Riverhurst

Riverhurst is a riverside neighborhood in South Billerica, on the east bank of the Concord River west of Concord Road. Its 40 acres were the western, riverside part of the old Bacon homestead, later the Roby farm, which Charles E. and Sarah E. Hosmer sold to Jacob F. Hobbs of Arlington in 1900. Under his heir Rolland A. Hobbs and Frances W. Hobbs the land became a summer resort, with the Riverhurst Boathouse and its canoes, a ball field and camp sites let on leases. The town highway report of 1915 speaks of oiling Concord Road "as far as Riverhurst," and the street directory of 1916 lists "Riverhurst off Concord rd byd Old Middlesex Turnpike."

Rolland Hobbs's executrix sold the property in March 1915 to Fred B., A. Mabel and Claude B. Bartlett of Bedford. In January 1921 Whitman and Howard, civil engineers of Boston, laid out the Bartletts' land as the "Plan of Riverhurst" (Plan Book 38, Plan 85): more than 130 numbered house lots along Riverhurst Road, Keneson Road, Bartlett Road (now Morgan Road and part of Keneson Road), Ossipee Road, Roosevelt Road and Spring Lane (now Rizzo Lane), with a row of larger river lots on Bartlett Road. The plan already shows cottages standing on many of the lots, among them Idlewild and Hillview cottages on Lots 133 and 134, which also appear on a 1915 plan of the Moore parcel. The name is a coined resort name, "river" joined to "hurst," an old word for a wooded hill.

The roads remained private ways for decades. The town accepted Riverhurst Road as a town way on March 12, 1955, and water mains reached Riverhurst Road and Keneson Road in 1959. Most of the summer cottages were replaced by year-round houses in the second half of the 20th century. In 1973 the first period Deacon Samuel Hill House was moved from Concord Road to 33 Riverhurst Road. South of Bartlett Road the Riverhurst lots meet Ranlett Grove, a riverside colony laid out in 1909 on the old Ranlett farm, whose streets include Ossamequin Road and Osceola Lane.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Deacon Samuel Hill House	Galehurst Guest House	33 Riverhurst Rd	1656	1973
Riverhurst Boathouse		56 Morgan Rd	1900		1938
Hillview Cottage		3 Roosevelt Rd	1914		1997
Idlewild Cottage		50 Riverhurst Rd	1914		1999

Points of Interest

• Bartlett's Landing (1900)

References

1. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1915: Concord Road resurfaced with oil "as far as Riverhurst"
2. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1956: list of accepted streets, Riverhurst Road accepted March 12, 1955
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1959: water mains extended on Riverhurst Road and Keneson Road
4. Historic New England: photograph of the Riverhurst Boat House on the Concord River, by Thomson and Thomson, Boston