Rogers Street

Rogers Street runs from High Street northwest across the Middlesex Canal and along the mill pond to the junction of Faulkner and Mt. Pleasant Streets at North Billerica. It is probably part of one of the town's first roads. In March 1664 a committee laid out a highway two poles wide through the great common field "below ye great Bridge," running "crosse the lott of Roger Toothaker" and on toward "ye mill place" and Wamesit, and Hazen wrote that this road, "passing the houses of Toothaker and John Rogers, ... ran near the present site of the depot in North Billerica." Dr. Roger Toothaker's house stood "at the point where, in later years, the Middlesex Canal left the Concord River," and in 1710-11 the proprietors granted him "all the land on the east side of the highway leading to his house" in exchange for his meadow flowed by Christopher Osgood's new mill dam.

The street is named for the Rogers family, who lived beside it for two centuries. John Rogers Jr., born in 1641, "lived just beyond North Billerica, and his house was for some years the extreme outpost in that direction," with Toothaker as his neighbor, and in 1678 his brother Thomas was granted land "West of ye highway, between Roger Toothaker's house and ye house of Jno. Rogers, sen." Both were killed by Indians in 1695. In 1791 the north ward schoolhouse was set "in William Rogers' corner by John Rogers." William Rogers (1759-1838) built the brick-ended house that still stands at 18 Rogers Street in 1807, beside the canal and said to have been paid for by his work in digging it; tradition held that its old ell was the Toothaker house. His son Calvin, who married Ann Faulkner, lived there until 1856.

On R. A. Hale's plan of the Faulkner Manufacturing Company property in 1880 the road is the "Road to Billerica Centre." The name Rogers Street was in use by 1896, when the street naming committee placed Mt. Pleasant Street east "from Jane Faulkner's and Rogers street" and Call Street "east from Pollard street to Rogers street," but neither that list nor the Historical Society's list of 1898 included Rogers Street itself. At the annual meeting of March 24, 1902 the town voted to define "Rogers Street from Mount Pleasant Street past the church." The directories of 1912 to 1919 give it "from High to Carleton."

The canal crossed the road under Rogers bridge, rebuilt in 1819. In 1916 the County Commissioners laid out Faulkner, Mt. Pleasant and Rogers Streets from the river to High Street. In 1924 the town voted to macadamize "Rogers Street, from Carleton Street to Mount Pleasant Street, and Mount Pleasant Street." An article to rebuild the canal bridge was dismissed in 1926, and in 1929 the town voted $2,000 "to place a new pipe at the Middlesex Canal on Rogers Street and two retaining walls"; a 48-inch iron pipe sixty feet long was laid, the old foot bridge removed and the crossing filled. The street was widened and graveled from High Street to the canal in 1937, tarred from Mt. Pleasant Street to the canal and oiled to Call Street in 1939, and tarred from High Street to the canal in 1940.

The county layout of 1916 made it a public way, and the town formally accepted it at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which voted, 124 to 19, under Chapter 82, sections 21 to 24, of the General Laws, to accept the 57 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." That list gives it from High Street to Mt. Pleasant Street.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Roger Toothaker House		Rogers St	1662		1806
William Rogers House	Toothaker Tavern	20-22 Rogers St	1807
Universalist Church	Saint Andrew's Church on Rogers Street	35 Rogers St	1842	1868	1945
Faulkner Housing		31 Rogers St	1850
Joseph Salter House (Rogers Street)		27-29 Rogers St	1850		2022
S. Rogers House		37 Rogers St	1852		1952
Faulkner Manufacturing Company Worker Housing at 14-16 Rogers St		14-16 Rogers St	1880
Cibulski House		10 Rogers St	1947
Hajjar School		59 Rogers St	1968

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the highway to Wamesit laid out in March 1664, passing the houses of Toothaker and John Rogers near the present depot
2. Hazen 1883: Mrs. Toothaker's home stood where the Middlesex Canal later left the Concord River, said to survive as the ell of the brick Rogers house
3. Hazen 1883: grant of March 9, 1710-11 to Dr. Roger Toothaker of land "on the east side of the highway leading to his house"
4. Hazen 1883: in 1791 the north ward schoolhouse to be set "in William Rogers' corner by John Rogers"
5. 1897 Annual Report, street naming committee: Mt. Pleasant street "running east from Jane Faulkner's and Rogers street"
6. 1903 Annual Report: vote of March 24, 1902 to define "Rogers Street from Mount Pleasant Street past the church"
7. 1924 annual town meeting, Article 25: macadamize Rogers Street from Carleton Street to Mount Pleasant Street, and Mount Pleasant Street
8. 1929 highway report: Rogers Street, 48 inch corrugated iron pipe at the canal, old foot bridge removed
9. 1937 highway report: Rogers Street widened and graveled from High Street to the old Middlesex Canal
10. 1939 highway report: Rogers Street tarred from Mt. Pleasant Street to the canal and oiled from the canal to Call Street
11. 1940 highway report: Rogers Street regraded, rolled and tarred from High Street to the old Middlesex Canal
12. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads, "Rogers Street, High Street, Mt. Pleasant Street"
13. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts as public ways the roads on the official 1831 map (124 to 19)