Sheridan Street

Sheridan Street runs west from Boston Road in Pinehurst to town conservation land on the Shawsheen River. Until about 1990 it was Shawsheen Street, the main street of the Pinehurst Annex.

The street was laid out on the "Pinehurst Annex, Plan of Land in Billerica belonging to E. E. Varnum," surveyed in September 1902 by O. F. Osgood and recorded on February 2, 1903 (Plan Book 19, Plan 42). On that plan "Shawsheen Street" leaves Boston Road and runs to the Shawsheen River, with A, B, C, D, E and F Streets, North Avenue and River Road opening from it; the name came from the river at its foot. A Street and D Street still open from it.

The town was slow to take it over. In 1926 the annual meeting was asked to accept "Shawsheen Street, so called," and, if it did, "to re-name this so-called Shawsheen Street to Oakdale Street"; both articles were indefinitely postponed. On June 1, 1927 the town voted to "accept Shawsheen Street as laid out and approved by the Board of Survey as far as E Street." It was first treated with road oil in 1928, "State Rd. to Boutwell's residence," and was tarred in 1940. In 1953 the town voted money to improve the Boston Road end of the street, and in 1978 it accepted D Street "from North Avenue to Shawsheen Street." It was not among the roads of the 1831 map accepted by town meeting in 2016.

The present name dates from the selectmen's street renaming program of 1988 to 1991, which removed duplicate and similar sounding street names; Billerica also had a Shawsheen Road and a Shawsheen Avenue. The committee's last changes took effect on January 7, 1991, and the street appears as Sheridan Street in the town reports from 1992. Why Sheridan was chosen is not recorded; it keeps the old name's first sound. In 2020 town meeting voted Community Preservation money to build river access on the conservation parcels "located at the end of Sheridan Street."

References

1. Billerica annual report 1926: articles to accept Shawsheen Street and rename it Oakdale Street indefinitely postponed
2. Billerica annual report 1927: town accepts Shawsheen Street as far as E Street
3. Billerica annual report 1928: Shawsheen St. treated with road oil, State Rd. to Boutwell's residence
4. Billerica annual report 1956: streets accepted by the town, Shawsheen St. as far as East Street, 6-1-27
5. Billerica annual report 1990: street renaming committee's work completed, last changes effective Jan. 7, 1991

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.