Postwar Housing Boom

In the thirty years after the Second World War Billerica changed from a town of farms, mill villages and summer camps into a large suburb of Boston and Lowell. Its population was 7,933 at the federal census of 1940 and 11,101 in 1950; it reached 17,867 in 1960 and 31,648 in 1970, the fastest growth of any decade in the town's history, and leveled off at 36,727 in 1980. In 1950 the superintendent of schools described a town of about 11,000 that was "growing rapidly as a residential area for commuting population to Boston," and young families kept coming for new houses within reach of Boston and Lowell, especially after the new Route 3 opened in 1955 (see Opening of Route 3). The boom filled the town with subdivisions, doubled and redoubled the school population, and remade the town government, which adopted zoning, a planning board, representative town meeting and a master plan in these years.

The first pressure was a shortage of any housing at all. In 1947 the Board of Public Welfare wrote that "the acute housing shortage presents a big problem," with families "living in unfinished camps with poor sanitary conditions and overcrowded quarters," and in 1950 that "there are many families living in unfinished cottages who are undergoing terrific hardships." Many of the summer colonies of the 1910s and 1920s, at Nutting's Lake, Pinehurst and along the rivers, were turned into year-round homes; in 1946 the assessors counted 3,392 "dwelling houses (including camps)." The town meeting of 1947 voted unanimously that "prefabricated houses approved by the Federal Housing Authority or by the Veterans' Housing Authority, may be erected in Zones classified as residential." The building inspector issued 122 permits for new dwellings in 1948, 164 in 1950 and a record 400 in 1953, and the superintendent of schools wrote that year that "most families buying these new homes are in the young adult, child-bearing ages between 21 and 38 years."

Land-use law came in a hurry. Billerica had no zoning until the summer of 1945, when, the Planning Board later wrote, there developed "what rapidly was becoming an invasion of the Town by contractors who were buying from property owners the top soil on their land and stripping it with machinery." The selectmen declared a public emergency to pay for the work, and a special town meeting on July 30, 1945 adopted the town's first Zoning By-Law and Zoning Map. Each later annual meeting carried long lists of rezoning articles. In 1951 the town established a five-member Planning Board under General Laws, Chapter 41, Section 81A, with the powers of the subdivision control law, and the Board approved plan after plan of new streets: among them the Oskowskie Subdivision of 1947, Rolling Acres and Fox Hill in North Billerica in the early 1950s, Virginia Park and Orchard Manor in 1953, Community Park in Pinehurst and the Middlesex Subdivision in South Billerica in 1954, and Tercentennial Park, named for the town's three hundredth anniversary of 1955. A new zoning by-law, dividing the town into neighborhood, village and rural residence districts and business and industrial districts, was adopted at a special meeting on November 7, 1955. In 1957 the town's $7,000 appropriation was matched by federal planning money under the Housing Act of 1954, and James L. Harris, architect and planning consultant, prepared the town's first master plan by 1959.

The schools felt the boom first and longest. Enrollment was 2,070 in 1948, 2,776 on October 1, 1952 and 3,222 two years later. From 1951 the Howe High School ran on "a two session plan whereby senior high pupils attend from approximately 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and junior high pupils attend from 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m." The town added twelve classrooms to the Ditson School in 1949 and more in 1953, built the Old Parker School at the Centre in 1953, and opened the Billerica Memorial High School on September 26, 1955 to "nearly 700 high school students as well as four groups of elementary school pupils." A special meeting on May 6, 1955 voted a $652,000 bond issue for an elementary school at Nuttings Lake, the Eugene C. Vining School of 1957. A second school physician, Dr. Solomon G. Hajjar, was appointed in 1954 "because of the increased enrolment." The second wave of the 1960s was larger still. Enrollment rose from 4,318 in 1960 to 6,826 in 1966 and 7,440 in 1967, when Superintendent Frederick C. Riel wrote that it "continues to spiral upward at a frightening rate," an increase of 2,880 pupils since 1961; by 1969 the schools had more than 8,500 pupils and the School Committee expected more than 10,000. The town built the Dutile School and the Kennedy School in 1964 and 1965, an addition of fourteen classrooms to the junior high in 1967, the Locke School as a junior high for 1,000 pupils in 1968, the Hajjar School, opened in 1970 "with over 1000 students in 31 classrooms," and the Marshall Middle School in 1972, and joined in the regional Shawsheen Valley Technical High School of 1970. A special meeting on January 16, 1973 voted $10.3 million to enlarge the high school, and the addition opened in September 1975.

Building peaked again in the 1960s. Permits for new dwellings ran 162 in 1960 (173 units), 328 in 1962 (355 units) and 401 in 1963 (428 units); in 1965 the inspector counted 334 new single houses and 27 duplex buildings, and in 1968, the high point, 458 new single dwellings. The assessors' count of dwelling houses rose from 4,533 in 1955 to 5,066 in 1960, 6,052 in 1965 and 6,531 in 1966. In 1966 the Planning Board reported that "the total of subdivisions under construction at this time" was "at least thirty." The neighborhoods of these years include Sugar Maple Estates (1958), Castlewood East (1962), Allendale Acres, Sherwood Forest & Ferren Park and Wyman Heights (1964), Glen Arden Park and Oakvale & O'Mahony Park (1965), Bicknell Forest & Bicknell Estates and Baldwin Park Estates (1966), Governors Park and Jon-Mar Estates (1968), Tower Farm Estates and Rangeway Estates (1969), and Sleepy Hollow & Shea Estates (1971), most of them laid out on old farms. The town zoned land along Route 3 for industry to broaden the tax base, and industrial subdivisions followed: Billerica Industrial Estates (1964), the Treble Cove Industrial Park (1969) and the Middlesex Industrial Park (1973).

