Ruggles Street

Ruggles Street is the short street in North Billerica that runs from Mt. Pleasant Street north to the railroad station, beside the Lowell railroad. It came with the railroad: the Boston and Lowell Railroad was opened through the town on June 25, 1835 (Hazen), and the Walling map of 1853 shows a short way from "North" street (now Mt. Pleasant Street) to the depot of the Boston and Lowell Railroad Company, with the chemical works on the other side of the tracks. The town map of 1831, drawn before the railroad, shows no road here.

The street-naming committee of 1896 called it "Railroad street, running south from railroad station to Mt. Pleasant street, No. Billerica," and the list adopted at the town meeting of March 27, 1899 kept "11. Railroad street, from railroad station running south to Mt. Pleasant street, No. Billerica." At the annual town meeting of March 24, 1902, on motion of C. H. Kohlrausch, the town voted under Article 28 "to change the name of Union Hall Street to Carleton Street; Railroad Street to Ruggles Street," and at the same time defined the limits of Elm, Faulkner and Rogers streets. The old name lingered: the Lowell directories of 1912 to 1919 still list "Railroad, from Mt. Pleasant to North Billerica R. R. station." A second, unrelated Railroad Street, from Pollard Street to Dane Avenue on A. O. Dane's plan of the Chase lot, was laid out by the selectmen and accepted by the town in 1904, so later records of a "Railroad Street" do not refer to this one.

The vote of 1902 gives no reason for either new name, but both recall the eighteenth-century owners of the water privilege at the falls of the Concord River beside the station. Hazen relates that Christopher Osgood in 1747 sold land on the north side of the river "to Joseph Ruggles with right to use water for a fulling-mill," and that when John Carleton bought into the privilege in 1759, "Mr. Ruggles' right" was "recognized as one-third." The tax list of 1776 places Joseph Ruggles at the "Kitchen place, near railroad, southeast of North Billerica." The street was probably named for him; the Ruggles name was also that of the Rev. Samuel Ruggles, the town's second minister (1708 to 1749).

In the year after the renaming the highway surveyor reported "Railroad Street, graveled 240 ft. long, 14 ft. wide, 5 in. deep." In 1909 a committee on the drainage of the railroad bridge at North Billerica drew a plan of Mount Pleasant, Faulkner, Ruggles and Rogers streets and recommended a catch basin "to connect with culvert on Ruggles Street." The street is in the town's list of accepted streets printed in 1956, without a date of acceptance, as running "From RR Station N. B., south to Mt. Pleasant St." It was not among the roads of the 1831 map accepted as public ways in October 2016, and no separate vote accepting it has been found.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Depot Warehouse		3 Ruggles St	1852

References

1. Annual Report 1897: street-naming committee list, "Railroad street, running south from railroad station to Mt. Pleasant street, No. Billerica"
2. Annual Report 1899: Historical Society street list, "11. Railroad street, from railroad station running south to Mt. Pleasant street"
3. Annual Report 1902: warrant Article 28 to change Union Hall Street to Carleton Street and Railroad Street to Ruggles Street
4. Annual Report 1903: town meeting of March 24, 1902 votes to change Railroad Street to Ruggles Street
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): Joseph Ruggles's fulling-mill right at the falls, 1747, and John Carleton's purchase, 1759
6. Hazen 1883: 1776 tax list, Joseph Ruggles at the "Kitchen place, near railroad, southeast of North Billerica"
7. Hazen 1883: opening of the Boston and Lowell Railroad, June 25, 1835
8. Annual Report 1905: the selectmen lay out the other Railroad Street, from Fordway road to Dane Avenue, on the plan of A. O. Dane
9. Annual Report 1909: drainage committee recommends a catch basin to connect with the culvert on Ruggles Street