Ranlett Grove

Ranlett Grove is a riverside neighborhood in South Billerica on the east bank of the Concord River, between Riverhurst on the north and Nashua Road on the south. It was cut from the old James Marshall farm, which came under Marshall's will to Samuel Cole and his family. In October 1865 the Coles and George W. and Mary E. Gragg sold the farm, about 75 acres with its buildings running from the road to Concord down to the river, to Charles A. Ranlett of Charlestown and John H. Osgood of Chelsea for $1,700. Ranlett already owned the land to the south, formerly of the heirs of Joseph Hill. He died before 1879, when Osgood sold his half of the farm to Ranlett's sons David D., S. Alonzo and Horace D. Ranlett.

In May 1909 Ernest W. Branch, civil engineer, laid out the riverside part of the Ranlett land as "Ranlett Grove on Shore of Concord River" (Plan Book 26, Plan 47) for Atwood and Pattee, auctioneers and real estate dealers of 27 School Street, Boston. The plan shows more than a hundred house lots, most of 7,500 to 10,000 square feet, on Ossamequin Road, Osceola Lane, Cardinal Lane, Lupine Lane, Sabbatia Lane, Riverside Road, Ridge Road, Satuckett Lane, Robin's Lane and Laurel Lane, with public landings on the river and a public park. A companion plan of June 15, 1909 (Plan Book 26, Plan 46) shows Ranlett Lane, a lane between stone walls from the main road between Bedford and Billerica west to the Chelmsford Road, now Nashua Road; its western end is today's Rainbow Lane. The street names fall into two groups, wildflowers and birds (Cardinal, Lupine, Sabbatia, Laurel, Robin's) and Native American names: Ossamequin Road carries the native name of Massasoit, Satuckett is a Wampanoag place name, and Osceola Lane is named for the Seminole leader.

The lots were sold by Eugene A. Stowell of Medford, trustee under the will of Charles A. Ranlett. The first deeds, recorded in August 1909, gave buyers the right to use the plan's streets and Ranlett Lane and bound them to the colony's rules: until 1920 no building within twenty feet of the river or of Riverside Road and Osceola Lane, one house to a lot costing at least $250, cottages and private dwellings only, except a store and a canoe or boat livery on Lots 50 and 51, no liquor sold, no trees over five inches cut except to build, wire fences only, and no sand or gravel dug. The 1919 street directory lists "Ranlett Grove off Concord rd byd Old Middlesex turnpike." Like Riverhurst and Nuttings Lake, the grove was a summer colony for city people, and its beach, Ranlett's Grove Beach, was kept by a neighborhood association until the early 2000s.

Not every street on the plan became a road. Riverside Road was built from Osceola Lane south along the river; the town laid an 8-inch water main in 1968 "on Ridge Road (from Nashua Road to Riverside Road, along Riverside Road to Osceola Lane)." Its stretch between Osceola Lane and Satuckett Lane is now Quaker Lane, and its route south of Satuckett Lane still shows as an open strip between the house lots on today's parcel map. Robin's Lane, Laurel Lane, the public park and Riverside Road's loop around Lots 37 to 40 remain paper roads, drawn on the plan but never built as streets. Satuckett Lane was extended east past Mirror Road in the 1970s, and Lupine Lane east to Edgar Road at about the same time. The lanes stayed private ways: town water came in 1959 and 1968, and the Ranlett Grove section was sewered in 1995 and 1996.

Points of Interest

• Ranlett's Grove Beach (1909)

References

1. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1959: water mains extended on Osceola Lane and Ossamequin Road
2. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1968: 8-inch water main on Ridge Road and Riverside Road and along Osceola Lane to Cardinal Road
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1995: gravity sewer designed and built for the Ranlett Grove area
4. Wikipedia: Massasoit (Ousamequin), for whom Ossamequin Road was named
5. Wikipedia: Osceola, Seminole leader of the 1830s