Town government grew with the town. In 1955 the voters accepted an act of the legislature "establishing in the Town of Billerica, representative town government by limited town meetings," and the annual meeting of March 10, 1956 was the first under it, with 202 elected town meeting members. The town built a new water filtration plant, under contract with the Beacon Construction Company, in 1954 and 1955. The town established a Housing Authority in 1963, with Joseph H. Johnson as chairman, and in 1967 permits were issued for housing for the elderly of eight buildings with 64 units. About 1970 the zoning by-law was amended to allow garden apartments of up to twenty-four units a building, later cut to ten, the first apartment districts in the town.

The boom slowed in the 1970s. Permits for new single dwellings fell from 377 in 1970 to 216 in 1973, 145 in 1974 and 100 in 1975, and the population, 35,352 by the state estimate of 1975, grew by only about 1,400 in the next five years. The pattern the boom set, single-family houses on curving streets of the subdivisions of 1946 to 1975 with industrial parks along the highways, still covers most of the town.

People

• Edwin A. Martinson: Superintendent of Schools who in 1949 forecast growth from the new Lowell Turnpike and planned new elementary schools.
• Frederick C. Riel: Superintendent of Schools 1958-1973, through the years when enrollment more than doubled and six new schools were built.
• Solomon G. Hajjar: Appointed second school physician on October 1, 1954 because of the increased enrollment; the Hajjar School of 1970 was named for him.
• Orland S. Marshall: School physician through the boom years; the Marshall Middle School of 1972 was named for him.
• Frederick J. Dutile: Led the committee for the River Pines playground, the site of the Dutile School built in 1964 and 1965.
• Elizabeth F. McCarthy: First principal of the Dutile School, opened in 1965.
• Joseph H. Johnson: First chairman of the Billerica Housing Authority, established in 1963.

References

1. 1945 report, Planning Board: Zoning By-Law and maps adopted at the special town meeting of July 30, 1945, approved by the Attorney General July 31, 1945.
2. 1948 report, Planning Board history of zoning: the 1945 'invasion of the Town by contractors' stripping top soil; emergency funds and the special town meeting of July 30, 1945.
3. 1947 report, town meeting: Art. 27 voted unanimously to allow prefabricated houses approved by the Federal Housing Authority or the Veterans' Housing Authority in residential zones.
4. 1947 report, Board of Public Welfare: 'the acute housing shortage presents a big problem'; families living in unfinished camps.
5. 1948 report, Building Inspector: 122 permits for new dwellings.
6. 1950 report, Board of Public Welfare: many families living in unfinished cottages; the housing shortage continues.
7. 1950 school report: Billerica a semi-industrial town of about 11,000, 'growing rapidly as a residential area for commuting population to Boston.'
8. 1950 school report: two-session plan for the high school from September 1951; elementary enrollment of 1,550 expected.
9. 1951 report, town meeting: Art. 61 voted to establish a five-member Planning Board under G. L. c. 41, s. 81A.
10. 1953 report, Building Inspector: 400 permits for new dwellings.
11. 1953 school report: much home construction; families buying new homes are aged 21 to 38; 400 more pupils expected.
12. 1954 school report: enrollment 2,776 (Oct. 1, 1952), 2,978 (1953) and 3,222 (Oct. 1, 1954); second school physician appointed.
13. 1955 report, Town Clerk: representative town government accepted; May 6, 1955 bond issue for Nuttings Lake school; zoning by-laws revised Nov. 7, 1955.
14. 1955 school report: Billerica Memorial High School opened September 26, 1955 to nearly 700 high school students and four groups of elementary pupils.
15. 1957 report, Planning Board: master plan begun with federal aid under the Housing Act of 1954; James L. Harris, planning consultant; due by 1959.
16. 1958 school report: enrollment of 3,997 pupils in grades 1 to 12, an increase of 204.
17. 1960 school report: enrollment of 4,318 pupils on October 1, 1960.
18. 1962-63 town meeting: Art. 84, vote to establish a Billerica Housing Authority under G. L. c. 121, s. 26K.
19. 1966 report, Planning Board: four new subdivisions approved; at least thirty subdivisions under construction.
20. 1967 report, Superintendent Riel: enrollment 4,551 (1961), 6,826 (1966), 7,440 (1967), 'spiral upward at a frightening rate'; Locke Junior High for 1968.
21. 1967 report, Building Inspector: 386 new single dwellings and housing for the elderly of eight buildings with 64 units.
22. 1968 report, Building Department: 458 new single dwellings.
23. 1969 report, School Committee: school population will rise above 10,000 pupils in a few years.
24. 1975 report, Building Inspector: 100 new single dwellings.
25. Wikipedia, 'Billerica, Massachusetts': historical census population, 1940 7,933; 1950 11,101; 1960 17,867; 1970 31,648; 1980 36,727.