Shawsheen Road

Shawsheen Road runs south from Boston Road, near the foot of Allen Road and Thomas F. Flaherty Square, for about a mile along the west side of the Shawsheen River in the Riverdale section, toward Naushon Road and the Iron Horse Park. Short streets run off it toward the river, among them Seminole Road, which the directory of 1931 described as running "from Shawsheen rd to Shawsheen river (Riverdale)."

No laying out, county order or recorded plan of the road has been found, and it is not on the town map of 1831. The first record that places it is the Lowell suburban directory of 1916: "Shawsheen Road from Boston rd n Allen rd southerly." The highway accounts of 1905 and 1906 paid for "Gravelling Shawsheen Road, 100 feet" and "Patching Shawsheen Road, 100 feet," but they do not say where the work was done, and that name may have meant another road near the river. The name comes from the Shawsheen River, which the road follows. In 1924 the town voted to have the Water Commissioners extend the water main "on Shawsheen, Seminole and River Road, from the Boston Road" to the house of Howard O. Wood, and that main, laid in 1925, served the road until 2018. Petitions to extend the street lights "from Boston Road to the residence of Stanley L. Johnson, a distance of 5,000 ft." were referred to the Selectmen in 1924 and 1926.

At the annual town meeting of February 9, 1929 it was "Moved and so voted that the Town accept as a Town way Shawsheen Road 5000 feet from Boston Road," and the town's list of accepted streets printed in 1956 gives "Shawsheen Rd. 5000 ft. 2-9-29." In 1945 an article to accept Naushon Road from Shawsheen Road and Albion Road to the Bedford line, "to complete a through way from Pinehurst to the Turnpike," was indefinitely postponed by a rising vote of 63 to 26. Shawsheen Road was not among the roads of the 1831 map that the town accepted as public ways in October 2016.

It was a gravel road at first: 1,500 feet were graveled in 1928, and in 1930 an article to spend $300 to gravel it was referred to the Highway Surveyor. The town voted in 1931 to "tar and oil Shawsheen Street, Shawsheen Road, and Pinehurst Avenue" out of the regular highway appropriation, and in 1935 instructed the Department of Public Works "to gravel and tar Shawsheen Road out of their appropriation." In 1936 1,500 feet were tarred, a 14 inch culvert was replaced with a 30 inch metal culvert between masonry headwalls, 300 feet were widened to 24 feet and 290 feet of guard rail were put up. About 3,000 more feet were tarred in 1940, the gravel section was given a tar penetration in 1947, and the road was asphalt sealed for its whole length in 1948 and again for 5,000 feet in 1953. The water main was extended 1,100 feet in 1949 and 2,400 feet in 1961, sewers reached the road under Contract No. 22 in 1979, and the culvert was replaced in 2008.

References

1. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1924: town votes water mains on Riverdale Road and on Shawsheen, Seminole and River Road from Boston Road
2. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1926: street lighting on Shawsheen Road to the Stanley L. Johnson residence, 5,000 ft., referred to the Selectmen
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1929: town meeting of Feb. 9, 1929 accepts Shawsheen Road as a town way 5,000 feet from Boston Road
4. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1931: town votes to tar and oil Shawsheen Street, Shawsheen Road and Pinehurst Avenue
5. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1935: Department of Public Works instructed to gravel and tar Shawsheen Road
6. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1936: Shawsheen Road tarred 1,500 feet
7. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1936: Shawsheen Road culvert replaced, 300 feet widened to 24 feet, guard rail erected
8. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1940: Shawsheen Road tar patched and about 3,000 feet tarred
9. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1956: list of streets accepted, "Shawsheen Rd. 5000 ft. 2-9-29"