School House Lane

School House Lane runs southwest from Wyman Road to Lexington Road in South Billerica, north of Nutting's Lake. It takes its name from the District No. 3 schoolhouse, the Little Red Schoolhouse, which stood at its corner with Wyman Road. The lane is drawn on the official town map of 1831, with a schoolhouse at the Wyman Road end, and the Walling map of 1853 labels it "School Lane," with the school beside it. Deeds from the 1830s on describe the eight-acre "School House lot" at the corner of Wyman Road and the lane, and from the 1840s the lot was conveyed "subject to the easement which School District No. Three has to set their School house thereon." The school was kept there until 1869, when the Crosby Schoolhouse nearer Boston Road took its place; the old building stood until about 1971.

The Knowles family owned the School House lot from 1859 until the 1940s, and in the 1890s the lane was probably called after them as well: the highway surveyor graveled "part of Knowles' Lane" in 1896, a guide board stood "opposite Mrs. J. Knowles', leading to Bedford, to Lexington," and the street-naming committee of 1896 proposed "Knowles street, running southwest from Merriam street to Lexington street, Billerica," Merriam street being its name for Wyman Road. The Historical Society's list, accepted at town meeting on March 27, 1899, restored the old name: "38. School lane, from Wyman road running southwest to Lexington road, Billerica." It was School Lane in the town reports until the 1990s; the form School House Lane appears in the reports from 1996 and in the list of 2016.

The lane was graveled for 1,425 feet in 1909 and patched in 1916. In 1935 the town appropriated $900 "for grading, widening and tarring School Lane from Lexington Road to Wyman Road," and in 1940 it was "tar patched and tarred entire length." A water main of 2,165 feet was laid from Lexington Road to Wyman Road in 1941. The farmland on its north side was laid out in 1956 as the subdivision "Little Red Schoolhouse Manor" (Plan Book 89, Plan 95), whose plan shows the "School House Lot, Billerica Historical Society" at the corner of Wyman Road. The lane was reconstructed under a town paving contract in 2000 and 2001.

School Lane appears without a date in the town's list of accepted streets printed in 1956, "From Wyman Rd. southwest to Lexington Rd." It was formally accepted as a public way at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which voted, 124 to 19, to accept the 57 roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831"; the list gives "School House Lane, Lexington Road to Wyman Road."

References

1. Annual Report 1897: highway surveyor "gravelled part of Knowles' Lane"
2. Annual Report 1897: street-naming committee, "Knowles street, running southwest from Merriam street to Lexington street"
3. Annual Report 1897: guide board "opposite Mrs. J. Knowles', leading to Bedford, to Lexington"
4. Annual Report 1899: Historical Society list, "38. School lane, from Wyman road running southwest to Lexington road"
5. Annual Report 1900: street list accepted at the town meeting of March 27, 1899, "38. School lane"
6. Annual Report 1906: "Gravelling Mason's Cor. to Knowles Lane, 1,200 feet"
7. Annual Report 1909: scraping and graveling, "1,425 ft., School Lane"
8. Annual Report 2017: Article 36 list of 1831-map roads, School House Lane from Lexington Road to Wyman Road
9. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts the roads on the 1831 map as public ways (124 to 19)