salem Road
12. 1937 highway report: Pond Street tarred and oiled from Andover Street to Salem Road
13. State highway layout alteration No. 6664 (1985), Pond Street bridge over the MBTA
14. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts as public ways the roads shown on the official town map of 1831 (124 to 19)
15. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads with their termini

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.