Ridgeway Avenue

Ridgeway Avenue is a street of the Pinehurst section in the south part of town, running north and south across Pinehurst Avenue between Cardington and Chesterfield Avenues and on toward McHugh Avenue. It was laid out on paper in Pinehurst Manor, a subdivision of well over a thousand small house lots "owned by Frank W. Coughlin," drawn by H. A. Millhouse, civil engineer, of Boston in September 1910 and recorded on September 23, 1910 in Plan Book 27 Plan 95. All its streets were 40 feet wide. A plan of 1925 for poles of the Lowell Electric Light company "on not accepted streets in Pinehurst Manor" (Plan Book 47 Plan 64) shows Ridgeway Avenue between Glenside and Glenvale Avenues.

Like its neighbors Beaumont, Cardington, Chesterfield, Dorsett, Egmont, Ellingwood, Glenside, Glenvale, Montrose and Endleigh, the name was chosen by the developer for its English sound and does not refer to any Billerica family or place; no record explains it. The land had no road before 1910; the area does not appear as a way on the town maps of 1831, 1853 or 1875.

Building came slowly. Water mains were laid in Ridgeway Avenue in 1926 and, south of Pinehurst Avenue, in 1928. The residents asked again and again for acceptance: articles to accept 300 feet north of Pinehurst Avenue (1929 and 1930) and 200 feet south of it (1930) were dismissed in 1931, and in 1938 a motion to accept about 500 feet north of Pinehurst Avenue was lost by a rising vote of 89 to 149. In 1958 the town voted $260 to improve about 200 feet of it under the betterment act.

Ridgeway Avenue was finally accepted at the annual town meeting of 1975, under Article 14, "from Cardington Avenue to Chesterfield Avenue as shown on a plan entitled 'Pinehurst Manor' ... a way 40 feet wide and 1320 feet more or less long," although the street acceptance committee had advised against it unless $41,500 were raised for grading, water, drainage and surfacing.

References

1. 1930 warrant, Article 32: to accept Ridgeway Avenue, 300 feet from Pinehurst Avenue northerly
2. 1931 warrant, Articles 47 and 48: to accept Ridgeway Avenue 200 feet south and 300 feet north of Pinehurst Avenue
3. 1931 water report: Ridgeway Ave. mains of 1926 and 1928
4. 1938 town meeting: motion to accept Ridgeway Avenue lost, 89 to 149
5. 1975 annual town meeting, Article 14: Ridgeway Avenue accepted from Cardington to Chesterfield Avenue, per the Pinehurst Manor plan of 1910