Sequoia Street

Sequoia Street runs southeast from Pond Street, across from the Boston and Maine Railroad shops, crossing Broadleaf Street on its way to Richards Street, in the Central Park neighborhood; it is about 1,700 feet long. It was laid out as Spruce Street on the "Plan of Central Park, Billerica Mass," surveyed from November 1913 to March 1914 by John N. McClintock and Robert B. Bellamy, engineers, of Dorchester for James E. Burke, owner, and recorded on April 27, 1914 (Plan Book 31, Plan 49). On the plan's second sheet Spruce Street runs from Richardson Street, "formerly Folly Road," across Broad Street to Pond Street opposite the car shops, between Walnut Street (now Gove Road) and Pine Street, lined with lots 25 feet by 100. Like its neighbors it was named for a tree.

The lots sold and were built on slowly. In 1953 the selectmen hired counsel to search the titles of Central Park land, "which has produced no taxes for years," and in 1963 the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the old paper-street subdivision was under the Planning Board's subdivision control. The assessors date the oldest house now on the street to about 1920 and nearly all the others to 1967 and later. In 1969 M&T Construction Corp. had Robert P. Morris and Associates of Tewksbury draw a "Definitive Subdivision of a Portion of Central Park," approved by the Planning Board on May 12, 1970 and recorded on June 2, 1970 (Plan Book 110, Plan 120), which gave new tree names to the old streets of the canal section: Ironwood for Beech Street, Sourgum for Maple, Sumac for Elm, Tamarak for Oak, Plum for Willow, and Broadleaf for Broad Street. Spruce Street lies outside that plan; it had received its new name three years earlier, on another "Definitive Subdivision of a Portion of Central Park," drawn on November 28, 1966 by the K. J. Miller Company of Wilmington for M & T Construction Corp. and Roger Toothaker, approved by the Planning Board on December 6, 1966 and recorded on May 8, 1967 (Plan Book 105, Plan 48). That plan labels it "Sequoia (Spruce St.) Street," with Moosewood (Ash Street), Broadleaf (Broad Street) and Richards (Richardson) Streets. Sequoia Street appears in the town reports from 1974, and the vote of 1980 calls it "Sequoia Street, formerly also known as Spruce Street."

On April 24, 1980 the annual town meeting accepted "the laying out of Sequoia Street, formerly also known as Spruce Street, from the easterly line of Pond Street to a point 670 feet southeast of the easterly line of Broadleaf Street," a way 50 feet wide and 1,270 feet long, against the advice of the Finance Committee. A petition article at the fall town meeting of October 9, 1984 to pave the accepted portion was defeated, drainage work was done in 1985, and in 1989 money from the hot-top account was released "for the purpose of paving Irene Avenue and Sequoia Street." A water main was extended to 6 Sequoia Street from Broadleaf Street in 1992, looped from Pond Street in 2010, and extended again in October 2019. No acceptance of the southeast end beyond the 1980 layout has been found. Sequoia Street is not one of the roads of the 1831 town map accepted in 2016.

References

1. Annual report 1953: selectmen hire counsel to search titles on Central Park land, which has produced no taxes for years
2. Annual report 1963: Supreme Judicial Court places the Central Park area under subdivision control
3. Annual report 1975: Ironwood Street accepted per the 1969 Definitive Subdivision of a Portion of Central Park (Plan Book 110, Plan 120)
4. Annual report 1974: Sequoia Street in the list of streets graded, earliest use of the name found
5. Annual report 1980: April 24, 1980, Sequoia Street, formerly also known as Spruce Street, accepted 50 by 1,270 feet
6. Annual report 1984: fall town meeting article to pave the accepted portion of Sequoia Street defeated
7. Annual report 1985: drainage projects on Sequoia Street and Broadleaf Street
8. Annual report 1989: hot-top money released for paving Irene Avenue and Sequoia Street
9. Annual report 2010: water main extended to 6 Sequoia Street in 1992 and looped from Pond Street in 2010