Shawsheen Avenue

In Billerica, Shawsheen Avenue is the short piece of Route 129 at the east end of Salem Road in East Billerica, running southeast from its junction with Salem Road to the Shawsheen River at the Wilmington line. Beyond the river the same highway is Shawsheen Avenue in Wilmington. It is the last stretch of the old road from Billerica toward Wilmington and Salem, which Henry A. Hazen called "the Wilmington Road"; in his notes to the tax list of December 1776 the Shawshin District lay "east of the river, between the Woburn and Wilmington roads," and in 1782 the line of the centre school squadron ran "on Wilmington road" at Jonas French's new house. The land across the river was part of Billerica until it was set off to Wilmington in 1737. No laying out of this piece is recorded, and the records do not show when the present crossing to the river took its line.

The street lists of 1897 and 1899 did not name this piece separately: the committee's "Salem street, running southeast from Corner bridge to Wilmington line" became "Salem road, from Boston road at corner bridge running southeast to Wilmington line" in the list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, and the Lowell directory of 1901 noted "Wilmington road, changed to Salem rd." The highway reports still called the east end of Salem Road the Wilmington Road in the 1940s, when a seal coat of tar was applied "from Wilmington line to Baldwin Road" in 1942. The name Shawsheen Avenue appears in the town reports from 1932, when it was tar patched and gravel patched, through 1946; in 1933 the State Department of Public Works recommended $1,800 for "Shawsheen Avenue" among the roads to be repaired with state or county aid. A 1939 advertisement placed the Dickerman Poultry Farm at the "Cor. Shawsheen Ave. and Salem Road, East Billerica," and when the town rezoned the Dickerman land in 1951 the article began "at the junction of the Salem Road and the Wilmington Road" and ran "southeasterly along said Wilmington Road, sometimes called Salem Road, to a point five hundred feet from the Shawsheen River." The name came from the river the road crosses and matched the Wilmington name of the same highway; no Billerica vote naming it has been found.

The road has been part of Route 129 since that route was extended west to Chelmsford in 1939, and Chapter 90 maintenance was finished on Salem Road "to the Wilmington line" in 1956. The town's list of streets accepted, printed in 1956, has no Shawsheen Avenue; it gives "Salem Rd., From Boston Rd. southeast to Wilmington line." Salem Road, "Dead End" to the Wilmington town line, was among the 57 roads shown on the town map of 1831 that the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016 accepted as public ways, by a vote of 124 to 19, under Chapter 82, sections 21 to 24, of the General Laws.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): tax list of December 1776; the Shawshin District "east of the river, between the Woburn and Wilmington roads"
2. Annual Report 1897: street naming committee, "Salem street, running southeast from Corner bridge to Wilmington line"
3. Annual Report 1899: Historical Society list, "20. Salem road, from Boston road at corner bridge running southeast to Wilmington line"
4. Annual Report 1933: State Department of Public Works recommends $1,800 for Shawsheen Avenue
5. Annual Report 1942: Wilmington Road seal coat of tar "from Wilmington line to Baldwin Road"
6. Annual Report 1951: Dickerman land rezoning, "the junction of the Salem Road and the Wilmington Road ... sometimes called Salem Road"
7. Annual Report 1956: list of streets accepted, "Salem Rd., From Boston Rd. southeast to Wilmington line"
8. Wikipedia: Massachusetts Route 129, which crosses the Shawsheen River from Billerica into Wilmington
9. Annual Report 2017: Article 36 warrant, 1831 list of roads, "Salem Road, Dead End to Wilmington Town Line"
10. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts the 1831 roads as public ways (124 to 19)