Quaker Lane

Quaker Lane is a short street in Ranlett Grove, the riverside colony on the east bank of the Concord River in South Billerica, between Satuckett Lane and Osceola Lane. It began as part of Riverside Road on the plan "Ranlett Grove on Shore of Concord River, Billerica Mass.," drawn in May 1909 by Ernest W. Branch, civil engineer, for Atwood and Pattee, auctioneers and real estate dealers of 27 School Street, Boston, and recorded on Aug. 7, 1909 (Plan Book 26, Plan 47). On the plan Riverside Road follows the river from the main road, there called the Chelmsford Road, past the public landing and the public park, and divides at lot 36: Osceola Lane runs on to the east, and Riverside Road loops north around lots 37 to 40 to Ossamequin Road. Today's Quaker Lane is the short stretch of the old Riverside Road just west of that fork, where Satuckett Lane leaves it. One of the first deeds of the grove, recorded on Aug. 10, 1909, sold lot 36 at the junction of Riverside Road and Osceola Lane.

The town still called the street Riverside Road in 1968, when an 8 inch water main was laid "on Ridge Road (from Nashua Road to Riverside Road, along Riverside Road to Osceola Lane ...)." The name Quaker Lane first appears in a deed recorded on Sept. 3, 2002, which conveyed lots 43 to 46, 48 and 49 of the 1909 plan, on the river side of Riverside Road, as land "known as 'Quaker Lane'"; the registry has indexed deeds on the street under "Quaker Ln" since then, and the town's mosquito control report of 2011 lists Quaker Lane. No record has been found of when or by whom the name was given, or why. The houses now numbered on Quaker Lane were built in 2010 and 2015, according to the assessors.

Quaker Lane is a private way; no vote accepting it or the old Riverside Road has been found. The Ranlett Grove section was sewered in 1995 and 1996, and Quaker Lane was among the roads paved or treated by the public works department in fiscal year 2023. The Riverside Road of Ranlett Grove should not be confused with Riverside Road in Pinehurst, which the town accepted in 1973.

References

1. 1968 report: 8 inch water main on Ridge Road, along Riverside Road to Osceola Lane, along Osceola Lane to Cardinal Road
2. 1995 report: gravity sewers designed and built for the Ranlett Grove area
3. 2011 report: mosquito control larval survey list including Satuckett Lane, Quaker Lane and Osceola Lane
4. 1973 town meeting: acceptance of Riverside Road in Pinehurst (a different street) and Ranlett Lane

Deed References Expand all

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