Rainbow Lane
Rainbow Lane
| Old Names | Ranlett Lane (1909 - 1981) |
| Location | Map |
| Neighborhood | Ranlett Grove |
| Laid Out | 1909 |
| Right of Way | 40 ft |
| Pavement | 14 ft |
Rainbow Lane is a short street in South Billerica running east from Nashua Road near the Concord River, at the south end of Ranlett Grove. It is the western end of the old Ranlett Lane. Ernest W. Branch's "Plan of Lane in Billerica Mass. leading from the main road between Bedford and Billerica to the Chelmsford Road," dated June 15, 1909 (Plan Book 26, Plan 46), shows a lane about 3,560 feet long between stone walls from the Bedford road, now Concord Road, west to the Chelmsford Road, now Nashua Road, with land of Charles Ranlett on the north and of Helen A. Ranlett on the south. The plan was drawn with the plan of Ranlett Grove, and the deeds of the grove lots gave buyers the right to pass over the lane.
The lane was named for Captain Charles A. Ranlett, whose farm it crossed. As the inland part of the farm was built up from the 1960s, the eastern part of Ranlett Lane became a town way ending at a cul-de-sac, accepted in 1973, and the western end off Nashua Road was left a separate short street. Houses were built there on lots of the Land Court plans of the Ranlett land; the house at 12 Rainbow Lane dates from about 1982, according to the assessors.
The western end was renamed Rainbow Lane about 1990. A mortgage of Jan. 29, 1991 describes lots there as on "Ranlett nka [now known as] Rainbow Lane," and one of 1999 as on "Rainbow once Ranlett Lane." The change falls in the years 1988 to 1991, when the selectmen renamed scores of streets "to eliminate duplication of names"; the renaming votes of 1989 and 1990 are not printed in the town reports, and the reason for the name Rainbow has not been found. No vote accepting Rainbow Lane as a public way has been found.